Right the wrongs in RTE: Five ideas
Right the wrongs in RTE: Five ideas
In any other country that aspires to achieve accelerated and inclusive development, and proudly—and rightly—sees a unique 'demographic dividend' in the preponderance of children and youth in its population, the following facts would surely cause deep concern. Sadly, the response of the political establishment and government in India to them is going to be, to use a term recently popularised by our Prime Minister, "business as usual".
Here are a few of the alarming findings from Pratham's Annual Status of Education Report 2012, released on Thursday. In 2010, 29.1 per cent children in class V couldn't solve a two-digit subtraction problem. The figure shot up to 39 per cent in 2011 and to 46.5 per cent in 2012. Only 30 per cent of class III students could read a class I text book in 2012, down from 50 per cent in 2008. The number of children in government schools who can correctly recognise numbers up to 100 has dropped to 50 per cent from 70 per cent, the downward slide having accelerated after the Right to Education (RTE) law came into force in 2010. Enrolment in private schools, which are assumed to be better run than government schools, has risen from 18.7 per cent in 2006 to 28.3 per cent in 2012. If this trend continues, India could have 50 per cent children in private schools, where parents certainly have to spend more. Look how a supposedly pro-poor initiative is turning out to be horribly anti-poor.
If HR is India's greatest resource, and if good education is the key that unlocks the door opening the path to its enrichment, then our government-driven educational policies and programmes are failing. The findings by Pratham are notable because they once again show that merely infusing funds into the system is no automatic guarantor for achieving qualitative progress, much less excellence. In education, quality is what matters even to poor parents who prefer costly private schools to government-run schools. And quality education is what must matter to policy-makers if they really want India to reap the demographic dividend in terms of high levels of economic, social and cultural development. But can India's development outcomes be good if the learning outcomes are bad in its schools?
How to remedy the situation? Five broad ideas.
One. The main problem in school education in India, and this is also true of college and university education, is excessive centralisation and government control. Who can conceivably be more interested in quality enhancement than teachers, students, parents and communities? Yet, they have the least say in how schools are run. Over the years, netas and babus have tightened their control also over private and philanthropically founded schools, including reputed ones, under one pretext or the other but mostly on the ground that teachers' salaries are paid by the government. We must urgently disempower, dismantle and demolish visionless bureaucratic systems that have entrenched themselves in New Delhi and state capitals. Simultaneously, teachers, school managements and educational experts should be empowered and made accountable to the communities they serve.
Two. RTE's directive to scrap all exams and assessments up to class seven is ill-conceived, and must be scrapped. This has led to sharp decline in teaching standards in government-run schools. Alarmed by this, several observers have bemoaned that the no-exam provision under RTE prepares rural children "only for NREGS". Schools should be encouraged to drop routine exams and, instead, adopt innovative and comprehensive ways of assessing children's intellectual, creative and character development.
Three. The biggest foe of quality in government-run schools is that the system prevents good teachers from being recruited. As highlighted by the recent arrest of a former Haryana chief minister, there is rampant corruption in the recruitment of teachers in almost all states. What can society expect from those who become teachers by paying bribes? Therefore, ministers, politicians and bureaucrats must be stripped of all powers in respect of recruitment of teachers, by making it the sole prerogative of educational institutions, communities and panchayat raj bodies.
Four. The other major hurdle to the recruitment of good teachers is caste-based reservations—a stark reality that few politicians talk about, although many will acknowledge it privately. It's not at all my case that teachers belonging to a particular caste/s are inherently superior to those belonging to other castes. Aptitude, ability and knowledge to teach are not the monopoly of any caste or religion. But why condemn children, including children belonging to SC, ST and OBC categories, to be taught by those who are unfit to be teachers, but are appointed under the quota system? Isn't this a conspiracy to ensure that they permanently lag behind in India's economic progress? Isn't good education—which, inter alia, requires good teachers who are committed and motivated—a birth-right of every child? Let government spend as much as is needed to train aspiring teachers from under-represented castes and communities; but, when it comes to recruitment and promotion, merit must be the sole criterion.
Five. Quality is closely linked to relevant curricular content, co-curricular, extra-curricular and service-based learning, creative pedagogical practices, focus on free thinking, and, above all, emphasis on moral and social values. Here again, instead of being forced to remain slaves to textbook teaching, teachers and school managements should be given the freedom to experiment and to adopt best practices from near and far. What India needs today is an environment that encourages thousands of educational experiments and technology-aided innovations to bloom, benefiting every single school.
In short, education must not remain "business as usual". RTE must become every child's right to Right Education.
Here are a few of the alarming findings from Pratham's Annual Status of Education Report 2012, released on Thursday. In 2010, 29.1 per cent children in class V couldn't solve a two-digit subtraction problem. The figure shot up to 39 per cent in 2011 and to 46.5 per cent in 2012. Only 30 per cent of class III students could read a class I text book in 2012, down from 50 per cent in 2008. The number of children in government schools who can correctly recognise numbers up to 100 has dropped to 50 per cent from 70 per cent, the downward slide having accelerated after the Right to Education (RTE) law came into force in 2010. Enrolment in private schools, which are assumed to be better run than government schools, has risen from 18.7 per cent in 2006 to 28.3 per cent in 2012. If this trend continues, India could have 50 per cent children in private schools, where parents certainly have to spend more. Look how a supposedly pro-poor initiative is turning out to be horribly anti-poor.
If HR is India's greatest resource, and if good education is the key that unlocks the door opening the path to its enrichment, then our government-driven educational policies and programmes are failing. The findings by Pratham are notable because they once again show that merely infusing funds into the system is no automatic guarantor for achieving qualitative progress, much less excellence. In education, quality is what matters even to poor parents who prefer costly private schools to government-run schools. And quality education is what must matter to policy-makers if they really want India to reap the demographic dividend in terms of high levels of economic, social and cultural development. But can India's development outcomes be good if the learning outcomes are bad in its schools?
How to remedy the situation? Five broad ideas.
One. The main problem in school education in India, and this is also true of college and university education, is excessive centralisation and government control. Who can conceivably be more interested in quality enhancement than teachers, students, parents and communities? Yet, they have the least say in how schools are run. Over the years, netas and babus have tightened their control also over private and philanthropically founded schools, including reputed ones, under one pretext or the other but mostly on the ground that teachers' salaries are paid by the government. We must urgently disempower, dismantle and demolish visionless bureaucratic systems that have entrenched themselves in New Delhi and state capitals. Simultaneously, teachers, school managements and educational experts should be empowered and made accountable to the communities they serve.
Two. RTE's directive to scrap all exams and assessments up to class seven is ill-conceived, and must be scrapped. This has led to sharp decline in teaching standards in government-run schools. Alarmed by this, several observers have bemoaned that the no-exam provision under RTE prepares rural children "only for NREGS". Schools should be encouraged to drop routine exams and, instead, adopt innovative and comprehensive ways of assessing children's intellectual, creative and character development.
Three. The biggest foe of quality in government-run schools is that the system prevents good teachers from being recruited. As highlighted by the recent arrest of a former Haryana chief minister, there is rampant corruption in the recruitment of teachers in almost all states. What can society expect from those who become teachers by paying bribes? Therefore, ministers, politicians and bureaucrats must be stripped of all powers in respect of recruitment of teachers, by making it the sole prerogative of educational institutions, communities and panchayat raj bodies.
Four. The other major hurdle to the recruitment of good teachers is caste-based reservations—a stark reality that few politicians talk about, although many will acknowledge it privately. It's not at all my case that teachers belonging to a particular caste/s are inherently superior to those belonging to other castes. Aptitude, ability and knowledge to teach are not the monopoly of any caste or religion. But why condemn children, including children belonging to SC, ST and OBC categories, to be taught by those who are unfit to be teachers, but are appointed under the quota system? Isn't this a conspiracy to ensure that they permanently lag behind in India's economic progress? Isn't good education—which, inter alia, requires good teachers who are committed and motivated—a birth-right of every child? Let government spend as much as is needed to train aspiring teachers from under-represented castes and communities; but, when it comes to recruitment and promotion, merit must be the sole criterion.
Five. Quality is closely linked to relevant curricular content, co-curricular, extra-curricular and service-based learning, creative pedagogical practices, focus on free thinking, and, above all, emphasis on moral and social values. Here again, instead of being forced to remain slaves to textbook teaching, teachers and school managements should be given the freedom to experiment and to adopt best practices from near and far. What India needs today is an environment that encourages thousands of educational experiments and technology-aided innovations to bloom, benefiting every single school.
In short, education must not remain "business as usual". RTE must become every child's right to Right Education.
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