Misadventures in education

Misadventures in education

Article:

1. M.V. Rajeev Gowda, politician, and Shahana Munazir, scholar, discussed the pros and cons of the HECI Bill and Right to Education (Amendment) Bill, both passed  by the government recently.

Important:

2. Recently, the Ministry of HRD was in news for two controversial Bills:

a) The draft of Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, which seeks to replace the University Grant Commission.

b) The Right to Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018, seeks to eliminate the no-detention policy and reintroduce testing for class 5 and 8.

3. Many concerns have been raised by academics, policy makers, civil society on the HECI Bill on the following grounds:

• Silent on concrete reasons to replace the UGC.
• Both the National Knowledge Commission Report (2006) and the Yashpal Committee on Higher Education (2009) made a solid case for bringing in a new regulator.
• Over centralization and enhanced political interference.
• Politicization of grant allocation.
• More interference by the Bureaucracy.
• Instead of providing autonomy, the Bill allows the chairperson of the new Commission to be a member of the central government, something expressly prohibited in the UGC Act.
• The bill also transgresses the autonomy of higher educational institutions by allowing micromanagement, for instance, on syllabi.
• It does not involve the States sufficiently and or accommodate the diverse needs of the country.

4. Detention policy:

• The Right to Education (RTE) Bill 2018 does away with the policy that children cannot be detained till they complete elementary education in Class VIII.
•  The amendment gives States the option of holding regular examinations either at the end of Class V or Class VIII, or both.
• Students who fail this exam would be given a chance to re-appear after two months from the date of declaration of results.
• In case they still cannot pass, the States will have the option of detaining them.
• This would potentially push out many children who are unable to meet standards because they have been deprived of quality education.
• The no-detention policy was to be implemented together with continuous assessment, which would help identify learning deficiencies and correct them.

1. Loopholes in amended RTE Bill:

• The education system has failed to provide continuous assessment and so the government is falling back on examinations and detention, which can lead to students becoming discouraged and higher dropout rates.
• Declining funds.
• An Accountability Initiative Report shows that allocations for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the main vehicle to drive RTE implementation, have remained much below the resource estimates made by the MHRD.
• Quality-related interventions accounted for only 9% of the total approved budgets in FY 2016-17.
• States like Kerala that wish to continue with the no-detention policy spent nearly all their allocated budget on quality in 2016-17.

1. The larger question is whether the no-detention policy will improve the learning outcomes of children if it is brought back.
2.  Nine years since the launch of the RTE we have achieved near universalisation of enrolment of children at the elementary level. The no-detention policy is successful in that sense.
3. However, if the aim is to improve learning outcomes, the policy alone is unhelpful.
4. The author provides the following suggestions Suggestions:

• Improving learning outcomes in children , there are other specific provisions in the RTE that need attention.
• Maintaining good pupil-teacher ratio(PTR)
• Proper infrastructure like all-weather building
• Barrier-free access in schools
• Separate toilets for boys and girls
• Goods libraries should be there.