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From: Shubhangi Sharma <s.sharma@unesco.org>
Date: Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 5:40 PM
Subject: [se-ed] Consolidated Reply : Mid Term Appraisal of 11th Five-Year Plan- Experiences; Advice
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
From: Shubhangi Sharma <s.sharma@unesco.org>
Date: Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 5:40 PM
Subject: [se-ed] Consolidated Reply : Mid Term Appraisal of 11th Five-Year Plan- Experiences; Advice
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
The PDF version of this Discussion Summary can be downloaded at: http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/education/cr/cr-se-ed-04011002.pdf (Size 392 KB)
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Consolidated Reply
Query: Mid Term Appraisal of 11th Five-Year Plan - Experiences; Advice
Issue Date: 13 January 2010
From Yamini Mishra and Amitabh Behar, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, National Social Watch Coalition, and Wada Na Todo Abhiyan,
Posted 09 December 2009
The vision of Eleventh Five Year plan reflects the UPA government's commitment to ensure that all sections of society benefit from the development process. Several flagship programmes aimed at health, education, nutrition, employment and agriculture have been launched since 2004 and continue to dominate all appraisals of the governments' performance. However most of these appraisals have remained confined to government circles with limited participation of common people and civil society. Since people are central to governance, it is imperative that they play a role in the crucial exercise of evaluating the objectives and targets set in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Recognizing the need to bring people into this process, several organizations have got together to organize a People's Mid Term Appraisal (PMTA) to assess from a people's perspective how the Eleventh Five Year Plan has worked. The Mid Term Appraisal will present an important opportunity to assess the functioning of the Plan and for mid course correction. The Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Plan (2007-2011) is under way and the Planning Commission plans to wind up this process by December 2009.
A large number of civil society organizations have come together to organize the People's Mid Term Appraisal. The coalition includes various well known civil society organizations and networks that are currently involved in governance accountability work. The National Consultation on the 'Role of Civil Society in the Eleventh Five Year Plan' in December 2008, collectively organized by the Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability and National Social Watch Coalition, with the support of the Planning Commission, had already set the stage to involve people to do the assessment of the targets set in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The PMTA would serve as the next critical step to strengthen the initiative. The purpose of the people's Mid Term Appraisal is to:
- Mobilise people's voice and assess from a people's perspective the larger policy framework and the programmes/schemes in the Eleventh Five Year Plan;
· Identify gaps as well as the best practices in implementation through collating the existing empirical evidence and;
· Substantiate the case with testimonies, case studies etc. from the community.
We have undertaken consultative processes in select states. Through these consultative processes, we have been able to identify difficulties, bottlenecks and good practices over the first half of the current plan. Nevertheless, we would like the members of the Education Community to provide us with their experiences and advice through their reflections on the status of our policies and its implementation and engage with constructive ideas to make them more resistant to failure.
As a part of the MTA process, we would therefore like the Education Community members to reflect and comment primarily on the following issues:
· Where do you think we stand two and half years down with our 11 FYP with particular focus on Education of SC/ST/Minorities and other deprived sections of the society. How Plan Programme/Policies/Schemes are working and what the bottlenecks are there in Policies, Implementation, and Budgets and in Institutional Mechanisms which need to be looked into.
· What could be the possible corrective mid course actions to remedy the failures or measures to accelerate the implementation of schemes in the Education sectors especially in the current context of Right to Education Act ; and
· What aspects within the plan vies –a –vies Education did we disregard but which in your view, are in need of urgent attention.
· If you have any concrete recommendations for the Planning Commission on what needs to be done to improve the implementation of the EFYP
The inputs of the members will be taken to the relevant policy makers at the Planning Commission so that the inputs could be integrated in specific chapters of the Mid Term Appraisal of the Planning Commission.
Responses were received, with thanks, from
*Offline Contribution
Further contributions are welcome!
11th five year plan was a historical document in terms of defining India's priorities and ambitions in many sectors which had probably not got required focus in the previous plans. Education was one of the sectors which received prominence in the plan with government stating its intention to improve the overall access, quality and the extent of community involvement in the process of Education. The plan has completed half way of its implementation and at this moment having a look at the accomplishments and failures is a worthy exercise.
Overall education sector has progressed from wherever it was a couple of years ago. Increase in investment, inputs and infrastructure is noticed. However, there have been considerable gaps in putting in place the policy measures and there seems huge divide between planners and executors in terms of knowledge and understanding of the educational challenges. Despite the fact that 11th five – year plan is categorical on education of marginalized and deprived sections of the society, the education of these sections, remains a huge challenge.
Increased emphasis on privatization of education at all levels and adoption of Public - private partnership in education also requires more reflection. The Right to Education Act is a big step forward; however, the delay in its notification is an area of concern.
The following sections elaborate on the status, corrective measures required and additional action needed to improve the implementation of the plan. It also contains some significant recommendations to improve the implementation of the plan in the coming years.
Current Status of education and the state of focus on marginalized sections
- Limited participation of the community and larger civil society in implementation of the plan's provisions in delivering education to remote rural areas is a major concern. Programmes and schemes have been largely confined to government circles leaving aside sporadic participation of civil society groups and community in some of the aspects of implementation.
- Prevalence of mistrust and suspicion between planners and executors resulting in lack of autonomy for institutions and of institutional growth plans. This is also because top level functionaries are not aware of class-room teaching- learning situation and ethos.
- Despite giving importance to marginalized groups in delivery of education, no effective steps were put in place to stop child migration and ensuring education of children belonging to migratory communities as the experiences in Orissa and Rajasthan reflect. The problem has several dimensions to tackle which include infrastructural facilities to accommodate migratory children when their parents are at work; preparation of teachers' to help such children to cope with the formal school system when they are back and focus on all aspects related to quality of education.
- Mismatch between market and the education offered by university system causing programmes of university system loosing relevance.
- Huge teacher vacancies effecting the functioning of schools. A number of schools are single teacher schools managing 5 or more classes. Micro planning for teacher requirement based on pupil- teacher ratio is largely disregarded. Added to it is the problem of large number of untrained teachers and frequent teacher transfers which severely disrupts the academic activity. On the other hand road - side schools have surplus teachers without any kind of rationalization. This problem gets aggravated as a result of huge teacher absenteeism in schools.
- Quality concerns still are huge as experience form states such as Bihar suggest. Poor learning levels of children cause further problem in universalizing education. Inability of majority of children to read and write simple text much lower than the grade they are in is a major cause of concern at the moment
- Very vulnerable social groups are still out of schools or get dropped out - reason being indifference of teachers towards their learning or insensitive behavior towards them. Nearly 48% of the total number of children, in the age group of 6-14, drop out before completing 8 years of elementary education, a majority of these are poor, dalit, adivasis, disabled and girl children. Only around 5% of these children reach to higher education level.
- The planned schemes such as District Primary Education Programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) have not been able to cover the deficit as a result of their questionable approaches and assumptions. The schemes also suffer of under utilization of funds in the absence of advanced and proper planning while a large chuck of children remains devoid of education.
- Under utilization of funds provided for out of school children, innovations in education and funds available for community involvement.
- Block Resource Centres/Cluster Resource Centres are not equipped and trained to monitor the quality improvement programmes as a result of lack of orientation on quality education and related notions as the experience from Bihar reflect.
- Data collection under DISE is not timely and therefore not useable in timely planning. The formats also lack caste wise details and disaggregation, to understand the picture in terms of access, retention and completion.
- Presence of a large number of untrained teachers' and less number of instruction days due to their involvement in non academic work is also a huge persistent challenge.
- Multiple Schemes with divergent goals effecting the education and training of uniform quality for all.
- Low motivation and lack of training of voluntary teachers' adversely effecting adult education. This problem gets aggravated with under utilization of funds allocated to Adult Education in the 11th Five year plan period.
- Over emphasis on privatization in elementary and secondary education ( through outsourcing of DIET faculty, setting up of private polytechnics etc) as well as in higher and technical education as preferred route to financing and implementing schemes
Corrective measures and aspects which require immediate attention
- Deployment of effective strategies to ensure regular and quality education of migrant children. One of the strategy could be introduction of migratory family card to children to help them getting access to schools wherever they are in the state. Mobile schools for migratory laborers can also be considered as an option to ensure education without hindrance.
- Functional – well staffed and equipped DIETs in place in all the states with regular skill up-gradation and capacity building programmes running in these institutions.
- Orientation of education personnel, members of Block Resource Centers and Cluster Resource Centers on educational challenges and demands of persons with disability.
- Quality research in the field of higher education to get it connected to market demands
- Investment in education of functionaries with enough opportunities of their interactions with different communities and spending time with them as a learner.
- Build a system of trust, appreciation and recognition of efforts and invest in institutional building which are autonomous in character but fully supported by the government. This will help in building their capacities to innovate and experiment.
- Issue of quality need to remain in the focus as this is termed as root cause for drop out, non enrolment, and lack of interest in education amongst the larger community
- Fresh guidelines and strategies under SSA for optimal use of budget and reach to the right target audiences
- Focus on Muslim women need to be enhanced to ensure their better participation in the process of education and bridge the gender gap.
- Enhanced role of civil society and community in implementation of Mid day meal scheme to free up teachers' time for quality education.
- Mid day meal programme needs to be evaluated for its nutritional value and actual universal coverage as the experiences from states such as Gujarat reflect.
Recommendations
· Immediate notification of the Right to education act to plan for additional teachers; training of all teachers to support them to acquire common level of educational qualifications requirements and provision of schools to cater to all areas, communities and children.
· Effective provisions in place to ensure maintenance of infrastructure created under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan.
· Pre - School education to be made integral part of SSA. Anganwadi's to be attached to Primary school in the vicinity
· Strategisation for the education of those 30 crore people above the age group of 35 who either never enrolled or dropped out. Involvement of civil society groups , NGOs in accreditation of Jan Shikshan Sansthan can be experimented with to improve the functioning of these institutions
· Need assessment by planning commission to assess the requirements of urban deprived children in terms of their education and formulation of appropriate programme for them
· Freeing teachers of all other work burden for them to concentrate on teaching and learning activities.
· Forward planning to mobilize budgets for the remaining period of 11th five year plan to enroll required number of around 14 lakh new teachers and their trainings to fulfill the teacher norm under RTE act.
· Change in the vocabulary of the SSA document in terms of its complete re-designing to bring it in conformity with the RTE act is needed. Also, the shift in attitude of educational providers from seeing education as a 'welfare activity' to a 'legal obligation', is must. They also need to see children who are entitled to receive free education then seeing them as 'recipients of incentives'.
· Involvement of NGOs and local community in the process of accreditation of Jan Shikshan Sansthan to ensure their transparent functioning.
· Involvement of civil society functionaries in running proposed model schools rather then opting for existing Public-Private Partnership model. This would ensure sustained awareness generation as well as capacity building at the community level.
Finally, universalization of education is to be designed and operated as a people's movement with quality as a focus. Egalitarian mindset is required among people in the government for them to be able to design inclusive plans and budgets to address challenges in retention. Also, Structural changes are needed at each level of education to ensure a modicum of equity, quality and inclusiveness. One of the important lessons emerging out of the appraisal of 11th five year plan is to look at some other concerns of marginalized children as essentially an educational problem and efforts should be to offer holistic solutions rather than just offering quick administrative solutions.
Orissa
Child Migration and deprivation from Elementary Education, Orissa (from Rumani Pattanayak, Mahavir Yubak Sangh, Thakurmunda, Orissa.)
More than five lakhs children are deprived of elementary education in Orissa. Government of India is sanctioning huge funds for mainstreaming out of children in the School system. However, during 2007-2008 lots of funds remained un-utilized which were provided out of school children.
Rajasthan
Low standard of Education and absence of teachers , Rajasthan (from Naaz Khair, Independent Consultant, New Delhi)
In a village in Rajasthan, villagers raised the issue of absence of any kind of 'merit' found in the government schools and school children complained about the low standard of education which forced them to join private schools, but due to hefty fees they were forced to discontinue their education, hence preparing them to join unskilled labour work in Gujrat and Mumbai
Bihar
In Bihar where majority of BRCCs knows nothing about the quality education and also there is no arrangement for improving their knowledge about quality education. DIETs are non functional and without education professionals. In regard to education of urban deprived children, nothing has been done till middle of the plan period regarding Bihar
Gujarat
Failure of Mid Meal in Universal Coverage, Gujarat (from Suresh Rao, Catholic Relief Services, Ahmedabad.)
The Mid Day Meals Program in Gujarat failed to achieve universal coverage. For instance children in non-aided schools (run by privately run trusts or companies) do not receive mid day meals, even though some of the children in such schools are from socially marginalized communities or economically impoverished households. This situation arises out of the State Government's policy of restricting the supply of mid day meals to government schools.
The Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
Document; by Ministry of Human Resource Development; Department of School Education & Literacy ; Authority; New Delhi; 27 August 2009;
Available at
http://education.nic.in/Elementary/free%20and%20compulsory.pdf(PDF Size 1.48 MB)
The right to Education Act, 2009 to provide free and compulsory education to all children's of the age of six to fourteen years
Eleventh Five Year Plan 2007-12 (Social Sector, Volume-II)
Documen; by Planning Commission, Government of India; Oxford University Press; YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi; 2008;
Available at http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/11th/11_v2/11th_vol2.pdf PDF Size 2.79 MB)
Ever since the independence in India, developmental plans for a period of five years are being developed by the Planning Commission with the inputs received from the states
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, New Delhi
Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi-110001; Tel: 011-23383936; Fax: 011-23381355 ssa@nic.in; http://ssa.nic.in ;
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is Government of India's flagship programme for achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE)
In pursuance of the idea that all relevant instruments and agencies contributing to or responsible for growth process in development of citizen, MHRD was created to enure al round development.
315/274,Westend Marg M.B. Road, Saidulajab Near ITDC Delhi Haat New Delhi; Tel: 011-47342000; Fax: 011-47342099. contactus@teachersity.org; www.teachersity.org;
TeacherSITY is an empowerment movement for K12 teachers all over the country. An organised and structured approach towards Teacher Empowerment.
Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development
Room No.109, C-wing,Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi-110001; Tel: 011-3387648 ; Fax: 011-23382397.; http://www.nlm.nic.in/jss.htm;Contact Singh. Anant Kumar; Joint Secretary (Adult Education) and Director General (NLM) ; Tel: 011-23387648 ; Email ks_anant@yahoo.co.in
unique scheme crafted by Government of India that provide just not skill development, but link literacy with vocational skills and provide large doses of Life Enrichment Education (LEE) to the people
Not clear how I can respond to this extremely interesting question. My difficulty is that the functioning of the system and the distance of the planners, the executors from the scene of implementation and the implementers is so high that the conceptualization of the project and the scheme becomes restrictive and repressive. There is a need to free the system and for plans and their implementation to be decentralized.
The issue is more than merely of resources and where they are to be spent. It requires a revisioning of what it means to have an educational system that would offer education according to our constitutional provisions in the current circumstances. There may be changes that are needed in the different dimensions of the plan and its implementation for education.
- The first think is to look at education as a process and not as a project for a 5 year plan.
- Consolidate institutions and build capacities in them. This must include institutions outside the govt. that are autonomous in character but supported fully by the Govt. Many such models exist of such arrangements. They need to be supported and mechanism to identify academically and professionally sound institutions identified.
- Develop mechanism for quality audit, autonomy, institutional growth plan that is internally developed, self appraised with introspection and independence, adequate resources to perform functions, continuity, peer and academic sharing with open networking, transparency, institutional goal fixing etc. in institutions up to the school level.
- Invest in people in the system and trust them.
- System, its attitudes and the way it deals with institutions and individuals are based on mistrust and suspicion. They value compliance rather than initiative and creation.
- Education of the functionaries radically restricted. If needs to be carefully planned and academically organized with intensity. The functionaries can best learn through the experience of being with different communities, spending sufficient time with them. Not as visitors or inspectors.
- The functionaries at the top level required to be a part of the teaching-learning in a school as an ordinary teacher to understand the circumstance and the ethos. This experience needs to be repeated at least every 5 years.
- Building a system of appreciation rather than of rebuff and punishment.
- Investment in higher and elementary education is needed simultaneously.
I am trying to respond to the first question "Where do you think we stand two and half years down with our 11 FYP with particular focus on Education of SC/ST/Minorities and other deprived sections of the society" raised by the query posers, based on the work of my organization. The work of my organization is focused around migrant labor salt workers, charcoal workers and other seasonal migrants in the project villages of Rapar and Bhachau Talukas of Kachchh District, and Amirgarh Taluka of Banaskantha District. The overall aim is to contribute in the efforts of universalization of elementary education (UEE) for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years through strengthening of the Government school system in the project villages in terms of functioning and quality. We have also formed quality objectives for ourselves which include preparation of baseline information of every child of support school (SS) and seasonal hostel and to review monthly, quarterly and annually and prepare baseline information of every SS teachers and to review monthly, quarterly and annually. In our experience despite the fact that 11th five year plan is categorical on education of marginalized and deprived sections of the society no effective steps have been put in place to ensure that the child migration is stopped and the education of the children from migratory communities could be ensured. I am stating below some of the affects of migration on child education which we are presently struggling with.
Effect of migration on child education
The children of saltpan workers migrate with the family and so are at the saltpan for 6-8 months in a year. This deprives them of basic education facilities and hence is unable to cope with the formal school system when they are back in their villages. On the other hand young girls often take care of siblings. When the children reach an age of eleven or twelve they start supporting their parents by working. Child labor is usually unpaid labor.
Some of the key issues affecting child education in migratory families can be summarized as mentioned below:
- Lack of physical infrastructure on the site: As the saltpans are very spread out geographically it becomes very difficult to sustain the initiative for a child's education. Often NGOs from surrounding area start informal education for children but because of lack of physical infrastructure on the site, their efforts start fading away. With time the teacher finds it very difficult to organize children and create an environment, which is conducive to learning. Also as the population is migratory there is a lot of change in the children attending the class and often the teacher has to conduct different levels of teaching at the same time. This results into lesser attention to the child development individually.
- Lack of interest of the schools to take children of migratory families once they are back in the village: It is also observed that when children of the migrant population come back to their villages and parents want to enroll them to the schools, the response from the school authorities is not very encouraging. As it is schools in remote villages have shortage of staff and those who are present find it extremely difficult to make some efforts to bring these children to the level of other students.
- Absence of infrastructure facility, where parents can leave their children while they migrate.
- Difference in the learning and understanding of the children while joining back regular school, once their parents are back in the village.
- Based on the above, I see a lot of scope of improvement in the strategies which could enable the regular and quality education of children belonging to migratory families. Perhaps if the key issues mentioned by me in the last part of my response are taken care of in the remaining period of the implementation of 11th plan a much can be achieved. This would require infrastructural faculties for the children of migratory families, sensitization of educational officials, and lack of extra support by teachers once the children return to their native village with their families.
I strongly believe that education provided by the governmental institutions is one of the core areas which need to be restructured so as to fulfill the needs of the present society. At present it seems that we are not able to provide focused education to our students' especially the present university system is loosing its relevance gradually. A large number of programmes offered by the universities are loosing relevance because of the mismatch between the requirement of the industry and the university education. We have to strongly focus on the educational sector in the forms of quality research in the higher education system, which have direct linkages with the industry. At present except few institutions in the higher education system we are not able to satisfy the needs of the industry towards providing them consultancy by taking up the practical research problems. The need of the hour is to co-relate these things with the higher education system towards the enhancement in the quality in our educational system.
I was recently on a very extensive Education Local Service Delivery Study, a Joint UN initiative. The study covered two field States - Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
I am so full of the findings. Here I plan to share some of my experiences (the issues only).
The issue of teacher vacancies and how that impacted functioning of schools and learning of children was quite on the forefront of the study findings. Micro planning for teacher requirement based on PTR is disregarded (ideally it should be based on PTR/one teacher per class/subject teacher criteria).
The number of teacher positions finally sanctioned invariably falls short of the planned requirement. The rationale behind the SSA norm relating to teacher entitlement of 2 teachers for primary schools – classes I-V and 3 teachers for middle school – classes VI-VII irrespective of the strength of the school is not clear. And even this minimum teacher entitlement of schools is late in coming in many schools. As a result there are large numbers of single teacher schools.
The situation gets aggravated when schools get progressively upgraded from primary to middle to secondary schools but the nos. of teachers does not increase. There are e.g. of one teacher managing more than two hundred children even in a small State like Rajasthan (much less population compared to UP). Instances of schools without any teacher are also encountered in the field.
As and when policies are announced/ plans are approved for upgrading or starting a new school, the work that gets accomplished first is the construction of the new school building or the construction of additional classrooms. Teacher recruitment sometimes takes years before it materializes. Para teachers may have added up to the strength of teachers, however, they have limited functions, powers and training. A para teacher is temporary and cannot operate the VEC/SDMC account or issue transfer certificate to students etc.
Where you already have a situation of huge teacher vacancies, large scale teacher transfers just about every year severely disrupts the environment for smooth academic activity. Both transfers and promotions more often than not leave behind vacancies that are not likely to get filled up in the near future. Moreover because of teacher preference for roadside schools some schools have surplus teachers whereas many others face shortage of teachers or there are no teachers forthcoming. Drop in enrollment also leads to a situation of surplus teachers in some schools. Samanikaran/Samayojan (rationalization) processes seek to address the situation of surplus teachers. It also throws an opportunity for teachers to seek transfer to locations of their convenience. Given such a scenario how are we going to implement the RTE provision relating to teachers?
The children eventually suffer on account of all this. Large numbers of children across elementary schools in these States could not read or write. Children sitting in class VIII could also not do it. In a village in Rajasthan, villagers raised the issue of absence of any kind of 'merit' found in the government schools that their children went to hence one of the reasons why 'reservation' is justified.
In another village, some government elementary school passed out boys said their standard of education is very low. They joined a good private secondary school in the vicinity of their village to improve their overall educational level. The private school took hefty fees from them for a year and then asked them to leave. They were detained in class IX and not promoted to class X because the school's result would go down on account of them. Having tried all options these children are now preparing to proceed to Bombay and Gujarat to take up unskilled labor work.
In terms of education for very vulnerable social groups, in one instance the Headmaster said the SC children were not learning because their families migrate and take the children along, which disrupts their learning. The other instance was of ST families that did not migrate where their children went to school but were not learning. The teachers were indifferent to their learning. A neighboring school consisting of non-ST children showed better performance in terms of children's learning.
I have been reading the responses with respect to Mid term appraisal of the 11th plan and finding the inputs very good. I just happened to read response by Shri Kalyan Dangar which was quite thought provoking.
I wanted to relate my experience of the status of education in Sikkim where I have been working with his response.
Since I joined as a teacher here, I have been often hearing politicians , bureaucrats talking about so called "Quality education" but when asked what is the meaning of that they too are confused. And finally to bring, what they are doing in reality is that they always try putting the whole burden on teaching members of the school or institution. They even sometimes visit classes and try to explain teachers in front of their students as to what should be the teaching method. In this case, especially the bureaucrats have the tendency to do so.
It becomes, so embarrassing for the teacher because a person, who is not much qualified as a teacher in academics, tries to pose as a trainer and guide. It becomes more embarrassing when he or she does it in front of our own students.
The image of teachers' in such circumstances, get ruined in front of their students' and creates problems in the process of teaching and learning. Plan documents places teachers' on high pedestal and recognizes the need to empower them but same is not the case at ground level. Until and unless the teacher are given due respect and their status is improved the education of children will suffer. What is needed as corrective measure is to place focus as well as attention on raising the 'position' of teachers/ along with proper training, skill enhancement and capacities to deliver the content in the most appropriate , child friendly and using context specific methods.
Towards mid term performance of the 11th plan, I would like to share that no matter how much good intention we have to implement the plan. Unless it is visible it has no meaning. I would like to give following suggestions to the education planners for betterment:
- Education is a continuous process. It not only affects the present generation but the generations to come also. Therefore, we should avoid taking casual approaches which we are doing through SSA like classes by Siksha Mitras etc. It is good to involve the talented local youth in the process but do it properly so that they also have the ownership towards educating children. Don't spoil the very base of education (Primary Education) by adopting casual approach.
- It is always good to create new buildings, purchasing new teaching aids, furniture etc. but at the same time we also have to give equal importance in maintenance of infrastructure crated earlier and teaching aids, furniture and fixtures purchased earlier. All the stake holders be it teachers, students, Government officials, different local committees etc. shall be made responsible for it.
- Steps to be taken to always keep the confidence, moral and respect of the teachers high. Involve them less in non teaching works. Their regular trainings for capacity building and skill up-gradation are required but at the follow up action after the training in terms of monitoring is also important is also very important. It will help them in applying their learning in day to day teaching.
- Fill the vacant posts of the teachers
- Lets try to learn and replicate the workable and cost effective modern methods being implemented by the renowned public schools as far as possible so that we give the quality education through Government system also. The system needs to be prepared in advance through proper trainings, exposures etc.
These could be some of the corrective measures.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was designed with the following objectives
- All children to complete 5 years of schooling by 2007.
- All children to complete 8 years of schooling by 2010
- Universal retention by 2010.
- Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at Upper Primary stage by 2010.
- Focus on Elementary Education of satisfactory quality with focus on education for life.
In the present context more than five lakhs children are deprived of elementary education in Orissa. Government of India is sanctioning huge funds for mainstreaming out of children in the School system. However, during 2007-2008 lots of funds remained un-utilized which were provided out of school children. The same situation is persists this year. As per recent development, an advertisement was published in local newspaper during the month of July 2009 to bring-back the children into School system. NGOs were invited to submit proposals in District Project Office for the same. However, the State level Grant-in-Aid committee is not in a position to take decision to run RBC / NRBC during this financial year. Again the year marked funds will get lapsed .This is only because of our bureaucracy which affects the whole system. The bureaucracy is not accountable for the same .The Government of India should take strong action into this.
In addition, I would also like fellow members to suggest any successful models for out of School children in Orissa considering that there is a huge number of children unable to join the system as result of varied reasons.
I am happy that migrant labour is being recognised as a vulnerable community and receiving attention at several levels. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see the NCERT economics text for class 9 or 10 list migrant labour as a vulnerable section of society.
Children of migrant labour are therefore also a vulnerable section of society. Our current thought seems to be 'these children are denied education and therefore they need to be in school' or 'there need to be special schools for children of migrant labour' – both statements are very valid.
I am however uneasy about this strategy – the problem is that children of migrant labour are not able to attend school for a variety of reasons – they are on the move, there is no arrangement for them in their source villages to stay and continue their education, in many occupations like agriculture or brick making they contribute to the family income by working etc.
Our education planning is plagued by trying to provide administrative solutions in response to educational or sociological problems. We quickly come up with new ideas of access not spending time to analyse why past examples did not work. We have, for example – an 'Alternative School for 4 hours or 6 hours' for children who are either drop-outs or have never enrolled; schools for child labour (run by the labour department) a Shikshakarmi (Para teacher) schools where there was no school or the teacher refuses to show up; or a mobile school for street children. All seemingly provide access in a flexible way but I think this is only an illusion of flexibility. An analysis reveals that, pedagogically, all are unsatisfactory. In terms of attitudes to the child, textbooks, methodology of teaching and content, all are very similar – they lack the basic quality necessary for a school to function. 'Flexibility' is unfortunately utilized in diluting the notion of school and teachers. This is reflected in almost all facets of the school, school infrastructure, and time spent in school by the children, teacher education, teachers' salary and TLM. And of course learning levels and importance given by the parents and the children to the school
It is sad but each new 'option' touches a new low in the provision of education. Also it is the poor who go to the poorer (here by poorer I mean in terms of lack of quality) schools in these respects.
The principle of flexibility, to reach the un-reached, then becomes an instrument of discrimination when interpreted in economic and administrative terms. Flexibility can reach the un-reached with quality education only if it is interpreted in terms of pedagogy and curriculum.
This is the reason for my unease - that all our solutions are around access and we seem to want to provide an administrative solution for what is essentially an educational problem. In the context of education for children of migrant labour, it is therefore difficult for me to believe that opening a school will be a solution to the problem.
Migration is a reality and it will happen. Children will move with the parents. And the good part is that schools are now more or less available almost everywhere. Except in the case of interstate migration it is the same school system operating in all parts of the state which means that it is possible for the child to become part of the school and for the school to be able to provide space for the child. We need to focus on the real problem, assuming that we are able to convince the existing schools to accept migrant children and the parents are convinced about the need to school their children, we will now have to have a strategy that will help the teacher address the educational needs of these children?
The introduction of a "migratory family card" in our school system can in a way help in children getting access to schools wherever they are in the state.
I feel we need to work simultaneously on the two issues – providing access to children of migrant labour in a school away from their home, and helping teachers to address this issue in their classrooms. The only permanent solution is that the teacher be trained to assess the current educational level of the child and then work accordingly. When the child leaves her home school, the teacher could give a report about the academic level of the child so that when the child goes to another school in the destination areas that her parents moved, the teacher there can pick up classes/teaching for her from the point that she has left. The same process gets repeated on the return. This strategy implies putting in a lot more input in ensuring that the teacher is trained to work with vertical groups or multilevel children and is also sensitive to the reality of migration.
The situation for interstate migration where language changes are more complex and will require more coordination between the education departments of the two states concerned. But the approach will have to be similar.
I firmly believe that until we build the capacities of teachers to address the individual learning needs of each child we will be doing 'something' – whatever that may be, it will definitely not be education. Opening special schools for migrant children, appointing a mobile teacher, in my opinion, would be a short-sighted response as the real work of training teachers to work with each child. Unfortunately, this is seen as 'too difficult or too impractical'.
I think it is about time we addressed the issue of education itself squarely including all vulnerable groups be they girls, dalit children, children of migrant labour or other disadvantaged communities – otherwise, we will have several schooling options but they will all be options to schooling.
On this very important and interesting issue I have the following suggestions/comments based on my experience:
PRIMARY EDUCATION
- While the SSA has had a very positive impact, the target of enrolling all children in schools is yet to be met. The scheme should be strengthened to achieve this target during the 11th plan as also to provide for the children being added to the age group of 6to 14 each year. The issue of quality of education should now become the focus of the programme as numerous studies have shown that while no. of children enrolled has gone up, the dropout rate is high mainly due to poor quality of elementary education. Funding should now be linked to quality improvement.
- Maintenance of infrastructure created under SSA should be given high priority to reap long term benefits from the investment already made in infrastructure creation.
- Concept of mobile schools be adopted for children of migrant labor and other hard to reach groups who form large portion of children still to be enrolled.
- Pre school education of 2 years should become an integral part of SSA. Each anganwadi should be linked to a primary school nearby for providing the pre school education in puts
- The benefits of mid day meal should be evaluated through studies regarding the improvement in the health parameters of the primary school children covered by the programme. Some studies have shown that the nutrition provided has not had any impact.
- Study of English as a language should be made compulsory from class I. This differentiates the state schools from public schools and the have- not's from the haves. States which have ignored the study of English are lagging behind such as Bihar and UP as children from these states are unable to compete for higher jobs. English is the international language of communication, as has been realized by China and Japan.
LITERACY
At the beginning of 11th plan there were over 30 crore people above the age of 35 who were illiterate. They will remain in the workforce for another 3 decades. Special focus on this group is required so that they can aspire for higher paid jobs from being manual laborers. Bihari labor in Mumbai is from this group. China and Japan have realized the importance of English and are encouraging their students to learn the language.
Food for thought for all
The idea of People's Mid- Term Appraisal is very justified as it's good to be evaluated by the ones for whom you are working for and lets evaluate how much we are focused and accountable.
The Education sector here would be primarily my concern. The five year plans work on building policies and implementing them as per the budgets allotted but it's an irony that the responsible bodies naming SSA etc…….are unable to optimally use the budgets and reach the right target audience – instead the measures are taken to utilize the remains of those huge lakhs before the yearly appraisals of the state .
Education in India is transforming and here if the partnership of the Government bodies with NGO's and Multinational companies can produce some effective results it would be creating a huge difference as in countries like Malaysia and Singapore. The hard core rules and laws which holds our government bodies to take free steps for a supportive infrastructure know how from thse MNC's and NGO's is very a big bottleneck .
The SHISKHA- IT literacy programme for teachers by Microsoft and Pedagogy approach model by INTEL and many more can revolutinalize the one sector of our Education community followed by many more programmes which can directly interact with students is the need of an hour.
Why we think a child is more comfortable in learning from his own teacher – Why don't we make World its best teacher and let them learn from every experience -
The model for education we dream for our next generation needs the open-mindedness, corruption less bureaucracy and flexibility to adapt all models of growth which can make the Education freely available to every child of India in every possible way.
Report by Naaz Khair makes me very sad. One, because as stated by her, things are really bad. Second, I fear that the conditions will remain bad, may even become worse, because no body in the Education Department will take notice of her report, and do something to improve the situation. The situation like this must have existed for several years; MTAs come and go, but nothing changes. The fact is that Education has a very low priority in politicians' scheme of things. I wonder if RTE will make things any different
A. K. Pandeya, Bihar Education Project, Bihar
The focus areas for 11th plan are quality elementary education, equity, community involvement and elementary education urban deprived children. The eleventh plan has passed its half of the period but nothing is seen progressing in any of the focused areas targeted in 11th plan especially in Bihar. In the name of quality curriculum and text books have been developed but such a slow pace that it is taking time to reach the children. The arrangement for transacting these materials designed on the name of quality improvement in classes is nowhere in action. We all are working for a long time to ensure better classroom transactions but still evasive. Teachers have so many works to do except teaching and improving the learning quality of the children. The teachers are such a lot who became easy prey for other works. The administrators, the district magistrates generally don't pay proper attention to make sure that the quality of education is improved. For them counting of animals, improvement of PDS shops, preparation of booths and revision of voter list are more important than the quality of improvement of children. Right to Education Act prevents the teachers to be employed in non teaching works but they have nothing to do with it. They are masters for whom education of downtrodden is of no importance. Teachers are trained for transacting the quality education but they have no time for it as they have to prepare and revise the voter lists. Government of India and Planning Commission must think about making such provisions in 11th plan so that teachers could be freed from other works and so could feel their responsibility for improving the quality education. GoI and Planning Commission must think about making either district magistrates responsible for quality improvement of the children in their respective districts with having their annual assessment on the basis of quality improvement in their respective districts or the work of education should be taken completely from them having no right to place any teacher for non teaching works. Perhaps the view of Education minister GoI of having Indian Education Service may help some extent to it.
Regarding quality improvement 11th plan focuses on training of teachers but no stress on the training and orientation of education department personnel's who are responsible for ensuring this in their respective areas. 11th plan focuses on the monitoring of the quality improvement programme by BRCs and CRCs and DIETs but what will happen in the state like Bihar where majority of BRCCs knows nothing about the quality education and also there is no arrangement for improving their knowledge about quality education. DIETs are non functional and without education professionals, the persons in education administration are posted as punishment in these institutions. Planning Commission and GoI must think about making the DIETs further functional in state like Bihar with further support if required. Above all the education administration and administration in SSA also not interested in quality improvement of schools as a whole but interested in working in some pockets so that they can eyewash the persons coming for reviews.
For quality improvement if GoI and Planning Commission really thinks then they should make special provisions for lagging behind states like Bihar and others. Equal attention and provision should be made on the orientation of the education personnel's involved in administration of state education. Until or unless these education personnel's have any vision about quality of their respective state and district how it will be possible for them to ensure quality improvement activities in their respective districts. Besides the education must be either taken away from the clutches of District magistrates or provisions should be made in their annual remarks regarding quality improvement in their districts. Right to Education acts provisions should be followed strictly regarding "no non teaching works for teachers".
One of the important thrust areas of 11th plan is elementary education of urban deprived children. No doubt this provision is a boon for the urban deprived children. But nothing has happened regarding the education of urban deprived children till middle of the plan period regarding Bihar. Whether Planning Commission has ever visualized the problems in urban areas regarding ensuring education to urban deprived. They are the most sufferers. Right to Education Act may be rays of hope for urban children but what will Planning Commission do when there is no scope of schooling facilities in urban areas. The small private educational institutions who are not fulfilling the norms and standards of school mentioned in the schedule of Act will either be closed or shifted to the areas where land are available for the school and then what will happen with the children of that areas for whom they are the only institutions to serve their needs. Planning Commission and GoI must think about it in its plan and it should not be left on the only state government. For ensuring elementary education to the children of urban areas, Planning Commission must have provision for need assessment programme and on that basis provisions should be made for urban areas. I also want to mention one important fact regarding urban areas; the children of urban areas who are deprived of functional schools have to depend upon the alternative activities of NIOS. But in Right to Education Act nothing has been mentioned about the open schooling.
P. J. Mathew Martin, Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped, Mumbai.
The 11th Plan needs to address the issues of children with disabilities in a better manner. There are schools and educational institutions in the country without resources and teachers specially trained to meet the educational demands of children with disability. Address the training to professionals in disability issues. Digital approach to training will provide some solutions. This will render better service to the children, the citizens of tomorrow.
I would like to put light in the area of drop-out percentage ratio. Education schemes in the five year plan ranging from Mid-Day Meals to Education to all have been doing pretty good this year. Though we still have a high drop-out percentage (drop out after class 10th) in the country. Some schemes need to be proposed in the field of:
- Voluntary education
- Awareness camps for higher education in villages with Govt., NGOs and other self help groups to come together.
- Open universities like IGNOU need to tie up with NGOs and Self Help Groups for reaching the needy masses - the poor.
This is a quick and limited response to the important query posed by Yamini Misra and Amitabh Behar in relation to the mid-term appraisal of the education sector of the 11th plan.
A snapshot of the education sector seems to suggest that:
- Out of nearly 20 crore (19.4 crore) children in the 'Rights' age group of 6-14 years, around 48% drop out before completing eight years compulsory education. Combined with the non-enrolled children, we have the staggering fact that half the children - around 10 crore - do not complete eight years of elementary education. A majority of these are poor, migrant, dalit, minority, adivasi, disabled and girl children - belonging to precisely those disadvantaged sections of society that are supposed to be benefited by education. The supposed increase in enrollments (e.g. DISE data) has not resulted in significantly higher retentions, suggesting wastage of resources in creating sub-optimal quality access. This situation is not 'old' - it exists in the midst of the 11th plan appraisal (discussed during the last Joint Review of SSA in August 2009).
- The number of children in class 10 is about 2 crores, and in class 12 around 1 crore - in Higher education around 80 lakhs (which is around 5% of the proportion of 'Rights' population, 6-14 years). The GER at higher education is about 12%. Such exclusion at each step of the education ladder is one of the worst in the World,
- Which is also evident from the fact that 62 years after independence, we still have 30 crore adult illiterates in the country - a glaring failure in universalizing elementary education in the country - a never enrolled or drop out becomes an adult illiterate.
The question is therefore much beyond the mid-appraisal of the 11th plan and valiant micro-efforts NGO's are involved in. To bring in a modicum of equity, quality and inclusiveness, planning, that too mid-term, without structural changes are unlikely to make much dent in this accumulated deficit. All planned schemes like Operation Blackboard, District Primary Education Program (DPEP), and SSA have not been able to correct this enormous deficit (some critics even suggest that these have exacerbated the problem because of their questionable assumptions and approaches).
So how does one answer the queries that have been posed, without becoming too despondent or too general?
- The Right to Education Bill has become an Act in the middle of the 11th Plan - so it has to be at the center of mid-term appraisal for financial planning for the rest of the 11th plan, in terms of the obligations it imposes on the government (the language of a scheme like SSA is no longer valid now - education is no longer a social welfare action of the government, it is a legal obligation. Children are not recipients of incentives any longer, they have constitutional entitlements that are 'free'). The mid-term appraisal has to take note of that. The delay in notifying the Act for implementation is evidently because of the intense behind-the-scene discussions about its financial implications.
The estimate for implementing the Act for a Plan period is around 1.71 lakh crores of additional funds. That is about 34,000 crores per year for the next five years, or around 68 crores for the next two years of the 11th plan period. The actual amount for the next three years (2 years of 11th plan and the first year of the 2nd plan) will actually be larger - the Act is front loaded in terms or teacher requirements and provision of schools as follows:
The requirement that each school must have the Pupil-Teacher-Ratio as per the Act within six months of notification implies that around 14 lakh new teachers will have to be recruited immediately. The time given for providing a neighborhood school to every child of the country (including migrants, disabled, disadvantaged children) of the quality prescribed by the Act is three years. The two together suggest that a large chunk of finances will have to be made available in the remaining part of the 11th plan - the mid term appraisal can not overlook this. As the Rules of the Act become public, it is conceivable that in order to fulfill the requirement that every elementary teacher have the same qualifications in the country, and using the principle of same pay for same work, the current provision of low paid para-teachers will have to be discontinued in favor of providing regular salary to each qualified teacher. With the cheap Education Guarantee Center/Alternative school and para-teacher out of the way, the 11th plan mid-term appraisal will have to use completely different financial norms to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the Act (the 1.71 lakh crore estimation is based on these changed norms).
· This will require a complete redesigning of the SSA for the remaining period of the 11th plan to bring it in conformity with the Act - something a designated committee is already working on.
· As for measures to correct the various anomalies indicated in the first part of the query, the Act, and hopefully the Rules under preparation, specify many of those - for disadvantaged children, migrants, sparse populations, girls etc.
· The task is that these financial commitments are undertaken by the Governments at the earliest to ensure that the Act gets implemented from the next financial year, April 1, 2010. The mid-term appraisal must ensure that.
· This has implications for the entire cascade of education - secondary, tertiary. vocational and so on. As, hopefully, many more children complete the elementary stage, the stress on the expansion of the secondary and tertiary stages will be that more - perhaps the impacts may be seen during the 12th plan period. But planning cannot wait till then - it will have to be initiated now. Hopefully, this will ensure a GER of 30 to 40 per cent in higher education in a decade or so - an indicator of a educationally advanced country.
· Finally, the Rs. 6000 crore allocations for Adult Literacy for the 11th plan remains more or less unutilized till now. The mid-term appraisal must inquire into it - we cannot have 30 crores illiterates with plan money designated but no implementation.
Couple of quick points:
The making of the plans, SSA, or Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan or whichever are by the government, of the government and for the government. The participation of the real people is merely peripheral and symbolic.
Universalization of education must be designed and operated as a peoples' movement, instead of the governmental program. While the name is abhiyan, it anything but that and I am sure a vast majority of concerned Indians would like to see wider participation in the design and operation of these programs.
I would recommend that government look beyond the NCERTs and other such bodies and involve the ground level practitioners in policy formulation and execution.
Teacher is central to any meaningful achievements, and that I feel has been the most neglected aspect of it all. Allocation of Rs. 100 per day for in service professional development for teachers is far too less for bringing about any improvement in classroom transaction. The DIETs, BRC or the CRC are mere formalities. Accountability goes completely missing. Statistically, everything as prescribed under the SSA is accomplished without anything really on the ground. There are several reports and studies that support this observation.
TeacherSITY, a not-for-profit teacher professional development institution had carried out an audit in one block of a district in the NCR region - well within 50 kms of Shastri Bhavan, where the HRD ministry in located and results were harrowing. There were computers locked in head teacher's almirah as the school was not electrified. Students and teachers left school soon after the mid day meal. a school with 63 students had 6 teachers while another with around 400 students had just 3 teachers. the 'sandarshika' the teacher guide for classroom teaching, though published and distributed by the state government' was found locked in some remote store room and none amongst the teachers or the head teachers knew anything about it.
The practice of recruiting para teachers also needs a review. The World Bank in a recent study has recommended alternative routes to teacher education. Since our numbers are much too large, we could well encourage and proactively promote innovation to build quality in teacher education - pre service or professional development.
The government must take note of enlarging role of private sector in providing education at all levels and in all segments. Even in remote villages, people prefer a fee charging private school with much less infrastructure to a government school. It manifests people mandate - they do not trust the government schools for being able to deliver quality education and hence, are willing to pay for even only marginally better quality.
Given the complexion of our political governments, I would recommend that a very strong PPP that focuses on key deliverables be put in place. Instead of depending on corporate's or large educational shops that sell computers to almost anything, we rope in local talent to run these schools along with Panchayati Raj institutions.
Along side, I would recommend that we open alternative routes to teacher preparation - young class XII school graduates could join modular courses of pre-service training that helps them secure jobs and schools get better qualified teachers. They can go on to upgrade their levels of training and could possibly become regular teachers over time.
I am happy to share with the community that TeacherSITY and its associates have recently become a community college of IGNOU and would soon be offering courses across the country in teacher education for class XII school graduates.
The Mid Day Meals Program in Gujarat has not achieved universal coverage. (I am sure this is true in many other states). For instance children in non-aided schools (run by privately run trusts or companies) do not receive mid day meals, even though some of the children in such schools are from socially marginalized communities or economically impoverished households. This situation arises out of the State Government's policy of restricting the supply of mid day meals to government schools.
If a child is enrolled in a private school, what crime has she committed?
This situation is another example of planned segregation. This is also a violation of children's fundamental right to equality before law.
We require an egalitarian mindset among people who run the government and we need Plans & Budgets which are inclusive and thereby ensure universalisation of mid day meals program, which might eventually address some of the challenges in retention levels.
And as we usher into 2010, it is time we stopped using the term Drop Out and rather use the term PUSH OUT. "Drop out" puts the onus (of choice) upon the child. On the contrary it is we - the parents, the education fraternity, the state and the civil society - who create situations which push the child out of the school.
Let us remind ourselves of the statement made by Prof Yashpal – the child leaves the school not because she is dull but because she is smart. She knows she is not getting anything out of the schooling.
I remain
I feel the best way to strengthen our education system is to empower our deprived girls especially in rural India. There are higher percentage of girls in the age group of 14-20 who have been deprived of education and other related issues. If empowered they can be better transformation agents. Following steps can be taken:
- Involve Industrial houses wand encouraged them to adopt Districts/ blocks etc. Income Tax benefits etc can be given to them.
- Girl child education centers should be opened in each village of selected areas which should focus on the following. Such centers can function at a suitable place provided by Gram Panchayat. Minimum facilities to be provided. Only 1-2 lady volunteers can look after the work 2-3 hrs per day. They can be paid small honorarium of about Rs. 500/-
- Education up to the standard of class 7th which should include subjects like health and hygiene, knowledge about kitchen garden and vocational training.
- A meal to supplement nutrition.
- Provision for basic medicines such as for deworming tabs, iron and vitamin supplement.
We are discussing about the progress of 11th five year plan regarding elementary education. We all know the pace of work in government sector not completed without hurdle. How can we ensure hurdle free implementation, is a big question. We took oath several years before; ultimately coming year is our last deadline to ensure universalization of elementary education as per SSA. But, where do we stand now?
I worked in Bihar very closely with the system since last 11years. Only one campaign SANKALP reached at the door of marginalized community and arose a new dawn in their lives but this campaign was also smashed .We know the most marginalized community in Bihar is Mushar and was being tried to ensure their participation in schooling an ambitious program called Uthan was launched. Government of Bihar constituted Mahadalit Ayog and almost every cast of SC come in this Jargon Mahadalit. I again very afraid about Mushar,Dom who will be pushed out again.
So many data is being compiled and tried to see the progress. DISE a common data collecting format of elementary education through NUEPA across the country. But the collection of data is not timely and so their no role in planning. This format also not represents cast wise detail. As I think it is an essential need to disaggregated data to know the real picture and their solution.
A large number of untrained teachers were appointed through Panchayat but still a huge gap in Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR), if we see it school wise. Number of instruction days is also going down due to involvement of teachers in non academic work.
So on what basis we evaluate the progress of 11th plan.
While there has been some advances made, towards ensuring the basic issues of access, retention and quality is met, some problems persist. The Plan seems to adopt a piecemeal approach as there are multiple schemes having multiple goals and the constant friction persists between the Centre and the States with regard to funding norms allowing scant progress in terms of outcomes.
The Eleventh Plan is increasingly stressing on privatization in elementary and secondary, higher and technical education sectors in education. Public private participation (PPP) is being seen as the preferred route to financing and implementing schemes. Another distressing trend observed is the encouragement given to private players ranging from setting up educational institutions and suggestions to outsource DIET faculty, establishing private polytechnics, etc. Further, acknowledgment of the need to levy (user charges) fees even in public (government-run) schools is also worth noting.
This, when seen in the light of the Plan proposing to be a Quality Plan, also proves to be contradictory as illustrated by specific instances; in the elementary sector, the Plan continues to seek the participation of teachers in implementing the MDM scheme thereby denying quality teaching to pupils. Under adult education, low motivation and lack of training of voluntary teachers is hardly seen as encouraging quality concerns. Increasing role of public private participation in secondary schools and continuing to have four types of public-funded schools, instead of having a common system of school, also do not promote uniform quality education.
With regard to addressing gender concerns, initiatives focusing on Muslim women need to be enhanced. There is also a fear that having multiple schemes with divergent goals (vocational training ranging from small scale entrepreneurial development to computer literacy, etc.) might dilute the primary objectives of ensuring education and training of uniform quality for all.
The role of civil society is critical to the success of making good the promises in the Plan document. Three specific areas emerge:
In the implementation of MDM scheme (under elementary sector), the role of local community can be enhanced and the scheme management can be decentralized to ensure that teaching does not suffer.
Under adult education, with regard to ensuring that the Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JSS) are functioning transparently, the accreditation process can involve NGOs and the local community.
At the secondary stage, the management of the proposed Model Schools must not be through the suggested PPP mode, the government must take up the responsibility of running these schools and not as another tier - but as was envisioned through the Common School System. Civil society functionaries could ensure this through sustained awareness generation and capacity building at the community level.
I am really very happy about that we are thinking about quality education and trying to achieve this for the innocent children of our country.
Regarding MTA of 11th plan I would like to bring your attention on some important points-
- 100 percent Enrollment.
- A perfect Teacher pupil ratio
- Teachers training on every subject with quality.
- Teachers appointment not only the basis of professional degree but also on the basis of experience in education, knowledge etc.
- Teaching methods and examination policies.
- Community engagement with a new role and responsibility.
Recently we conducted a survey on the status of primary education in a Gram Panchayat in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa and interacted with the various stakeholders. The major findings of the survey and interaction were as follows:
Mayurbhanj is a tribal-dominated district, inhabited by Kolha, Kudumi, Bathudi, Bhumija, Santhal, Kharia Mankadia, Gond and Mahali tribes. Kalamagadia Gram Panchayat is a tribal dominated Gram Panchayat, inhabited by Kohla,Bathudi, Bhumija, Santhal and Mahali tribes.
A brief profile of Kalamagadia Gram Panchayat (G.P) is given below:
- Total no. of households is 1310(SC-16, ST-1132, OBC-162)
- Total number of revenue vIllages:08 consisting of 26 hamlets.
- Total population of the G.P. is 7,907(male:3937,female:3970) out of these ST-6955(male-3470, female-3485), SC-95(male-46, female-49), others-857(male-421, female-436)
- Total no. of families coming under BPL-949(72.44% of the total no of households)
- Total no of landless families in the G.P.-68(5.19% of the total no. households)
- Total no of literate persons in the G.P: 1637, Literacy:20.70%(male:26.67%, female:14.78%), Literacy % of SC community:64.21%, ST:16.39%(female:10.90%), OBC:50.87%
- The total child population in the G.P. in the 5 to 14 age-group is 1416 (boys: 795, Girls: 621)
- 1030(boys:564, girls:466) children are enrolled in government schools located in and outside of Kalamagadia Gram Panchayat. 998 children enrolled in schools located in Kalamagadia Gram Panchayat. It was observed that more than 40% children officially enrolled in the Government schools have actually never attended school.
- Total no of out of school children in the 5-14 age-group is 386
- Total number of government primary school in the G.P. is 11.Out of these 5 U.P schools provide instruction up to 5th standard and 1 Upgraded Middle English(UGME) school and 1 Project Upper Primary School(PUPS) which provide instruction up to 7th standard. Recently, government has opened 4 new Upper Primary schools in place of Education Guarantee schemes(Part time schools). There is only one private high school in the entire G.P. The total number of teachers engaged in primary and PUPS in the G.P. is 22.
- Out of these 6 teachers are regular, 9 have been appointed under SSS and 7 are Gana Sikshak (para teachers).
- Out of 21 teachers in the G.P, 13 belong to tribal communities 5 are women and 4 belong to SC community.
From our field survey and observations we found out the following:
- Teachers' absenteeism is a major problem in the project area.
- Lack of required number of teachers in schools. In 4 schools only sikshsa sahayaks (teachers appointed under contractual basis with a remuneration of INR 3000.00) and Gana Sikshaka(Para-teacher) are managing schools. Gana Sikshaks have not undergone any training. Recently, government has opened a new primary school in Sukhuapatahill but teachers have not been appointed for the school yet.
- Villages are located in interior pockets. Inaccessibility is a factor as most of the teachers working in these schools are from areas outside Kaptipada block.
- Attitude of teachers towards tribal and dalit children is negative. They feel that tribal and dalit children are less intelligent. They look down upon them.
- There is a language gap between teachers and students.
- Curriculum and course materials are alien to tribal language and culture
- Coordination among the various line departments is conspicuous by its absence. Therefore, even if urinals and toilets exist in some schools, they lie unused due to lack of water facilities. It must, however, be mentioned that drinking water facilities are available in most of the schools.
- Lack of education and awareness among the community members. Most of the children are first- generation learners.
- One headmaster is in-charge of more than one school. The school located at the Gram Panchayat headquarters has no regular headmaster.
- Seasonal migration takes place in the area. Children also migrate along with their parents.
- Children are employed by landowners.
- Teachers do not know who the school committee members are. Most of the School Management Committees (SMCs) are dysfunctional. Nothing has been done to strengthen SMCs under SSA.
- School libraries exist in some schools but they lie unused.
- There is rampant corruption in the mid-day meal programme.
- As per government records almost all children are enrolled in existing government schools. But, in reality, around 27% children never attended any government school. These children do not know that their names are in the school attendance register.
Around 75 per cent of the population lives below poverty line. Tribals depend on agriculture and forest resources for their livelihood for 9 months. They migrate in search of wage labour for 3 months in a year. They collect sal leaves from the forest and make leaf plates. Their economy is heavily dependent on collection of sal leaves and sal seeds. In these circumstances, most of the children help their parents by working on the farm, collecting forest produce such as sal and kendu leaves, mahua flowers and other fruits and roots. Infrastructure such as roads, communication, health and education facilities is negligible and diseases like malaria are endemic. There is one PHC at the G.P head quarters. It was established in 1995. It has been dysfunctional from the very beginning since no doctors were posted here. Hospital buildings and staff quarters are there but there is no provision for supply of water to the hospital premises.
Teacher absenteeism is common and government schools are almost defunct, reducing most educational schemes and programmes designed by the government to a sham. Because of these reasons, the literacy rate is abysmally low, especially among the women.
This is the educational situation of one gram Panchayat in Mayurbhanj district. One can imagine the situation of KBK districts, which are even more underdeveloped than Mayurbhanj.
Dr Agarwal has made good suggestions. Industrial houses can adopt districts/blocks to educate deprived children, especially girls. I think income tax incentives already exist. But why not appeal to industrialists to use a small percentage of their own wealth to undertake such work? And if they do, the centers should be run by trained personnel, so that children attending these centers could derive maximum benefits.
Many thanks to all who contributed to this query!
If you have further information to share on this topic, please send it to Solution Exchange for the Education Community in India at se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in with the subject heading "Re: [se-ed] Query: Mid Term Appraisal of 11th Five-Year Plan Experiences; Advice . Additional Reply."
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