After a prolonged struggle with low enrolment rates for children in the school-going age, India now has to come to grips with another crucial issue: poor learning outcomes for students in the six to 14 age group. National data on this is not comprehensive, but available empirical evidence points to weak achievements for a significant percentage of students. In rural India, which is more disadvantaged, the highest level of reading that the largest segment of students in Class Eight were capable of was a Class Two text, according to the Annual Status of Education Report, 2011. In the same student sample, only 56.8 per cent were able to do a simple arithmetic division in Class Eight; others performed badly. Viewed against the backdrop of such low academic attainments, it is understandable that Education Ministers of some States expressed their apprehension at the 59th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) that the “no detention” feature of the Right to Education Act could pave the way for a further fall in standards. The solution, however, cannot lie in a system that merely seeks to punish students who could not do better due to intrinsic factors — including bad teachers and lack of infrastructure — by insisting that they repeat a grade. The RTE Act is, in fact, consistent with the National Policy on Education, 1986, which states clearly that “the policy of non-detention in the primary stage will be retained, making evaluation as disaggregated as feasible.” The answer, then, lies not in detention, but in upgrading the system for all.
If students are to do better at school, they must overcome the extreme fear caused by examinations. There is some evidence to show that being labelled a “failure” at school reduces the child's self-esteem and contributes to higher drop-out rates. The RTE Act attempts to ameliorate this by providing for comprehensive and continuous evaluation. It is welcome, therefore, that the CABE has decided to explore the better options and formed a committee chaired by the Haryana Education Minister, Geeta Bhukkal, to come up with an evaluation framework in three months. While that task is pursued, it is incumbent on the Centre and the State governments to get serious about the fundamental goals of the RTE Act. These include provision of all-weather classrooms and sufficient teachers to match the prescribed pupil-teacher ratio by 2013 and training of untrained teachers by 2015. These actions will potentially raise student achievements. Moreover, the objective of education is to produce all-round development of children, besides equipping them with life skills. It would be folly to reduce the process to mere clearing of annual examinations.
Keywords: National Policy on Education, Annual Status of Education Report 2011, RTE Act, quality education
Not the funds not the people but the attitude has to change. The
teachers tend to give better attention to the toppers in the class
instead of those are in real need of attention. Called a failure at this
aga gonna scar a kid his whole life. There are various factors that
helps a kids education including the home and the environment. School is
just a part. People(Parents n Teachers) need to educated about this, and
on how to keep his interests in school.
The govt needs to understand that students don't study unless they
have exams coming up. I speak from my own experience and those of
hundreds of others who studied with me. Doing away with exams would
mean there is no way of checking how much someone learned, and
students will lose the incentive to revise whatever is taught. How
this will help improve the level of actual learning, I fail to
understand. Failure in an exam is an indication that the student did
not grasp what was taught. Identifying a problem is the first step
towards correcting it. Removing this identification mechanism will
only make the situation worse.
Of course, better teachers and better infrastructure is definitely
required. Once everything is in place, the students will start doing
well in exams too. So exams are not the villains here and the policy
of not holding exams and not failing a student are NEGATIVE steps
according to me.
RTE is the government really serious about it or its just another
gimmick.RTE its for education rather than a politically motivated
scheme.Government should get serious about getting the younger ones
educated rather than just passing bills and showing the country that
we are doing something.
In my view,being from uttar pradesh i have seen a lot of primary
schools have a half dozen relatives teaching there but what lacks in
all of them is motivation and understanding that what they are doing
is noble,teaching is devine.Its merely not for money.They must sooner
or later understand this.UNLESS our teacher understand this in my
opinion promoting them or labelling them as failure wouldnt matter.
For the present enrollment count in our Primary school, even if it is not very good but it is surely encouraging. If i will reveal from the rural India perspective there are two main issue:
1) Untrained and unskilled teachers
2) School is not open for designated no of days in a year
Improve on these issues and you will see very tangible results
I feel that its not the backward class but, poor people who dont get access to education. And, even if they get, many a times, they dont use the opportunity due to various reasons like lack of interest, deplorable atmosphere at home, need to earn for the family, thinking they would anyways pass due to no detention rule.
"No Detention" is not the solution. It will in-turn degrade the standard of education. The structure need a change. Focus should be on the overall development of children and teachers should be trained in a manner such that students find studies interesting. More emphasis should be given to practical applications and sessions should be made interactive.
The concept of shiksha mitra is also in UP and the most of the time these shiksha mitra are engaged in the maintainance if registers for how many have taken mid day meal and preparation of list of family members at the time of elections which comes each year either in the form of gram panchayats,MLA or MP elections. They are the only resource remained in hands of govt to count population of the country.
Is this the moto of Right to Education or somthing else?????
The statistics mentioned are not welcome. Though the analysts would feel those as percentage figures, those represent thousands of children. These will not be able to survive in global tech competition. We all are responsible for it.
The education standards in india is greatly devided into 2 parts govt
education and private education. Actually the govt education systems
are not doing well (except IITs, NITs and IIMs), that is just not
because of salary figures. Considering the primary education in india,
teachers have to do lots of clerical work for several schemes (midday
meal scheme, sensus preparation , voter list preparation etc.). So
though we have the problem of less no of efficient teachers,again they
are loaded with additional works other than teaching. How the
education system will improve and function properly.The only solution
i can think of is employment of teaching staff and clerical staff
separately and improve the teacher student ratio where ever necessary.
Which probably solve the current problem to some extent.
education plays a key role in life.this problem arises majorly with rural area students.guidance is one of the way.i feel students from the premier institutions like iit's and nit's,in their vacation time, should go to rural areas and give them some guidance.there are some voluntary movements like pravinya,teachindia and many more currently working with this idea.these type of movements will really help the rural and hope there is also a support from the government.
<NOM>Only discussing is not a solution of the above problem. I guess everyone will be agreed on my this statement that for better education we need to step up as india is producing the most number of engineers and doctors but nobody wants to become a good teacher. Every graduate is capable of becoming a good teacher but one big reason is salary, teachers are not being paid handsomely. Each n every IITian or any other graduate’s aim is to go abroad to serve other country. This is the trend of the present India. We are just forcing our child to do well in any situation irrespective of the standard of education. Is it right ? The government can spend billions of rupees on Cricket or any other sports but they don't have money for the betterment of the education system.
I guess it's an endless topic as only commenting on this will not change the situation.
The credit goes to our corrupted system that never emphasis on quality education. The law should be enacted on the appointment of the teachers. Its very pitty that today every one wants to be a govt employee just for the sake of facilities they get , nobody loves his/her job , they just love money . This attitude never gonna help our education system.
Actual way to go ahead is to create a system of accountability among government school teachers since 70% of students in India go to public schools. Comprehensive and continuous evaluation system can be used for the same.
The core issue lies in providing quality teachers. Haryana Govt had appointed guest teachers seven years back purely on nepotism with no entrance test and interview. It is really ridiculous that on the one hand Haryana state talks about quality education while on the other hand it tends to manage with meagre budget. It is time we had quality teachers selected thourgh just process. Only quality teachers can realise the spirit of RTE.
Some recent amendments of government in education policies is spectacular ,but the need of the day is to make a system in which their should be some accountability of the teachers. Now teachers of public schools should also be given grades on their students performance, their innovative ideas and their presence
education is the one and only cure for all socio-economic illments,spread in our society,which needs better infrastructure,better teacher,efficient syllabys and most important execution of the policies in the best possible way.By just passing the bill and making law, goal can not be achieved,what is the need of the hour is implementaion of the law so that vision of educated india can be accomlished.
what mr. manoj says is quite true.the responsibility of recruiting the
siksha mitra is in the hands of gram panchayat who themselves are mostly
illiterate. govt is also trying to get away with its responsibility by
paying just 25% regular pay. if the salary is so low then how can we
expect the standard of education to be high. why cant govt invest more
in education.
If the reason for a poor result is known (here being the poor quality of teaching), we should address that, and not try looking for other ways to improve a child's performance. In the long run, eudcation shouldnt be aimed at a child passing an exam or scoring an A+. Rather, it should enable her/him, to lead a free, happy and sustained life.
It is high time that the teaching quality in govt schools be lifted. I think we could start by bringing in really capable people into this field. Make the teaching field an attractive choice of career. It is amongst the most crucial areas in the society's present and future. For a task as crucial as this, the best of people need to be a part...as a profession, teaching need to be at par with other sought-after-careers...increase the pays cale of govt teachers to match other professions, and quality will automatically come into this field...starting there, there will be transformation in the whole teacher community...
'Better system for better results' can also be understood by simple logic that if a farmer wants his land to give him better quality and huge amount of crops , he cannot get the desired result if he does not irrigates his field properly and provide good quality of Manure at right time to his crops. The logic goes same for growing children everyone should understand without giving quality teaching to our learning youth we cannot expect them to add quality to our so called growing Nation.
India from the time immemorial has been the hub of Education. From
Guru Shishya Parampara[Teacher -Pupil learning tradition]to Present
Day IITs or IIMs or Medical Education has been quite a journey.From
Vedas to Awareness of Globalization it has all been there. Yes Rural
India is coming up but it is also true that Elementary Education needs
edge. Education,Gyana[Real Intelligence],and now Present day's
Information flow ,its all in our genes.We need to set our own model of
education.We surely are capable of doing that.India has a great
potential and only possible way to harness that is through Education.
Actual reason could be, backward class people still don't get the environment of studying, mid day schools are of no use except providing a cushy job for teachers.As private schools produce far better students than the government schools. There are not lack of resources in the government schools but there are lack of discipline and sincerity. State Boards and the schools who have medium of teaching and learning other than English are also not able to produce a better student,Although the student have much knowledge but he doesn't find himself to stand with the students who are studying in private schools due to lack of confidence.
debate and discussion on nationalization of primary education up to class 12th is need of the hour will not only serves the purpose of RTE act but also helps in reducing the quality gaps.
Bihar is a perfect example of better number with poor quality of
education. Bihar government has recruited "Siksha Mitra" for elementary education. These "siksha Mitra" are recruited by Gram
Panchayat on contractual basis.
They are paid around 25% of what regular teachers are being paid.
Same time, they are politically influential at village level. I know
many of Siksha Mitras, who will not be able to pass class 8 exam which
is conducted by state government. Still they are teaching.
It seems, system has been created to spoil the future of students
which is subsequently future of our country also.
Governments need to think beyond political mileage. They are also
responsible for actual betterment of country.
Better system for better result, i agree with you. Many government
schools and colleges all over the country face this serious problems
such as, lack of infrastructure facilities, bad teachers (their
qualifications and ability is good but the system automatically
transformed them BAD).This tendency of government institutions reduce
the number of students in each classes. only poor people depend this
system. middle class and high class (basis of wealth) depend on privet
educational institutions for the better carrier of their child.this
create a huge disparity among the society. Government should take
important steps for the progress of government institutions and our
educational system.
I believe that paucity of funds would not be a major problem if we want to provide better education. We can certainly invest in providing all weather classrooms and recruit the required number of teachers. What next? Our education experts’ worry and citizens’ concern is: Would the teachers do their job efficiently and diligently? Unfortunately answer to this question would be ‘in all probability, NO’. I would say that the objective behind enacting the Right to Education Act would be achieved only when we can answer the educationists’ question with a confident ‘YES’. As a society, we have to seek an answer to this question: why despite security of a government job, teachers in these schools do not do their duties diligently and why parents’ preference for private schools is growing. Examinations is another issue which we have to deal with.
Incidentally, quality of education imparted in most private schools (where teachers have no job security) is not at all satisfactory.
I personally feel that the fear of being labelled as a 'failure' would
serve as a motivation for students and encourage them to get
competitive with friends. There is a probability that this fear may
also lead some students to succumb to dangerous stress levels and
severe depression. But this shouldn't be quoted as a reason to push
for a 'No Detention' policy, which would only prove to be harmful in
the long run by resulting in the degradation of the existing
educational standards. Teachers must be encouraged to locate and
develop skills other than just 'studying' in their pupils.
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