Fwd: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Replicating Innovative Indian Experiences for Implementation of Right to Education. Reply by 03 February 2010.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Radhika Herzberger <radhika@rishivalley.org>
Date: Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 4:01 PM
Subject: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Replicating Innovative Indian Experiences
for Implementation of Right to Education. Reply by 03 February 2010.
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>

Moderator's Note: Dear Members, we are initiating discussion on
learning from the innovative initiatives in order to implement Right
to Education Act, the historical legal commitment by Government of
India to provide for free and compulsory education to all children of
the Country. As a community of practitioners interested in sharing,
linking and learning, we all are aware of the importance of knowledge
in helping us improve our interventions. India has a range of very
innovative – creative experiments with a huge potential to learn from
and replicate. This discussion would help us in sharing ways and
methods to hold hands of the government in shouldering the
responsibility to make available quality education to all children.
We are happy to announce that Dr. Radhika Herzberger, a well known
name amongst the people working in the field of education in India and
across the borders, has agreed to Guest Moderate this discussion. Dr.
Radhika Herzberger teaches history and presently serves as Director of
Rishi Valley Education Centre, a pioneering educational initiative in
the Country. As an educational thinker, philosopher and practitioner
she has in her credit a number of well acclaimed books written on
various aspects of education. Her out of the box thinking and
reflection on the challenges in education and the pragmatic approach
to shape those ideas in the form of action has been widely received,
studied and used by interventions all over.
We look forward to a stimulating discussion on the issue.
Shubhangi
________________________________
Dear Friends,
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
received the assent of the President of India in August 2009.  The
main provisions of the Act can be found at; web link
http://education.nic.in/Elementary/free%20and%20compulsory.pdf  (Size
1.48 MB)
The debates on the Right to Education, especially in Solution
Exchange, has been on
"Innovative approaches to universalizing basic education"
(http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/Download-document/824-Innovative-Approaches-to-Universalizing-Basic-Education.html
)
"Legislation for the Right to Education"
(http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/Download-document/571-Legislation-for-the-Right-to-Education.html)
"Advocacy Material on Children's Right to Free and Compulsory
Education" (http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/Download-document/1157-Advocacy-Material-on-Children-s-Right-to-Free-and-Compulsory-Education.html)
"Right to Education Bill"
(http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/education/cr-public/cr-se-ed-08050901-public.pdf
) and
"Role of Local Governance System in implementation of Right to
Education Act" (http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/education/cr/cr-se-ed-decn-31080901.pdf)
The Consolidated Replies with respect to each of the discussion list
some innovations in education, and discuss critical issues pertaining
to the Right to Education (RTE)
We at the Rishi Valley School believe that education is the one most
critical aspect of human development that impacts all social and
economic development in a country and across the world.  Now that the
right to education has been enacted, and the government is fully
committed to finding the solution to reaching large numbers, we feel
it is important to engage in a serious discourse on the quality of
education that we provide to children, especially at the primary
level.
We would therefore request inputs from the members of the education
community on the following key aspects of quality of education:
How can the government be supported to improve the motivation and
skills of existing teachers in government schools?
Moreover, are there effective ways of bringing into the pool of
teachers who are trained and motivated a large number of youths with
graduate degrees (sometimes even 'teacher qualifications'), who are
currently unemployed?
The Rishi Valley School's Rural Education Centre works with a
methodology, which has been replicated and scaled up in both rural and
urban locales within India, and has been nationally and
internationally acclaimed (URL). There are many such methodologies
worth replicating. Please share the teaching methodologies you have
used and found useful in enabling high quality learning  teaching and
monitoring systems, and which can be scaled up by government schools.
Our belief is that school education must continue to be the
responsibility of the state and the state must invest in improving its
own capacity to deliver.  We would invite comments from members on how
official resources are best directed in the implementation of the RTE
Act:
·   In government schools
·   Through NGOs and educational foundations
·   Through Public-Private Partnership (PPPS) with for-profit
educational organization
Such a discussion will help reputed educational organizations to
provide pro-active support to the government in implementation of
RTEA, and help direct official resources towards high quality
education, that is innovative and suited to local needs. Post
discussion, it is also proposed to bring together a group of reputed
educational institutions within the country to share the lessons from
these approaches, and brainstorm to scale these up in different parts
of the country as appropriate?  The new approaches can be incubated
with NGOs working in partnership with government schools, and
government resources can be allocated to these.
Regards
Radhika Herzberger and A. Kumaraswamy
Rishi Valley School
Madanapalle, Chittoor District
Andhra Pradesh
(www.rishivalley.org)

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