Education in India

Progress Report on the Implementation of the Right to Education Act

The Right To Education is now justiciable in India with the coming into effect of the Right To Education Action on April 1, 2010. If the State does not do all that it must do as per the Act, within the stipulated timeframe, any citizen can take the State to court. The justiciability of the RTE Act will be tested sooner than later after March 2013. It will be interesting to see when, where and on what grounds the first such cases are filed and how the State responds to the cases.

A clear picture of the current status of implementation of the Right To Education Act as well as the timeframe for implementation of the various provisions of the RTE Act is now available thanks to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha by the MP, H.K. Dua.

Rajya sabha Question No. 568, Answered on November 25th, 2011

568  SHRI H.K. DUA: Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:-

(a) the progress on the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act providing for universal education up to 14 years of age, State-wise;
(b) the States that have not notified the rules for implementation of the law;
(c) the steps Government is going to take in this connection so that these States fall in the line with the rest of the country; and
(d) how long will it take for complete implementation of the Act?

ANSWER:
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT  (DR. D. PURANDESWARI)

(a) The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has come into force with effect from April 1, 2010. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Framework of Implementation and norms for interventions have been revised to correspond with the provisions of the RTE Act. This includes interventions, inter alia for

1. opening new primary and upper primary schools as per the neighbourhood norms notified by State Governments in the RTE Rules,
2. support for residential schools for children in areas which are sparsely populated, or hilly or densely forested with difficult terrain, and for urban deprived homeless and street children in difficult circumstances,
3. special training for admission of out-of-school children in age appropriate classes,
4. additional teachers as per norms specified in the RTE Act,
5. two sets of uniforms for all girls, and children belonging to SC/ST/BPL families,
6. strengthening of academic support through block and cluster resource centres, schools, etc.

Since RTE Act came into force, 50,672 new schools, 4.98 lakh additional classrooms, 6.31 lakh teachers, etc have been sanctioned to States and UTs under SSA. The fund sharing pattern between the Central and State Governments has also been revised to a sharing ratio which is more favourable to States Governments.

(b) to (d) So far, 27 States have notified the State Rules under the RTE Act, including five Union Territories which have adopted the Central RTE Rules. These States are:

1. Andhra Pradesh
2. Arunachal Pradesh
3. Assam
4. Bihar
5. Chhattisgarh
6. Haryana
7. Himachal Pradesh
8. Jharkhand
9. Kerala
10. Orissa
11. Madhya Pradesh
12. Maharashtra
13. Manipur
14. Meghalaya
15. Mizoram
16. Nagaland
17. Punjab
18. Rajasthan
19. Sikkim
20. Tripura
21. Tamil Nadu
22. Uttar Pradesh
23. Daman and Diu
24. Chandigarh
25. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
26. Andaman and Nicobar Island, and
27. Lakshadweep.

The States of Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal, Goa, Delhi, Puducherry, Uttarakhand have not yet notified the RTE Rules, and these States have been reminded to expedite the notification of the State RTE Rules.

The RTE Act mandates the following timeframe for implementation of its provisions:

Activity	Timeframe
Establishment of neighbourhood schools	3 years (by 31st March, 2013)
Provision of school infrastructure All weather school buildings One-classroom-one-teacher Head Teacher-cum-Office room Library Toilets, drinking water Barrier free access Playground, fencing, boundary walls	3 years (by 31st March, 2013)
Provision of teachers as per prescribed Pupil Teacher Ratio	3 years (by 31st March, 2013)
Training of untrained teachers	5 years (by 31st March 2015)
Quality interventions and other provisions	With immediate effect

There are a whole host of issues that will crop up for the Government to address by March 31st, 2013.

• What will the State do if it has not been able to set up the necessary schools, and hire the necessary qualified teachers to provide an education to every single child in the country? In particular, in densely populated urban areas where there is very little land available for constructing new schools, how will the State construct new schools with playgrounds and buildings of the size specified in the RTE Act?
• What will the State do with all the private, unaided schools, that do not measure up to the standards set out in the RTE Act for buildings and playgrounds by March 2013? Will all such schools be de-recognised and forced to close down? How will the Government protect the interests of the parents who are currently sending their children to such private unaided schools?
• How will the State respond to those Government schools that are not able to measure up to the standards of the RTE Act by March 2013?

If things don't work out as envisaged, we will need a Plan B. We need to anticipate potential problems and begin thinking right now about possible ways of addressing them rather than starting to think about it 3 years from now when we may be mired in litigation, or stuck with lack of funding, structural issues in implementation and myriad other problems.

The Standing Committee on Human Resource Development, headed by Rajya Sabha MP, Oscar Fernandes, has invited suggestions on "Implementation of the Right To Education Act". Comments and suggestions may be emailed to [email protected] by December 5, 2011.

Note: For a good overview of how Parliamentary Standing Committees work in India and the role they play, listen to this talk by Chaksu Roy of PRS Legislative Research at the recently held Takshashila Shala in Chennai.

 

 

Teacher Eligibility Test for all school teachers in India

Qualifying in a Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) is now mandatory for all existing and aspiring primary and middle school teachers in the country, with the passing of the Right To Education Act. The National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has published the guidelines for conducting the TET, providing complete details about rationale for the test, eligibility to take the test, the structure and syllabus for the test, the type of questions that would be asked  and the marks required to qualify as a teacher.

To be eligible to take the CTET or any other TET conducted by the states, one has to have a degree in education (B.Ed or D. Ed) or be on the verge of completing a degree in the year of taking the test. Teachers will need to take the TET within a period of 5 years from the time the TET is first notified. This kind of a qualifying test can help improve the quality of teachers right from the recruitment stage.

The Central Government and many States have begun conducting the TET. The Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) was conducted by the CBSE for the first time in June 2011. The next CTET will be held on January 29, 2012. Here's how the CTET web site describes the Test.

It had been inter alia provided that one of the essential qualifications for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher in any of the schools referred to in clause (n) of section 2 of the Right To Education Act is that he/ she should pass the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) which will be conducted by the appropriate Government in accordance with the Guidelines framed by the NCTE.

The rationale for including the TET as a minimum qualification for a person to be eligible for appointment as a teacher is as under:

• It would bring national standards and benchmark of teacher quality in the recruitment process.
• It would induce teacher education institutions and students from these institutions to further improve their performance standards.
• It would send a positive signal to all stakeholders that the Government lays special emphasis on teacher quality.

The aggregate results of CTET 2011 are available thanks to a question raised in the Lok Sabha by the MP, Priya Sunil Dutt. Two papers were held as part of CTET 2011, one for those who wish to become a teacher in classes I to V and another for those who wish to become a teacher in classes VI to VIII. 

Aggregate results from the CTET conducted by CBSE in June 2011

	Paper-I (Classes I to V)			Paper-II (Classes VI to VIII)
Category	Appeared	Qualified	% Qualified	Appeared	Qualified	% Qualified
General	255,480	35,768	14%	254,612	29,931	12%
SC	100,837	3,601	4%	92,996	2,383	3%
ST	30,435	515	2%	21,812	389	2%
OBC	213,001	14,864	7%	199,069	10,468	5%
Total	599,753	54,748	9%	568,489	43,171	8%

According to the aggregate data provided by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D. Purandeswari, less than 10% of those who took the tests were able to qualify. There is no indication of how many of those who qualified were existing teachers.

Priya Sunil Dutt, in her question, had also asked whether, to protect the interests of SC & ST candidates, the Government proposes to prescribe lower marks/ qualifying standard in future and retrospectively to CTET 2011. The Minister, D. Purandeswari, responded saying,

The CBSE has issued certificates and statements of marks to candidates of all categories securing marks 60% and above. Appointing authorities can consider giving concessions to persons belonging to SC/ST/OBC/differently abled category in accordance with respective reservation policies.

It would be good if the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) and the respective State Councils of Teacher Education publish a list on their web sites of all teachers who have qualified in the TET conducted by them, just as the Medical Council of India, publishes a list of all qualified doctors. This would also help students wanting to do a B.Ed or D.Ed in selecting those teacher training colleges that do a good job in training teachers to qualify. The teacher training colleges could also be asked to publish on their web sites the percentage of their students who have qualified in the TETs.

The Tamil Nadu Government notified the Tamil Nadu Teacher Eligibility Test recently and put out a Government Order based on the NCTE guidelines. There are a few points that I am still unsure about after reading the Tamil Nadu Government Order.

• The G.O. says "The teachers working in unaided private schools are required to pass Teacher Eligibility Test within 5 years." I presume all teachers currently working in Government schools or Government-aided schools will also need to pass the test within 5 years, but am not sure about it. The G.O. states that teachers can be recruited henceforth only if they have qualified in the TET.
• The G.O. says "The Validity Period of the TET qualifying certificate for appointment will be decided by the appropriate Government subject to a maximum of seven years for all categories." Does this mean that every Teacher will have take the test again after seven years?
• Since the RTE Act only applies to children of 6-14 years of age, are high school and higher secondary school teachers exempt from taking the TET? If so, the NCTE could come up with guidelines for another similar TET for teachers teaching classes IX - XII.



Ashoka University at Sonepat and the Young India Fellowship

Ashoka University, a new, private, non-profit university, is coming up in Sonepat, in Haryana, about 100 km north of Delhi. It will have a greater focus on the humanities and the liberal arts.

Forget about chasing foreign universities to invest in setting up universities in India - there's plenty of money available within India to fund many many more such credible non-profit private universities. The HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal, ought to be aggressively courting Indian philanthropists and investors first more than foreign universities.

A recent story in Business World throws some light on Ashoka University.

To recreate their own experience of learning at US universities, a group of professionals have come together to set up a new university of liberal arts in India. Well known names in Delhi and Mumbai circles — Ashish Dhawan (ChrysCapital), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Naukri.com), Pramath Sinha (9.9 Mediaworx), NV “Tiger” Tyagarajan and Vineet Gupta (Jamboree), among others, are part of the International Foundation for Research and Education (IFRE).

To be located in the Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Kundli, Sonepat, across 25 acres, Ashoka University has sought “private university” status from the Haryana government and will be not-for-profit. A total of Rs 50 crore has been paid for the land, and the first phase is expected to cost about Rs 200 crore. The  seed capital has been put up by the trustees, apart from donations from individuals.

Dhawan, senior managing director, ChrysCapital — who recently announced he was stepping down — plans to get into school education in a big way. However, with Ashoka University, the “idea is to offer a greater focus on languages, humanities and social sciences and to offer breadth rather than just depth as in the British system. Instead of studying one subject in depth for 3-4 years, the idea is to study many subjects across disciplines,” says Dhawan. He says it will offer courses and areas of study on the lines of universities such as Yale, Princeton and Amherst.

Here's some more info about Ashoka university as described by IFRE.

The International Foundation for Research & Education (IFRE) is a not-for-profit (Section 25 Company) that has been established with the vision to set up the Ashoka University – India’s first world class university. Over the last two years the team has grown in strength and added numerous academic and non-academic members from across the world to build an incomparable team of accomplished and committed individuals driven by the common motivation to give back to the country.

IFRE is also engaging with various reputed universities and schools in USA and Europe to firm up the scope for collaboration in building Ashoka University. A formal collaboration with the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) is already in place.

Addendum: From their detailed YIF brochure,

Initial funding commitments are already in place and the balance is being raised through endowments and debt.

Perkins Eastman, a globally renowned architectural firm, has been commissioned to design and develop a campus of the future and master planning is now under way. Construction is due to start in December 2011 and the campus is scheduled to be operational in July 2013. The application for grant of University status is under evaluation by the Goverment of Harayana. The University will start with two schools - Arts and Natural Sciences - in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and other leading universities and schools of the world

IFRE, has also launched the Young India Fellowship (YIF), a fully-funded post-graduate fellowship programme. Those interested can apply now for The Young India Fellowship. The last date for submission of applications is December 15, 2011.

The Young India Fellowship (YIF) seeks to groom young women and men like you who will lead India through the 21st century. The YIF will bring together 50 emerging leaders from around India in a one-year residential post-graduate programme in our nation’s capital. We will launch you on your leadership journey by opening your mind to a rich and diverse set of subjects and perspectives, delivered by some of the finest teachers of our generation from around the world. In this cross-flow of ideas and inspired learning, we will encourage and mentor you to discover your own self, to understand your personal values, strengths and aspirations, and create a process for you to build a broad life-plan that will align who you are with what you do in life. It really doesn't matter who you are: whether you graduated in the arts, science, engineering or commerce, we are committed to helping you get to where you want to

Here's what they say about why they launched the Young India Fellowship.

India has a large number of gifted and deserving students who are unable to avail of a high-quality learning experience from reputed institutions in India or abroad due to financial or other constraints. YIF will reach out to such students.

Leading undergraduate programmes in India seem to focus too early on professional and specialized courses that tend to stifle the abilities of talented young minds to explore different perspectives and avenues. YIF is designed to rekindle the desire to learn and explore. The perceived value of a broad-based liberal arts education at the undergraduate level has declined over the years. This has compromised a well-rounded learning experience at the higher education level in India. YIF wants to bring liberal arts to the centre-stage of a more holistic learning experience.

New ideas and possibilities get created at the boundaries of various disciplines. YIF aims to showcase the power of a multi-disciplinary learning environment created by some of the best and most inspirational teachers from India and the world.

• Join 50 fellows from around India in the Founding Batch of Young India Fellows: study, work and learn with India’s best minds, carefully selected for their passion and leadership potential. Your batchmates will include engineers, scientists, accountants and lawyers, as well as those who have graduated with degrees in history, sociology, English literature, and the liberal arts.
• Take classes in a range of subject areas that cover anthropology to ethics, life sciences to climate change, and art appreciation to entrepreneurship. You will develop insights and a worldview on a broad set of core disciplines as well as on some of the most complex global challenges we face.
• Learn from some of the world’s most reputed faculty members drawn from the best universities and institutions around the world, and known for their outstanding teaching and research. The hand-picked YIF faculty will not only inspire you and help you learn how to learn, but also challenge you to be the best you can be.
• Get mentored by some of the best minds and role models with diverse backgrounds and experiences. From corporate leaders to social activists, from researchers to entrepreneurs, the YIF Council of Mentors will help you think through what you should do next in life and how.
• Be coached on life skills and develop your “whole person” through a portfolio of engaging leadership courses. You will take courses in writing and communication, learn numerical analysis, critical thinking and problem-solving, and train in business and entrepreneurship.
• Experience working in the real world through a year-long team-based consulting and research project created especially for the YIF. Whether for a major company or a start-up, for a university lab or an NGO, the Experiential Learning Module (ELM) will help you learn from doing.
• Receive a full scholarship of Rs 8 lakhs to cover the entire fee, boarding and lodging when you enter this prestigious fully-residential, full-time programme. And on completion, our experienced placement counselors will support and guide you in securing a career or higher-study opportunity in your area of choice.

The YIF is currently functioning out of Delhi now, but will shift to Ashoka University at Sonepat over time.

For the first three years the YIF is being co-located at the Sri Aurobindo Center for Arts & Communication (SACAC) campus, Sri Aurobindo Society in New Delhi.

From the 3rd year onwards the programme will be moved to the upcoming Ashoka University campus at the Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonepat, which is being planned as the hub for institutions of higher learning in the NCR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Incentives in school education in India

There were two talks on education, both focussing on incentives in school education, at the recently held Takshashila Shala in Chennai.

In the first talk, I spoke on what we can do differently to try and achieve the goal of providing a quality education for all children in India within the next ten years, something we haven't been able to do for the past 60 years.

I presented three ideas on what we could do differently. One of the ideas is a policy change for the Government to think about and the other two are something that we as civil society need to think about.

 

 

In the other very interesting talk, Gautam John of Akshara Foundation described the findings from recent research  on incentives in public primary education.