Education News

Belated wisdom

With a swelling tide of children fleeing its free Marathi medium to fee-charging English-medium schools, the Maharashtra government’s state education ministry — as its counterpart in Karnataka — is belatedly admitting the historical error of excessive language chauvinism. In early June it issued a government resolution (GR) introducing written English as the second language in all Marathi medium schools from class I onwards, effective from the new academic year starting July. Hitherto only basic spoken English was taught in class I with written English and annual examinations in the subject starting from class III. The GR will benefit 2.5 million students who will start attending class I of Marathi medium schools across the state this year.

The GR was followed by another announcement of the ministry advising Marathi medium schools to switch to English as the medium of instruction for maths and science from class I onward. "The proposal is under consideration and may be implemented at the earliest," says Vasant Kalpande, chairman of the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. "Subjects like maths and science are objective in nature and can be easily learned and understood in English in Marathi medium schools. However subjects like social sciences may be difficult to learn in the language because they are subjective (sic)." According to education ministry sources, the latter proposal will necessitate recruitment of 100,000 full-time English fluent teachers for Marathi medium schools. But with the academic year having already begun in the state, implementing this proposal is obviously a non-starter.

Meanwhile the decision to introduce English as a second language from class I in Marathi medium schools in the state is final. This decision makes Maharashtra the first state in the country to introduce English as a second language at this early stage. Somnolent officials of the ministry woke up to the need for English language teaching when a departmental study indicated that almost 300,000 Marathi medium students in class V, couldn’t write a simple sentence in English. Ironically the proposal to teach English from class I was made seven years ago but was fiercely opposed by the state’s language chauvinists and sub-nationalists with a vested interest in the (substandard) Marathi textbooks publishing racket.

But with another generation of hapless Marathi medium students stuck in low-end jobs or making the rounds of employment agencies, the demand for English language — if not medium — education has become irresistible, and even poorest households are switching their children to fee-charging English medium schools. Parental preference for English medium education is graphically illustrated in downtown Mumbai’s Robert Money School, (estd.1836) which offers students a choice between English and Marathi medium education. Despite primary and secondary Marathi medium education being wholly subsidised by the government, while English medium education is priced at an average Rs.250 per month, enrollment in the former is only one-fourth the English medium section. Moreover, Marathi medium schools in the state report an annual 10 percent decrease in admissions every year.

While the state government’s belated decision to introduce teaching-learning of English — commonly acknowledged as the lingua franca of business in India as well as the world — from class I has been widely welcomed, educationists accustomed to the slapdash diktats of education ministry officials advise caution.

Comments Arundhati Chavan, president of Mumbai’s Parent-Teacher Associations United Forum: "The introduction of English as the second language from class I is overdue. But mandating it as the medium of instruction for science and maths is not a good idea. Children not taught English in nursery and pre-schools will find it difficult to switch to learning maths and science in English, especially if they are first generation learners. Secondly, parents might reason that if a child has to tackle two subjects in English, then she might as well do the entire syllabus in the language and switch to an English medium school."

This apart, recruitment of an estimated 100,000 teachers before the start of even the next academic year is difficult. Meanwhile the education ministry has announced that it is acquiring software to train teachers who will learn to perfect their English pronunciation from Linguaphone discs and CDs. But is seems unlikely that the plan can be effectively implemented in a hurry. Almost half a century’s myopia can’t be corrected so quickly.

Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)

Private education crusader

The Supreme Court’s interim order of June 12 permitting six unaided Muslim minority colleges to hold their own Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission into professional courses for the forthcoming academic year is a boon for minority institutions throughout India, says P.A. Inamdar, an eminent educationist and Pune-based president of Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society (MCES). "I am very happy that the Supreme Court has restored the right guaranteed in the Constitution to minorities to establish and administer their institutions without interference from the Central or state governments," a jubilant Inamdar told EducationWorld.

The apex court’s interim order, which allows a group of minority institutions to conduct their own CET and fill management quota seats suo motu, will have a wider implication throughout the country as groups of unaided minority institutes cite the MCES precedent or move their high courts for redress. For Inamdar the order is another personal triumph as it applies to MCES’ four institutes, viz M.A. Rangoonwala College of Dental Sciences & Research Centre; M.A. Rangoonwala College of Physiotherapy; Allana College of Pharmacy; Allana Institute of Management Science (MCA programme); and Association of Muslim Minority Technical Educational Institutions of Maharashtra (MBA and B.Ed programmes).

A vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Altamas Kabir allowed the plea of the Association of Muslim Minorities Technical Education and Institutions headed by Inamdar, challenging the state government’s order of asking it to admit students who had written the state conducted CET.

The Supreme Court’s order was particularly sweet music to Inamdar, because earlier in February the Maharashtra government’s Pravesh Niyantran Samiti (Admission Regulatory Council) had permitted Inamdar to conduct his own CET for the four professional education colleges of MCES. But subsequently on February 20 it suddenly withdrew it. Inamdar immediately filed a special leave petition in the Bombay high court, which didn’t admit it. He then appealed to the Supreme Court a fortnight ago.

Spread over a 24-acre green campus in the heart of Pune, MCES runs 26 institutions catering to 25,000 students taught by a 2,500 strong faculty.

"Article 30 (1) of the Constitution unequivocally guarantees religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions. Subsequently the apex court has repeatedly affirmed that the right to administer includes the right to admit students through fair and transparent admission procedures subject to selection of students on merit," says Inamdar.

Moreover according to Inamdar, minority institutions which are unaided are not obliged to pay heed to government mandated caste or class quotas. "If necessary I will move the courts on this issue," adds Inamdar who believes that in the TMA Pai and Inamdar cases (the latter filed by him), the Supreme Court has given minority colleges the right to charge their own fees subject to "non-profiteering".

A believer in the efficacy of the legal system, this Pune-based educationist is convinced that for India to attain developed nation status, creation of additional capacity is vitally necessary. "With government finances in disarray, only private sector educationists can bridge the demand-supply gap in higher education. America’s great colleges and universities were built by private educationists and philanthropists. I want that to happen here by asserting the fundamental rights conferred by the Constitution upon the citizens of India," he says ringingly.

Right on brother!

Michael Gonsalves (Pune)

Safety netting

• Last December, Petchi Muthu, a student of P.S. Higher Secondary School in Mylapore, drowned while playing with his friends on the marina

• In March this year, S.Saravanan, an M.Com student of the Guru Nanak College, Velachery, met with an accident while driving a two-wheeler and fractured his leg

• Last year, Priyanka, a class VII student of Avichi Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Arcot Road, lost her life when an MTC bus crashed into her bicycle when she was returning home

Instances of school and college students meeting with accidents, within and outside the school premises are multiplying rapidly. The choked roads of Chennai (pop. 6.4 million), non-compliance with driving and road safety regulations and perennial traffic snarls near school premises during peak hours, pose serious safety hazards to citizens, and students in particular. Even within crowded school and college campuses, students frequently meet with accidents while playing games or running around. Deeply concerned at the rising incidence of accident cases, some school and college managements in the city have resolved to protect their students by providing them insurance cover. And sensing a good business opportunity in the education sector, a private company — Innovative Insurers — has stepped forward to provide group insurance to students.

Currently Innovative Insurers provides accident insurance cover to 60,000 students in 40 schools and ten colleges in and around Chennai, in association with two insurance majors — United India Insurance and ICICI Lombard. Run by a team of five professionals with over 20 years of corporate experience, Innovation Insurers provides corrective care and financial support ranging from Rs.10,000-100,000 per student. "We are pioneers in providing accident insurance coverage to educational institutions at very low annual premiums. Our policies cover accidents inside and beyond school gates including fatalities, loss of limbs or eyesight and hospitalisation expenses. Moreover we bear the entire education expenses of students who lose their breadwinner in an accident," says S. Vijayakumar, promoter-partner of Innovative Insurers.

Unsurprisingly some institutional managements are enthused about group insurance coverage. "Since most of our students are from low income households, group insurance is a great boon. Our management, the P.S. Educational Society, pays an annual premium of Rs.27 per child, and we have also insured our school building and electronic equipment," says B. Raghuveeran, headmaster of P.S. Higher Secondary School, one of five schools run by the P.S. Educational Society with an aggregate enrollment of 7,000 students.

But while students, parents and school/ college managements are doing their bit, not much is being done by the state education and transport ministries to reduce accident fatalities and injury involving school and college students. However following a government order of March last year which stipulates that school managements should not allow students to drop out because of death of a parent, a growing number of institutional managements are turning to private insurance companies for safety netting. They are only too aware of the limitations of government.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)

Citizen power

More than 150 private schools in the national capital including some blue-chip secondaries may suffer withdrawal of the all-important ‘recognition’ by the Delhi state government for transferring surplus income to parent trusts or societies in violation of provisions of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973. The most prominent among schools slapped with a derecognition order is St Columba’s School, promoted by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. The education directorate of the state government has charged it with diverting Rs.1.83 crore to its parent congregation during the past three years. Under the prevailing rules, all surplus income has to be retained within the institution for improving school infrastructure and student facilities.

In 1999 the Delhi high court had upheld this provision of the Act, but permitted school managements to utilise surpluses for promotion of new education institutions. The ruling was confirmed by the Supreme Court but subsequently, the apex court admitted a review petition which is still pending, and remains the dying hope of the accused school managements.

The St. Columba’s management has maintained a stoic silence about the order. Legal experts say the pending review petition may offer the school temporary respite, but the likelihood is that it may have to reduce its tuition fees. According to education directorate sources, the Congregation has been receiving 12 percent of the annual fees collected by the school, and there is no account of how this money was used. The directorate had served three notices to the Congregation asking it to revert the funds into the school’s account, failing which it will be derecognised. According to the state government’s education minister, Arvinder Singh Lovely, 152 schools are under investigation.

"Under the law, schools are established or promoted by their registered parent trusts or societies. Therefore if some funds are transferred to the society for administration expenses, it shouldn’t be a criminal offence. We are asking the government to examine each case to determine irregularities. The provision of the Education Act shouldn’t be used as a blunt instrument in the hands of officials to harass school managements which selflessly and honestly provide high quality education," says T.R.Gupta, president of the action committee of unaided recognised private schools in Delhi.

Advocate Ashok Agarwal, convener of the well-known NGO, Social Jurist, says that it’s time private schools make their accounts transparent and readily accept their social and legal obligations. "The high tuition fees of private schools should be rationalised so that the financial burden of the parent community is lessened," he says.

But refreshingly, social jurist isn’t targeting only privately promoted schools. Its Right to Education Task Force (RETF) activated last October has been conducting surprise raids on municipal schools to highlight their deficient services and infrastructure. "Our raiding groups are known as shiksha mitras or friends of education and more than 100 of them comprising volunteers from all sections of society, are operational. Their surprise visits have not only instilled fear in MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) schools, but have also started involving the community. Even government officials are becoming increasingly proactive," says Agarwal. RETF hopes this social activism will force improvement of academic standards in government schools in Delhi and be replicated elsewhere.

The flurry of activity and growing social participation in education causes in the national capital where politics is the be all and end all of social activism, augurs well for society. It’s an indicator that citizens are beginning to practise democracy, rather than be content with politicians preaching it.

Autar Nehru (New Delhi)

Tale of two colleges

The talking point of the new academic year which begins in mid-July, is the stark contrast in the future prospects of Kolkata’s top two colleges, viz, Presidency and St. Xavier’s. Some two months ago, following the recommendation of the National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC), both these colleges were granted A+ rating and were asked to initiate the process of acquiring full autonomous status.

Ever since, there’s been excitement in academia with the expectation that the higher education scenario in West Bengal is on the threshold of a renaissance. After all, chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee had announced in the state assembly in February that his government was "initiating measures" to grant autonomous status to Presidency College "as soon as possible, preferably within the current academic session".

Bhattacharjee had made this statement on the floor of the house before the April elections in which the CPI (M)-led Left Front Coalition was returned to Writers Building for a record seventh term. Although Bhattacharjee was reinstalled as chief minister, his choice for higher education minister was Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury, one of the few new faces in the state cabinet. Promptly — and rather surprisingly — Roy Chowdhury departed from the chief minister’s script vis-à-vis Presidency’s autonomy. "I cannot comment on the issue of granting autonomy to Presidency College at this stage," he said shortly after being sworn in.

According to CPI (M) sources this apparent change of heart is prompted by the demand from a large number of teachers, including leaders of the CPI(M) controlled Government College Teachers’ Association and West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association, that the state government funded Presidency should not be granted full autonomy. And given that the CPI (M) derives its power from trade unions, the Left Front leadership is wary of contradicting these two powerful associations. Therefore, the best option is the status quo.

Notwithstanding the NAAC rating and recommendation of autonomy status, given that Presidency College is a state government funded institution, the principal has to get the recommen-dation approved by the secretary (higher education), the director of public education and the higher education minister officially, and unofficially by party apparatchiks.

On the other hand the private sector minority college St. Xavier’s, which is currently basking in the reflected glory of its most famous alumnus Laxmi Nivas Mittal, the world’s numero uno steel tycoon, has already announced a host of initiatives in the new academic session starting July 1, the day the college officially declares its autonomous status. Principal Fr. P.C. Mathew says autonomous status will help the college restructure its curricula, update the syllabi and apply for deemed university status. "This is an opportunity for us to set higher benchmarks and revive higher education in West Bengal. Changes in syllabus will be subject based and curriculums will be updated regularly in consultation with the needs of industry," he says.

With Mittal having committed a massive donation to his alma mater, St. Xavier’s has already begun a drive to collect the corpus of Rs.20 crore required of an institution aspiring to deemed university status from its alumni, even as its new postgraduate campus off Kolkata’s Eastern Metropolitan Bypass is on course for completion by 2010 — in time for the college’s 150th anniversary.

Meanwhile in Presidency College despite the reformist impulses of West Bengal’s reconfirmed chief minister, it looks like business as usual, Soviet — rather than Chinese — style.

Sujoy Gupta (Kolkata)

Control mindset

Although the Karnataka state government’s track record in administering its own 48,000 government schools is abysmal, the education bureaucracy’s zest for licence-permit-control raj is undiminished. On June 11, Basavaraj Horatti, primary and secondary education minister in the ruling Janata Dal (S)-BJP coalition government ordered education officials to formulate a centralised admission procedure for the estimated 22,000 private pre-schools in Karnataka.

"Private school managements including pre-school promoters are fleecing gullible parents by charging hefty donations, capitation fees etc. We need to stop this exploitation. Since all other measures such as enforcing the anti-capitation fee law, conducting surprise raids and holding talks with school managements have failed, the only option is regulation. The Delhi state government has devised a system for regulating admission into private kindergarten schools. We will adopt this system with minor modifications. These rules will become effective from the current academic year starting July," says Horatti.

Under the proposed regulatory system, the state’s education department will constitute district committees to monitor admissions even into informal pre-schools which have hitherto escaped the rigours of ubiquitous inspector raj. If the proposal is approved by the government, parents will have to apply to the committee indicating preferred pre-schools for their tiny tots. When demand for seats exceeds supply, the district committee will draw lots to determine admissions.

Unsurprisingly, promoters of nursery or pre-schools which have grouped under the Indian Association of Pre-School Education (IAPE), are up in arms against this proposal. Like all private promoters of education institutions, they dread government control and contend that nursery schools which in effect are informal play schools, don’t require regulation. Moreover they believe that IAPE regulation is sufficient. IAPE conducts annual workshops to discuss ways and means to enhance the quality, curriculums and functioning of pre-schools across the country. In addition, regional branches of IAPE conduct regular bi-monthly training workshops for pre-school teachers.

"We have our own rules and quality parameters to which member schools are obliged to adhere. I don’t believe government has any cause to interfere in the functioning of pre-schools. Centralisation and government control will result in harassment and corrupt practices," says Padmashree R. Raj, an alumna of Gujarat University and former principal of Kautilya School, Mysore who is currently secretary, IAPE, Mysore branch.

The new enthusiasm of the state government’s educracy to extend its suzerainity to pre-school education, coincides with the release of a survey report of the Karnataka School Quality Assessment Organisation (KSQAO) on June 16. The report reveals that over 50 percent of government school students receive substandard education. The survey conducted in 43,414 government schools over six months, tested 2.1 million students studying in classes II, V and VII in Kannada, mathematics, science and social science. According to KSQAO, class II children displayed the highest competency with 67 percent passing its tests, while only 49 percent and 48 percent of class V and VII students exhibited the required competency levels.

The KSQAO survey affirms the verdict of the annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2005, conducted by the Mumbai-based NGO, Pratham which indicates that learning outcomes of primary school students in Karnataka even in mathematics, for which southern states have a global reputation, are worse than in Bihar. Comments Horatti: "It is shocking that nearly 50 percent children in our schools have not attained the required levels of learning. This is primarily because teachers are often called for non-teaching duties such as census, elections, etc, at the expense of their teaching time. We are looking at ways and means to disengage teachers from these non-teaching tasks, so that they get more time to do their jobs."

But on the larger question of how the state’s dysfunctional educracy will cope with the additional task of monitoring the estimated 22,000 pre-schools spread across the state, the minister was evasive. Within the collective mindset of the minister, educracy and the state government, there is quite obviously a deep-rooted belief that when government control and regulations fail, the panacea is more of the same.

Srinidhi Raghavendra (Bangalore)