When faced with an existential crisis during the pandemic, primary education for children inadvertently doesn’t make it to the priority list
Ankita Ramteke,13, who lives in Bhandara, a small district town in Maharashtra, waits for a text message regarding a fund transfer on her mother’s archaic Nokia 1100 every month, waiting for her share of happiness that would mean another month of remaining in school and learning the things she loves. But who is Ankita? As of now she is a blip in this world, an invisible demographic detail who sits like an ornament on all Grameen Foundation of India’s (GFI’s) endless pleas and presentations. As long as the benevolent donors continue to sponsor her education, Ankita and her needs won’t be looked upon as a liability by her family. But truth be told, girls like Ankita accumulate a growth and nutrition deficit in the formative years of their lives. By the time they reach adulthood, aspirational deficit is systematically inculcated in their psyche, leading to another much graver deficit: Ambition. Most of the families living on the margins of poverty in any part of the country are usually just one health shock away from being sucked into the poverty trap all over again. Traditional gender norms and the lack of a consistent income source in Ankita’s family have pushed her to become a full-time care giver leading to irregular attendance in school. If not addressed, it will lead to her eventual dropping out of school altogether. But Ankita is not alone. Today, 62.1 million children in India are out of school. For every 100 elementary schools in rural India, there are just 14 offering secondary and only six schools offering higher secondary grades. Not to forget that most of the secondary schools are private ones, with exorbitant fees.
COVID-19 has brought an unprecedented crisis with devastating consequences for the girls of the country. A survey of vulnerable households revealed that 60 per cent mothers, who either worked in the farms or as housemaids, haven’t earned any salary in the last five months and 67 per cent of the fathers, who worked as daily wagers, are not just struggling financially but are also feeling emotionally drained. As much as 33 per cent of the families talked about pressing mental health issues plaguing children as well as adults in the household. Under these trying circumstances, it is very difficult for families to focus on the education of their children, particularly the girl child. However, there are always some who break the mould. For instance, 12-year-old Shrawani Choudhari’s parents dipped into all of their savings to buy their daughter a smartphone, so that she could continue her studies. “Our collective income has gone down in the last six months. I am out of work, while my wife is now working in only two houses as a maid, as opposed to eight houses before the pandemic”, says Choudhari, a daily wage worker in Bhandara. While we are witnessing an avalanche of innovative ideas being tried in the rural hinterland to help such marginalised children continue their education, the cost of smartphones, aka “dream enablers” in the post-pandemic world, remains an uphill task.
Most of these households in Bhandara have witnessed reverse migration. Family members who were working in big cities had returned because of lack of opportunities owing to the lockdown. “I stayed back in Mumbai even after the lockdown was imposed because I thought that when this gets over, they will need people like me to finish their work. But they still haven’t opened the factories and most of the acquaintances from my village have now gone back to farming”, says 39-year-old Ramesh Banapurkar, a father of three. It is no surprise then that the situation of primary and secondary education in Nawada is abysmal. With Government schools shut, children in these schools haven’t seen a book since March. Some cash support from donors has helped some of these families to sail through in this time and others to revive their small businesses. Some have even used the money to invest in Personal Protective Equipment for the elders in the family, but none of these families have invested in their child’s education, yet. Simply because it’s not a priority. Nawada, located between the historical districts of Nalanda and Gaya, is one the poorest districts in Bihar. The per capita income of Nawada is Rs 9,560, which is one-seventh of that in State capital Patna. The Scheduled Castes, the forgotten people standing at the bottom of the economic pyramid, are facing an unparalleled struggle. Acute caste discrimination and the pandemic-induced unemployment have left them far more vulnerable. Agriculture is the mainstay for 78 per cent of Nawada’s population and a significant chunk of youth is forced to migrate to cities in search of livelihood. The reverse migration back to smaller districts like Nawada has put unprecedented pressure on these migrants, who are now living in their homes in extreme poverty and without even basic amenities. When faced with an existential crisis, primary education for children inadvertently doesn’t make it to the priority list.
(Bhattacharyya is Manager, Communications and Deo is Senior Programme Manager, Grameen Foundation India)
As India aims to acquire better global rankings, policymakers must develop regional centres of excellence in education based on local trends, proclivities, resources and history
British educationist Alick Maclean undertook arguably one of the earliest attempts at producing a university ranking system. Maclean’s study Where We Get Our Best Men (1900), which betrays the late Victorian England’s obsession with its own laurels, remained unnoticed outside the university circuits in England. However, more than a hundred years later, the context, connotations and the scope of such rankings have changed dramatically. With the inclusion of higher education as an “internationally traded” service in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), universities have become commodities that must sell to sustain themselves in a globally-competitive education industry. Rankings are loudly advertised and have become the very touchstone of marketability. Even in a welfare State like India, where the bulk of higher education is Government-aided and therefore beyond the pale of market vagaries, there has been, of late, a near-feverish fixation with rankings. And while (because) Indian universities weren’t performing too well at Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) or Webometrics world rankings, we introduced leagues of our own in the form of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). To many of the stakeholders, “ranking” is an unwarranted western import which puts the institutions of developing countries at a natural disadvantage.
With their emphasis on measuring research output in terms of publications in English language journals, the global system of accreditation perpetuates the dominance of Anglo-American and to a lesser extent, European institutions. Besides the system of peer-review and mutual-referencing aren’t the most transparent of academic practices. Since the Government appears keen on incrementally linking an institution’s domestic and international standings with the volume and the manner of funding, some even suspect that the entire hoopla is a decoy for privatisation. And then there are those critics who believe that at a time when the majority of university graduates, as highlighted in the Government’s own findings, are unemployable, our pursuit of global stature reeks of waylaid competitive nationalism, hollow chest-thumping and the general lethargy of a stagnated eduction sector. They argue, with some merit, that it would profit the universities more if the staff are mobilised towards research and teaching instead of tedious report compilation. Till a few years ago, before the launch of NAAC and NIRF, many believed that better rankings accrue from user-friendly websites and perception management.
Under the circumstances, quality becomes a procedural casualty and our estimation of a university’s true worth, based on a set of universal parameters, remains delusional and misleading. For example, in several assessment paradigms, the share of international faculty and foreign students substantially propels an institution’s ranking. While this may not be the strength of Indian universities, not many countries of the world can boast of a higher education system which is more committed to affirmative action and social inclusion, than our own.
The massification of education and steep rise in enrollment rates may not deliver immediate dividends but these steps will see India rise as a leader in research and development (R&D) in times to come. Fortunately, the NIRF identifies an institution’s inclusivity at the levels of region, class, gender and physical disability as a parameter in quality assessment. But there are, as yet, no points for diversity in faculty.
As India aims to overhaul its higher education infrastructure through a New Education Policy (NEP), creating world-class institutes of eminence (IoEs) and acquiring better global rankings appear to be two of the priorities. It is expected that resources generated through public private partnership (PPP) and introduction of industry-centric courses will provide stimulus to these enterprises. The Ministry of Human Resource Development’s (MHRD) pitch for IoEs encourages international outreach. Under the scheme, the 16 designate institutions have been empowered to collaborate with foreign universities and recruit up to 25 per cent of their total faculty strength from outside India.
The success of the much-touted ‘Study in India’ campaign, too, is largely hinged on our ability to create IoEs and secure better ranking. The campaign, if successful, will not only bring revenue but the increase in the number of offshore students would also improve our global stature. The degree of internationalisation of higher education, which is partly consequent upon global ranking, will certainly augment India’s soft power. The Government’s website on the initiative lists instruction in English medium, the size of India’s market, recent start-up culture and pluralist campuses as our strengths. But when we leverage our educational infrastructure to entice the global student community, we need to ask the following question: who are we inviting to study in India and what do we have to offer? Given India’s financial constraints and our social commitment to bring the majority into the fold of higher education, planners and policymakers will have to make a series of difficult choices. They will have to choose between scaling a few hand-picked institutions to global stature and making the majority of Central/State universities competitive with respect to education infrastructure in Asia and Africa. Let us not forget that as of now, Indian universities cater mostly to students from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.
In some cases, to the wealthy South Koreans and Africans, too. In terms of their preferred academic destinations in India, these foreign students choose mostly institutions located in metropolitan centres. Therefore, we also need to choose between buttressing the existing patterns of student-inflow and creating regionally diverse centres of learning. Further, we have to decide between promoting subjects which feed the local industry and those that are most sought after in the target countries. If we are to invite students to study in India, when the domestic expectation itself is of a cosmic proportion, we must think of ways of marrying the two prerogatives. A balance must be struck between the strategic need to invite foreign students and delivering on the moral imperatives of the State.
Policymakers need to think of developing regional centres of excellence based on local trends, proclivities, resources and history. Delhi is nearly saturated, so are Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. India needs to create more hubs, showcasing local strength and areas where Indians excel. To that effect, here is a modest proposal. Institutes based in the north-eastern States can be developed into hubs for training in cottage and small-scale industries. Maharashtra and Gujarat can become centres of commerce and trade education. South India could be developed into India’s science hub while Bengal and Bihar can shine as regions catering to humanities and social sciences. Haryana can do exceptionally well in sports and physical health and Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha can lead global research on tribal knowledge systems and sustainable human ecology. At the same time, we must also think of capitalising on domains of knowledge to which we have had privileged access and that have traditionally been our strength. In subjects such as ayurveda, yoga and mental health, with an untapped global market, we have a lot to offer even to the most advanced countries of the world. There is an ayurvedic medical college in my own nondescript village in Bihar. But over the years, instead of attracting students from other States, let alone from other countries, the institution has shrunk both physically and in terms of footfall. Instead of investing in disciplines where global competition is stiff, the MHRD should think of promoting a few institutes dedicated to indigenous knowledge systems as IoEs. In these areas, the chances of becoming a world leader are bright, realistic and hugely rewarding.
But as we draw these schemes, we must never forget that a lot will depend on the quality of teachers employed at these institutes. Paradoxically, as things stand today, students studying outside India, with their international experience and exposure, are being projected as key to the success of the ‘Study in India’ initiative. We have to put in place a robust system of attracting and retaining talented students and teachers. Given the current state of affairs, appointment of teachers would be a good beginning point. Unless we engage and strengthen our workforce, these schemes will be reduced to corporate style weekend workshops on capacity building that offer nothing but a distraction from monotony. That too on a weekend.
(Writer: Gautam choubey; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The feedback from corporate India and research institutes is that 65-75 per cent of the 15 million youth who enter the workforce each year are not job-ready or suitably employable
The amount of change in the world economy in the last 20 years and the rate at which it has occurred is staggering. It is inevitable that everyone will have to deal with a significant degree of professional change. This shift could be seismic, to the degree that the very nature of a trade or profession is transformed forever.
The great economist and Nobel laureate WA Lewis argues that an economy consists of two sectors: Capitalist (urban and industrial) and a subsistence sector (rural and agricultural). Wages in the capitalist sector are higher than in the subsistence sector, hence there is a tendency for labour to move from the latter to the former. However, in India, the growing population has led to an endless supply of cheap labour and this has also brought down wages in the capitalist sector. Moreover, the capitalist sector is not growing fast enough to provide jobs for this large population. With a small fraction of its workforce having formal vocational training, skilling in India has become increasingly difficult.
The imperative for skilling young people is well-recognised and has been flagged as a national priority for almost a decade, with significant initiatives being launched by the Government. The sad part is that only 10 per cent of the total workforce in the country receives some kind of skill training. The feedback from corporate India and research institutes alike is that 65-75per cent of the 15 million Indian youth who enter the workforce each year are not job-ready or suitably employable.
Technology is advancing faster than we can adapt, upending the job market and delivering unimaginable shocks to both our values and our patterns of thinking. Repetition-based jobs are declining the world over and will soon disappear. Most children entering school today will do jobs that don’t exist yet. Many of the children now being educated in the old system will find the norms, institutions and patterns of working and civic life they were trained for scrambled when they enter the adult world. The tools of most jobs are in a state of extreme flux. For example, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and other boardroom documents have all been changed by the cloud and sharing and group editing are the new norm.
We are increasingly moving towards a world where evergreen skills like communication, empathy and the ability to “play well” with others are more valuable in the job market. They are essential to prepare our youth for the future. Empathy is foundational to social and relational intelligence. Empathy is the invisible giant. It is naturally hardwired into our brain and when harnessed, plays a crucial role in innovation, changemaking and solving systemic problems. Communication skills are essential to support both effective teamwork and creative linkages across disciplines and specialisations
Emotional and social “soft skills” such as possessing insights into other points of view, being supportive of one’s colleagues, problem-solving and critical thinking should be nurtured and developed as the key to future success for students and society in general. These soft skills need to be combined with other competencies such as English, digital literacy, arithmetic, financial literacy and basic life skills — together defined as “core employability skills” or “future skills.” We need to challenge the perception that these skills should only be taught to those going into business. Instead they should be seen as a set of transferable skills for all and are universally applicable, domain-agnostic and transferable. They hold the key to creating an impact at scale and with speed.
There is a huge gap between what is being taught to students and what they need to pursue as a successful career. To close this gap, we need to create a curriculum that would teach the skills that are most relevant for students entering a 21st century workforce. Thus we will need to give teaching and curriculum design a greater priority.
Technology empowers but will render millions of jobs obsolete, as smart machines take over repetitive tasks that employed previous generations. Many of the world’s schools and universities are modeled on the old, hierarchical elitism of the colonial times. Students are considered as empty vessels that simply need to be filled up with knowledge and skills readying them for their niche in a static labour market. The result is that educational institutions are disempowering students through their teaching methods and also failing to prepare them to capture the benefits of empowerment. A better way would be to treat students as creative, entrepreneurial problem-solvers and give them the skills, resources and power to generate and drive change both while learning and after they graduate.
The new emphasis on skill training should focus one “life cycle” approach which looks at all aspects of skilling, from the aspirations of people before training to counselling and following up with beneficiaries during their employment. Adopting this approach will ensure that the kind of skills imparted to trainees are marketable and linked to jobs.
It is also important to ensure that specific skills are not scaled across multiple areas in the same region as this saturates the market with limited opportunities for those who are trained. If everyone is trained in becoming a blacksmith, there will be too many blacksmiths and not enough jobs. Imparting locally-relevant skill sets like repairing bicycles, two-wheelers, solar lamps or mobiles, running a poultry unit, and the like, make families self-sustaining. To this end, governments should boost investment in lifelong learning to retrain, retool and reskill. For example, governments could provide training grants throughout people’s working lives, conditional on stronger private sector involvement in training and skills development. Governments should also reinforce the supply of skills by strengthening incentives for educational institutions to harness the power of digital technology and new business models.
While we continue our efforts to provide training in more advanced skills, it is also necessary to strengthen the ecosystems for basic subsistence skills in smaller communities. We can design new-generation skills for para-veterinarians, health workers, solar engineers, water drillers and testers, hand pump mechanics, artisans, designers, masons, accountants, technicians and computer programmers who support their fellow-villagers in building and sustaining collective livelihood projects and increasing their economic and social resilience. There is an important role for organisations supporting small producers to hone their skills, understand the marketplace dynamic, and to adapt their products for urban markets. They can encourage and promote environment-friendly products and processes, help in branding, packaging solution and also support primary producers in transitioning their subsistence livelihoods to reach sustainable levels. Education will have to be made available in more flexible and innovative forms to enable lifelong learning and deepening of skills and re-skilling as old occupations disappear and new ones evolve. It should also not be restricted to jobs that might be on offer, but encourage innovation and creation of jobs.
Graduates will need cultural competencies to effectively practice their skills in a multicultural world. Since the world is going to be dominated by digital forms of communication, everyone will need to have some proficiency in analysing and interpreting a world flooded with data. Higher levels of numeracy will be needed across many more occupations. Boundaries between educational institutions and the outside world would also need to be far more porous. Students will need opportunities to experience work environments as part of their learning system.
We require a more coordinated and collective impact approach from the various stakeholders if we want to enlarge the network of training programmes and ensure that training is closely aligned with specific demands of the industry. It would require developing a clear common agenda around the entire ecosystem of workforce training. It requires intervention at four levels: Quality trainers, market-aligned curriculum, assessment of learning outcomes, and effective matchmaking between youth and jobs
Individuals will have to cultivate a proper mindset to embrace changes and take a proactive approach to navigating the shock waves that may follow such powerful changes. Adaptability can quickly and confidently assimilate this type of upheaval and use it as a competitive advantage.
(Writer: Moin Qazi; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Full access to the highest standards of education through better penetration would be a game-changer in India.
The least common denominator for any developed country is easy access to education at all levels. It is not serendipitous that the United Nations (UN) recognises the need for quality education as an essential element of growth for all. It has also enshrined this in its SDG 4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education.
As one of the fastest growing economies, India has taken the world by storm. In order to maintain its stature, we need to provide the citizens with easy access to the highest standards of education at all levels. While this may seem like a distant reality, it surely is achievable by meticulously directing investments to the education sector, and ensuring development and use of innovative and robust technology.
For the Indian education system, the primary game-changer would be connectivity and penetration through innovative devices. As netizens, we are already living in a ‘connected world’ and understand the opportunities that internet and technology have thrown open for us. In the same way, technology can bridge the gaps in delivering high quality, uninterrupted education across India.
According to Census 2011, almost 70 percent of Indians still live in rural areas, spread across 600,000-plus villages. There are more than 125 million individuals in the age group of 14 to 18 years, of whom more than two-thirds, roughly 85 million, live in rural India, as per a latest study. The challenge with penetration of internet in the rural India is lack of electricity to charge devices, poor network quality and low affordability of internet service packs while on a global scale, people are now able to learn in ways that would not have been possible without digital technology.
But for India, there have to be solutions that allow learning by harvesting the benefits of multimedia education tools, without banking on internet connectivity alone. The current government has envisaged programmes like Digital India and Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, which together focus on education and transforming the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
One of the stated missions of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan is to promote enhanced use of digital technology in education through smart classrooms, digital boards and DTH channels.
The delivery of digital education in the rural areas would become a mammoth task in the wake of the fact that we still struggle with providing uninterrupted internet speeds in the urban geographies. Hence, delivering quality educational content without total dependence on the availability of internet has become crucial.
In such a scenario, innovative technological solutions that harvest the benefits of multimedia education tools without banking on internet connectivity are important. Companies like Chhota Internet provide free Wi-Fi to scholars to access relevant content in their campuses and residential hostels through e-books, audio and video lecture formats. The most remarkable feature of this technology is that it achieves this without the need of internet connection, at no recurring cost. The solution solves the issues related to shortage of good teachers as well.
Writer: Sandeep Arya
Courtesy: The Pioneer
The decision of the HRD Ministry to make school bags and grades less burdensome for students based on their age is aimed at well-rounded physical and mental development of the students.
Education is a wholesome process which students should participate freely in and engage happily with. It should not end up looking like an exploitative practice or inducing performance pressure. Unfortunately, in our country, our kids are caught in an androidish drill of bookish knowledge and making the cut in competitive exams rather than savouring knowledge discoveries in the absence of application-based teaching modules.
Perhaps this norm on heavy-lifting will encourage alternative thinking in existing educational policies and prioritise student welfare. To begin with all schools — and some private schools have done it — should immediately formalise a book locker system as it is done in many countries abroad to ease the to-and-fro logic.
The effects of school bag load on the physical and mental well-being of students have been well documented. An ASSOCHAM survey conducted in 2016 found that because of a load of books in the bags of children, 68 per cent children in the age group of 7 to 13 years face the risk of backaches, hunchbacks, spinal and postural problems, some of which were irreversible and impede mobility patterns in their adult life.
The survey had also noted that over 88 per cent of students in the same age group carry more than 45 per cent of their own weight on their backs. The heavy bags, according to the survey, included textbooks, activity books, swim kit, lunch box and other things. To this extent, the directive is welcome. However, the regimentation of books, content and subjects that can be taught at primary levels, as recommended by the Ministry, defeats the very purpose of education being a free space and only perpetuates the “brick in the wall” approach.
While banning tests are welcome for classes I and II, limiting the number of subjects to only languages and mathematics — clearly sharpening skills of communication and logical reasoning, maybe even scientific temper — severely hampers the child’s overall development. True you free them up for exploratory outdoors and sports but why deny them the narrative of our history and culture, something that our kids are increasingly veering away from? Besides, a curtain-down approach does not work in digitally informed times and in the absence of a regime, could expose them to more sources of misinformation than information.
Even in higher classes up to class V, concession has been made for environmental science with total disregard for an approach that balances both left and right brain development. This becomes even more punishing with the clause that only NCERT books can be accessed with no provision for other sources of study material. The early years are crucial for shoring up self-sufficiency in our younger generation, so there cannot be an agenda-driven outlook for education policies that impact the wonder years between five and 12.
Reducing load is one thing — there can be several alternatives explored with school lockers and cheap e-books in a graded manner — but restricting subjects and codifying approaches, especially as part of public policy, will only make a generation literate but not knowledgeable enough. Agreed, we don’t need to push kids over the edge but the government should not have the sole agency to decide what they need and do not.
Writer: Pioneer
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Before getting into the details, it is important to understand the fundamentals and the basics behind the factors that need to be considered when designing a foundation for a new education system. All in all, several factors influence the decision, some of them include dynamic curriculum, an emotional bond between teachers, learners, and the school, and experienced teachers.
Education systems are under stress even in educationally developed societies. This is inevitable, as by its very nature, education is a dynamic process and, hence, it must keep pace with changing expectations of the society and emerging aspirations of the young. In India, as in most nations that suffered under foreign yoke for centuries, education received new impetus in the last five decades, more prominently after the World Conference on Education, held in Jomtien, Thailand, in March 1990, that resolved to universalise elementary education in the next 10 years with extensive global collaboration.
India can rightly boast of its achievement in widening access to education to the remotest, far-flung, hilly, tribal areas. It required extensive efforts, plans and programmes to reach an estimated enrolment percentage of over 96, in spite of a population increase of more than three times. India now has around 1.5 million schools and over 230 million children enrolled in these schools. This is not a mean achievement for a country that began after independence in extremely tough conditions, with a literacy rate of less than 20 per cent, and huge paucity of resources, both in men and material.
While the expansion of access meant opening of more and more schools, at a pretty fast pace, there was a serious dearth of trained teachers, and even States’ capacity to provide infrastructure support at the optimal level. Things, however, did move. One of the biggest and most tangible achievements was attitudinal transformation: Every community, social and cultural group, now realises the importance and value of education; is keen to give ‘good quality education’ to their children; and this includes both boys and girls.
Young people may today find it strange to comprehend that to prepare people to send their daughters to school was a daunting task during the first four decades after independence. They may also find it strange that before the National Policy on Education, 1968, it was officially accepted that girls were not fit to study science and mathematics, and were generally encouraged to offer such choices as spinning and weaving, home science or social science subjects only. It was possible only because of the presence of visionary educationists under the leadership of Prof DS Kothari that the National Commission on Education (1964-66) recommended compulsory teaching of science and mathematics to both boys and girls till they complete 10 years of schooling.
This can be one of the historic examples of dynamism needed in education, its policies and implementation. The shape of schools, laboratories and also the intent and process of education and teaching have undergone significant changes. From the Tat-Patti stage, India is rapidly transitioning to smart classrooms.
Dynamic systems, however, never permit lethargy or systemic slumber to relax/enjoy and gloat over achievements. Every issue resolved and every problem tackled generates new challenges. Indian education is no exception and one could list a plethora of issues and concerns that demand urgent remediation. It is because of such imperatives in educational advancements that the educational curriculum at every stage is consistently reviewed and revised. It requires regular execution of surveys, studies and researches to point out what needs to be changed, discarded and deleted; and added and augmented.
Normally, a five-year cycle is considered necessary to bring about curricular reforms in school education. Text books are revised after the curriculum renewal and formulation of syllabi for each area. Certain alert systems do realise that the pace of change is so fast that a five-year cycle may be a bit too prolonged and, hence, provisions for frontline curricula are also incorporated in broader guidelines, and made available to schools and teachers. This provision takes care of urgent requirements and students are not deprived of being made familiar with new developments.
In India, with over 50 school boards authorised to prepare their own curricula, syllabi and textbooks, the task becomes complex when it comes to national-level competitions. Students from different boards must come with equality of learning attainments. This requirement led to the creation of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), which is mandated to prepare a school curricula in consultation with State agencies; prepare textbooks; and leave it to the State Governments to adopt these as such, or prepare their own books with local elements of curricula included wherever necessary.
NCERT books should normally not be accepted for every subject. Take the example of environmental education. Books must be different in Tripura and Thiruvananthapuram, but the NCERT textbook can offer guidance in maintaining the level and standard. At this stage, even curriculum developers and textbook writers require regular in-service orientations on how things are being analysed and included in an era characterised by the advent of information and communication technology (ICT).
Textbook is no longer the only source available to the student. While it is universally acknowledged that in spite of all that is now available to the learner, courtesy ICT, Internet and ever-improving gadgets, the criticality of teacher-taught relationship shall always be necessary to bring in the human element in the growing up of the learner. This is also the time for every teacher to realise that life-long learning must be put to practice to remain relevant in the profession. Only such teachers can impress upon the child the real import of ‘life-long learning’.
In the Indian tradition of the knowledge quest, yavadjeevait adhiyate viprah was propounded much earlier. Teachers of today and tomorrow would do well if they recall the wisdom of Socrates: “I cannot teach anybody, I can only make them think.” Sri Aurobindo had said it in very simple but meaningful terms: “Nothing can be taught” and that “mind must be consulted in its own growth.” Once these simple-looking elements are properly internalised by the teacher, it would not be tough for him to visualise his changed role.
Only with such a vision, an alert teacher would be in a position to give wings to the nurturance of creativity and curiosity that are the nature’s gifts to every child. It is no longer implicit on him to transact everything in the classroom, he could support the learner to reach other sources of knowledge, and in the process, learn how to sift information and extract knowledge and skills out of it. In the process, the teacher is educating him in ‘learning to learn’ a skill that has to be a necessary acquisition during the process of schooling.
As the learner moves upwards on the learning curve, the need arises for flexible and individualised curriculum. It helps self-learning, self-actualisation and helps optimise their potential. Motivation and inspiration for all this must come from committed and performing teachers. Essentially, a teacher must be prepared to comprehend the imperatives of assisting the learner in the development of total personality and comprehensive abilities to enable him to contribute creatively in socio-economic, cultural, political and technological sectors. This would be feasible only when teacher preparation institutions realise their transformed role to help student-teachers acquire the skills of developing, what is now known as ‘multiple intelligence’.
At every stage, the role of the teacher educator and teacher remains. Changes in education, though envisioned and incorporated at various levels of expertise, must include teacher participation and his inputs. A teacher’s role is no longer limited to that of a mere transactor of textual material within the classrooms. He/she encourages the learner to ask questions, acts as an appreciator, guide, counselor, moulder, instructor and much more. In fact, he/she is the first icon after parents, he/she is an exemplar. Only such teachers shall succeed in the future who realise the criticality of their persona in the life of the learners.
What could be more critical to a community than the availability of a functional school nearby? Textbooks, teachers, Internet and other aspects come only afterwards. It is indeed intriguing that teacher preparation and recruitment leaves much to be desired. The situation has deteriorated gradually and has reached rather disturbing proportions. Several State Governments are now ‘merging’ thousands of schools situated mostly in far-flung, rural, tribal and hilly areas with nearby schools to make them viable. When a school has an enrolment of less than 10 or 20, its continuation may not be considered viable in the routine economic consideration but should that be the only criterion? How demoralising and demotivating it would be for the community and children whose school is shifted to another place?
Traditionally, India has successfully experimented with various models of schooling during initial years. Now that educated and literate persons are available in almost every habitation and village, models other than what is demanded in the RTE Act could also be tried to ensure that no child drops out of school because of merger and assimilation of ‘their’ school. Good education requires good teachers, dynamic curriculum and an emotional bond between teachers, learners and their school.
(The writer is the Indian Representative on the Executive Board of UNESCO)
Writer: JS Rajput
Courtesy: The Pioneer
The fundamentals of any education curriculum is to teach and promote core values of the society. Without values, education is incomplete. While a good education system creates values among pupils, ultimately becoming the fabric of social and political lives, the present education system in India is devoid of such characters. Aping the West, Bharat graduated into India only to have a lopsided education system that is a means to an end — to lead a luxury lifestyle at the cost of the value system which is already at a low ebb.
And therefore, sports and music are considered antidote to education. The overall development of a child is not possible without a proper set of sports system. One-third problems of the country are related to physical weakness of the youth, Vivekanand had said.
To address the issues, the Modi Government is leaving no stone unturned to refurbish the education system that empowers people through education. Under “Khelo India” scheme, the Government is trying to improve sport infrastructure in villages.
“One Bharat Shresth Bharat” aims to bridge the regional disparity. The Government is keen to synergies the ingenious knowledge system and modern technology. “Technology is the biggest driver in improving the quality of education,” said HRD Minister Prakash Javedekar. The digital black board is one of the top priorities of the Government. And efforts are on to use technology to enhance teachers’ skills as well.
There are several other initiatives that aim at improving the overall condition of the education system. More than hundred new Kendriya Vidyalayas and 62 new Navodaya Vidalayas have been opened during the last four years. Ekalavya Model Residential schools will be opened in the tribal areas.
Despite these praiseworthy initiatives, higher education is smitten with many ills. The scheme of upgraded autonomy is bound to create further problems in education system. “I am a Stephenian, a JNUite or a LSRite” will only widen the chasm. The existing apartheid system in educational system will further deepen if the Government policies are not implemented in toto.
The debate on the need for foreign faculty members is picking up, even as the concept of “Gurukul” has been pigeonholed as traditional. Rubbing salt into the wound is the exodus of brains from quality educational institutions in India to the US and the EU, indeed for greener pastures. To address this burning issue, the Central Government is trying to reverse the brain drain into brain gain through the scheme of Prime Minister Schemes of fellowships. Though it is not enough, well begun is half done.
One of the fundamental aims of the education is to identify the core values. The core values of India are world peace and betterment of the humanity. It flows from the cultural heritage of India. There is need to connect children with Indian heritage along with the western tips.
Writer: Satish Kumar
Source: The Pioneer
(The writer is Head of the Department of Political Science, Central University of Haryana)
In order to sustain our nation’s prosperity, it is important to make efficient use of abilities and talents of our citizens, bringing together individuals from diverse cultures
India is rich in diversity but poor in harvesting its fruits. Plurality in society is not just limited to inheritance, class or caste divisions, but it also exists in other fields like languages, cultures, religions, choice of livelihood, careers, knowledge, values, beliefs and practices et al. Currently, as many as 780 different languages are spoken and 86 different scripts are used in the country. In the same spirit, higher education institutions too should respond and accommodate such diversities, particularly now when several reform measures have been initiated viz, the grant of graded autonomy to universities, the grant of autonomous status to colleges, regulation of open distance learning for online degrees and the selection of institutions of eminence status, among others.
In continuance with these reform measures, a draft Act that seeks to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) for setting up of a Higher Education Commission of India has also been proposed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. But these reform measures will not lead to desired results unless the richness of this diversity is reflected by the higher education. Therefore, there needs to be a strong policy that ensures racial and ethnic diversity as one of the important factors among the many considered during admissions.
Campuses: The higher education sector has seen tremendous expansion since independence. With just 20 universities in 1950, today India can boast of 47 Central universities, 384 State universities, 123 deemed universities and 296 private universities. Many more are to come. One of the positives has been the Union Government’s effort to establish at least one central university in every State. However, some are public, others are private, some are large urban universities, some are deemed, and still others are small rural campuses. There are those exclusively for women.
Similarly, diversity exists in specialisations of various universities ie, some are restricted to performing arts, social sciences, sports, technology, veterinary sciences, health sciences, food technology while others are professional. This collective diversity among the institutions is one of the greatest strengths of India’s higher education system that can help make us one of the best places for education in the world.
Students: However, diversity today is conspicuous due to its absence in the student bodies, faculties and staff, particularly in State universities. In the late 70s, when I was a student at the Kurukshetra University, there were students from different parts of the country viz Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, North-East, Jammu & Kashmir and Kerala among others. Paradoxically, the number of students from other States saw a steep decline with time, probably with an increase in the number of higher education institutions.
State universities and colleges account for nearly 80 per cent of the total enrollments in higher education. Some students have even stopped moving from one district to another. A majority of students in universities are from local areas. The situation of Central universities is no good either. Over a period of time, universities have become ‘localversities’ as they have lost their ‘universal’ character. However, there is a provision of 15 per cent seats to be filled on an all-India basis to maintain probably some level of diversity. But State universities have managed to fill these seats by giving additional weightage to local students in the name of having passed their preceding examination from their own State university so as to give an edge to the students from other States.
The logic of these State universities is that their own State is also a part of India, and therefore, students must also to be considered in the category of ‘all-India basis’. Local students now have a double advantage ie, of weightage of five per cent and as well as of reservation (85 per cent seats are reserved for own State). The motive is to fulfill the theory of ‘sons of the soil.’ As a result, the very idea of creating this category of ‘all-India basis’ is getting defeated.
How to ensure diversity: In view of the above, it is proposed that the nomenclature of the category ‘all-India basis’ should be changed to ‘States other than home State’ so as to ensure admission from other States, which will in turn ensure diversity. In addition, percentage of seats in this category must be enhanced to 30 per cent because India aims to attain a Gross Enrollment Ratio of 30 per cent by 2020, which currently stands at 25.2 per cent. To attract talent in this category, the Union Government must institute scholarship for students.
Diversity should be at all levels of institution: It should also be mandatory for universities to appoint 30 per cent teaching faculties from other States than the home State. Diversity in teaching faculties in State universities has continuously declined to almost nil. The Government can, therefore, create a cadre of all India educational services. Similar arrangements can be made for secretarial or administrative posts. This will not only ensure diversity but ensure that bureaucrats are not able to undermine the status of teachers. Financial liability of these 30 per cent staff and students of all State universities should be borne by the Centre. It will be prudent to bear 30 per cent cost of State universities rather than creating Central universities because there cannot be any cost or an alternative to national integration. This is how our higher education institutions can be made more ‘open to diversity and socially inclusive’.
Need for diversity: Diversity enriches the learning experience, promotes tolerance and a healthy society. It will not only foster innovations and help enhance India’s competitive strength but will also help integrate the nation. Sustaining the nation’s prosperity in the 21st century requires us to make effective use of the talents and abilities of all our citizens in work settings that bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
It should be an institutional commitment to promote student body diversity and inclusion on the campus so as to help building democratic societies. The higher education system of the country should be such that the students coming out of this should be capable of making contribution to the growth of the nation.
(The writer is a professor of Biotechnology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana)
Writer: SK Gakhar
Courtesy: The Pioneer
The need of the time is to revisit the Indian education system policies. Some inspiration can be taken from global education practices.
Quality of education and suitability of its products determine the efficacy, pace of progress and development in various sectors of growth and advancement. While none can doubt the sincerity of initiatives, plans and programmes that are launched from time-to-time to bring improvement, these are often impeded by certain practices that have gained ground over the years, thanks to the entry of unscrupulous elements in the sector of education.
A couple of decades ago, realising the gravity of damage caused by copying in mass examinations, the Uttar Pradesh Government had issued a nakal virodhi Ordinance. It had its impact. However, it was repealed by the successive Government, which was, in fact known to be soft towards the examinees. The malpractice has grown to gigantic proportions, particularly in States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Sadly enough, practices like mass copying in examinations, making degrees available for consideration, fixing up examination sectors and the like, have not only ruined the lives of millions of young students but also contributed to a decline of credibility of certificates/diplomas and degrees awarded by most of the institutions in these States. Improvement in the quality of education and its products in these two States is indeed a daunting task.
News reports showed a dip of over nine lakh examinees in Uttar Pradesh board examinations for 2018-19. Normally, these numbers increase every year with growing population. This unexpected and significant decrease in those aspiring to clear board exams deserve a serious analysis as it dampens aspirations of the young and damages the demographic dividend of India.
One is reminded of what happened during the 2017-18 Uttar Pradesh Board exams. Around 10 lakh students, though registered, dropped out of examinations of class X and XII. The pass percentage was 75.16 in high school and 72.43 in intermediate. Failure, that lasts a lifetime and consequent demoralisation, was the fate of at least 27 lakh students in a single year in one State. Is it not a number that must make the entire nation sit up and think?
On the very first day of exams (2018-19), it was reported that around 1.8 lakh examinees abstained from appearing for the exams. It included 1.27 lakh of class XII students. Numbers kept on increasing. The newly-formed State Government had put in place strict preventive measures to confront the nakal mafia and it made a difference.
The moot point is: The nakal mafia did not acquire “strength, power and credibility” amongst the masses on its own. The obvious inference was its collusion with politicians and bureaucrats. It is encouraging that this year saw a fall in the purchase of certificates of success. A dip in the number of examinees of around a million speaks volumes about how our education system works.
Who can forget visuals of mass copying in board examinations from Bihar’s Vaishali? Or the Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh a couple of years ago? It is widely believed that scandalous practices to get entry into medical colleges and even in recruitment to State Government jobs continue unchecked. All those who could purchase entry, walked into the precincts of much-sought after medical colleges.
Generations of young souls have suffered injustice at the hands of elders, people in position of power, and politicians. This wastage of young manpower is not confined to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar only. It extends its operations to most parts of the country. The original nakal mafia nexus now extends to several other sectors dealing with the youth and their future. Coaching institutions have indulged in prior leakage of question papers to ensure success in professional entrance tests. These groups have created links even with public service commissions, teacher recruitment commissions and one often comes across instances of youngsters being cheated by unscrupulous elements, some of whom may be highly educated and well-positioned.
Absence of social consciousness and awareness, that has led to an irreparable damage to the young generation, poses a great challenge to the education system of the country as well. If a reduction in the number of examinees in Uttar Pradesh is any indication, it is not tough to imagine how millions of youth are victims of this unscrupulous exploitation.
It is indeed very stressful to be happy about the much-hyped ‘demographic dividend’ that awaits the young of India in the ageing societies abroad. The situation is accentuated by several revealing factors that include 10 lakh vacant posts of teachers in Government schools, upsurge of private teacher education institutions, uncontrollable high fees charged by public schools that indulge in rampant commercialisation that leads to loss of credibility of Government schools.
The way India is treating its youth poses a serious question: Are we really giving them their due? One would like to immediately add that there are no issues with around 30 per cent of children and young persons who are lucky to get education of ‘acceptable level’ in private prestigious schools and a small percentage of Government schools. One is inclined to infer that the remaining 70 per cent is fated to get education that is of little help in settling down in a creative and contributing life.
Countries with strong educational systems are fully conscious of the pace of change all around, and the need to prepare their younger generations for a highly competitive world. This obviously cannot be achieved in an environment highly polluted by practices like copying, bribing State functionaries to get into jobs and having degrees and certificates without acquiring adequate knowledge, skills and value.
While India needs to combat the prevailing malpractices in education system on its own, it will do no harm to look around, observe as to how education has improved globally. India, too, like other educationally-advanced nations must put into practice the adage that investment in education pays the highest returns. No nation can remain slow and reticent on this count.
Renowned columnist, Thomas Friedman, in his latest book, Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, attempts to comprehend the pace of unprecedented changes taking place all around, and has called the present times as an “age of accelerations”. Even if India is late in certain aspects of improvement, it must invigorate the system with new ideas and initiatives. Even in tough conditions, young Indians have excelled practically in every field — ICT, space sciences and practically every promising area that could change the world for better. The horizon of quality education, presently available roughly only to one-third of the students, needs to be extended to all, and fast.
Only such systems will be effective in the future that are conscious of their ever-increasing responsibility, and ever-expanding needs and expectations from every sector of the population — right from children to veterans. The youth are etching to be a part of the change. They are the products of educational expansion and extension of access to those who were kept out of what was termed as the ‘mainstream’. For them, the only ray of hope is education, about which Gandhiji had envisioned in 1922: “But there is hope, if education spreads throughout the country. From that people would develop from their childhood qualities of pure conduct, god fearing, and love. Swaraj would give us happiness only when we attain success in the task. Otherwise India becomes the abode for grave injustice and tyranny of the rulers.”
Should the Indian education system not delve deep into ascertaining what has gone wrong within, and outside, the system of education? It demands high levels of professional commitment, dynamism and vision on the part of policy-makers and implementers, with inputs from academics and scholars.
We have issues in accepting diversity, achieving social cohesion and religious amity as the necessary ingredients in baking life better for all. As Nelson Mandela said: “The power of education extends beyond the development of skills we need for economic success. It can contribute to nation building and reconciliation.” The seeds of growth, development and progress are sown in the primary schools, where value inculcation and nurturance must begin in right earnest by abled teachers working in a conducive environment for learning and interaction.
(The writer is the Indian Representative on the Executive Board of UNESCO)
Writer: JS Rajput
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Game-changing initiatives will not only attract children to schools but also help retain them.
With more than 1.5 million schools spread across the country, India has one of the most diverse and complex educational systems in the world that is besieged by myriad problems. Though strides have been made since 1947, a particularly persistent issue has been with enrolment and getting kids to stay the whole distance in school. That’s where of late many governments and school administrations have shown the way by adopting innovative models to reach out to children. One such example has been set by a school in Telangana, which has modeled its infrastructure for the classrooms to look like a train which has stopped at a railway station. The programme, titled, ‘Telangana Express’, a CSR initiative, has been a hit in the State as it has already made a huge difference in preventing kids from dropping out. There is pressure on parents not to pull them out from the kids themselves who love going to their ‘train school’. Pockets of innovation have also sprouted in other States. Many schools have opted for a holistic approach by making their classrooms in an environment-friendly ambience with a flexible schedule. No more are Indian schools only a place for learning by rote. Slowly but steadily, focus on the judicious use of technology in pedagogy is increasing.
Yet, the data captures some troubling trends with respect to school enrolment, drop-out rates and transition rates in education. According to latest ASER report, India has seen high enrolment rates of over 96 per cent in the past eight years at the primary-school level. This means that there has been a substantial increase in the number of children who would presumably at least acquired basic reading and writing skills. This would not have been possible without effective implementation of the RTE Act that provides for free and compulsory education for children till Class VIII and credit must be given to successive governments at the Centre and in the States. But beyond this stage, the trouble starts. The same ASER report pointed out that at the secondary level (after Class VIII), there has been an increasing trend of drop-outs. This means that enrolment in schools does not necessarily translate into attendance and transiting to a school-leaving degree. Worryingly, a large number of students drop out after reaching adolescence due to family economic hardship, lack of interest, lack of proximity to the school, lack of proper training for teachers and infrastructural facilities among others. In many States, unfortunately, girls are still more likely to dropout of school than boys given our societal structures and the ‘role of women’ thrust upon them in the main.
Policy interventions on the part of Government have helped, of course. Take for example the case of Bihar where schools gave bicycles to female students to reduce dropout rates at the secondary and higher secondary levels. The mid-day meal scheme is yet another incentive that has helped in the enrolment of children but shabby implementation has meant that retentions rates have not match enrolment rates. Schools have to welcome innovation to both attract and retain students. To do that, we need to provide both private funds through CSR and public funds through the exchequer. We can make a start by allocating six per cent of GDP to education. But is anybody listening?
Writer & Courtesy: The Pioneer
The National Democratic Alliance on Wednesday announced its ambitious plan to reform higher education in the country. The Human Resources Development Ministry, headed by Prakash Javadekar, announced that it has drafted a bill titled ‘Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of UGC Act), 2018’, which plans to scrap the University Grants Commission and replace it with a ‘Higher Education Commission’.
Education is one sector which needs to mutate as knowledge sources and their application become more varied and complex in probing times and the regulatory systems or norms, therefore, need to rise above orthodoxies and become dynamic. The HRD Ministry has done just that by preparing a draft Act that will scrap the UGC with a new all-pervasive Higher Education Commission of India. According to the proposals, which HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has left open to amendments, the new panel would solely look into academic matters and uniformity of standards in providing quality instruction. Monetary grants would be the purview of the ministry so that the expert commission would be free of bureaucratese and instead concentrate on things that matter — mentoring institutions, ensuring meritocracy, encouraging research, standardising the quality of training, identifying bogus institutions, monitor faculty benchmarks and, in short, ensure autonomy of institutions. Higher education in India is indeed in a grave crisis mode as universities in our hinterland, too, have made it to the global index whereas, except IITs, none of our institutions are in the wanted list. If recent entrance test results to advanced courses are any indication, then the meritorious performances are a dismal ratio and need a quick fix. The rote learning method needs to be eliminated and replaced by one that assesses comprehension and application of acquired knowledge. Our students need to be skilled and industry-ready and capable of driving innovation, rather than becoming formulaic clones. Other countries like UK and the Australia have already moved to independent commissions of higher education.
Absolutism of the UGC has had many casualties. Vice-Chancellors have had to be at the beck and call of an official for routine fund clearances, leave aside seeking one for innovations. A performance-linked funding pattern that would encourage competitive scholarship, was never considered. UGC has not quite been able to attract world-class faculty to teach at Indian universities in a visiting capacity. We have not been able to benchmark ourselves internationally as an education hub the way we have in the health sector, medical tourism now being the most sought after. Even China has worked towards evolving a strong university culture that is attracting students from across the world, particularly the region. The UGC’s ad hoc system of rewarding research, based on academic performance, rather than subjecting it to expert reviews, have discouraged path-breaking thought. Besides, there is a multiplicity of authorities for technical education, be it the AICTE and for medical courses MCI, that often run at cross purposes and add to the confusion with overlapping functionalities. Of course, it is brave of the Modi Government to push through well-intentioned reforms that have been in the lab since UPA days. But it has practical challenges to meet. Will the higher education reforms be effective enough without an overhaul of the National Education Policy? This would make the new move look knee-jerk. Then there is the task of keeping it apolitical. By subjecting matters of appointment in leadership positions at all universities, even if they are established under state law, to the panel may invite tendencies of favouritism, which is a thin line to walk. Even if you free up teachers, can politicisation of students be tamed? Most importantly, the assessment system itself has to be graded and appropriate experts brought in to understand premium quality of elite institutions, which need to be given more room for autonomy. Most important though is filling up teaching vacancies in Central universities across the country, including the prized AIIMS. Some varsities in far-flung states have a shocking gap of faculty vacancies by over 50 per cent. Can an ecosystem be developed at institutions set up in backward pockets that will be attractive enough to draw in quality teachers in the first place? These grassroots issues need to be addressed on an emergency basis too.
Writer: Pioneer
Courtesy: The Pioneer
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