Systemic Reforms In Education

POSITION PAPER ON SYSTEMIC REFORMS

Executive Summary:

• On the advent of 86^th Amendment to the constitution of India to grant the Right to Education to all children of 6 to 14 years and the RTI Act, 2009 a fresh need / demand for systemic reforms has come in.

• There has been continuous dropout rate among the students, low levels of learning and shortage of teachers.

• Many of the government schools including private schools are ill-equipped in both men and material.

• Teacher’s absenteeism has been a menace for over decades.

• Due to the prevalence of ill-health, labour migration, malnutrition, faulty implementation of mid-day meal scheme, rigid rules and regulations of schools, rote-memory based exams, lack of facilities for mentally and physically challenged children in schools etc. have kept children away from schools.

• Allocation of budget to school education is meager.

• There are lack of sound measures for the empowerment of teachers like lack of training facilities, lack of teachers commitment, improper planning etc.

• There has been broad erosion of teaching professions.

• Teachers have been deployed for non-teaching jobs.

• Mixing of politics and education have given scope for politicization of teacher unions, court litigations etc.

• Non-reflection of modern teaching strategies in teacher education courses.

• Schools have been existing in isolation in the system. Neither the community nor the Panchayat Raj Institutes have been actively participating in school management though SMC / SEC are there.

• There is also overlap of functions among the PRIs.

• The Teacher Resource Centers (TRC/CRC) are not properly equipped and they are not functioning for what they are. CRCs are doing a postman job rather than academic job.

• Mandal Resource Centers also face the scarcity of funds and lack of Committed Resource Persons.

• DIETs at district level face financial crunch and are concentrating on Pre-Service education.

• There are lack of quality oriented teacher educators.

• SCERT is also facing the problem of Qualitative staff. Only the people with service are given promotions as merit is not taken into consideration.

• SCERT suffers from the problem of academic leadership.

• SCERT couldn’t provide dynamic academic leadership to the faculty of DIET/ IASE/CTE.

• There is lack of relationship with the institutes of academic excellence of national importance like NCERT, NCTE and NUEPA.

• Lack of allocation of budgetary funds lead to dependence of SCERT on the planned schemes.

• The teacher service lacks professionalisation. The professional bodies don’t work with a view to professionalize teachers.

How to go ahead?

1. 1. Measures should be taken to implement RTE in true letter and spirit to ensure every child to have access to schooling up to class X.

1. 1. The schools must be child-centered and pave way for the holistic development.  Schools must respect diversity and ensure equality of opportunity for all children.

i.      Providing enabling environment to learn.
ii.      Schools must be reformed to attract the students with all facilities.

1. 1. The school system should trust school teachers and assign them roles in preparing work plans.  They should be enabled to join the apex bodies like SCERT / SSA.

1. 1. Measures should be taken to democratize the schooling system.  Community should own the schools. Community participation should be ensured in the management of CRC, MRC and DIETs.

1. 1. Number of schools should be increased after due rationalization process.

i.      PTR should be maintained.
ii.      Multi grade teaching should be the focal issue in strengthening the schooling system.
iii.      The advent of ICT should be properly made used of.  Eg. GIS.
iv.      Examination system should be reformed in such a way that examination is part of teaching learning process.

1. 1. Decentralization should be the principal of School administration.  The school, DIETs / SCERT etc should be assigned respective duties.  Accountability can be fixed through proper means.  There should be autonomy to SCERT.  All institutions should have autonomy in decision making process.

1. 1. Implementation of the 73^rd and 74^th amendment in true letter and spirit.

1. 1. Measure should be taken to strengthen the community and local self governments to enable them to run the school.  They should be enabled to solve the problems on themselves.

1. 1. There can be number of institutions for the betterment of the system but they should not play similar roles. Role clarity among institutions should be there to avoid duplication of works.

1. 1. There should be perspective planning in the system. Simple and short projects can be planned with a long term goal.

1. 1. There should be proper reporting of the progress of work and it should be disseminated among all stake holders including parents and community.

1. 1. There is a need for continuous evaluation of the schemes and projects by all participative institutions and restructure the schemes accordingly on the basis of the feed back.

Hence, all out efforts should be put into reform the school system to enable it to be accessible to all children irrespective of cast, creed, sex, place etc., in true democratic sprit.