Dr Prashant Bhalla gives you a lowdown on the things that the New Education Policy has to keep in mind when it comes to the education system in schools
India’s school education story has not been without successes in recent years. Positive developments such as enrollment rates in elementary schools consistently above 96 per cent since 2009 and reduction in drop-out rates of girls have been encouraging signs for a country which has for decades struggled to put its children into schools. However, behind these statistics and the promise of Right to Education to all lurk the worrying aspects bedeviling our school education system. The average primary school dropout rate stood at a disconcerting 4.3 per cent in 2013-14, implying that a large number of students are not making it past the primary level. The quality of education does not offer much to write home about, and is the leading question troubling Indian education policy makers.
In this light, academia and education experts are looking towards the New Education Policy. Whether this will pave way for a transformative beginning to India’s school education system is yet to be seen.
SCHOOl EDUCATION TODAY
While the Right to Education Act has been a watershed, the results accruing from it have so far been mixed. With dropout rates still high, our system is struggling to translate the encouraging enrollment rates of students into sustainable education. India still has the largest number of out-of-school children, more than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
At the same time, much remains to be desired from the quality of education being imparted to children. In 2009, the only time Indian students participated in the international learning test Programme for International Student Assessment, they landed at the bottom of the table, topped routinely by students from Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Regular surveys to test the reading and problem-solving ability of Indian school children have shown similar discouraging results. The Annual Status of Education Report 2014, facilitated by NGO Pratham, reported that of all children enrolled in Class V, about half can’t read Class II level text. There also remains huge disparity between the urban and rural; public and private; as well as the rich and poor children vis-a-vis their schooling experiences.
The new policy has to laydown mechanisms that ensure students stay in school.
TEACHING QUAlITY & ABSENTEEISM
Teacher quality remains at the root of the learning outcome disparity. lack of qualified teachers in rural areas means that a large number of those teaching school children have themselves not studied past Class XII. Teacher absenteeism is rampant. Issues such as wide variation in learning abilities of children within the same class, textbooks pitched at a much higher comprehension level than that of students are a reality that teachers deal with every day without having any special training or education to handle these complexities.
One of the most important recommendations on the new policy pertains to measures to improve quality of teaching in schools. The committee’s recommendations to make Teacher Eligibility Test compulsory for recruitment and teacher certification mandatory and renewable based on independent external testing will go a long way in ensuring recruitment of quality teachers. However, strict measures are needed to check teacher absenteeism. A World Bank supported study says that teacher absenteeism is costing India a staggering $1.5 billion annually.
INSTIllING SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
This is a problem that plagues not just the rural Government schools but the entire education system of India. Rote learning may allow students to pass exams and get degrees, but it fails the entire purpose of education, that is to understand the universe around you and develop a spirit of scientific inquiry. While most children will be able to tell you by memory that the first law of thermodynamics states that ‘energy can’t be created or destroyed’, not many would be able to explain the practical implication of this law.
Changing this institutionalised system of rote learning needs much more than policy guidelines. It needs reforming the mode of teaching, the way textbooks are written as well as the way teachers are trained in educating children.
REDUCING STRESS AND BURDEN
Schools and education authorities like the CBSE have given special importance to the need of reducing the stress of education on children. The actions including introducing the non-detention policy, replacing marks with grades and making boards optional were spurred by incidents of student suicides and reports of anxiety among school children.
It is essential to make education a source of happiness and contentment in children rather than a source of burden and stress. Children need to be exploring their minds and capacities rather than worrying themselves to death about their grades and scores. In this light the recommendations of the education panel to introduce a two tier exam system for Maths and Science makes sense. Students who have an aptitude and desire to study humanities and liberal arts need not take the same level of exam as students who want to pursue studies in science.
(The writer is president, Manav Rachna Educational Institutes & Treasurer, EducationPromotion Society for India)