Education in India

Tamil Nadu Govt introduces Bill to Prohibit Private Players in Legal Education

A new bill - the Tamil Nadu Establishment of Private Law Colleges (Prohibition) Act, 2014 (full text) - was introduced in the Assembly by the Tamil Nadu Government on July 30th. The objects and reasons for the bill are described by the government as follows (the emphasis on the key words below is mine):

The Government have taken a policy decision to establish adequate number of Government Law Colleges in the State in a phased manner, to impart legal education at affordable cost. The past experience reveals that private trusts/societies are not able to provide legal education at affordable cost to the economically and socially weaker sections and also not able to continue to run the law colleges successfully. The Government have, therefore, decided to prohibit the establishment of law colleges by the private persons in the State by undertaking legislation.

This raises some questions:

• Is this bill arising out of ideological considerations (i.e. private provision is not good), or, is it arising in response to concerns felt/expressed by the public that they do not want private players to set up and run educational institutions? Or a very complex combination of both?
• Does the government have the right to control citizens' access to education by determining what is the 'adequate' amount of supply and restricting supply beyond that? What if citizens' perception of 'adequate' is far higher than the government's?
• Can the government insist that education must be provided to the public at a price not more than a certain price deemed by the government as 'affordable' to the public, irrespective of the costs incurred by the education provider?
• What kind of criteria should the government use to determine if an educational institution is being run 'successfully' or not? Shouldn't the government make public such criteria/standards, so that educational institutions know the standards that they are expected to live up to?
• Can the government 'prohibit' private parties from establishing educational institutions by law even if the private parties are willing to abide by all the rules and regulations imposed by the government on existing institutions, either government or private?
• Isn't the proposal for this Act by the Tamil Nadu government an admission of their inability to properly regulate private Law Colleges that are not run 'successfully'? Are they throwing out the baby with the bathwater because of their inability to separate the private Law colleges that are run well from those that aren't run well, and deal with each appropriately?

It seems inevitable that this bill will end up in Court.

Why do we have a learning crisis in our schools? What can be done?

Vimala Ramachandran of NUEPA gave an interesting talk* on why we have a learning crisis in our schools and what can be done. She also spoke on a range of topics including how Poland implemented education reform successfully (of which I knew nothing till now and want to find out  more), whether PPPs can help, the need for political support for education reform in India and on the mother tongue as the medium of instruction.

You can listen to the audio recording or download the audio.

 

or watch it on Youtube (courtesy D Murali).

Here is a summary of her talk (paraphrasing her words).

 What is the learning crisis in our schools?

• Children aren’t able to read and comprehend. They have very little understanding of basic math and science concepts too.
• Children memorise and reproduce but do not internalize or understand what they have learnt. They are not able to apply basic concepts to day to day tasks, whether at school or at home.
• The biggest tragedy of all – children do not develop fluency in any language, be it their mother tongue, medium of instruction or English
• Employers complain about skill shortages, poor quality of workers and low productivity due to poor schooling.
• There is something very seriously wrong in education. We have not done things right, not just in government schools, but in private schools too.

Why are children having a problem learning?

• Pupil teacher ratio can be as high as 1:60 when it shouldn't be more than 1:30
• Teaching time is an issue. Teachers may come to school, but not teach. Middle class parents deal with this by teaching their kids themselves at home. But what can parents from poor, semi-literate communities do? Whatever inequality they come with into the school system, the inequality only increases.
• Rote learning is an issue. Teachers are expected to finish the syllabus in a short time and so they force children to resort to rote learning.
• RTE's No Detention policy is being interpreted as No Assessment policy upto class VIII.
• Teachers are overloaded with inane administrative tasks. Even with something like CCE, they spend their time filling forms rather than teaching or evaluating children.
• Testing and Assessments only test the memory of the child. What gets tested is what gets learnt and how it gets tested determines how it is learnt. Teaching to the test is common.
• Assessment systems are becoming corrupt. When assessments are based on internal assessments, teachers inflate the marks for all children.

Importance of teachers.

• Teachers matter the most. A good teacher without a school building is better than buildings without a teacher.
• Teacher quality is not about qualifications, but the ability to connect with children
• States are reducing the percentage score to pass in the RTE mandated Teacher Eligibility Test to enable more teachers to pass. In Bihar, in 1990, Laloo Yadav as Chief Minister decided that 12th class Pass is not required to be a teacher. He reduced it to not just 10th class Pass, but 10th class Fail! So from 1990-1996, a whole bunch of primary school teachers in Bihar who had themselves not finished class 10 were recruited to teach! The political compulsion of a govt job seems to be more important than ensuring that a teacher who is hired is of a good quality.

Lessons from Poland

• Poland had many of the problems we have today, with their Soviet-era inefficient schooling system. But from 1999-2006, they initiated reforms and turned the system around. What did they do?
• They made sure teachers had much more autonomy and freedom in the school. The teachers and schools were told they had to bring children up to a particular level by Class 8. The syllabus was decided by the government in terms of what would be the minimum learning requirement. From Classes 1-8, the basic requirement in Sci/Math/Lang or reading was strictly followed. Children were tested at the end of class 8. Teachers had a lot of freedom and autonomy to do what they wanted and how they wanted to do it. Teachers instead of following orders from above actually had to innovate and figure out how best to teach their children. Each school was actually a practicing laboratory.
• They put in place qualification requirements for teachers and these qualifications were linked to a promotion path and the government provided continuing education opportunities.
• They gave generous retirement packages for many of those teachers who weren't competent enough.
• Poland had a dynamic education minister and a dynamic prime minister at that time. They felt that the single most important wealth that the country had was the people and they had to reform the education system. Only with political will, things get done.

What should be done to change things in India?

• Move from just inputs, infrastructure and paper qualifications to actual functioning of the school system.

• Change the way the education system is monitored. Look at what and how much children are learning, what and how teachers are teaching. Do they have the requisite facilities, knowledge and equipment to teach.

• Reform teacher education. NCTE opened up teacher training institutions in 2004 resulting in a 500% increase in the number of Teacher Training Colleges. Everyone knows that people at NCTE made a lot of money by giving away licences to one-room teacher training colleges. Odisha alone has escaped the curse of mushrooming teacher training colleges because the Chief Minister said he did not want any low quality teacher training colleges. In the name of reform, accreditation, and quality assurance, we have done exactly the opposite. We must shut down all the teacher training colleges of poor quality  and set up good quality teacher training colleges in parallel.

• Introduce centralised assessments. In India the education community is very allergic to centralised assessments. The aim of centralised assessments are not assessment of the children, it is to assess the quality of the school or the average levels of learning of children. Most countries around the world have used a combination of tremendous school autonomy, where teachers can do what they want, how they want and combine it with some kind of centralised testing which becomes a quality benchmark.

  I don’t know what that centralised quality test in India should be. The jury is still out on what we should do and how we should do it. But the fact remains that we have to start moving towards measuring outcomes.

• Decentralise in-service teacher training. 90% of teacher training programmes are extremely poor.

  At a summer training programme at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Education, IASE, in one of the better south Indian states, teachers were supposedly being trained on the National Curriculum Framework. They were taking turns to read out something from a paper. On enquiring, I was told each teacher was given four pages of the National Curriculum Framework to translate and read out. “It is an equitable distribution of honorarium,” the Principal told me!

  Budgets are better spent by giving it to the school so that the school decides what kind of training they want for the teachers and make the principal responsible for that. As long as we don’t value and trust the knowledge that is there at the grassroots level, we will not be able to make much change. We as a country are so suspicious of teachers and the lower bureaucracy that we don’t want to give them any independence.

• The only way to bring about change is by altering the rules and the behavior of the personnel who are in the system. With all due respect to teachers - I have worked with teachers for the past 25 years and deeply respect them - we have to have a system of humane as well as strict monitoring. The two have to go together. We need a mechanism to test what children are learning, how much they are learning and whether the learning is taking place across all children or not.

Vimala Ramachandran also responded to questions from the audience with her views on a range of topics.

On the need for political support for reform

• Without political support it is impossible to bring about complete systemic reform of the education system. Civil servants have power only upto a point. Many civil servants have tried, but ultimately many of these things are larger political decisions.

• The corporate and media communities in India must raise public opinion on the need for reform. My experience, and that of many who used to play an activist role in writing in the media about the problems about education, now find the media door shut. The media is full of sensationalism now. Both the corporate sector and the business community are most affected by the poor quality of people. These communities must do much more to raise awareness.

  We have reached a crisis point. In many parts of the country if you want to set up a factory, it is difficult to find skilled people. You have to import them from other parts of the country. Even when you import them, the quality is poor and they need to be trained.

  Neither the media nor the larger business community seem to doing anything. People like me going and talking to the education minister will really not help. It is only when there is a crescendo which comes from the media and the business community, will they start listening. At the moment the vested interest in not fixing it is very high. Rent seeking is very widespread in the education sector.

On the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)

• PPP as a model could be good. But I am yet to come across good PPP models which work over a period of time. PPPs over 1-2 years don’t work. In education, you have to stay for at least 10-15 years to see the results. Both sides have to stay committed. Corporate bodies change their priorities and Governments also renege on their commitments. There have been 2-3 big PPP models in North India where corporate houses have adopted 1000 govt schools and tried to work with them. But none of them want to stay for more than 4-5 years. 

On restoring professionalism to the teaching profession

• In many ways India and the U.S. are alike in many ways. In both countries the teaching profession has been badly demoralized. The professionalism of the teaching profession has to be restored. Govt teachers aren’t paid poorly. They are much higher than private teachers’ salaries. After the 6^th pay commission, a young new teacher in UP or Rajasthan takes home 25000 rupees in the first job. A retiring teacher is taking home close to 80,000 to 100,000 rupees. So it isn’t as if they are being paid poorly.

  We should create small professional circles of teachers so that the teachers’ professional identity is reinforced. We need to celebrate their professional identity. What happens when we give awards? We aren’t giving awards for the professional capability of the teacher. We are giving awards to those who are networked. We need to change the way we are treating our teachers. 

On the good things happening in education in India

• Although a lot of interesting initiatives are happening in different aspects of education in India, but when it comes to school education reform to overhaul the system, I don’t think we have done much in India so far. This is the main reason why there is a learning crisis. This crisis isn’t going to go away by doing small things. That is why I was talking about Poland. 

  Despite the system, there are thousands of teachers who are doing a spectacular job despite low pay, bad management etc.. They don’t look for recognition beyond what they get from their children. They are happiest when their children do well. That is the ultimate recognition for them.

On the perception that private schools are better than government schools

• Rama Baru had done a study. She says the benchmark of quality is always the government. Wherever the govt school quality is very bad, the private school is just one notch above. Govt institutions do set the standards. They can set both low standards and high standards. The average private schools that poor, lower middle class send their children are not significantly better than the govt schools. It is the dysfunctionality of the govt schools that actually drives people out. 

• I don’t think cream of the society is going to private schools. People who have money are going to private schools. People who don’t have money are going to govt schools. Amongst those going to govt schools, there will be lots of cream. The only thing is we aren’t teaching them well. We aren’t investing in them. If we can teach children sincerely and give them opportunities, I am quite sure a lot of cream will come out of the govt schools too. 

On the mother tongue being the medium of instruction

• Education in the mother tongue is the way to go. That is very important. But the reason why parents are pulling their children out of govt schools is due to the non-availability of English medium education in government schools. 

  You know what Jammu & Kashmir has done? By an Act of govt they have converted all govt schools to English medium schools and the teachers don’t have the capacity to teach in English. We do these kinds of silly things. "Ok, people, you want English medium? From tomorrow all schools will be English medium."

 

Aside: N. Murali (Co-Chairman of Kasturi & Sons Limited, owners of The Hindu) is part of the committee that organised this talk. Apparently he was one of the students of Kuruvila Jacob, the erstwhile headmaster of Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School in Chennai, in whose memory this talk was organised. While delivering the vote of thanks at the end of the talk, Murali thanked the media for being present and exhorted them to report the enlightening and provocative talk and raise the level of consciousness to drive home the crisis that's staring us in the face. 

Here're the reports by The Hindu, The New Indian Express, and The Times of India on this talk. You can decide for yourself if Murali's exhortation had any effect!

 

* This talk by Vimala Ramachandran was the fifth Kuruvila Jacob Memorial Oration organised under the auspices of the Kuruvila Jacob Initiative for Promoting Excellence in Science Education, Chennai.

Education in India Podcast with Parth Shah on School Choice in India

I discuss the idea of school choice and the prospects for it in India with Parth Shah, President of the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) in this episode of the Education in India podcast.

• Listen to the audio podcast (~ 1 hour), or
• Download the podcast (~14MB; MP3) and listen to it at your convenience. To download the podcast, right-click on the download link and select "Save Link/Target As".

You can read the full transcript of the interview.

In the podcast, we talk about a wide range of issues relating to school choice as outlined below. The time location of each broad topic within the audio podcast is mentioned below, for those who may want to jump to a specific point in the podcast.

• 00.03.00 - Explaining school choice to the layman. 

• 00:06:50 - What would a parent need to do to benefit from school choice?

• 00:09:55 - What are the policy changes that would be required to implement school choice?

• 00:12:30 - On the scarcity of schools and difficulty in finding land for new schools especially in urban areas.

• 00:14:43 On the incentives for setting up new schools

• 00:17.39 On the freedom for schools to pick or choose the students they want to admit, social stratification in schools and fostering social mixing

• 00:27:04 On how to help parents make informed choices when selecting schools for their children

• 00:33:39 On dealing with switching costs for changing schools and the long time it takes to get feedback on the value added by a school.

• 00:36:42 Different school choice models

• 00:42:15 - The Charter School Model and its Indian variant

• 00:43:50 How has School Choice worked in other countries?

• 00:47:56 The prospects of implementing school choice in India and the receptivity for the idea of school choice.

• 00:54:52 On the role of grassroots political demand for improving education in India
  

 

Parliamentary Roundup - Teacher shortage, NOC for CBSE schools, Data on GER & edu expenditure as % of GDP

A round up of recent answers by the Minstry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to questions raised in the Lok Sabha, relating to education.

 

Details on the shortage of school teachers in India (state-wise)

Out of 19.84 lakh sanctioned teacher posts under SSA, 14.8 lakh teachers have been recruited and another 5.04 lakh are yet to be recruited as on Sep, 30, 2013.  Bihar (1.75 lakh to be recruited) and U.P (1.24 lakh) are the farthest behind.

(Source: Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 188 Answered on 18.12.2013)

 

On use of NCERT vs private publishers' textbooks in CBSE schools

"The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has, since 2005-06, directed all its affiliated schools to refrain from recommending the books of private publishers in different subjects at the senior secondary level. The CBSE now prescribes only the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) published books for classes IX to XII."

(Source: Lok Sabha UnStarred Question No. 2101 Answered on 18.12.2013

 

On the requirement of an NOC from the State Government concerned for affiliation of a private school with CBSE NOC from the State Government concerned for affiliation of a private school with CBSE.

"The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) no longer requires an NOC from the State Government. CBSE has amended its Affiliation Bye-Laws which state that the school seeking provisional affiliation with the Board must have prior recognition of the State/UT Government. The applicant School has to also produce evidence to this effect that they had intimated the concerned Education Department of the State/UT about the application made to the CBSE for seeking affiliation with the Board. In case of receipt of any objection during the process of application of the school, the Board may ask the concerned school to produce the No Objection Certificate from the State/UT Government. Otherwise it would be assumed that concerned State/UT Government has no objection.

The newly amended provision ensures authentication of the facts and credentials of the private school as the applicant school is required to seek recognition from the State/UT Government prior to submitting its application for seeking affiliation from the Board. The Board also physically inspects the applicant school to assess its suitability before the grant of affiliation." 

(Source: Lok Sabha UnStarred Question No. 2140 Answered on 18.12.2013)

 

On the proposal to open Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode; the norms laid down for opening of KVs in the country; the number of KVs functioning in the country along with the students enrolled in these KVs, State/ UT-wise

"The Board of Governors of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) in its 91st meeting held on 19.01.2012 has taken a policy decision that the scheme of opening of new Kendriya Vidyalayas under the Public Private Parternership (PPP mode) is not in line with the mandate of the KVS." 

(Source: Lok Sabha UnStarred Question No. 2199 Answered on 18.12.2013)

"Presently 1091 KVs are functioning in the country." -  State/UT-wise details along with enrollment data and norms for opening new KVs.

(Source: Lok Sabha UnStarred Question No. 1115 Answered on 11.12.2013)

 

Detailed data on the gross-enrolment rate* (GER) of children in primary, upper-primary, secondary and senior secondary levels in the country during 2008-09 to 2010-11, state-wise, year-wise and gender-wise.

For India as a whole, GER is

• 116.7 at the Primary level (Class I-V);
• 83.1 at the Upper Primary level (Class VI-VIII);
• 60.8 at the Secondary level (Class IX-X) and
• 36.1 at the Senior Secondary Level (Class XI-XII)

(Source: Lok Sabha UnStarred Question No. 2296 Answered on 18.12.2013)

 

On the overall government expenditure on Education (Centre + States) as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during last three years, comparison with the same figures for other countries and why the goal of spending at least 6% of GDP hasn't been achieved.

Overall government expenditure on Education (Centre + States) as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

• 3.95%  -  2009-10
• 4.20%  -  2010-11 (Revised Estimate)
• 4.17%  -  2011-12 (Budget Estimate)

"As per the figures published by the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) in its publication titled, “Global Education Digest 2012”, the share of education in Gross Domestic Product in some other countries were U.S.A.(5.4%), U.K.(5.6%), Japan (3.8%), Australia (5.1%), Russian Federation (4.1%), Egypt (3.8%), Azerbaijan (3.2%), Georgia (3.2%), Tajikistan (4.0%), Hong Kong SAR of China (3.6 %), Thailand (3.8%), Peru (2.7%), Jamaica (6.1%), Pakistan (2.4%), Bangladesh (2.2%), Ethiopia (4.7%), United Republic of Tanzania (6.2%) and Zambia (1.3%) during 2010.

During the XII Five Year Plan, the Ministry of Human Resource Development have been allocated a sum of Rs.4,53,728 crore (Rs.3,43,028 crore for the Department of School Education & Literacy and Rs.1,10,700 crore for the Department of Higher Education) as compared to actual expenditure in XI Five Year Plan which was Rs.1,77,566.86 crore (Rs.1,37,920.04 crore for the Department of School Education & Literacy and Rs.39,646.82 crore for Department of Higher Education). This increase in central plan outlay for education represents a very substantial effort on the part of the Central Government for raising public spending on education towards the national goal of spending 6% of GDP for education. Overall progress towards this goal, would however, also depend on the efforts made by the States and the private sector.

This increase in central plan outlay for education represents a very substantial effort on the part of the Central Government for raising public spending on education towards the national goal of spending 6% of GDP for education. Overall progress towards this goal, would however, also depend on the efforts made by the States and the private sector."

(Source: Lok Sabha UnStarred Question No. 1085 Answered on 11.12.2013)

National Education Finance Corporation - Why has the MHRD abandoned it?

This seemed like a very good idea. The HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal, proposed the idea for a National Education Finance Corporation in early 2010, and expanded on it in the Rajya Sabha by making a persuasive case for it.

Under the present policy framework if you want to set up an institution there is no Government agency that can finance you.  So, there is no access to finance to setting up a new educational institution.  So, he will have to go to the bank to actually get financing from the bank at the lending commercial rate.  Now, human resource development is not considered as an infrastructure development and the Supreme Court has said that this is charity, this is for public service.  So, an activity which is for public service has to borrow if he wants to set up an educational institution at commercial rates.  But, an activity which is in the infrastructure sector, namely physical infrastructure, you can borrow at softer rates because that is priority sector.  So, what the policy framework within which we are working is, that anybody who wants to set up an educational institution should have access to finance. That is the first purpose.  This has nothing to do with UGC.  Secondly, if you set up an educational institution, under the present guidelines you will get grants from the UGC or from the Government or under schemes of the Government only when you have achieved certain milestones.  Now, in the meantime if you want to enhance your infrastructure -- and nowadays, with research and development expanding exponentially -- you need new capital investment.  There is no way that you can get finance.  You have to cross many milestones.  So, when you want to set up an educational finance corporation, our objective is that anybody who wants to set up an educational institution should have free access to finance as a priority lending sector.  What happens is, when you call it charity, State Government control fees.  Once it is charity, State Government control fees and they cannot increase fees in their institutions.  Many of them do the kind of practices that they are doing and that is the root cause of the problem.  When they will have free access to finance and every child has free access to loan why will he need to sell the family silver to enter into an educational institution?  So, I think it is the need of the hour and I would require you to give me suggestions as to how we must move forward because unless we build that infrastructure and capital we will not be able to move forward.

Kapil Sibal's proposal was welcomed by a few other MPs during the discussion in the Rajya Sabha.

But the Planning Commission apparently raised some objections and the MHRD seems to have given up on the idea.

"Proposal for setting up of National Educational Finance Corporation (NEFC) was prepared and sent to Planning Commission for concurrence. Planning Commission has raised certain objections to the proposal. Therefore the proposal was not taken forward." Source: Lok Sabha UnStarred Question No. 4410 Answered on 21.12.2011

I wish the MP, Rajaogpal Lagadapati, who asked the question had raised a supplementary question about what the Planning Commission objected to and whether the MHRD is pursuing any alternatives, or has given up the idea for good.

A report in The Hindu (May 10, 2010) throws some light on the Planning Commission's thinking on the NEFC as well as the idea of providing loan guarantees:

The Planning Commission has suggested that the Human Resource Development Ministry examine the option of setting up a loan guarantee authority as a separate division within the purview of the proposed National Education Finance Corporation (NEFC).

The proposed NEFC aims at refinancing student education loans and institutional loans at concessional rates with longer repayment, which will help expansion and new investments in the higher education sector, particularly universities.

While putting the NEFC on a “fast track”, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia reportedly told the Ministry to also look into the possibility of creating an authority that would stand guarantee for education loans to students or institutions who borrow money for investment in the higher education sector, instead of only refinancing.

 Mr. Ahluwalia is said to have suggested to the Ministry that both the options of refinancing and standing guarantee could be brought under the purview of the NEFC. The proposed NEFC would have two divisions, one as a loan guarantee authority and the other to deal with infrastructure loans.

....

If the NEFC stands as a guarantor, it will have to pay only for defaulters, who would be few. The Ministry, open to the new suggestion, is working out mechanisms to cut down on defaulters before approving the loans.

The refinancing of loans for investment is also expected to curb capitation fees, since, at present, investment for infrastructure has to be borrowed at commercial rates where the interest is high and the repayment period short. To avoid this, institutions often borrow money from the market, and in order to repay it quickly, charge capitation fees from students. Once the loan is repaid, the capitation fee turns into profit. With the availability of soft loans, this is expected to come to an end.

The NEFC will refinance to the bank at a lower rate the sanctioned loan that it releases to the student or an institution. The bank makes its margin from the difference in interest rates, while the NEFC will use the educational cess released by the government, which is free of cost and also borrows from the market, so that the average cost of funds advanced as loans is lower than the rate at which it lends to banks. This differential rate will be the NEFC's margin or profit.

The Planning Commission doesn't seem to have objected to the idea of the NEFC per se - it has only provided constructive suggestions on how the NEFC could also look at providing student loan guarantees.  The report in The Hindu had indicated that the MHRD was open to the Planning Commission's idea and was working on incorporating it into the scope of the NEFC.

Why then is the MHRD claiming now that the Planning Commission objected to the idea of the NEFC and citing that as the reason for abandoning the idea of the NEFC altogether? An eminently sensible idea seems to have been buried quietly. The MHRD needs to explain its thinking instead of providing bland statements.

Conference Announcement: School Choice National Conference 2011

Catalysing Education for All: Intention, Innovation, and Implementation

2011 SCHOOL CHOICE NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Wednesday, 21 December 2011, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

The Centre for Civil Society and the School Choice Campaign invite you to the third annual School Choice National Conference which will bring together top-level academics, policy makers and education experts to discuss, debate and formulate innovative policy ideas to achieve quality education for all. The conference starts at 9am and closes with cocktails.

CONFERENCE AGENDA

• Implementation of RTE: One year after
• Public Private Partnership: Building sustainable models
• Secondary Education: Renewed objectives
• Disruptive innovation in education: Looking to technology

REGISTER NOW! at www.schoolchoice.in/scnc2011/

Registration fee:

• Rs 1,500 (US$ 30) per person
• Rs 750 (US$ 15) per person for NGO leaders, research scholars and school principals
• Free registration for students
• Registration closes on 12 Dec 2011.
• Registration fee of Rs 5,000 (US$ 100) per person is applicable after December 12th

This is the third annual conference. Check out the proceedings of the 2010 and the 2009 conferences. I attended the earlier conferences and I will be attending this year too. I had written up a post in 2009 on the 2009 conference based on my notes. The past conferences have been highly informative and insightful and based on the speaker list, this year's conference promises to be so too.

Anil Swarup, the Director General, (Labour Welfare) in the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India, who has been driving the RSBY project and Prof. Sugata Mitra of Hole-in-the-Wall fame are amongst the speakers.

I had earlier looked at the possibility of an RSBY model for school education.

 

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.

 

 

Do Government School Teachers in Tamil Nadu educate their own children in Government schools or Private Schools?

Detailed data obtained from the Tamil Nadu Government on this is interesting and revealing. Mr. T.K. Chandrasekaran, a retired Government official in Tamil Nadu, filed a Right To Information (RTI) application with the Tamil Nadu Government in 2009 asking for the following information:

• Number of teachers teaching in Government or Government aided schools in Tamil Nadu
• Number of teachers teaching in Government or Government aided schools in Tamil Nadu who send their own children to Government schools
• Number of teachers teaching in Government or Government aided schools in Tamil Nadu who send their own children to Private schools

Mr. Chandrasekaran says he has received information from most of the districts over a two-year period. It has taken patient and persistent follow-up with every single District Education Officer (DEO). On occasion, he has had to go to the higher authorities including the State Information Commissioner, before the DEO acted on his request. The whole exercise, he says, cost him over Rs. 40,000. In one instance, the DEO of Kancheepuram district said he would provide the requested information only if a fee of Rs. 4,099 was paid to cover the costs of compiling and sending the information, which Mr. Chandrasekaran promptly did. He later filed a complaint against that DEO with the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission which ruled in Mr. Chandrasekaran's favour and ordered the DEO to refund the amount to him!

Many DEOs provided the data requested. Some went beyond their call of duty and not only provided the data requested, but also listed the names of the individual teachers and their children as well! A few of the districts are yet to furnished the information, despite repeated reminders. Very little data has been received so far from the Chennai Corporation which runs the Government schools in Chennai.

Although data has been received from many districts, it is unclear if the data provided

•  includes data on the schools and teachers in every single government school in those districts, or if some government schools have been left out;
• refers only to Government school teachers or if it also includes teachers in Government-aided schools in Tamil Nadu.

The single-handed effort by Mr. Chandrasekaran, as a public-spirited and concerned citizen, in unearthing this data is most commendable. He has compiled all the information he has received so far and graciously shared it (data compiled by him is available in a spreadsheet). I have also crunched through the data provided by him to come up with district-wise summary spreadsheets  for high school and higher secondary school teacher data and primary and middle school teacher data. Further details can be had from Mr. Chandrasekaran (who can be contacted via email at tkcsekar2009_AT_gmail_DOT_com). He has the hard copies of all the responses received from the districts and communication with the DEOs, if someone is interested in documenting all of it.

Based on the data provided by him, which spans both rural and urban Tamil Nadu, here're the findings:

Primary and Middle School Teachers in Tamil Nadu

Out of a reported total of 47,030 primary and middle school teachers in Government schools, 36,322 teachers (77%) were reported to have school going children of their own. Of these 36,322 teachers,

• 27% (9,757 teachers) sent their children to Government Schools and
• 73% (26,565 teachers) sent their children to Private Schools.

For perspective, there are 214,440 teachers in Primary and Middle Schools in Tamil Nadu including Government Schools, Government Aided Schools and Private Schools (Source: Tamil Nadu Govt. Policy Note on Demand No. 43 School Education, 2011-12 page 10).

High Schools and Higher Secondary School Teachers in Tamil Nadu

Out of a reported total of 50,782 high school and higher secondary school teachers in Government schools, 32,595 teachers (64%) were reported to have school going children of their own. Of these 32,595 teachers,

• 13% (4,281 teachers) sent their children to Government schools and
• 87% (28,314 teachers) sent their children to Private Schools.

For perspective, there are 130,000 teachers in secondary and higher secondary schools in Tamil Nadu including Government Schools, Government-Aided Schools and Self- Financed Schools (Source: Tamil Nadu Govt. Policy Note on Demand No. 43 School Education, 2011-12 page p29).

The data obtained by Mr. Chandrasekaran till date amounts to a sample of

• 17%  (36,322 / 214,440) of all (Govt and Private) Primary and Middle School teachers, and
• 29% (32,595 / 130,000) of all (Govt and Private) High School and Higher Secondary School teachers in Tamil Nadu.

The percentage sampled would be higher if taken as a percentage of Government and Government-aided school teachers alone and still higher if taken as a percentage of Government and Government-aided school teachers who have school going children of their own. This is a fairly large enough sample for the data to be taken very seriously.

The data clearly indicates that a substantial majority of teachers in Government Schools in Tamil Nadu don't trust the quality of education in the schools they themselves are teaching in. They are voting with their feet when it comes to educating their own children. If the teachers have lost faith in Government Schools, what about the bureaucrats, politicians and policy makers who are responsible for funding public education as well as making policy decision relating to education? It would be interesting to collect similar data for all our MPs, MLAs and Central and State Government officers across India to find out whether their children and/or grand children are studying in, or studied in, Government schools or Private Schools. If the it turns out to be predominantly Private Schools, as I suspect it will, the politicians and policy makers will have a lot of explaining to do.

We must systematically compile similar data for every other state in India to obtain a nation-wide picture of the preferences of Government and Government aided school teachers when it comes to educating their own children. It would be worthwhile to file similar RTI applications in every state in India to obtain data for those states.

The nation-wide District Information System for Education (DISE) could collect this data as part of the annual national school census conducted by them. Since the 2011-12 school census conducted by DISE is already underway, it may be too late to incorporate it this year. 

Data of this kind has tremendous value in helping us think about ways of improving our education system and making policy decisions about it. In the absence of data, inertia and dogma tend to overwhelm the debate on what can be done to improve education in India, resulting in choices and policy decisions which are not optimal, given our past history, current circumstances and national educational goals.

The data unearthed by Mr. Chandrasekaran is extremely important in the context of the debate on the role of the Government and the Private Sector in helping us achieve the national goal of providing a quality education for every single child in India by 2020.

Periscope 4: Online database of schools; Does the Govt. have the money?; IIHS; 5-year MBA

• Online database of all schools, with details of infrastructure, facilities, teachers and relevant information coming soon. The MHRD and the Haryana Government are both working on their respective versions.

• Karnataka Government urged to fund Kannada-medium private schools. But does the Government have the money?

Mr. [Balakrishna] Bhat, [President of Karnataka State Secondary Teachers' Association, and former MLA] said the Government had taken a decision in 2007 to provide grant-in-aid to Kannada-medium primary, secondary, higher secondary and pre-university colleges that were started by private managements between 1987 and 1995. After the 2007 decision, about 500 institutions received grant-in-aid. While the process of receiving applications and processing them was on, the government in 2009 stopped providing grant citing austerity measures on account of floods in north Karnataka, he said.

With this decision, teachers working in more than 1,000 institutions were deprived of their rightful due. He said the teachers had been working for more than two decades for a meagre salary and in some cases for no salary. [The Hindu]

• Rohini and Nandan Nilekani announce 50 crore funding for the Indian Institute of Human Settlements to fund the establishment of a School of Environment and Sustainability.[Business Standard]

One more example of philanthropy in higher education in India. Watch out for many more to follow - the peer pressure is piling up on those who have made a huge amount of money, but not done something in education yet.

• 5 year management program after class XII launched by IIM Indore. Good, bad or ugly?

Directors of existing IIMs seem to think it will reflect badly on the IIM brand, but IIM Indore seems to think it will strengthen the brand by reaching out to younger minds. [Economic Times] 

Comparison of school education policy, structures, curriculum, assessment and teacher training across multiple countries

The International Review of Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks Internet Archive (INCA) has constructed very useful, detailed tables (pdf - 1 MB) comparing the following parameters relating to school education (K-12) across multiple countries:

1. General characteristics (population, unemployment, % of GDP spent on education through both public and private sources)
2. Levels of control and administrative organisation (at the National level, Second level, Third level, Institutional level)
3. National education aims (comparison of 22 different aims across all countries)
4. Timeline of recent education reforms  - listing the years when reforms were implemented in each of these countries relating to
   • Length of compulsory education
   • Promotion of pre-school education
   • Primary curriculum
   • Secondary curriculum
   • Standardised national assessment and examinations
5. Compulsory education (Starting age, Minimum school leaving age and Duration in years)
6. Educational phases (age-groups for Pre-school, Primary/basic, Lower secondary, Upper secondary education)
7. School structures - indicates whether
   • there is a uniform system of schools catering for all students, or
   • if there are distinct school types for students of different educational aptitudes, or
   • if there are both types of schools
8. Access (whether access to educational phases, including higher education, is automatic or subject to performance in school leaving certificates or other evidence of performance)
9. Internal grouping (whether classes are generally defined by age or by ability in different subjects or a combination of both)
10. Progression with phases (whether students automatically move to the next class or whether this is subject to their achieving certain minimum standards)
11. Primary curriculum (range of subjects covered without reflecting the content, status {compulsory or elective} or length of time for which a subject is studied)
12. Lower secondary curriculum (range of subjects covered up to the age of 15/16 without reflecting the content, the compulsory or elective status of a subject or the length of time for which the subject is studied)
13. National standardised assessment system (ages at which standardised national assessment takes place)
14. National examination or certification framework to mark the end of an educational phase (ages at which national certification/public examinations take place and whether examinations/certification are compulsory or essential for admission to the next phase)
15. Control and supply of school  textbooks
    • who produces textbooks (state or commercial bodies)
    • whether the State (or devolved authority) prescribes content etc. of textbooks
    • whether the State (or devolved authority) draws up a list of authorised textbooks
    • who selects textbooks for use in class
    • whether textbooks are provided free by the State (or devolved authority), or whether parents are required to buy them.
16. Steps to becoming a primary school teacher
    • The consecutive model: a programme of professional education training is undertaken once an undergraduate degree has been obtained.
    • The concurrent model: teacher training is combined with a degree which results in the award of a Bachelor of Education degree or similar.
    • The combined model: a joint degree in education and a specific subject.
    • Length of training (for the consecutive route includes the time taken to obtain a first degree and covers the period of on-the-job)
    • Duration of the probationary period
    • Registration (whether necessary or not)
17. Steps to becoming a lower secondary school teacher
    • The consecutive model: a programme of professional education training is undertaken once an undergraduate degree has been obtained.
    • The concurrent model: teacher training is combined with a degree which results in the award of a Bachelor of Education degree or similar.
    • The combined model: a joint degree in education and a specific
    • Length of training (for the consecutive route includes the time taken to obtain a first degree and covers the period of on-the-job)
18. Special educational needs teacher training - whether
    • Specialist initial teacher training, or
    • Post qualification specialisation, or
    • Special needs education part of initial teacher training
19. Recruitment incentives to encourage individuals to train as teachers (like payment of course tuition fees by the Government for primary or secondary education, or all subjects or certain shortage subjects)
20. Organising bodies responsible for initial teacher training
    • National Ministry: The Ministry of Education in each country which determines and funds broad policies dealing with the ‘national interest’.
    • Federal Ministry: State Ministry of Education, responsible for education in the specific state/province.
    • Statutory body: Body independent from government which was established by legislation.
    • Non-departmental public body: Body set up, sometimes under statute, to carry out specific functions on behalf of government. However, although non-departmental public bodies are government funded, they are not government departments or part of government departments.
    • Local authority: Regional education headquarters; the local arm of the Ministry of Education.
21. Organisation of school year (includes when the school year starts, the number of terms and length of main holiday, length of the school year in days, and the body responsible for organising the school year)
22. Organisation of the school week and day (teaching time per week, duration of teaching periods, start and end times of the school day, weekly holidays, and the body responsible for organising the school day and week).

This compilation provides an excellent overview of how school education is structured and managed in various countries. It would be worthwhile to compile all this information in one place for India as well. Without data, it is difficult to formulate and debate education policy in a meaningful manner. Compiling this data for the Indian context will be useful while debating education policy issues in India.

The International Review of Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks Internet Archive (INCA) is a U.K-based outfit that

provides descriptions of government policy on education in Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA and Wales. It focuses on curriculum, assessment and initial teacher training frameworks for pre-school, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education in schools (3-19 age range).