Sadaket Malik asked:


Revitalizing secondary education

By Sadaket Malik

With the central government lobbing its ball to the state governments for the implementation of the several schemes  for the revitalization of the system of the secondary education in the country, the schemes of the access, equity, Mahila Samakhya, and quality in the field of secondary education has lost its very essence. Basic issues of quality, equity and access to secondary education in India still unresolved besides the central legislations by the Ministry of Human Resource development Govt of India. The expert committees were formulated by the Govt. to gauge the system and suggest the measures to universalize the whole system. The central governments own figures indicate that many as two-thirds of those eligible for secondary education remain outside the school system today. A Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) committee estimates that 88,562 additional classrooms will be required in 2007-08 and over 1.3 lakh additional teachers. The CABE is the highest advisory body relating to policy making in education in India. Figures put out by the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Department of School Education and Literacy indicate that as many as two-thirds of those eligible for secondary and senior secondary education remain outside the school system today. While noting that adequate number of elementary schools is to be found at a reasonable distance from habitations, the ministry admits in its website that this is not the case with regard to secondary schools and colleges. The gross enrolment rate for elementary education in 2003-04 was 85 percent, but for secondary education, the enrolment figure stood at 39 percent.

Pertinently, the CABE report also notes that the benefits of India’s reservation policy in higher education are unlikely to reach those it’s intended for in the absence of a strong secondary education system. A large majority of children and youth belonging to SC and ST community  do not have access to secondary education; less than 10 percent of the girls among SCs and STs have access to the plus two stage. Without secondary or senior secondary education, benefits of reservation to SCs/STs will remain elusive,” the report says. These are questions that the CABE report tries to address. School systems, the report says, should strive for equality and social justice, transcending discrimination that may arise because of gender, economic disparity, societal norms on caste and community, location (urban area or rural), disabilities (physical and mental) and cultural or linguistic differences. However, these inequities seem bound to remain given the current circumstances, where the government involvement in secondary education is much less than what is expected of it. The Committee report says that almost 25 percent of the secondary schools today are private, unaided schools whose clientele comes only from the privileged sections of society. Expert opines that Private education has always played an important role we have different types of private secondary schools, such as private unrecognized, private recognized but unaided schools, and private, recognized and aided schools. In Kerala and West Bengal, it’s common to see private aided schools, which are schools run by private managements that receive government grants. Going by the Sixth All India Survey Data, the CABE report notes that private aided schools account for over 46 percent of all secondary school students. The overwhelming participation of the private sector in secondary education, however, in no way absolves the government of its many responsibilities. To improve access to secondary education, experts agree that the government should invest more money. Unfortunately, the Centre has baulked at involving itself even in primary education, more so when it has to be on a collision. course with private schools.

Similarly, though the CABE committee report advocates a common school system, the government seems to have already shown its disinterest.The CABE report was accepted in principle, but soon after, the Planning Commission diluted our recommendation that the typical secondary school should be like a Kendriya Vidyalaya. The Commission started saying that instead of Kendriya Vidyalaya norms, SSA norms could be extended to secondary schools. Such a move would result in parallel streams of education with poor quality being accepted as a part of secondary education. The CABE committee, incidentally, had worked out the expenditure that will be incurred if all secondary schools are managed like Kendriya Vidyalayas. The total costs in such a scenario do not exceed six percent of the GDP but that does not seem to have been enough to convince the government. The report does not mention how many additional schools will be needed to meet the future demand. However, it presents two estimates, one projection based on the 100 percent success of SSA and the other, the 75 percent success of the programme. In the case of the former, the report estimates that 88,562 additional classrooms will be required in 2007-08 and over 1.3 lakh additional teachers

A worrisome trend in government schools, undoubtedly a factor contributing to their poor performance, is the fact that almost 95 percent of the government grants go into paying staff salaries. There is no money for buying teaching learning materials, for cleaning or blackboards,” he explains. The ratio should be at least 80:20, with 20 percent of the grant being used for improving or creating infrastructure, he adds. To ensure that government schools are more efficiently managed, a committee comprising members from the neighborhood could be asked to take decisions concerning the school, suggests several experts  of CABE Committee. Experts opines that there are several examples of successful private-public partnerships. “There have been initiatives like DPS Delhi Public School being given the responsibility to run two-three government schools in Gurgaon in Haryana In this way, the private schools can manage the schools for a while and use their expertise to train teachers.

The educationists have a consensus that the children are actually walking out because there is no quality education. Poor children can ill-afford to spend their time in classes that are taken badly, or in schools that have no infrastructure or teachers. Instead of looking for the reasons that are behind the problem, the government appears to be trying to implicate parents or children for the ‘drop-out’ rates. The CABE committee report has already set down comprehensive norms that secondary schools should follow, ranging from having one classroom for 30 students, ensuring safe drinking water facilities and separate toilets for girls and boys to computer labs. Experts also suggest granting free ships or scholarships to those from disadvantaged backgrounds to encourage enrolment in secondary and senior secondary schools. The CABE report notes that expansion of secondary education can be achieved by setting up new schools, upgrading existing elementary schools into high schools by providing more infrastructure and adding to the facilities in existing secondary schools to accommodate more students.

In view of this, the Central and the State/UT governments must jointly initiate planning to implement the agenda of universal and free secondary education in the first phase by the year 2015 and then extend it to senior secondary education in the second phase by the year 2020. The conventional expectation from secondary/senior secondary education lies in its role in creating the necessary base for generating technical person power, raising the potential of a society in contributing to the growth of knowledge and skills and thereby enhancing the nation’s capacity to face the challenge of global competitiveness.

The no of  higher secondary schools has been raised to 50,273 with  1000112 teachers, and figure of secondary schools is 101,777 with 1082878 teachers. Official statistics reveal that the enrolment of secondary and higher secondary school level is  3.70  crore and the gross enrolment ratio is 39.91. The total dropout rate up to matric is 61.92 as on September 2004. The population of children in this age group has been estimated to be 88.5 million as per Census, 2001.Enrolment figures show that only 31 million of these children were attending schools in 2001-02,

However, Para 5.13 –5.15 of the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 (as modified in 1992) deal with Secondary Education. Para 5.13. of the NPE, inter alia states that access to Secondary Education will be widened with emphasis on enrolment of girls, SCs and STs, particularly in science, commerce and vocational streams. The disparity between boys’ and girls’ enrollment is particularly marked at the secondary stage. As per the latest data available, out of the total enrollment of 21.2 millions n 1991-92 (as on 30.9.91) at the secondary stage (Classes IX and above), the girls account for 7 millions only, i.e. mere 33 per cent of the total enrollment, whereas boy’s enrollment at this stage of education is 67 per cent of the total enrollment.

            Nevertheless, a significant progress is also made in all spheres of secondary education. More than 84 per cent habitations in 1993-94 had a secondary school/section within a distance of 8 km as compared to 70 per cent within 5 km.  The number of unserved habitations declined from 21 per cent in 1986-87 to 15 per cent in 1993-94.  During 1950-51 to 1999-2000, number of secondary & higher secondary schools increased from 7 thousand to 117 thousand.  The increase (16 times) is much more rapid than the corresponding increase in primary (3 times) and upper primary (14 times) schools.   In the latest decade (1990 to 99), more than 37 thousand secondary & higher secondary schools were opened. The ratio of upper primary to secondary schools also improved from 1.83 in 1950-51 to 1.69 in 1999-2000.

Keeping in view the dismal statistics of secondary education in the country, Ministry of HRD launched several schemes, like scheme for strengthening of boarding and hostel facilities for girl students of secondary and higher secondary schools. The scheme is being implemented by NGOs and of the state governments. A one-time grant non recurring  grant @Rs.1500/- per girl boarder for purchase of furniture (including beds)and utensils and provision of basic recreational aids, particularly material for sports and games, reading room equipments and books. And recurring Rs.5000/- per annum per girl boarder for food and salary of cook. Finally, The CABE Committee in June 2005 recommended that “there is no alternative acceptable to regular schooling of good quality to all the girls”. The Committee also felt that “incentives offered for promotion of girls education need to be revisited and measures taken need to be of such nature, force and magnitude that they are able to overcome the obstacles posed by factors such as poverty, domestic/sibling responsibilities, girl child labour, low preference to girl’s education, preference to marriage over the education of girl child, etc.” The key issues relating to secondary education highlighted in the Tenth Plan are: greater focus on improving access; reducing disparities by emphasizing the Common School System; renewal of curricula with emphasis on vocationalisation and employment-oriented courses; expansion and diversification of the Open Learning System; reorganization of teacher training and greater use of ICT. After merging several schemes like ET & CLASS scheme, a new Scheme called ICT Schools was launched for which the Annual Plan Outlay for 2006-07 was Rs. 67 crore. The intervention of the Central Government in Secondary Education has primarily been in two areas, (i) through apex level bodies and (ii) through various Centrally Sponsored Schemes. Central Government supports autonomous organizations like NCERT, CBSE, KVS and NVS and CTSA, the first named body for providing research and policy support to the Central and State Governments; CBSE for affiliating Secondary Schools and the remaining three for their own school systems. There are 929 Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVS) and 507 Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVS), and 69 Central Schools for Tibetans (CTSA).  Scheme of Vocationalistion of Secondary Education at secondary level to enhance individual Employability. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) launched in 2007 is a mission-mode exercise to universalize secondary education in which the centre is all set to universalize the secondary education till 2020.

The irony is that the arguments on the part of HRD ministry on community participation in implementing such schemes are not encouraging. Government should initiate evaluation mechanism and core commission to evaluate the progress of the schemes and policies to support the education sector by community mobilization to revitalize the schemes and put the policies into practice.

The author can be contacted at sadaketmalik@rediffmail.com



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Joseph asked:


Education for All: Trend and out reach at Tamilnadu in India

The world convention on to Meet fundamental Learning requirements was adopted by the World Conference on Education for All at Jomtien, Thailand, in March 1990. The meeting design comprehensive review of policies concerning basic education. The Education for All (EFA) 2000 appraisal is a major global attempt that aims to enable the participating countries to

(i) Construct a comprehensive picture of their progress towards their own Education for All goals since the 1990 Jomtien Conference,

(ii) Identify priorities and promising strategies for overcoming obstacles and accelerating progress, and

(iii) Revise national plans of action accordingly.

EFA indicators which are grouped according to the following six ‘Intention Magnitude’:-

1. Expansion of early childhood care and development;

2. Universal access to and completion of primary education;

3. Improvement in learning achievement;

4. Reduction of adult illiteracy rate;

5. Expansion of provision of basic education and training in essential skills required by

Youth and adults; and

6. Increased acquisition by individuals and families of the knowledge, skills and values

organized for better living.

For this purpose a National Assessment Group was constituted in the Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development consisting of senior officials of the Department concerned with EFA and representatives of specialized national institutions, like NCERT, NIEPA and NCTE. During its deliberations, the Group felt that the Indian exercise should be carried out in a larger perspective which takes into account the following important developments:

 The wide range of programmes initiated for achieving Universalisation of Elementary Education after formulation of National Policy of Education, 1986;

 The massive effort made in the form of literacy campaigns to reach education to the masses; and

 Enormous amount of activities in the field of primary education witnessed in the country on an unprecedented scale in the 1990s through projects and programmes specifically focused on EFA.

The EFA 2000 exercise is, therefore, seen not merely as a stock taking exercise but also as an effort to review and fine-tune strategies and programmes of basic education.

It is with this dual perspective in view that it has been planned

(1) to make the exercise quite comprehensive covering every dimension of basic education;

(2) to get the various component areas reviewed by independent experts from across the country; and

(3) to evolve a plan of action for the next phase, probably the final phase, of the national effort to reach the goal of EFA.

India’s EFA Assessment 2000 Country Report draws upon the following three documents:

i. Report of progress made with respect to the 18 EFA Indicators as identified in the General and Technical Guidelines given by the EFA Forum Secretariat;

ii. The State of the Art Review (Synthesis) on Learning Achievements; and

iii. The State of the Art Review on Learning Conditions.

The Department of Education in the Ministry of Human Resource Development has taken the initiative to commission twenty-four sub-sectoral studies on various aspects of EFA in India which seek to capture the varied experiences that have emerged from the projects, programmes and schemes undertaken during the last decade. The findings of these studies are proposed to be disseminated widely in India and abroad with a view to enrich the EFA 2000 Assessment exercise and provide useful inputs for policy makers, planners and administrators who are working towards achieving the goals of EFA.

Education for All – frame work

The goal of EFA in India are to be viewed in relation to the stage of education development that obtained on 1990 ¾ the year of world declaration on EFA. By then, fairly large expansion of in all parts of the country. Other sectors of education like adult education Non – formal education had also developed fairly well. Therefore, the main challenges in education in 1990s related to EFA have been the following: Access to basic education for the unreached segments and uncovered habitations

Qualitative improvement in content and processes of education; to make them more responsive to learning needs of individuals-children, youth and adults, families, community and development in different sectors of social and economic life. Consolidation and newer orientation wherever required in different areas of education through innovative programmes and changed role of educational personnel. Community participation in education; making education a people’s movement. Evolving effective and efficient management structures in education.

All goals and targets of EFA to be fulfilled in 1990’s have to be assessed in terms of the nature of the programmes, the degree to which they have led to achievement of the goals of EFA, and the promise they hold for making the processes and supportive structure sustainable. Thus, when EFA programmes were implemented in 1990’s,a new framework for development of basic education in the country was emerging which had the following broad features.

Holistic Approach

The holistic approach adopted for planning and implementation of EFA programmes is characterized by:

- A holistic view of basic education with grater linkages and integration between pre – school, primary education, non – formal education and adult education;

- Relating programmes of education with national concerns such as nutrition and health care, environment, small family norm and life skills education.

- Collaboration of different departments and sectors of development with primary education.

Education Grantee Scheme

The EGS centers in Tamil Nadu deserves special mention as an important new initiative in the 1990s.the remarkable success of EGS drawn the attention of planners and policy maker. The EGS centers covered 6-11 age groups who did not battened school. The key factors on which EGS hinges are community demand and government guarantee. By projecting community demand as a start-up point, EGS addresses the issue of enrollment and retention. The EGS is seen as successful mode of reaching the unreached or ‘Hard to reach’.

Education Grantee Scheme in Tamil Nadu (2004-2005)

ACTIVITIES

Administration arrangement: The coordinator have appointed.

Capacity building All the staff/ teachers have completed the strategy planning work shop.

Equivalence strategy The special effort is being taken to enroll the school drop out children.

Duration The short duration of the programme is 60-75 days.

School hours Two to three hours

Number of children per class 25 – 40 is high and low is 10-20

Teacher qualifications, Training and honorarium As per the government norm

Academic support and supervision The separate supervisors for every eight to ten schools

Teaching – Learning Materials The material prepared separately

Collaboration with NGOs Many EGS centers running by NGOs

A PROGRAMME FOR UNIVERSAL ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN INDIA

In accordance with the constitutional commitment to ensure free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14 years, provision of universal elementary education has been a salient feature of national policy since independence. This resolve has been spelt out emphatically in the National Policy since independence (NPE), 1986 and the Programme of Action (POA) 1992. A number of schemes and programmes were launched in pursuance of the emphasis embodied in the NPE and the POA. These included the scheme of Operation Blackboard (OB); Non Formal Education (NFE); Teacher Education (TE); Mahila Samakhya (MS); State specific Basic Education Projects like the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project (APPEP); Bihar Education Project (BEP), Lok Jumbish (LJP) in Rajasthan; National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (MDM); District Primary Education Programme (DPEP).

Why Elementary Education

Social justice and equity are by themselves a strong argument for providing basic education for all. It is an established fact that basic education improves the level of human well – being especially with regard to life expectancy, infant mortality, nutritional status of children, etc. Studies have shown that universal basic education significantly contributes to economic growth.

Constitutional, Legal and National Statements for UEE

The Constitutional, legal, and national policies and statements have time and again upheld the cause of universal elementary education.

Constitutional mandate 1950 – “The state shall Endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education to all children until they complete the age of 14 years.”

National Policy of Education 1986 – “It shall be ensured that free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality is provided to all children up to 14 years of age before we enter the twenty first century.”

Unnikrishnan judgment 1993 – “Every child/citizen of this country has a right to free

education till he completes the age of fourteen years.”

Education Ministers” resolve 1998 – “Universal elementary education should be pursued in the mission mode. It emphasized the need to pursue a holistic and convergent

approach towards UEE.”

National Committee’s Report on UEE in the mission mode 1999 – UEE should be pursued in a mission mode with a holistic and convergent approach with emphasis on preparation of District Elementary Education Plans for UEE. It supported the fundamental right to education and desired quick action towards operationalization of the mission mode towards UEE.

The Scenario so Far

Consequent to several efforts, India has made enormous progress in terms of increase in institution, teachers, and students in elementary education. The number of schools in the country increased four fold – from 2, 31, 000 in 1950-51 to 9, 30,000 in 1988-99, while enrolment in the primary cycle jumped by about six times from 19.2 million to 110 million. At the upper Primary stage, the increase of enrolment during the period was 13 times, while enrolment of girls recorded a huge rise of 32 times. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the Primary stage has exceeded 100 percent. Access to schools is no longer a major problem. At the primary stage, 94 percent of the country’s rural population has schooling facilities within one kilometer and at the upper primary stage it is 84 percent.

The country has made impressive achievement in the elementary education sector. But the flip side is that out of the 200 million children in the age group of 6 -14 years, 59million children are not attending school. Of this, 35 million are girls and 24 million are boys. There are problems relations to drop – out rate, low levels of learning achievement and low participation of girls, tribal and other disadvantaged groups. There are still at least one lakh habitations in the country without schooling facility within a kilometer. Coupled with it are various systemic issues like inadequate school infrastructure, poorly functioning schools, high teacher absenteeism, large number of teacher vacancies, poor quality of education and inadequate funds.

In short, the country is yet to achieve the elusive goal of Universalisation of Elementary education (UEE), which means 100 percent enrolment and retention of children with schooling facilities in all habitations. It is to fill this gap that the government has launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a historic stride towards achieving the long cherished goal

of Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) through a time bound integrated approach, in partnership with States. SSA, which promises to change the face of the elementary education sector of the country, aims to provide useful and quality elementary

Education to all children in the 6-14 age groups by 2010.

The SSA is an effort to recognize the need for improving the performance of the school system and to provide community owned quality elementary education in the mission mode. It also envisages bridging of gender and social gaps.

OBJECTIVES OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

 All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternative School, ‘Back to School’ camp by 2003;

 All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007;

 All children complete eight years of schooling by 2010;

 Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life;

 Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at

Elementary education level by 2010;

 Universal retention by 2010.

Structure for Implementation

The Central and State governments will together implement the SA in partnership with the local governments and the community. To signify the national priority for elementary education, a National Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mission is being established with the Prime Minister as the Chairperson and the Union Minister of Human Resource Development as the Vice Chairperson. States have been requested to establish State level Implementation Society for UEE under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Education Minister. This has already been done in many States.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will not disturb existing structures in States and districts but would only try to bring convergence in all these efforts. Efforts will be made to ensure that there is functional decentralization down to the school level in order to improve community participation. Besides recognizing PRIs / Tribal Councils in Scheduled Areas, including the Gram Sabha, the States would be encouraged to enlarge the accountability framework by involving NGOs, teacher, activists, women’s organizations etc.

Coverage and Period

The SSA will cover the entire expanse of the country before March 2002 and the duration of the Programme in every district will depend upon the District Elementary Education Plan (DPEP) Prepared by it as per its specific needs. However, the upper limit for the programme period has been fixed as ten years, i.e., up to 2010.

Strategies central to SSA programme

 Institutional reforms – As part of the SSA, institutional reforms in the States will be carried out. The state will have to make an objective assessment of their prevalent education system including educational administration, achievement levels in schools, financial issues, decentralization and community ownership, review of state Education Act, rationalization of teacher deployment and recruitment of teachers, monitoring and evaluation, education of girls, SC/ST and disadvantaged groups, policy regarding private schools and ECCE. Many States have already affected institutional reforms to improve the delivery system for elementary education.

 Sustainable Financing – The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is based on the premise that financing of elementary education interventions has to sustainable. This calls for a long – term perspective on financial partnership between the Central and the State governments.

 Community ownership – The programme calls for community ownership of school based interventions through effective decentralisation. This will be augmented by involvement of women’s groups, VEC members and members of Panchayati Raj institutions.

 Institutional capacity building – The SSA conceives a major capacity building role for national and state level institution like NIEPA/NCERT/NCTE/SCERT/SIEMAT. Improvement in quality requires a sustainable support system of resource persons.

 Improving mainstream educational administration – The Programme will have a community based monitoring system. The Educational Management Information System (EMSI) will correlate school level data with community based information from micro planning and surveys. Besides this, every school will have a notice board showing all the grants received by the school and other details.

 Habitation as a unit of planning – The SSA works on a community based approach to planning with habitation as a unit of planning. Habitation plans will be the basis for formulating district plans.

 Accountability to community – SSA envisages cooperation between teachers, parents and PRIs, as well as accountability and transparency.

 Education of girls – Education of girls, especially those belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, will be one of the principal concerns in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

 Focus on special groups – There will be a focus on the education participation of children form SC/ST, religious and linguistic minorities, disadvantaged groups and the disabled children.

 Pre Project phase – SSA will commence throughout the country with a well planned pre project phase that provides for a large number of interventions for capacity development to improve the delivery and monitoring system.

 Thrust on quality – SSA lays a special thrust on making education at elementary level useful and relevant for children by improving the curriculum, child centered activities and effective teaching methods.

 Role of teachers – SSA recognizes the critical role of teachers and advocates a focus on their development needs. Setting up of BRC/CRC, recruitment of qualified teachers, opportunities for teacher development through participation in curriculum related material development, focus on classroom process and exposure visits for teachers are all designed to develop the human resource among teachers.

 District Elementary Education Plans – As per the SSA framework, each district will prepare a District Elementary Education Plan reflection all the investments being made in the education sector, with a holistic and convergent approach.

Components of SSA

The components of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan includes appointment of teachers, teacher training, qualitative improvement of elementary education, provision of teaching learning materials, establishment of Block and Cluster Resource Centers for academic support, construction of Classrooms and school buildings, establishment of education guarantee centers, integrated education of the disabled and distance education.

Conclusion

Non-government Organization

Non – government organizations, commonly referred to as voluntary agencies in India, also participate in EFA programmes. For instance, a large number of voluntary agencies are implementing non – formal education programmes to meet the educational needs of out of school children. Many of them focus on socially and economically back ward areas and marginalized sections of the society and on education of girls. The current decade has seen the emergence of a number of EFA programmes supported by international agencies. These include support multi – lateral agencies including UN bodies, the World Bank and the ADB. Five UN agencies have supported the development of a joint initiative with the government of India and state governments on community based primary education. Assistance from UN agencies and bilateral dononars is in the form of grants, while the World Bank provides concessional loan assistance through IDA. Matching contributions in cash and kind are provided by central and state governments for such projects. The last three five year plans have witnessed significant shift in the expenditure of the department of education in the central government towards primary and adult education and away from tertiary education. That the central government is paying serious attention towards achievement of the goal of EFA is brought out by these actions of government.



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