November 2006. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) submitted a series of recommendations for reform of the country’s higher education system in a letter dated November 29, addressed to prime minister Manmohan Singh. In the letter signed by Chicago-based multimillionaire Satyen (‘Sam’) Pitroda, chairman of NKC, the commission recommended nine initiatives to reform and upgrade the country’s rapidly obsolescing higher education system.

Among them: expand the number of universities from 350 currently to 1,500 to enable India to attain a gross tertiary enrollment ratio of at least 15 percent by 2015; establish an apex level Independent Regulatory Authority for Higher Education to supervise the system; increase public spending on higher education and allow for private investment; establish 50 national universities providing world quality tertiary education; reform existing universities; restructure undergraduate colleges; ensure accountability in the higher education system; ensure access for all deserving students and support affirmative action in favour of underprivileged students (see cover story p.28).

December 2006. In what is being regarded as a personal triumph for Union human resource development minister Arjun Singh, Parliament passed the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006 on December 14 in the Lok Sabha and four days later in the Rajya Sabha. The Act reserves an additional 27 percent of seats in over 100 Central government-sponsored higher education institutions for students from other backward castes (OBCs).

Following enactment of this legislation, the percentage of reserved capacity in Central institutions has risen to 49.5 percent from 22.5 percent for SCs (scheduled castes — 15 percent) and STs (scheduled tribes — 7.5 percent). However as per the recommendations of an Oversight Committee chaired by Congress party leader and former Karnataka chief minister, Veerappa Moily, the existing capacity for general category (i.e merit) students won’t be reduced as new capacity will be added to accommodate OBC students. The price tag: Rs.17,000 crore over three years.

ASER 2006 highlights poor learning outcomes

January 2007. The second Annual Status of Education Report 2006 (ASER 2006) — a valuable voluntary initiative which measures the efficiency of government expenditure in rural primaries in terms of learning outcomes — researched, collated and published by the Mumbai-based education NGO, Pratham, was released in Mumbai on January 5.

ASER 2006 found that there is no significant improvement in the learning levels of children enrolled in government schools. Like Pratham’s inaugural ASER 2005, the latest survey was a people’s initiative conducted by 20,000 volunteers (mainly college and university students) who visited 549 rural districts with 600 households surveyed in each district. Since it became abundantly clear in ASER 2005 that mothers’ education attainments have an important impact on children’s educational status and learning outcomes, ASER 2006 introduced questions on parents’ educational attainments with mothers tested for basic reading as well.

The most significant findings of the 174-page ASER 2006 were that while overall enrollment into primary schools remains unchanged, a perceptible shift in favour of private school education is discernible, especially in Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka. Enrollment, to which the Union HRD ministry and establishment educrats accord great importance, is steady at 93.2 percent in the six-14 age group, while in the seven-ten age group it is 95.3 percent. However, notes Madhav Chavan, chief executive of Pratham, in his foreword to ASER 2006: "When one looks at the figures of children out of school from age 11 onwards, they re-emphasise the fact that more than half the children who enroll in grade (class) I drop out before completing grade VIII."

ASER 2006 discloses some other disturbing trends in primary education: the number of out-of-school children has not diminished; children are entering formal schooling one year too early; over-age children are in lower classes in large numbers; learning levels show some improvement but more needs to be done on a nationwide scale; mothers’ education is highly correlated with the child’s and half of mothers cannot read. The report also strongly recommends the integration of the listless adult literacy programmes with improvement of learning outcomes in schools.

February. In the Union Budget 2007-08 presented to the Parliament on February 28, finance minister P. Chidambaram raised the Central government’s outlay for education by 34.2 percent to Rs.32,352 crore for the current year. Of this allocation more than half (Rs.22,143 crore) is proposed to be spent on boosting (secondary) school education — a 35 percent higher outlay. Budget 2007-08 contained several other commendable provisions for dissemination and upgradation of education. The annual outlay for teacher training institutions was increased from Rs.162 crore to Rs.450 crore; the provision for the mid-day meal scheme, now accessible by lower primary school children, was hiked by 52 percent to Rs.7,324 crore this year (cf. Rs.4,813 crore in 2006-07) to cover upper primary classes in 3,427 educationally backward blocks; Rs.750 crore was provided towards a National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme which will bestow 100,000 students completing class VIII and topping a national test, scholarships of Rs.6,000 per year to continue their education to class XII; an additional 55,512 habitations and 34,000 schools will be provided drinking water supply under the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission following an outlay of Rs.5,850 crore, and the provision for the Total Sanitation Campaign has been raised to Rs.954 crore (from Rs.754 crore).

Moreover a provision of Rs.50 crore has been made towards a Vocational Education Mission which is being strategised by the Planning Commission; and Rs.750 crore has been earmarked towards the modernisation of 1,396 government promoted ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) which remain to be upgraded since a modernisation programme began in 2005.

But while ex facie these allocations for numerous education schemes and purposes are impressive, an EducationWorld budget analysis cover story (EW April) argued there is a massive mismatch between the legitimate needs of India’s 450 million children and the provision made for education in Budget 2007-08. Despite the Kothari Commission having recommended 40 years ago that the annual government (Centre plus states) outlay for education be immediately raised to 6 percent of GDP, this target has never been attained. Earlier in a path-breaking cover story ‘How to reap India’s demographic dividend’, this publication provided a detailed road-map to the Union finance minister to slash wasteful government expenditure, and redeploy savings into the neglected education sector to attain the 6 percent of GDP target (see cover story EW February 2007).

March. The state governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh banned sex education in all schools within their jurisdiction. "At any cost we won’t allow sex education in state-run schools," thundered Basavaraj Horatti, primary education minister in the JD(S)-BJP coalition government which until recently ruled Karnataka (pop. 57 million), on March 18. Likewise on March 30, Maharashtra (pop. 98 million) education minister Hassan Mushriff promised to "withdraw sex education textbooks from all schools in the state". In Madhya Pradesh, BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan went a step further: he instructed the state’s education department to replace sex education in schools with yoga classes and discourses on Indian traditions and values. Earlier the education-friendly states of Kerala (literacy: 91 percent) and Gujarat (70 percent) issued similar injunctions to proscribe sex education in schools.

The immediate provocation for these sex education ban diktats were public protests by school teachers, women’s groups and fundamentalist Hindu and Islamic political parties against an order of the Union HRD ministry to introduce its Adolescent Education Programme (AEP) in classes IX and XI in all schools countrywide, from the academic year beginning June 2007. The AEP curriculum and textbooks have been developed by the department of education (HRD ministry), National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), Unicef and the National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) (see cover story EW May 2007).

March. The JD(S)-BJP coalition government in Karnataka, rescinded education minister Basavaraj Horatti’s order to close down 2,215 private English-medium schools across the state with an aggregate enrollment of 300,000 students. The 2,215 primary schools had been found guilty of violating the state government’s medium of instruction (language) policy which mandates Kannada or the mother tongue as the medium of instruction in classes I-V in all state board affiliated schools established in Karnataka after 1994.

Under a cabinet resolution of March 27, children already enrolled in erring schools will be permitted to study in the English medium until the completion of their primary education (class V). However all students enrolled in class I in the new academic year 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.

Subsequently on June 25, the Karnataka high court, after hearing a writ petition filed by private school managements grouped under the umbrella of KUSMA (Karnataka Unaided School Managements Association) against the cabinet resolution, issued a complex order directing the schools to partially toe the government line. A two-judge division bench headed by Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph ordered erring schools to file affidavits undertaking that they would teach students admitted into class I in the new academic year starting June 2007 solely in Kannada or the mother tongue, as per the terms of their licences. But simultaneously it allowed them to continue teaching already enrolled class II-V students in the English medium.

April. A shocking report of the Union ministry of women and child development released on April 9 revealed that 53 percent of India’s children suffer sexual abuse. The survey conducted across 13 states with a sample size of 12,447, found that 53.22 percent of children reported having suffered one or more forms of sexual abuse, with Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Delhi reporting the highest percentage of such incidents. In 50 percent of cases, the abusers were known to the child or were in a position of trust and responsibility and most children did not report the matter to anyone.

The survey, sponsored by the ministry and conducted by Prayas, a Delhi-based NGO in association with Unicef and Save the Children, found that over 50 percent children were subjected to physical abuse and more boys than girls were abused physically. The first-ever survey on child abuse in the country also disclosed that nearly 65 percent of schoolchildren reported that they were subjected to corporal punishment — beatings by teachers — mostly in government schools.

The conclusions of the report came as a shock to Renuka Chowdhury, Union minister for women and child development. "Child abuse is shrouded in secrecy and there is a conspiracy of silence around the entire subject. The ministry is working on a new law for protection of children’s rights by clearly specifying and stiffening punishments," she said, while releasing the report (see Special Report EW May 2007).

April. The Madras high court censured the managements of several CBSE affiliated schools in Chennai and beyond for denying high school (class X) students admission into their higher secondary (Plus Two) classes. On April 27, Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice Chitra Venkataraman upheld a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by educationist Dr. S. Ananadalakshmy, convenor of the Chennai-based Concerned Citizens Committee (CCC), against some prominent CBSE schools in Chennai.

The court ruled that schools should not classify their own high school (class X) students as fresh candidates for admission into higher secondary school (class XI). The bench sharply criticised the practice of managements issuing transfer certificates to class X students and re-admitting some of them on the basis of stipulated cut-off percentages into class XI. The court held this practice is against the rules and admission guidelines stipulated by the Union ministry of human resource development and CBSE.

Subsequently the high court expanded the ambit of its April 27 order on June 11 while passing orders on a writ petition filed by K. Mohamed Wasif who charged the Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai of denying him admission into class XI while admitting students of other schools who had averaged less in the class X board exam. The court ruled that the admission regulations prescribed for the 166 CBSE schools in Tamil Nadu by the April 27 order are also applicable to the 3,019 state board, 3,474 matriculation board and 41 Anglo-Indian board schools in the state. Following the high court order, the state government also directed government and government-aided higher secondary schools in the state to comply with the ratio decidendi of the high court’s April 27 ruling.

May. To mark the third anniversary in office of the UPA coalition government at the Centre, the Union HRD ministry released a 23-point report card trumpeting its achievements of the past three years. Among them: a 38 percent increase in the Centre’s budgetary outlay — from Rs.20,745.5 crore in 2006-07 to Rs.28,674 crore in 2007-08; 93.5 percent gross enrollment ratio in primary schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (Education for All) programme; construction of 24,000 schools, 98,000 classrooms and additional 7.38 lakh teachers appointed; 2,180 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (JNV-style residential K-XII schools for girls) sanctioned upto March 2007, of which 1,000 were operationalised in 2006-07; a national means-cum-merit scholarship scheme for 100,000 students annually; commissioning of major Institutes of Science Education & Research at Pune and Kolkata; commissioning of universities in all the states of north-east India; establishment of a national commission on minority educational institutions, and decks cleared for establishing three IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan during the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012) period.

However several surveys of the mainstream media found that academics believed Union HRD minister Arjun Singh’s major achievement during the three years past was to polarise Indian academia along caste lines and inflame the quota issue in higher education by decreeing the reservation of an additional 27 percent (i.e in addition to the 22.5 percent of capacity reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes) of capacity in Central government promoted universities and education institutions (JNU, IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, etc) for OBC (other backward castes) students.

June. The supreme council of St. Stephen’s College (estb. 1881), widely regarded as the country’s premier liberal arts college, approved a resolution to reserve 40 percent of its annual intake of 400 for students from the country’s 24 million-strong Christian community. Although a minority education institution entitled under Article 30 of the Constitution to reserve upto 49.5 percent of institutional capacity for Christian students, thus far successive liberal managements of St. Stephen’s had refrained from mandating a formal quota for Christian students, who currently comprise about one-third of the student body. The resolution created a new sub-quota of 25 percent for ‘dalit Christians’. This resolution was widely interpreted in academic circles and beyond, as an assertion of intent of the Church of North India to play a larger role in the management of St. Stephen’s.

Meeting on June 14, the supreme council also accepted the "voluntary resignation" of Dr. Anil Wilson, who served as the college’s 11th principal for 16 years (1991-2007), and appointed pro-church hardliner Valson Thampu as the new principal. With the ouster of Wilson, who opposed the quota proposal and was criticised as a secular liberal who had diluted St. Stephen’s Christian identity, India’s showpiece liberal arts college is all set to assert its "Christian heritage" more aggressively and unapologetically.

July. The National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NUEPA), Delhi and the department of school education and literacy of the Union HRD ministry, released Elementary Education in India 2005-06 — An Analytical Report — a devastating indictment of government-provided primary education. According to Dr. Arun C. Mehta, author of this first ever comprehensive national report on the status of elementary education covering all of India’s 604 districts, "the number of children dropping out before entering upper primary school is unacceptably high and learning outcomes in primaries and upper primaries are not satisfactory".

To its credit, despite the constraint of being a Central government published report, EEI 2005-06 didn’t pull its punches. Among its exposés: 107,276 schools countrywide have only one classroom; the average elementary school in India has a mere 3.8 classrooms; 93 percent of private schools provide drinking water facilities as against only 81 percent of government schools; 70 percent of private schools provide common toilets for students cf. only 49 percent of government schools.

This valuable annual report which is the socially beneficial fallout of the highly successful District Primary Education Programme which first began monitoring primary education initiatives in 42 most backward districts of the country in 1994, offers some revealing insights into 21st century India’s crumbling education system. According to EEI 2005-06, of the 1,124,033 recognised schools in 604 districts across 35 states and Union territories countrywide, 87.23 percent (980,494) are sited in rural India. The Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh (pop.180 million) hosts the largest number of schools — 161,689 — in the country. And of all the 1.124 million ‘recognised’ schools (primary, upper primary and secondary) countrywide, 83.14 percent (934,521) are owned and/or administered by Central, state or local governments. There are 189,521 privately promoted and administered schools with an aggregate enrollment of 54 million students. Of them 63,411 are private aided (recipients of government subsidy) and 126,110 private unaided (i.e independent) schools.

Moreover the 422 page EEI 2005-06 includes a 71-page States Report Card 2005-06 which offers a wealth of statistics and enables identification of the country’s best performing and laggard states in delivering elementary education (see cover story EW September 2007).

EW league table ranks India’s most respected schools

August. In the inaugural EducationWorld-IMRB public perceptions survey of ‘India’s most respected schools’, Delhi Public School, RK Puram was ranked the country’s No.1 school followed by the Doon School, Dehradun and Delhi Public School, Mathura Road. Kolkata’s well-known South Point School was ranked 4th while St. Kabir School, Ahmedabad and City Montessori School, Lucknow were rated 5th and 6th respectively. In the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th positions were Apeejay School, Delhi; La Martiniere Boys’ School, Kolkata; Seth M.R. Jaipuria School, Lucknow and La Martiniere Girls’, Kolkata, respectively.

This first-of-its-kind survey which ranked India’s most respected secondaries was commissioned by EducationWorld and conducted by IMRB International across 15 cities in the north, western, eastern and southern regions of India. The respondents sample comprised parents, school principals and teachers, collegiate-level teachers and eminent educationists.

Respondents were asked to rank 250 high-profile schools (selected by EducationWorld) affiliated with the Delhi-based CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education), CISCE (Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations) and IB and CIE affiliated international schools, inter se on 12 parameters of excellence. The parameters were academic reputation, co-curricular education, sports education, quality of teachers, teacher-pupil ratio, value for money, leadership/management quality, parental involvement, infrastructure, quality of alumni, reputation for integrity and selectivity (ease and transparency) of admission.

To provide a more informed assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of schools countrywide, regional league tables (south, north, east and west) ranking schools on the 12 parameters were also featured. Moreover the EW-IMRB survey also included a league table of India’s most respected residential schools (see cover story EW August 2007).

August. Addressing the nation from the ramparts of Delhi’s historic Red Fort on the occasion of India’s 60th Independence Day (August 15), prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh became perhaps the first political leader in Indian history to make more than a cursory mention of education in a major speech to the general public. In his address Singh acknowledged the need for a massive effort to expand and upgrade the country’s primary, secondary and tertiary education systems.

During the course of his 60-minute Independence Day address, Singh made several specific proposals to expand capacity in the education sector. Among them: promotion of 6,000 "new, high quality schools — one in every block of the country"; helping state governments to establish colleges in 370 under-served districts across the country; establishment of 30 new Central universities; promotion of eight new IITs, seven IIMs and 20 greenfield IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology); 1,600 ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes); 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new Skill Development Centres.

September. Uttar Pradesh’s newly elected chief minister Ms. Mayawati issued an order banning student union elections across 13 universities and 242 government-aided colleges in India’s most populous (180 million) state. "Colleges and universities would (sic) not be allowed to become a cosy shelter for outlaws indulging in petty politics," said the order dated September 7.

Unsurprisingly, the ban dikat provoked a spate of student protests in this Hindi heartland state. Students of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, in which union elections were scheduled for September 14, blocked roads and called for a bandh. Moreover on September 8, 150 students across the state were arrested for rioting. Tension also gripped the Lucknow University campus where students staged a dharna to register their protest.

But the most strident criticism of the ban on student union elections came from the opposition Samajwadi Party. The party called upon its militant youth wing to gear up for an agitation against the "undemocratic decision" of the state government. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had lifted all previous curbs imposed on student unions when he was elected chief minister of UP in August 2003, has vowed to reverse the decision as soon as he returns to power.

AMU downs shutters sine die

September. An emergency meeting of the Aligarh Muslim University’s executive council held on September 17 decreed a shut down sine die of the university and directed that its 69 hostels be vacated within 48 hours. The previous day (September 16) Mazhar Naeem, a student of the 132-year-old university, was killed on the 1,200 acre AMU campus. According to the students, vice chancellor Abdul Azis declined to meet protesting students provoking them to set his home and office on fire.

The university’s executive council, which cited the complete breakdown of law and order on the AMU campus as the reason for shutting down the university, called for a CBI investigation into the murder and recommended the setting up of a committee headed by a retired justice of the Supreme Court to report within six months on all cases of indiscipline and violence that have plagued AMU for the past year.

October. Controversial Union health minister Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss announced that a Bill proposing medical graduates be awarded their MBBS certificates only after they complete a year’s service in district hospitals, taluk hospitals and primary health centres, will be tabled in the winter session of Parliament. As per the provisions of the Bill, during the rural service period medicos will receive a stipend of Rs.8,000 per month.

The proposed legislation will be applicable to all 262 government and private medical colleges in the country which together churn out 29,000 medical graduates annually. The Centre’s proposal is a component of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM 2005-2012) launched by prime minister Manmohan Singh in April 2005, with the objective of providing effective healthcare to the country’s rural population.

The rationale of the Bill is that medical education in India is highly subsidised with the annual tuition fee for the MBBS programme in some government medical colleges as low as Rs.4,000 per year. Even private medical colleges provide tuition at Rs.150,000 per year to government quota students admitted on merit, and as per the caste-based reservation policy of several state governments. Against this the Medical Council of India has assessed the actual cost of medical education provision at Rs.4.5 lakh annually per student. As a quid pro quo the government is demanding a year of rural service from medical students.

Unsurprisingly the compulsory rural service Bill has evoked vociferous protests from medical students countrywide particularly in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Thanjavur and Madurai.

November. The Planning Commission approved 20 percent of the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) outlay for the education sector. The Plan, which now awaits the final nod of the National Development Council, has divided the education sector into elementary, adult, secondary, and higher education. While for elementary education Rs.125,000 crore is earmarked, a phenomenal increase from the Rs.30,000 crore allocated in the last Plan period, adult and secondary education have been allocated Rs.6,000 crore and Rs.53,000 crore, respectively. Moreover, the proposed plan document sets aside Rs.84,000 crore for higher and technical education in the country.

Says Planning Commission member, Bhalchandra Mungekar: "The increase in the budget for health and education is an attempt to achieve inclusive growth. The most important issue is our agenda for reforms in higher education, where we have asked for major structural changes."

The Planning Commission has recommended the setting up of 30 new Central universities, seven IITs, seven IIMs, ten National Institutes of Technology, five Indian Institutes of Science, Education and Research, 20 IIITs and two schools of architecture and 330 new colleges in educationally backward districts.