Education in India

Why did the Allahabad HC rule that all govt servants must send their kids to govt primary schools?

Here's the background to the case along with the relevant extracts from the judgement.

What was this case (Writ A No. 57476 of 2013) about?

The judgement delivered by Justice Sudhir Agarwal of Allahabad High Court on August 18, 2015 is on a series of petitions on the validity of the methods followed for recruitment of teachers in government schools in Uttar Pradesh. Most of this judgement pertains specifically to the various related petitions which have been clubbed together in this case. None of those petitions had asked for anything at all to do with compelling government servants and those getting perks/benefits/salaries from the State to educate their children in government-run schools. 

What then could have prompted Justice Sudhir Agarwal to come out with this directive to the U.P. Government?

While hearing this case, Justice Agarwal seems to have been really worked up about the U.P. Government's poor management of government primary schools resulting in unnecessary litigation. So after ruling on the petitions, the Judge goes on to give vent to his anger with the U.P. Government.

Here's the relevant extract from the judgement where the Judge, almost as an afterthought, states his directive to the U.P. Government and explains his thinking after having disposed of the petitions. (The emphasis below is mine and is not there in the judgement)

79. However, before parting, this Court finds something necessary to be said with respect to primary education in the State and shabby manner it is being dealt with by the Department and Officers responsible therefor which has resulted in multiple litigation also. It is a matter of common knowledge that basic education in State of U.P. is being administered through the Department of Basic Education, which is under the Secretary (Basic Education) and is under a separate ministry. Annual budget allocation for maintaining basic schools recognized by U.P. Board of Basic Education (hereinafter referred to as "Board") under the provisions of U.P. Basic Education Act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as "Act, 1972") is one of the highest budgetary allocations.

The total number of Primary Schools, i.e. Jr.P.S. and Sr.P.S. is around 1.4 lacs which are maintained by Board. The number of teaching staff and Head Masters, therefore, also come to be in lacs. Division Bench judgment in Shiv Kumar Pathak and others Vs. State of U.P. and others (supra) has noticed that about 2.70 lacs posts of Assistant Teachers in Primary Schools run by Board are lying vacant. That was in November' 2013.

The recruitment of thousands of posts at a time used to commence but got trapped in huge litigation due to unmindful, irregular and casual approach of the official(s) responsible for managing such recruitment, lack of accountability and credibility as well as sincerity. Unmindful and casual legislation by way of frequent amendment of Rules has worsened the situation.

80. Today, judicial cognizance can be taken of the fact that there are three categories of Primary Schools running in the State of U.P., imparting education to minor children of this State. One of such categories, which is catering to the need of almost 90 per cent of the population of minor children are run by Board and in the most shabby conditions.

81. There are a very few number of Primary Schools run by elite and highly privileged category of people which are branded public schools. Some English/Convent Schools are run by Christian minority wherein children of poor and lower-middle class have virtually negligible scope. This category of Schools basically cater to the need of highly rich people, high class Bureaucrats, Ministers, peoples' representatives, like, Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assemblies and high-middle class people. The wards of a limited class of elite society can get education therein. Most of the people cannot meet even financial standards of fees. Admission standards are very strict and mostly available due to high resources. These Schools have best kind of infrastructures, tutorial staff and all other facilities. These Schools can be termed as 'Elite Schools'.

82. In the second category comes, those Primary Schools which are run by normally some private bodies or individuals, catering to wards of lower middle class. Though infrastructure in these Schools is not so sophisticated and ultra modern as that of Elite Schools, still is much better and comparatively even tutorial staff is sufficiently good. They may be termed 'Semi-Elite Schools'.

83. However, in the third category comes almost all Primary Schools run and managed by Board under its administration. These can be termed as 'Common-men's Schools'. They are the Schools, who cater to the entire category of rural class, urban rural class and those who cannot afford expenses of other two categories. The number of students therein constitute almost 90 per cent population of minor children in the State. The real catch lies here.

84. The Constitution has now recognized primary education as a fundamental right for children from 6 to 14 years of age, i.e., virtually upto Class-VIII. In the name of discharge of this constitutional obligation, as already said, more than 1.25 lac and odd Jr.P.S. and Sr.P.S. are being run by Board of Basic Education, for which funds are provided by State. The education in these Schools is supposed to be free, but that is how every thing is free. Virtually a complete lack of infrastructure one can find in these Schools. After more than 65 years of independence, these Schools are still struggling to have basic amenities for children, coming thereat, like drinking water, space for natural calls etc. Even classrooms are in extremely shabby and bad conditions. At many places, classes are being run in open space. The structure, if any, is in dilapidated condition. Though huge money is being invested and spent every year in the name of welfare, of basic education to the wards of poor people but actually nothing has improved.

It is not difficult to understand, why conditions of these Schools has not improved. The reason is quite obvious and simple, though the State Government is not able to see. There is no real involvement of administration with these Schools. Any person who has some capacity and adequate finances, sends his child/children in Elite and Semi-Elite Primary School. They do not even think of sending their wards for primary education to Schools run and managed by Board. Whether it is the District Collector or Police Chief in the District or any other Government Servant, they ensure that their children should get primary education in Primary Schools having better infrastructure and other facilities which obviously belong to first and second categories of Primary Schools, as noted above and completely exclude third category Schools, i.e. Common-men's Schools. The public administration therefore has no actual indulgence to see functioning and requirements of these schools. These schools have become a mode of earning political mileage instead of real catering to its need.

85. The common men's schools cater the need of Primary Education to only those poor people, whom Hon'ble Mr. Justice Krishna Iyer once said, "tiny million Indians", who find it difficult to make arrangement for two times of meals what to talk of other things. Whatever is made available by system they have no choice but to avail it in conditions "as and where it is". The Government at the level of State and Central, both, are harping every time and almost very frequently on the need of improved Primary School, but their intention has not resulted in execution and reality at grass root level.

86. The hard real fact is that these institutions, run by Board of Basic Education, are victim of highest level of misappropriation, maladministration and widespread corruption. Standard of teaching is the biggest casualty. Nobody cares for making improvement in the standard of tutorial staff. A competition is going on for political reasons to make lacs of vacancies available in Primary Schools as a source to create committed voters by appointing persons, if not illiterate, but not really competent to teach children of Primary School. A competition is going on to somehow get such persons appointed as teachers in these schools whom they would not like at all to teach their own children. Initially, after making statutory rules under Act, 1972, in 1975, 1978 and 1981, the State tried to fill up the gap of teachers vacancies by appointing much lesser qualified persons i.e. Shiksha Mitra, Anganbari Karyakatri etc. A persistent effort is going on now to absorb these persons as Teachers in Primary Schools run by the Board, if necessary, even by frequent amendments in Rules, without caring but compromising with standard. Is State not answerable to the people at large that competent Teachers should be appointed in Primary Schools by those who are administering institutions so as to make such institutions at par with those where they like to have their wards taught. Since bureaucrats, politicians, rich people and others, all have their alternative channel by having their wards taught in Primary Schools falling in the category of Elite and Semi-Elite, nobody cares of the standard to be maintained in Primary Schools of the Board.

87. A competition is going on to bring standard of Common-men's Schools down, as much as possible. In my view, now the time has come where immediate attention need be drawn for improvement, not only of infrastructure in these institutions but first of all in respect of teaching staff. That is the basic purpose for which the entire system of Basic Education is, consuming huge public money from public exchequer. The time has come where State must make it compulsory to all those who gets salary, perks and other benefits from State exchequer to have their wards sent to Primary Schools maintained by Board which I have termed Common-men's Schools and not to Schools which, come in the category 1 and 2, i.e., Elite and Semi-Elite and are privately managed. In case, any one flouts this condition, a penal provision should also be made. It is only then the improvement of these institutions will be ensured by those who are responsible for its management in a proper way. It will also boost social equation. It will give an opportunity to children of common men to interact and mix-up with children of so-called high or semi high society, giving them a different kind of atmosphere, confidence and other opportunities. This would give a boost and bring revolution in changing Society from grass root level. The initial level mixing among all children will have a different consequences.

88. Moreover, when Officials/Government servants would be required to send their wards for primary education in institutions maintained by the Board, they would become serious enough to look into the requirements of concerned Primary Schools and would ensure that same are made available and Schools are run in good/best conditions and standard, else it may affect their own wards.

89. It is the lack of accountability and casual approach on the part of officials of Basic Education Department that mindless, negligent, casual amendments in Rules; defective Government Orders have been issued from time to time creating cause for multifarious litigations resulting not only in delay in appointment of Primary Teachers but also a very heavy pressure on this Court also. Had a little care been there on the part of responsible Officers in making legislation for making recruitment, huge litigation resulting in lacs of vacancies in Primary Schools maintained by Board would not have caused.

90. Therefore, the Chief Secretary, U.P. Government is directed to take appropriate action in the matter in consultation with other Officials, responsible in this regard, to ensure that the children/wards of Government servants, semi-Government servants, local bodies, representatives of people, judiciary and all such persons who receive any perk, benefit or salary etc. from State exchequer or public fund, send their child/children/wards who are in age of receiving primary education, to Primary Schools run by Board. He shall also ensure to make penal provisions for those who violate this condition; for example, if a child is sent to a Primary School not maintained by Board, the amount of fee etc. paid in such privately managed Primary School, an equal amount shall be deposited in the Government funds, every month, so long as such education in other kind of Primary School is continued. This amount collected can be utilised for betterment of schools of Board. Besides, such person, if in service, should also be made to suffer other benefits like increment, promotional avenues for certain period, as the case may be. This is only illustrative. The appropriate provisions can be made by Government so as to ensure that ward(s)/child/children of persons, as detailed above, are compelled necessarily to receive primary education in the Primary Schools run by Board.

Result:

94. With regard to directions contained in Para 90, effective steps shall be taken by Chief Secretary within six months so as to make the aforesaid directions effective from the next academic session of Primary Schools, and, a compliance report shall be submitted to this Court by way of affidavit immediately after expiry of period of six months.

Is this ruling a case of judicial overreach?

This is what retired Supreme Court Justice Markandeya Katju had to say on this judgement.

This is clearly a case of judicial overreach. Where is the law which requires government servants to send their children to government schools? It is in violation of the Supreme Court judgment in Divisional Manager, Aravali Golf Course vs. Chander Haas ( see online ) which says that Judges must not ordinarily encroach into the domain of the legislature or executive. Legislation is the task of the legislature. Here the Judge has legislated, and also sought to enforce his legislation.

This ruling will most certainly be challenged by the U.P. Government and overturned in the Supreme Court.

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)

Competition between different levels of government in education

With private school enrollments increasing over the years, government schools are in effect in competition with private schools for students. But there is another kind of competition in play in the education sector - the competition between the local governments, the state government and the central government.

T.R. Raghunandan's recent piece at Accountability Initiative helps put this kind of competition in context. Here is what Raghunandan wrote:

In a landmark book, named Competitive Governments, Albert Breton turned the concept of decentralization on its head.

The classical idea of decentralization is that different levels of government ought to be given clear and exclusive responsibilities. It is hypothesized that this will drive people to hold each level of government accountable for what they ought to do and consequently, service delivery will improve.

Breton, came up with an alternative hypothesis. He proposed that governments could be competitive in their relations with each other and in their relations with other institutions in society, such as private providers of services, in supplying consuming households with goods and services. He contended that such competition between government levels and private service providers would enable households to make efficient choices as they would individually make the links between the services that they pick from each provider, based upon the tax prices that they pay for these goods and services.

...

This is a really chastening thought for pro-decentralisers like me!

Let me illustrate whether the thoughts of Albert Breton and Jack Weldon are relevant in the real world. One does not need to go far to seek out examples. In India now, we have a significant number of people who have obtained the ‘Aadhaar’, which is a unique identification number. Earlier, identification was a local activity. If an individual moved from one place to another, she needed to cancel her ration card in one location and obtain a new ration card in another. This was terribly inconvenient and corruption prone. Now, the Aadhaar number is universally accepted all over India. Seen in the light of theory, the Aadhar number is thus a mechanism by which the central government has managed the ‘externality’ of identification. However, this leads to some interesting spinoffs. With a relatively more reliable identification process in its hand, it is possible for the central government to centralize the delivery of pro-poor services through a direct cash transfer. For instance, using the Aadhaar number, the centre could send pensions directly to all senior citizens, with little work for the State or the local government to do, because the externality of identification has been managed at the top through the UID.

So how would this apply in the education sector? Govt funded schools in India have been run by different levels of government including panchayats, zilla parishads, municipal corporations, state governments and the central government (Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas, Sainik Schools etc..). The state governments also have indirect control over all government-aided schools under private management. I don't know if anyone has studied how competition between these various levels of governments in running schools has been playing out, right from the pre-independence era.

One example is the Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs). In the early 1960s, the Central Government set up the KVs to address the problems faced by the children of transferable central government employees who have to move across the country. Transferring from one state board curriculum to another, at possibly different levels and, with a different set of languages would have been a nightmare for children of such employees. The KVs are present across all states and provide uniformity in the curriculum as well as continutity in the school year across all schools. They are entirely under the purview of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan, a central government body, and the state governments have no say in how they are funded or run.

Although admissions to KVs are restricted to children of Central Government employees, what if the central government could set up many more KVs or other such schools across the country (there are around 980 now) and also open up admissions to any child. I wonder if there are any restrictions on the Kendriya Vidyalayas or the Central Government from doing something like this. For instance, Tamil Nadu has not permitted the Central Government to run a Navodaya Vidyalaya in the state.

Currently, control of schools is pretty much concentrated with the state governments. They call the shots for all schools run by lower levels of government. The central government provides some funding to the states, but doesn't have a say in the administration of schools. If, and when, the state governments decide to actively devolve power and control of schools, including financial and administrative autonomy for running schools to the lower levels of governments, some interesting possibilities may emerge. These schools are likely to be more responsive to parents and children and more accountable for learning outcomes. The idea of devolution has been discussed for a long time now, but the political class, the bureaucracy and the teacher community seem to have little incentive to do so. It will probably happen only after sustained bottom-up political pressure is mobilised by the parents at the grassroots level.

Another type of competition between governments that is playing out is at the level of accrediting bodies, the school boards. An ongoing case in the Supreme Court (Special Leave Petition (Civil) 16 of 2013 - Asso. of Management of Pvt. Schools(CBSE) .Vs. State of Tamil Nad & Ors.) highlights this.

The Tamil Nadu Legislature passed the Tamil Nadu Private Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009 that allows the Government to determine and specify a ceiling for fees for each school. Private schools in Tamil Nadu affiliated to the CBSE and ICSE went to the Madras High Court arguing that by dint of their affilation to the CBSE/ICSE, they could not be regulated by the State Government. The CBSE's counsel also made the same point in the case arguing that the State Government will not be entitled to regulate the fees by enforcing a rigid fee structure on CBSE schools. But the Madras High Court ruled (Writ Petition 28305 of 2010) in favour of the Government of Tamil Nadu in September 2012.

The case is now in the Supreme Court and it's decision on this is due early next month.

3 things India should do to improve learning outcomes in schools by 2025

Shekhar Shah, the moderator of the panel 'Action Plan 2025: Rethinking Policy' at the recently held 2013 School Choice National Conference in Delhi asked the three panelists what they thought were the three most important things India should do to improve learning outcomes by 2025. Here's what each of them had to say.

Amit Kaushik (Ab Initio Consulting)

1. Define the national vision for education for the next 20 years. That is something that is seriously lacking at this point of time. The last National Policy in Education was introduced by the Govt in 1986 and subsequently amended in 1992. It's over 21 years now since then. For a nation that talks about its under-25 population and leveraging the demographic dividend, not having in place a vision for what the education system should be in the next 5, 10, 20 years is a serious gap.

2. Set up an Educational Regulatory Authority which regulates how both public and private schools function and has responsibility for policy and implementation.

   It would have to be at the state level, but you will need to have a national body as well. Just like you have the NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) and the SCPCRs in the states, you will need to have a similar model. The biggest concerns with encouraging private investment in schools is that it would become exploitative and parents and teachers would be exploited. A regulatory commision in place would take care of some of these aspects.

3. Encourage private investments for profit in the education space. There is no getting away from this. Sooner or later we will have to bite the bullet and the sooner we bite it the better for all of us.

 

Ramya Venkataraman (Leader of Education Practice at McKinsey & Company)

1. Launch a standard national student learning outcome assessment which is run by a third party, with low stakes for students, and meant for feedback for the students.

2. Launch a large number of different kinds of Public Private Partnerships including using govt infrastructure, including subsidising affordable private schools and making them viable, including supporting aided schools, including private expertise for the govt systems. Potentially at the Centre, have a couple of templates for these which allows states to get jump started on this. For e.g. the Mumbai Schools Public Private Partnership took 10 years to come to fruition. It could happen in a year if there is a template that people are comfortable with.

   To a question from the moderator on who should be doing this,

   Ramya responded saying, Firstly, it's not so much about a lot of experimentation. There are 3-4 models that are more or less now emerging. It is about going deeper on these models and probably some experimentation within that, in terms of with fees vs without fees, teacher salaries at par with Govt and not at par etc..

   Ramya said she would answer the how more than the who. The standard national assessment would be an important way to measure many of these experiements to see which direction these are headed in. Who should do it - my sense to be very practical is that it will end up being the education department of every state more than a central entity. The central entity can do the collection of the research, but the education departments of the states will implement it.

3. Encourage ongoing inservice teacher development through certain initiatives like need for ongoing professional certification with a range of alternative options around that.

 

Prof. Karthik Muralidharan (University of California at San Diego)

1. You can't ignore the govt system. That is still 60-70% of particularly primary enrollment. As Lant Pritchett famously said, most of these things are not stuck at the policy level. It is all about implementation. To me, in the public system it is Governance, Governance, Governance. It is not rocket science.

   There was a nationally representative panel study of teacher absence in 2003 and 2010. The only thing that matters in reducing teacher absence is not fancy buildings or increase in salaries etc.., but just good old monitoring. For e.g., did a superior officer visit your school in the past three months? The average DEO tenure in India is less than one year. 20% of DEO positions are vacant. When you have that kind of governance vacuum it doesn't matter what you are doing.

   As Lant Pritchett famously said, our neighbour may be a failing state, but we are a flailing state, where there is no connection between the head and the roots. The head can make the most beautifully crafted policy sitting in the Planning Commission. There's no connection between that and what's actually happening. So in the public system, its Governance, Governance, Governance.

2. On the private side, you will really need a larger framework for leveraging non-state actors for improving a whole range of things. Lant Pritchett in his paper using first principles of fiscal federalism, clearly delineates what types of functions should sit at what levels of government and which are the things and functions that might best be done by private entities.

3. We desperately need more research. The rhetoric to substance ratio is unbelievable. People say we need to make decisions now and can't wait for research. This is what we have done for 60 years and that has not solved our mess. So I would rather kind of hold off before making big decisions till we understand things. RTE is a classic example of something which is extremely well intentioned, but based on research, you realise most of these things are not where the action is in terms of outcomes. So whether it is private schooling or technology, we need research.

   Everybody is throwing technology at the problems. What it takes is an enormous amount of clarity of thought on how you are going to deploy the technology in the classroom and what is the binding constraint to status quo.

   For instance, are you going to be using technology to
   • circumvent gaps in teachers' knowledge?
   • have more individualised curriculum?
   • shorten the feedback loop for the student?
   • encourage student effort by providing instant motivation?

   All this requires careful thinking and this is not something administrators have the bandwidth for. These are research functions and we have to invest over the long term in understanding these things. Otherwise you are just flailing around with a bunch of small scale pilots without systematcially pulling together learning in a way that can inform what we can do in terms of policy.

Education in India Podcast with Subir Shukla of IGNUS-ERG

In the first episode of the Education in India podcast, Subir Shukla, Principal Co-ordinator at IGNUS-ERG, talks about a wide range of topics relating to education in India. Subir has worked for over 25 years in school education in India in the areas of quality improvement, curriculum and textbook development and teacher training, amongst many other things. 

• Listen to the audio podcast (~77 minutes), or
• Download the podcast (~18MB; MP3) and listen to it at your convenience.

To download the podcast, right-click on the download link and select "Save Link/Target As".

I will also try to transcribe the audio and link to the text when it is available. You can read the full transcript of the interview.

This chat with Subir covers some of the important projects and programmes in education in India over the past 20-30 years. The topics covered in this podcast are 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.

• 00:00:40 - Subir tells us a bit about his background and the work he has done in education. 

• 00:01:30 - Why and how he chose to work in the area of education?
  • His days at Eklavya, an outfit set up by Kishore Bharti and the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme.
  • His time at the National Book Trust, setting up the National Centre for Children's Literature.

• 00:08:10 - His time as the Chief Consultant to the Govt of India on Quality Improvement and Teacher Training under the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP).
  • The thinking behind starting the DPEP in 1994 and the goals of the DPEP.
  • The survey of learning levels in India by the NCERT in 1994.
  • How the survey showed that learning levels were very low in Kerala in 1994, even lower than Bihar and how this led Kerala to drastically change their philosophy, systems and processes of teaching and learning, which is one of the reasons why the learning levels in Kerala are high today. 
  • The achievement of the DPEP.

• 00:22:15 - The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
  • The thinking behind launching SSA, after the DPEP.

• 00:24:28 - Teacher Training
  • What is good teaching?
  • His role in developing ADEPTS - Advancement of Educational Performance through Teacher Support - Teacher performance standards for the MHRD in 2006-07.
  • The role of the Centre and the States in teacher training.

• 00:28:12 - How the philosophy of teaching and learning has changed in India over the years
  • Three broad stages: content-driven, objectives-driven, and process-driven teaching and learning.
  • How and when the shift from content-driven, to objectives-driven, and then to process-driven teaching and learning occured in India.
  • Minimum Levels of Learning (MLL).
  • Continuos and Comprehensive Evaluation - CCE.
  • The thinking behind removing detention of students under the RTE Act.

• 00:47:06 - The National Curricular Framework 2005 (NCF)
  • The thinking behind creating the National Curricular Framework in 2005.
  • The use of NCF by the States as a framework.
  • Why the States don't want to use NCERT's textbooks.

• 00:54:31 - Age-appropriate curricula vs overambitious curricula
  • Why children are often being compelled to learn things they can't really understand at their age.

• 00:57:26 - National level surveys of learning levels in India
  • NCERT's surveys of learning and achievement levels.

• 00:58:35 - The value of Pratham's Annual Survey of Education Reports (ASER)
  • Why the ASER reports have limited value.
  • Two negative effects of the ASER reports.

•  01:04:20 - Teacher Accountability
  • Teachers themselves should be enabled to monitor the learning levels in their classes.
  • Why are only teachers being held accountable, but no one else higher up in the education system?
  • The need for top-down accountability rather than bottom-up accountability.

• 01:08:35 - The relevance of PISA tests in India
  • Why PISA tests may not be relevant for India at this time.
  • The lack of a national vision in India for what kind of quality we want in our secondary school students, and what they ought to know by the time they leave school.
  • The need to develop a vision for secondary school students and put it out in the public domain for debate - IGNUS-ERG is working on this.

Axioms of education reform in India

What are the areas of common ground in the ongoing debate on improving school education in India to provide a quality education for all children? The points of contention seem to get more attention and are often amplified in the public debate, while the points of agreement are forgotten.

I’ve tried to list out the areas of agreement, which can be termed 'axioms', that could serve as the common ground to build on. 

For clarity on what I mean by axioms, the dictionary definitions of axiom are as follows:

• a statement or proposition that is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true. (Oxford)
• a statement or principle that is generally accepted to be true, but need not be so (Cambridge)
• a maxim widely accepted on its intrinsic merit (Merriam-Webster)
• a statement accepted as true as the basis for argument or inference (Merriam-Webster)
• an established rule or principle or a self-evident truth (Merriam-Webster)

A couple of caveats - the axioms listed below are not in any specific order of importance or in any sense complete. Some of the axioms listed below may not reflect the current ground realities. The axioms focus on areas of common agreement on the way things ought to be, rather than the way they are now.

Axioms of education reform in India

1. Every single child must have the opportunity to get a high quality school education upto the age of 17 years (class XII level).
2. Education is a public good. The Government must fund the education of every single child till completion of high school.
3. Children of all backgrounds must be encouraged to be in school together. Stratification of children based on any criteria like class, income, caste, religion etc. should be discouraged.
4. A substantial majority of parents today want their children to get a school education. Parents are willing to spend a good part of their income to give their kids what they perceive as the 'best education' within their means.
5. More and more middle and upper class parents in the urban areas, and in rural areas too in recent years, are sending their children to private schools.
6. An increasing number of poorer parents too are opting to pay to educate their children in private schools, even when there are government schools nearby providing free education, free uniforms, free noon meals, free notebooks and textbooks etc..
7. The existing number of schools in the country (including both government and private schools) aren’t enough to educate all our children - we need many more schools.
8. The existing number of teachers aren’t enough to educate all our children - we need many more teachers.
9. Teachers matter – teachers play an important role in guiding, inspiring, and helping children learn and live up to their potential.
10. Outcomes matter – 
    • all children should have learnt the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic in primary school, and
    • all children should have an acceptable level of mathematical and scientific literacy and reading comprehension, and be able to think critically and express and articulate their thoughts and ideas, by the time they leave high school.
11. Every school must be accountable to the parents of the children studying in the school as well as to the larger local community for the outcomes mentioned above.
12. The focus of the State has so far been largely on inputs (more spending, more schools, more classrooms, more facilities in each school, more teachers etc..) , but it has to shift to ensuring the outcomes mentioned above.
13. A substantial majority of parents strongly believe that English medium education is the key to a brighter future for their children, although many studies show that children learn better when taught in their native language, especially in primary school.
14. Our current evaluation system, especially at the school leaving levels, is a test of the ability to provide expected answers to template questions, rather than a test of the levels of understanding and learning, or skills like critical thinking or expressing ones understanding in one’s own words.
15. The one and only job of teachers must be to educate children. Teachers should not be drafted by the Government to do other unrelated work like conducting the census or organizing elections etc., which takes away weeks and months at a time from their core activity of educating children.
16. Education must be regulated by the State to ensure that all government and private schools maintain basic infrastructure and quality standards as well as minimum standards for learning outcomes.
17. Profiteering by schools (making profits through illegal or unethical means or exploiting the desperation of parents and charging fees far beyond costs) should not be tolerated. Schools that are found to be profiteering should be penalized after following a due process.
18. An educated citizenry is a must for India to develop and grow economically and socially. Conversely, an uneducated citizenry can lead to social, economic and political disaster, especially so in today’s India, given the large percentage of young people with very high aspirations.
19. Although it has been a stated goal of allocating 6% of GDP for public expenditure on education ever since the Kothari Commission proposed it in 1968, we have never been able to spend more than 4.3% of GDP on education till date and haven’t spent more than 4% of GDP in the past decade. 
20. Given the current economic situation in the country, the amount of public funding available for school education is likely to be less than desired for the foreseeable future. Private funding of education is likely to increase in the future.

I'm sure there are axioms that I've missed. What are they? Some of the axioms listed may not seem as axiomatic to you as to me. Do chime in with comments, if you feel so.

In the next post, I will list out the points of contention in the ongoing debate on what needs to be done to achieve universalisation of schooling in India.

 

Primary school teachers in Tamil Nadu promote education in government schools

"People pay taxes of many kinds to the Tamil Nadu Government and should therefore enthusiastically admit their children in government schools and benefit from the free education provided in the government schools," says the Tamil Nadu Primary Teachers Association (TNPTA).

In a press release, Abdul Majeed, an office bearer of the Association said, "Parents must come forward to admit their children in government schools offering free education. All these schools have excellent teachers. In addition to providing free education to all students, the Tamil Nadu State Government also provides 4 pairs of free uniforms every year, a nutritious meal with an egg and a banana every day, free text books and notebooks, a free cycle and also a free laptop computer. Parents must make full use of all these benefits available to them."

To drive this message home to parents, 100,000 leaflets emphasising the necessity and the benefits of admitting children in government schools are being distributed to the public by the Tamil Nadu Primary Teachers Association.

This is the gist of a report that appeared in the Tamil daily newspaper Dinamalar (Nov 23, 2012). None of the English media seem to have carried this news.

The way the statements have been phrased by the TNPTA suggests that the government school teachers know something that the rest of the public are unaware of. But the actions of the government school teachers speak much louder than their words and the people are only too well aware of the implications.

Over 73% of these very same government school teachers in Tamil Nadu have chosen to send their own children to private schools and not the 'excellent' government schools that they themselves teach in. This data has been painstakingly collected by Mr. T.K. Chandrasekaran by filing RTI applications with the District Education Officers in each of the districts in Tamil Nadu.

The initiative by the teachers to promote education in government schools is probably arising out of a fear of losing their jobs if the exodus to private schools continues unabated*. The teachers need to ask themselves why parents are shunning the free education in government schools despite the attendant benefits of free uniforms, free books, notebooks, a free cycle, a free laptop etc.. When people perceive that the quality of education is poor, all the other freebies are irrelevant.

But the teachers know this only too well. By choosing to pay out of their pocket and educate their own children in private schools, the teachers are clearly acting in their self-interest. Nothing wrong with that - in fact, they are doing the right thing by their children. There is no way they can prevent the rest of the people from acting in their own self-interest - the teachers are fighting a losing battle.

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* The 2011 ASER Report provides data on the trend of increasing enrollment in private schools in rural Tamil Nadu.The corresponding figures for urban Tamil Nadu are likely to be much higher.