While Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar has boasted about bringing reforms in the education sector during more than half of his five years tenure, Haryana Vision Document 2030 prepared by his Government paints a picture of lacklustre education system in the State.
The Vision Document, released by the Chief Minister, has pointed out absence of a well-defined curriculum in pre-primary schools, poor learning outcomes in elementary education, absence of skill programmes up to secondary level and specialised skills at higher education among other factors contributing to declining academic standards in the State.
Noting that Haryana struggles to improve the long term outcomes of its students, the Vision Document cited low teacher accountability, little involvement of teachers in extracurricular activities, lack of modernisation of teaching skills amongst teachers , lowered incentives to new teaching recruits, lack of effective management and overall inadequate State-level infrastructure in Haryana as main reasons for poor education system.
At a time when the State Government is claiming to give priority to skill development in Haryana, its Vision Document revealed that at the elementary level, the cultivation of hobbies as a source of skill development and aptitude development at the secondary and senior-secondary levels are neglected. It also recommended change in educational curriculums and targeted interventions to introduce students with specialised skills.
Referring to ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme, the Vision Document has emphasised on removing gender disparity in access to school education. As per the Women and Child Development and U-DISE 2015-16, the gender gap of 7.52 per cent was recorded in the age group of 4-5 years at the time of enrolment in primary schools and Anganwadi centres.
Stating that the number of existing 25,692 Anganwadi centres is not sufficient to respond to the needs of more than 9.9 lakh children in Haryana at present who are up to the age of 5 years old, the Vision Document submitted that there are no flagship schemes, mechanisms or programmes, that address the issue of pre-school education within the State.
The Anganwadi centres enrol children between 6 months to 5 years but the level of coverage is not adequate to meet state needs, stated the document while adding that lack of coordination, regulation and monitoring to govern and manage both public and privately run pre-schools too, emerges as an ancillary problem.
It further stated that Bhiwani, Mewat and Palwal fared poorly across all three indicators of human development including education.
In line with the focus areas based on the United Nations Sustainable Goals for 2030, the Vision Document has also proposed a series of programmes and regulatory and monitoring mechanisms to ensure that education programmes are made accessible, inclusive and responsive to the needs of diverse groups of children.
Notably, the BJP led Haryana Government has remained mired in controversy during first half of its tenure over the inclusion of Gita shlokas and yoga in school curriculum. Even as the State Government claimed to have improved the education system in Haryana, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2016 and annual school results put forth falling standards of education system.
The ASER survey had revealed that a large percentage of students in schools (class I-VIII) have poor learning skills, reading ability and arithmetic skills. On the other hand, the overall pass percentage in the secondary examination stood at dismal 50.49 this year while in senior secondary exams (class XII) results, the total pass percentage was recorded at 64.50 percent.