With India’s aspirational middle class having cottoned on to the vital importance of high quality, professionally administered preschool/nursery education, the first three months of every year is a time of high stress and anxiety for young parents in Delhi-NCR (national capital region), with nursery admissions commencing in January. A spate of public interest litigations, writs, guidelines of the state government and court orders relating to cut-off ages, the sale and availability of admission forms, and arbitrarily priced prospectuses are de rigueur.
This year the confusion has been compounded by the Delhi School Education (Free Seats for Students belonging to Economically Weaker Section and Disadvantaged Group) Order, 2011 (DSE Order), issued on January 7 by the education department of the Delhi state government. Drawing inspiration from s.12 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (aka RTE Act), s.3(a) of the DSE Order directs all schools to “admit children in class I to the extent of at least 25 percent of the strength of that class, belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups in the neighbourhood and provide free and compulsory elementary education till its completion; provided that where such school imparts preschool education, the provisions shall apply for admissions to such preschools”.
Subsequently in a ruling dated January 31 in the Federation of Public Schools or FPI vs. Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, the Delhi high court spelt out what constitutes ‘neighbourhood’ for the purpose of the RTE Act and the DSE Order. Dismissing the contention in the writ petition (W.P. (C) 636/2012) of FPI (a registered body of 260 private unaided schools) that the purpose of the DSE Order is “to compel and coerce private schools to fill up their seats”, a division bench of the court directed private unaided schools to adopt four distances — 1 km, 3 km, 6 km and beyond — as neighbourhood catch-ment areas. The court further directed school managements to give first priority to poor children residing within 1 km and progress outwards until 25 percent of class I or preschool capacity is filled.
Inevitably, the managements of private unaided schools in Delhi-NCR are less than enthused about the DSE Order and high court directive. “We have to abide by court orders, but the issue is far from resolved. We still do not have clear guidelines on whether the tuition fees of students admitted under the EWS (economically weaker sections) 25 percent quota will be reimbursed. If they are free seats, parents of students admitted under the general category will have to bear the burden of cross-subsidisation which will definitely irk them,” says Dr. R.P. Mallik, president, Federation of Public Schools.
Under s.8 of the DSE Order, the tuition fees of children admitted under the EWS quota “shall be reimbursed by the government to the extent of per-child expenditure incurred by the state government and local authorities, or the actual amount charged from the child, whichever is less, as per s.12 (2) of RTE Act, 2009”. State government sources indicate that it will pay Rs.1,000-1,500 per child per month under the EWS quota. Against this, the monthly tuition fees of most private schools in Delhi average Rs.3,000-3,500. “The state government needs to understand that quality education, state-of-the-art infrastructure, highly-trained teachers, global curriculum, etc comes at a price. The shortfall in government support will have to be cross-subisidised by students under the general category,” warns S.K. Bhattacharya, president, Action Committee for Unaided Private Schools, Delhi.
Against this backdrop of already inadequate capacity in private pre and primary schools shrinking further, aspirant middle class parents are leaving no stone unturned to secure admission for their children in the national capital’s top-ranked private schools. “Ambiguous guidelines and restricting orders further reduce the choice of parents who are driven to paying out sums between Rs.5,000-500,000 to touts to secure admission for their children into Delhi’s top-rung schools,” says advocate-activist Ashok Agarwal, convenor of Delhi-based NGO Social Jurist.
On the other hand, while wild stampedes for admission into Delhi’s too few high-end private preschools and primaries is an annual event, there are no rules and regulations about admission into Delhi-NCR’s 2,733 state and local government-run schools sited on large parcels of prime property because there are few — and declining — takers for the abysmal education they deliver. In particular, the middle class shuns them like the plague.
The obvious antidote to the annual rush for admission into Delhi-NCR’s too-few professionally managed private preschools and 1,950 unaided primary-secondaries, is to raise teaching-learning standards and outcomes in government schools. But that’s mission impossible.
Swati Roy (Delhi)
Belated VET initiative
The much anticipated National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) for mainstreaming vocational education (currently in bad shape with an annual enrolment of 600,000 students in 9,583 learning centres), was rolled out by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in New Delhi on February 6. NVEQF recommends that secondary and college students sign up for skills development programmes conterminously with general education and vice versa. The objective is to provide a multiple entry and exit system between vocational education, general education and the jobs market.
Under this nationally applicable qualification and standards framework, seven levels of ‘knowledge and skill’ have been prescribed starting from class IX to postgraduation. Vocational education at the first level in classes IX-X will be imparted by schools according to CBSE or state board guidelines. Further vocational education will be dispensed by higher education bodies such as technical education boards, institutes and universities. At each level, students will receive 1,000 hours of vocational education and training (VET) per annum. For the vocational stream leading to a degree or diploma, the vocational component will increase progressively with each level of certification. Initially, schools and colleges together with training institutes and companies, as skills knowledge providers will offer VET in automobiles, entertainment, information technology, telecommunications, marketing, agriculture, construction, applied arts, tourism, printing and publishing.
According to a spokesperson of the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry, the green light to NVEQF will prompt at least 5 million students to sign up for VET programmes every year. AICTE will provide the required statutory recognition to all institutions willing to conduct these programmes from the next academic year starting June/July. Each institution can choose a maximum of 500 students at 100 students per sector.
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Inevitably, India’s nascent privately-promoted vet companies are closely examining the NVEQF proposition. “As one of India’s largest VET providers, we are very keen to play a significant role in this initiative which we are studying closely. But it’s a welcome initiative which will provide a big boost to vocational education within the student and parent commu-nities,” says Sharad Talwar, chief executive of the Noida-based skills training major, IndiaCan, a joint venture of Educomp Solutions Ltd and Pearson Inc, promoted in 2009.
However, other VET providers believe it will take much more than mere legislation and belated good intentions to popularise VET in India where it has been woefully neglected for almost six decades. “The biggest stumbling block is that the country needs 8.6 million certified VET teachers which requires a huge financial outlay. Moreover, there isn’t sufficient certified content, accrediting agencies, exam systems, or standards equivalence. What’s needed is a for-profit public-private partnership network of VET providers to create sector-specific standards aligned to curriculums and trained teachers. All this requires policy changes and building a robust VET delivery infrastructure,” says Navin Bhatia, managing director of the Delhi-based Navkar Centre for Skills (estb. 2011).
In a country where the HRD ministry itself admits that a mere 8 percent of senior secondary schools dispense vocational education and less than 3 percent of secondary students opt for VET, and 12.8 million youth enter the workforce every year with poor skillsets, low productivity and wages, introduction of NVEQF (which was endorsed by state education ministers on February 22) is undoubtedly a welcome initiative. But a great deal more is needed than facilitative legislation.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)