Monday, February 8, 2010

Fwd: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Replicating Innovative Indian Experiences forImplementation of Right to Education. Reply by 10 February 2010.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Radhika Herzberger <radhika@rishivalley.org>
Date: Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Replicating Innovative Indian Experiences forImplementation of Right to Education. Reply by 10 February 2010.
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>


Moderator's Note: Dear Members, We begin today with a response from our Guest Moderator, Ms. Radhika Herzberger, on replication of innovative practices for implementation of RTE Act. Her response comes as a follow-up to the response from one of our members.

We look forward to further contributions to enrich the ongoing discussion.

Shubhangi  

Dear All,

I am writing in response to Mr. Jitendra Shah, who recommends that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offer an alternative solution to the problems of Indian education: "Hence" he says, "the conclusion that we should now make ICT as the base for wiser communication".   Mr. Shah's use of the word 'wiser' is probably a typographical error; he probably meant to write 'wider'. 

I agree with Mr. Shah that ICT would certainly enable us to disseminate our achievements more widely.  However, my agreement is only partial. ICT offers as he points out, access to the world class curricula, the possibility of connecting academic disciplines and, most important of all, the potential of scaling up to meet the needs of large populations.  But how successfully the educational material is transmitted to students will depend on committed teachers, cognizant of the difficult futures students today are likely to face.   There are other problems associated with the use of ICT

  • ICT is expensive: The cost of connecting schools to an ICT network are exorbitant.  The erratic supply of electricity, especially in the countryside where more than 50% of the Indian population continues to reside, would have to be factored into the already high cost of education.
  • ICT increases the dangers of a centralized, top-down approach to education: In the hands of an ideologically committed government, educational policy can become prescriptive, where decisions are made by the state in disregard of the community and regional ethos.
  • The ICT driven model of education is abstract, i.e. removed from tangible reality: In the worst case scenario, bird watching (ornithology) and conserving bio-diversity can become indoor activities. Students may learn about them, but for the distance between knowledge and action needs to be bridged before conservation becomes reality transcends ICT capabilities. The effort required for conservation of natural habitats (what the eminent biologist E. O. Wilson calls 'biophilia') will not has to acquaint students  with nature, if their senses are not cultivated and alert to the destruction of eco-systems around them?  

Since I am not making an argument against ICT but rather an argument for using it effectively in order to upgrade existing government schools, I shall outline, what we in Rishi Valley see as  a feasible role for ICT.

The suggestion sketched below should be viewed in the context of the Right to Education Bill (RTE) and Public Private Partnership (PPP).
  • Set up video-conferencing centers in each and every district in the country;
  • Set up a master lab in the capital city of each state. If this can be done in more than one city per state, all the better; but we could start with just one such centre.  This lab must be equipped with broadcasting apparatus (video + audio), computer enabled smart board, etc.
  • Identify mentors in each state, in each and every subject, and for each level of schooling. Competent mentors need not be restricted to teachers but can be drawn from different professions.
  • Establish video contact on a regular basis between the mentor group and teachers assembled in the district centers, according to a prearranged schedule (perhaps once every four weeks);
  • Let each subject-grade level group meet once a month for a two hour interactive session, and let efforts be made in these sessions to answer doubts faced by teachers;
  • Let pre-recorded lessons taken by expert teachers (recorded earlier in the master lab) be shown on a periodic basis, to be watched by the teacher audience;

A more complete proposal for in-service training, written by Dr Shailesh Shirali, is available on www.rishivalley.org/features

I will wait to comment on other aspects of the query

Radhika Herzberger
Rishi Valley School
Andhra Pradesh

From: Radhika Herzberger [mailto:radhika@rishivalley.org]

Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 4:02 PM
To: 'Education Community'
Subject: [se-ed] DISCUSSION: Replicating Innovative Indian Experiences forImplementation of Right to Education. Reply by 03 February 2010.

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

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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