Education News

Commitment campaign

This demand is the theme of a campaign launched by a Lucknow-based group of citizens, educationists, NGOs and trade union leaders in Uttar Pradesh — India’s most populous (166 million) Hindi heartland state — which is readying for the mother of all state elections at the end of the current month. This coalition has formulated a 12-point charter of demands, headed by quality education for all, to which it wants all political parties to commit before votes are cast for 403 Vidhan Sabha (state legislative assembly) seats this summer.

Smitin Brid, Uttar Pradesh coordinator for the Mumbai-based voluntary organisation Pratham, which publishes the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a people’s initiative which measures actual learning attainments of primary school children across rural India, says that commitments from individual politicians are more important than promises made in manifestos. "A party commitment in an election manifesto makes no sense unless politicians commit to implement a promise personally. In Maharashtra, deputy chief minister R.R. Patil’s personal promise to eradicate child labour made a significant impact, not the promise in the forgotten party manifesto," he illustrates.

Under the campaign plan of this citizens’ coalition for education, signed declarations to clean up and improve the primary and secondary education system will be demanded when electoral candidates solicit votes. Residents of all constituencies will demand that every visiting politician canvassing in their area first endorses the coalition’s charter in writing.

The main demands on the charter, which is being widely circulated in the local media, include appointment of regular (rather than para) teachers in all schools to reduce the teacher-pupil ratio to 1:40; a code of conduct for private schools; at least one primary school in every 3 km radius by 2008; appointment of parent-teacher committees in all schools to ensure that all children are able to read, write and attain basic numeric skills.

Although this citizen’s campaign is perhaps unprecedented and overdue, it’s unlikely to make much of an impact given the low priority that all major parties in the electoral fray accord to education. A study of the election manifestos written on the eve of the legislative assembly election four years ago (2002) reveals that the state’s ruling Samajwadi Party didn’t make a single specific promise relating to education. The only commitment it made was to provide unemployment allowance to at least one member in each family.

The 2002 manifesto of the Congress party which heads the UPA government in Delhi, was a copy of the central manifesto and made vague promises to reverse tuition fee increases, devise new programmes for women’s education, increase the number of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and to make education job-oriented. It also reiterated the never fulfilled promise of raising the state government’s outlay on education to 6 percent of GDP.

The BJP 2002 manifesto scored better on specifics and promised a primary school for every village within two years, free textbooks for children in classes I-V (until class VIII for girl children) and appointment of at least two full-time teachers per school. The CPI (M) did not issue any manifesto at all. Nor surprisingly did the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party which is expected to form the next government in this grossly under-developed Hindi heartland state. Party manifestos for this year’s state legislative assembly election — only a few weeks away — are yet to be printed.

Comments Rajesh Kumar, founder member of Lokmitra, a Rae Bareli based NGO which has been advocating parent forums in government schools: "We realise the enormity of the task of getting meaningful commitments relating to education from UP’s politicians. But if the demand comes from all sides, they may be forced to pay attention."

A possibility rather than probability.

Vidya Pandit (Lucknow)

Emerging KV standard

A new turf war with possible national repercussions may be in the offing in Delhi. At the receiving end from civil society groups and the judiciary for tolerating schools with pitiable infrastructure and substandard teaching, the Delhi state government has offered to take over primary schools run in the national capital region by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Under the present arrangement, providing primary education i.e upto class V, is the province of MCD. After that, upper primary and secondary education is provided by the Delhi state government. Currently the MCD manages 1,810 primary schools with an aggregate enrollment of 955,391 students (2006 data).

This proposal of the Delhi state government came up in the Delhi high court on March 21 during the hearing of a PIL filed by the activist organisation Social Jurist in 2000 praying for a court directive to improve elementary education in the national capital. A division bench of Chief Justice M.K. Sarma and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, approved the suggestion while making it clear that the state government should take a formal decision and submit a plan-of-action to the court. "Taking over all MCD schools would not be enough. In order to provide quality education to the children, it would be necessary for the state government to run all these schools on the lines of Kendriya Vidyalayas," said the judges.

The court’s order has enthused Ashok Agarwal, convener of Social Jurist who believes that the activist organisation’s relentless campaign for better public schools has clicked. "Our task forces and inspections have opened the eyes of state government officials. But at the same time we also know that state government schools are only marginally better than MCD schools," he says.

However, educationists in the capital suspect it is politics rather than reformist zeal which is behind the state government’s takeover proposal. "It is basically a power struggle between the state government and MCD. Standards and efficiency of government schools are hardly better than of MCD schools in terms of learning outcomes. At best state government educrats are less corrupt and slightly more learned about infrastructure management. But there’s not much to choose between them," says Dr. Parth Shah, president of the Centre for Civil Society, a Delhi-based think tank.

But viewed against the passage of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments which favour devolution of power to local governments which are closer to the people, the proposal may run into a constitutional road block. "This is actually a bad idea. Tomorrow the argument would be transfer management of all state schools to the Union government. School and education reform has to be systemic, realistic and long-term," argues Shah.

Meanwhile thanks to continuous pressure from voluntary organisations and court diktats, government educrats are being forced to improve infrastructure and teaching-learning standards in publicly-funded schools.

In an another case filed in the Supreme Court by the Environmental and Consumer Protection Foundation, orders have been passed directing the Central and Delhi governments to provide minimum facilities in all government-aided schools. "Following publication of a newspaper report about an aided school in Adarsh Nagar, north Delhi describing horrible conditions — broken asbestos roofing, no drinking water and fans, labs without equipment and library of only 30 books for 1,300 students — we filed a petition against MCD in the apex court. The court wanted the state government to take over this particular school, but we argued that this school was representative and that conditions were almost similar in all government schools. We’re delighted that the court has upheld the citizen’s right to demand proper functioning of schools run on tax-payers’ money," says Ravinder Banu, senior Supreme Court counsel and founder director of the foundation.

Meanwhile Social Jurist which has been in the vanguard of the movement for improving teaching-learning and infrastructure standards in public, i.e government schools, is drafting a petition which will demand an apex court directive that all government schools must provide infrastructure and education standards equivalent to those provided by the country’s 979 Kendriya Vidyalaya schools. "These Central government schools provide excellent primary and secondary education as testified by CABE. We intend to ask for a Supreme Court directive mandating all government schools to benchmark themselves against KVs. That’s the first step towards equal education for all," says Agarwal.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Belated initiative

Like Rip Van Winkle awaking from a deep several generations sleep, the Tamil Nadu state government has suddenly become aware of the importance of English language communication skills in the job market.

Recently (November 2006), it signed a belated agreement with the British Council, Chennai to offer the Business English Certificate (BEC) course of Cambridge University to students of government, government-aided and self-financing arts and science colleges in the state. The BEC study programme will be implemented by the directorate of collegiate education and the optional course will be offered after college working hours. This tie-up with Cambridge University follows an earlier agreement signed in August 2004 between the directorate of technical education and the British Council under which the BEC course was made available in 250 engineering colleges across the state (pop. 62 million).

"Currently the BEC course is also being offered in 70 arts and science colleges in the state. The uniqueness of the BEC programme is that it focuses on developing English language communication skills through propagating reading, writing, speaking, as well as vocabulary and grammar. Besides educational institutions, many IT and ITES companies are including the internationally accepted BEC curriculum in their training programmes," says T.K. Arunachalam, the Chennai-based marketing manager of the University of Cambridge which has developed close links with state ministries, corporates and educational institutions across the country.

The state government’s initiative even if belated, has been welcomed by students and faculty of colleges who are only too aware that English language skills are an essential pre-requisite of professional success in India and beyond. Educationists in the state wonder why it’s taken Tamil Nadu’s political class which was in the vanguard of the anti-Hindi and pro-English movement of the 1960s in southern India, so long to stumble upon this painfully obvious marketplace reality. Particularly since employers apart, even collegiate entrance exams and placement interviews give great weightage to English communication skills.

Although Tamil Nadu’s timorous and subservient intelligentsia — especially university and college intellectuals who are pathetically dependent on government favour — have all along been aware that the professed love of the Tamil language of the state’s politicians is intimately connected with its flourishing textbooks publishing racket (see special report feature EW January 2005), they have chosen to maintain a discreet silence on the subject. Consequently with the state’s government and aided primary schools even to this day forbidden to teach English until class V, this belated remedial initiative to introduce the BEC programme at college level is likely to prove to be of limited value.

"The current set of college students is generally weak in spoken and written English, as also English grammar. With the exception of a few who have graduated from English medium schools, the majority suffer from weak fundamentals. The only way to learn good communicative English is by learning to speak and read the language from an early age," says Donald E. James, former head of the English department of New College, Chennai, and currently a teacher at The Lyceum, an institute which trains students for competitive exams.

While in Tamil Nadu’s 34,208 government primaries patronised by households from the very base of the socio-economic pyramid, the government’s policy which mandates that the mother tongue or Tamil shall be the medium of instruction in classes 1-V with English taught only as an additional subject is stoically accepted, in the state’s quasi-autonomous bilingual aided schools there is a frantic rush for admission into the English medium section where students far outnumber Tamil medium students. This is because parents — even if not the government — in all classes of society are well aware that lack of English language fluency is the major cause of socio-economic backwardness and unemployment.

Consequently there is general agreement that the introduction of the BEC programme at the collegiate level is only a short-term, quick-fix solution. Finally this awareness seems to be dawning on the state government’s bureaucrats and politicians. The state Planning Commission’s approach paper to the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) calls for a "strong push" to ensure English fluency in school students. The commission has emphasised that it is possible to enable English fluency without adversely affecting the primacy of Tamil.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Ironical concerns

Almost two years ago the Union ministry of human resource development, less driven by liberal impulses than the rapid spread of the HIV-AIDS virus across India, directed all secondary schools to introduce sex education into their curriculums. Since then this commonsense directive is still being debated in Maharashtra (pop.97 million), India’s most industralised state where an estimated 500,000 people are reported to be infected by this deadly virus.

Teachers and parents are reportedly uncomfortable while interacting with children on the subject, is the state government’s excuse for not meeting the HRD ministry’s time line for introducing sex education in the recently concluded 2006-07 academic year. Now on the eve of the commencement of the new academic year, a stern reminder from the ministry seems to have forced the government’s hand.

"I have asked the education minister to expedite the matter and the education department is working on how we can implement the directive," chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told a recent press conference. As a consequence even if belatedly, education bureaucrats have galvanised into action.

For starters the department is in the process of forming a committee to frame the syllabus of the subject which will be taught in classes V-X across all schools in the state. According to education minister Vasant Purke, the committee will first review the sex education curriculums of the CBSE and CISCE boards and then come to a conclusion about the content. Although the CBSE and CISCE boards had set up a joint panel to design their curriculums a year and a half ago, schools in Maharashtra affiliated with these pan-India boards have been going slow in introducing this subject in their classrooms. Only recently did CBSE schools in the state start classes on the subject.

While it is understandable that in the 1,200 state board affiliated — especially government — secondary schools patronised by the poor, parents tend to be sexually conservative and fearful about what their children will pick up from classes on sex education, teacher resistance to introducing the subject into the curriculum is less comprehe-nsible. "Our children are not habituated to a situation where topics relating to sex are openly discussed, and it will be very awkward trying to conduct such classes," says a Mumbai-based teacher speaking on condition of anonymity. "I am also afraid that teaching kids about sex from class V onwards might make them sexually aware before their time."

Although such archaic and prissy sentiments constitute the dominant opinion within the teachers’ community which has never distinguished itself for its liberalism or forward thinking, there’s a growing number of educators who support the move to introduce sex education into school syllabuses, provided curriculums are carefully drawn and teachers are specially trained to teach the subject. "Though there are teachers who feel uncomfortable about conducting classes in sex education and shirk the responsibility of teaching children the subject, there are many of us who are in favour of this proposal," says Arundhati Chavan president of the Mumbai Parent Teacher Association United Forum. "However, I feel that the four sections under which children are to be given sex education viz, human anatomy, reproductive health, use of birth control methods and prevention of HIV-AIDS, are not sufficient in themselves. While teaching the subject kids should also be taught sexual morality — what is right and wrong on matters of sex. For this, careful mapping of the syllabus and teacher training is required."

While there’s substance in the argument that sexual morality needs to be incorporated into sex education curriculums, among educators there is growing suspicion that perfect solutions are being advanced to further delay the introduction of this subject into the syllabus of state board affiliated schools. The irony of exaggerated concerns about sexual propriety in a society in which child sexual abuse and the spread of the HIV-AIDS virus is assuming epidemic proportions, seems to be lost on the state’s government teachers and guardians of public morality.

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Ministerial hubris

Even as the new school year is all set to commence in June, Basavaraj Horatti, minister of primary and secondary education in the Janata Dal (secular)-BJP government which has been ruling Karnataka (pop.57 million) for the past 13 months, is sticking to his decision to withdraw government ‘recognition’ of 2,215 private primary schools across the state with an aggregate enrollment of 300,000 students. Their unpardonable offence? They have been found guilty of violating the state government’s medium of instruction (language) policy which mandates that Kannada or the mother tongue should be the medium of instruction for students in classes I-V in all state board affiliated schools established in Karnataka after 1994.

"Come what may, the decision to derecognise these schools will not be changed. I am ready to face the consequences," declared Horatti in the Legislative Council on March 24. Earlier following widespread protest, Horatti’s order which was passed on August 18 last year, was "kept in abeyance" until the end of the current academic year (April 10). Following further public protests, a sub-committee of the cabinet was constituted recently to suggest a solution for the 300,000 children affected by the derecognition (which according to the minister is synonymous with closure) order. But according to Horatti the terms of reference of the sub-committee are not to re-examine the closure order but "only to decide on the steps to be taken to protect the interests of students studying in these schools".

The genesis of this problem which has the potential to destabilise the JD(S)-BJP government which is already beset with coalition tensions, can be traced back to 1994 when the Karnataka state government in a burst of subnationalism, mandated its Kannada or mother tongue only medium of instruction policy. However with pressure from the middle class which shuns the state’s 48,000 primary schools which follow the government’s medium of instruction policy, private school promoters routinely signed forms and affidavits agreeing to abide by the official medium of instruction policy while actually teaching in the English medium. This arrangement suited Karnataka’s notoriously bribes-hungry educrats and school inspectors admirably, and the number of English medium private primaries grew from 2,500 in 1990 to an estimated 7,000 currently.

Unsurprisingly parental anger against Horatti’s closure order is rising. "Why should our children be penalised for attending school and learning in a language that is universal and essential for a child’s success? I won’t enroll my child in a government school, as I have no faith in their quality of education. I hope the government realises that their decision is nothing but retrograde," says Aditi Srikumaran, mother of Anjali, a class I student at the Khoday Primary School, Rajajinagar, one of the schools asked to close down.

According to G.S. Sharma, the octogenarian president of the Private Unaided Schools Action Committee and the Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA), the minister’s order equating withdrawal of government recognition with the right to order closure is misinformed and illegal. "Under the law, all citizens have a fundamental right to establish and administer education institutions of their choice. In particular the state government’s recognition is not required for promotion of class I-IV primary schools. Almost a year ago KUSMA filed a writ petition in the Karnataka high court challenging the government’s closure order. The judgement of the court is expected on April 9. Since the hon’ble minister doesn’t accept our arguments, perhaps he’ll accept the court’s," says Sharma confidently.

Meanwhile as EducationWorld goes to press, following a cabinet meeting on March 27, the state government rescinded Horatti’s order to close the offender 2,215 schools . Under the Cabinet resolution, already enrolled children will be permitted to study in the English medium until the completion of their primary education (class V). However all students newly enrolled in class I will be obliged to study in Kannada (or the mother tongue) until class V, with English permitted to be taught only as a second language.

Quite evidently Horatti’s love of the Kannada language/mother tongue is greater than his respect for parental choice. Or the future of Karnataka’s children. A love that the judiciary is unlikely to endorse.

Summiya Yasmeen (Bangalore)