In the decade after passage of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, while the target of 100% enrollment in primary schools has been largely met, the problem of qualitative improvement in learning remains. Now, a new study released by NITI Aayog suggests changes to traditional strategies for improving the quality of school education by a multi-pronged approach.Despite years of effort and projects on changing syllabuses, teacher training as well as student assessments, the situation has not improved due to structural flaws. “India today suffers from the twin challenges of unviable sub-scale schools and a severe shortage of teachers which makes in-school interventions only marginally fruitful,” says the study co-authored by Alok Kumar, adviser, NITI Aayog, and Seema Bansal, director, social impact, Boston Consulting Group.Because of an emphasis on enrolment, India adopted the strategy of building schools near every habitation, resulting in a proliferation of schools with tiny populations and inadequate resources. “India has almost 3-4 times the number of schools (15 lakh) than China (nearly 5 lakh) despite a similar population. Nearly 4 lakh schools have less than 50 students each and a maximum of two teachers,” says the report. Around 1.5 crore students study in such unviable schools.Vacancies compound the problem. India has a shortage of more than 10 lakh teachers. The teachers that exist are inadequately distributed. “It’s not uncommon to find surplus teachers in an urban school while a single teacher may manage 100-plus students in a rural school. Some states have a shortage of more than 40%,” the report maintains. 68641329 “It’s a perennial problem in Odisha. Apart from academic work, teachers are also engaged in managing midday meals, conducting surveys and in administrative and election duties,” said Khageswar Pal, a teacher in Mayurbhanj.The report suggests consolidating several such schools within a short distance of one another, and providing transport and allowances. School consolidation, pioneered in states like Rajasthan and Jharkhand, has reaped rich dividends through improved learning environments and even improved enrolment.The solution is moving teachers from surplus to deficit schools, restructuring complicated teacher cadres, and increased investment in teacher recruitment through better planning. Madhya Pradesh has undertaken an online teacher rationalisation process, moving nearly 10,000 teachers from surplus to deficit schools.The second focus area is learning levels. Annual Status of Education Reports (ASER) found that nearly half of class 5 children cannot read a class 2 text. Dropout rates increase as children move up. “Around 30% enrolled in class 1 graduate from class 12. Of those who do, majority don’t possess requisite skills to be readily employable,” says the report. Teachers struggle with subject knowledge and ability to teach it. Also, curriculum lacks relevance, particularly at the secondary level.One of the solutions for this is a shift from syllabus completion to focusing on what competencies students have mastered. “Dedicated time should be carved out in the school day to bridge these gaps, and students should be taught based on their learning levels rather than grades.Programmes based on this strategy are being implemented in Haryana, Jharkhand, MP and Odisha. These states have ensured teachers are provided guidance through scripted handbooks, and students are given workbooks for rigorous practice,” the report says. 68641337 The curriculum also needs to ensure teachers master both the content they need to deliver and the approach to teach it effectively. “A teacher first needs to understand why adding fractions requires conversion to a common denominator, and then she needs to be able to translate this understanding to her students by using hands-on material and concrete examples,” the authors say.What’s required is to rethink vocational education in secondary schools. Currently, nearly 8,000 schools offer one or two trades to vocationalise secondary education. But the trades are outdated.“There should be needbased customized training of teachers. A teacher weak in maths might be excellent in physics. We tell students to share knowledge. We have to do something similar amongst teachers,” said Smith Kumar Sony, who teaches in two schools in Jharkhand.The other focus area is implementation of such strategies. “Communication channels between education directorates and schools are broken. There is little data on learning being generated in schools and fed back – so decisions on how to improve education programmes are often educated guesswork,” says the report.Core academic institutions— State Councils for Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) and District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) — are understaffed and skills like curriculum design or assessment design and analysis are often missing. “We need to fill these vacancies with the right people with relevant skills. Employees need to be trained to work with data and technology,” the report says. 68641340 Other changes which could help are automating some systems, such as maintaining academic registers. “In Jharkhand, with real-time school monitoring data now available, the state can identify the bottom 2,500 schools and provide targeted support,” adds the report. “We also need to look at the culture of the education department, with emphasis on delivery and accountability. Transforming public education will require bold measures like changing the way we manage public finances and making education budgets flexible. It’ll need political will and a coming together of bureaucracy, civil society and private sector.”(With inputs from Debjani Chakraborty in Jharkhand and Minati Singha in Odisha)
from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2V7cS8K
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