Education Desk AIPSN

VARIOUS EDUCATIONAL POLICIES

Post Independence…Dr. Radhakrishnan’s University Education Commission

(1948-49), National Science Policy (1952), Sri Mudaliar’s Secondary Education Commission (1952-

53), Dr. Kothari’s Education Commission (1964-66) which

was made into National Policy on Education (1968), The National Commission on Teachers - I & II (1983-85)The National Policy on Education 1986 (revised in

1992) were the important policies of education

HR. EDUCATION POLICIES

Yashpal committee Birla-Ambani Report - which says Hr.

Education is not public good and it is private good ,

NKC Report

Recommendations by N. R. Narayanamurthy

VARIOUS PROGRAMMES OF EDUCATION National Literacy Mission, Sakshar Bharat Mission, Right to Education Act, 2009. A number of NGOs and CSOs have been functioning in

the fields of literacy and Elementary Education, including the mass organizations like the PSMs and BGVS.

implementing several centrally sponsored schemes, such as SSA, RMSA for secondary education and RUSA for higher education.

Besides, the Government has sought to skills education by introducing the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).

This has been additional to the conventional fund allotment for a wide variety of schemes, such as Mid-Day Meals Schemes, special schemes for the SCs and STs, differently abled children and so on.

STATUS OF LITERACY AND EDUCATION

Adult literacy rate still is around 73% with the female literacy around 65%,

Enrolment of children in the primary classes has picked up but Gross and Net Enrolment Ratios falling sharply after Standard VIII, showing that a number of children drop out after primary education( or when they complete 14 years, so that they can become labourers). The drop out rates is sharper in the case of SCs and STs.

There is a clear improvement in the enrolment of girls into primary education, but they also drop out after primary education

The bedrock of the programmes for realization of Education for All, still have not been fully answered, and States that have been backward, still remain backward in terms of access.

CHALLENGES IN LITERACY India currently has the largest non-literate population in the

world with the absolute number of non-literates among population aged 7 and above being 282.6 million in 2011.

India also hosts the largest number of youth and adult illiterates in the world with the youth literacy rate (15-24 years) and adult literacy rate (15 years and above) in India in 2011 being 86.1 percent and 69.3 percent respectively.

Youth literacy rate, with the youth literacy rates for male and female population (age 15-24 years) in 2011 being 90 per cent and 81.8 per cent respectively.

Adult literacy rates for male and female population (age 15 years and over) in 2011 being 78.8 per cent and 59.3 per cent respectively..

CHALLENGE - SCHOOL EDUCATION

The absolute number of out-of-school children remains high. The relatively lower enrolment rates in upper primary and secondary education as compared to primary education are also a matter of concern.

Many girls are not sent to schools . The proportion of out-of-school children (OOSC) has been

higher than the national average for SC children, ST children and Muslim children. This indicates that these children need greater and focused attention

Despite these efforts, children from certain sections of the population, such as children with disabilities, children in remote locations, children belonging to nomadic families, migrant children, and other vulnerable/disadvantaged groups and Urban poor children

Children with disabilities and children with special needs constitute a significant proportion of out-of-school children.

CHALLENGES - SCHOOL EDUCATION

Achievement Surveys of the NCERT - 2010 show that about 31.5% of children surveyed got less than 40% in language, 35.8% fail in mathematics and 35.1% fail in EVS

The biggest challenge facing school education relates to the unsatisfactory level of student learning. The findings of the National Achievement Surveys (NAS) covering Grades III, V, VIII and X suggest that learning levels of a significant proportion of students do not measure up to the expected learning levels.

OBC, SC and ST students and Children from historically disadvantaged and economically weaker sections of society and first generation learners exhibit significantly lower learning outcomes.

The Central Government has initiated vocational secondary education from 1988, but it has not shown appreciable results. Skills education has been introduced from 2009, and it is yet to show the desired results.

Employability as a criterion along with equity and excellence in education has been also negative.

CHALLENGES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education remains low at 23.6 percent in 2014-15. The current target is to increase GER to 25.2 per cent in 2017-18 and further to 30 per cent in 2020-21

Regional disparities in Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education are large. In 2011-12 GER in higher education ranged between 8.4

percent in Jharkhand and 53 percent in Chandigarh. Similarly, the variations among the social groups too are

considerable the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education remains low at 23.6 percent (24.5% for boys, 22.7% for girls; 18.5% for SCs and 13.3% for STs) in 2014-15.

The quality of education provided in a large number of higher education institutions is a matter of great concern

Academic mercantilism, Academic cloning, Accreditation and rating devices.

NEP-2016 No detention policy will be limited up to class V Existing non-viable schools into composite

schools Clause 12 (1) (c) of RTE Act to government-

aided minority institutions Reasons for the success of Novothyas will be

studied and replicated by the States Open schooling facilities enable dropouts and

working children to pursue education vocational skill-based programs slow learners

and underachievers, secondary and higher secondary students about relevant employment opportunities.

NEP-2016 A common national curriculum for Science, Maths and

English Mathematics, Science and English will be at two levels:

Part-A at a higher level and Part-B at a lower level. Students

a central examination at the end of class-X and XII National Fellowship Fund for 10 lakh students for the

economically weaker sections A separate national talent scholarship scheme, covering all

subject areas for meritorious students medium of instruction up to primary level is the mother

tongue or local or regional language, the second language will be English and the choice of the third language upper primary level

facilities for teaching Sanskrit at the school and university stages will be offered on a more liberal scale.

NEP-2016

IT-based applications for monitoring teacher and student attendance, performance and evaluation

to deal with absenteeism and indiscipline, assisted by technology for recording attendance with mobile phones and biometric devices

Disciplinary powers will be vested with the School Management Committees

Periodic assessment of teachers in government and private schools will be made mandatory and linked to their future promotions and release of increments.

They will have to appear and clear an assessment test every 5 (five) year which assesses their pedagogic skills and subject knowledge

Principals/head teachers will be held accountable for the academic performance of the schools and its improvement

NEP-2016 The IES will be an all India service with HRD as the cadre

controlling authority. to prevent them from staying in hostels and misuse facilities of

the institute. Selected foreign universities, from the top 200 in the world A mechanism of assessment of academic performance of faculty 100 new centres/ departments of excellence, in the field of higher

education The Government will take steps for incentivizing private sector

investment in education, such as, tax benefits and inclusion of education within the definition of infrastructure. In general, public funding will continue for core activities, whereas other functions can be through private funding.

Private funding and FDI for R&D and other quality enhancement activities in education institutions will be pursued as an important strategy for mobilizing financial resources.

performance-linked funding of higher education institutions will be implemented

QUALITY

Quality should be determined not only in terms of learning outcomes based on scores that the students get in examination but also on the basis of the all-round development of individuals functioning in society, in terms of the their mental, material, aesthetic, bodily kinesthetic and performance capabilities and activities.

VALUE EDUCATION:

Value education is addressed as religion and religious morality, rather than the principles of secularism, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion and democracy stated in the constitution, and not a word is said about academic freedom stressed by all educational thinkers.

STUDENT’S UNION:

The best way to tap these sensibilities is to provide more academic freedom, more flexible and decentralized administrative functioning, with the administration being sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the academic community, including the students, teachers and researchers as a whole. The solution to student unrest is more democracy and creativity, with a commitment of the entire academic community to the acquisition of knowledge, rather than resorting draconian bureaucratic measures.

IES These members are mainly educational

administrators overseeing implementation of policy, not teachers or educators. Such prescriptions can only deepen hierarchies that see teachers and students at the bottom, ruled on by such elite from above. Recommendation for an All India Education Service, provide the substance of education, are to be subsumed under an education bureaucracy

CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE The Report has no specific

recommendations for the improvement of functioning of state Universities. Instead, the report recommends the establishment of new Universities that provide quality education and facilitate ‘innovation’! Again, this is nothing but the rehash of the Old proposal of the UPA Government for Universities of research and innovation. So the state Universities are allowed to follow their own paths of decay and death.

FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES: The issue of foreign Universities is also

addressed in the report. Perhaps due to the apprehension that mediocre educational entrepreneurs will invade the country, the Report recommends that investment be sought from the ‘best’ two hundred Universities ( as rated by the various rating agencies in the World)

There is no indication regarding what such Universities are going to do in our education system, and how such investment is going to benefit the rural student, who admittedly suffers from lack of quality.

TEACHER Student outcomes and relate them to teacher

performance – this should be the predominant criterion for making teachers accountable for their performance.

The reward and punishment structure of teachers needs also to be closely linked to continuous assessment of student performance and teacher evaluation.

Acquisition of techniques of teaching in teacher education cannot translate itself into actual teaching practice unless the concrete situation demands it. Nor can the best potential teachers be induced to teach unless there is democracy, operative freedom and freedom of expression necessary for an academic professional, which is what any professional worker would demand.

ITCIt is at best an augmenting

device and not a replacement for the physical and mental process of teaching, learning and research. The impact of IT is manifest when the actual teaching and learning process improves, and not vice versa.

ON CURRICULUMGiven the diversity of the education

system a, it clear that centralised curriculum is not feasible. Only curricular guidelines needs to be worked out at the central level, with the states being asked to develop detailed curricula. For Higher education, the same task should be entrusted with the Universities as is the practice today.

ON RTE Minority schools might be required to

accept the condition admitting 25% of students from economically weaker sections. The second is the amendment made in the no detention policy up to the fifth standard. If one accepts the spirit of the RTE act and wants to implement it seriously, then the only possibility that emerges is that the entire education from 6 to 14 is integrated under a framework of common schools,

PRE SCHOOL EDUCATION:The recommendations that we should

welcome: pre school education to be declared a right; cadres of pre primary teachers to be developed; Similarly pre-primary education also does not require a common curriculum as indicated by the Report, but common perspective based of ECCE for which specific curricula will have to devised as per concrete local conditions by the states.

CENTRALISATION AND BUREAUCRATISATION

Major impediment in the development of local and regional initiatives which are very important in the growth of education in country of great diversity such as India. This becomes even more important as education is a field that is essentially participatory and democratic, which cannot be carried out without the active participation of the teachers, students and the neighbourhood community.

SANSKRIT LEARNINGThe emphasis on Sanskrit learning,

Vedic –Puranic traditions and ancient Indian culture , as well as repeated appeals to the experience of Gujarat are too obvious in the report to be ignored. Such intrusions, that are already compromising the scientific nature of the Report, are certain to assume conspicuous dimensions in policy formulations.

STATE’S ROLE NEGLECTED:

Overall, the solutions in the Report seek to centralize, based on the premise that State governments' performance in education is poor and the corollary that only the Centre can deliver. This again is a pernicious attempt that must be resisted. The Constitution provides considerable autonomy to the States in education and this need to be safeguarded.

POLITICS OF EDUCATIONAL POLICIES

The ideology of the ruling class would be the policies of the govt. to fulfill their ideology.

The expected National Policy of Education -2016 would be definitely based on neo-liberal reforms and the Hindutva agenda of the present day Modi led NDA Govt. The neo-liberal agenda would focus on privatization of education and planned degradation and destruction of the public institutions and the imposition of the Hindutva agenda.

DR. PRABHAT PATNAIK “DESTRUCTION OF EDUCATION”

commoditization of education, and the “communalization” of education

privatization, and for a “public-private partnership”

Corporate capital requires “skills” not “knowledge”

THE RESISTANCE IN CAMPUSES

Resistance by Marxist, Ambedkarite, progressive-nationalist, secular-democratic, and women’s liberationist ideas, all of which appear, both to corporate capital and to the Hindutva forces, as part of a “red menace”.

To meet this resistance, an alliance with “communal-fascism” becomes necessary for the globalised corporate-financial oligarchy.

This Govt. has started as like in NDA-1 the communalization of Higher Education Institutes by nominating and appointing saffron brigade in various higher education institutions right from ICHR and Film Institute to Fashion Technology institutes negating the constitution rules and regulations.

The suicidal death of Rohit Vemula

The resistance movement at Delhi, “occupy UGC”

Kannhaiya Kumar Episode “freedom within” which was stamped as an anti-national activities as like in British period.

So the present day rulers want an education system vigorously to implement neo liberal polices on one hand and communalize education in the shadow of national pride and culture and seal the democratic movements in education as anti nationals. PSM should see these trends and respond by its own methods of reaching the people to counter.