Reform in School Education

The Human Resources Minister, Kapil Sibal has proposed to scrap Class X exams and also introduce a single national board for education. There has been criticism against this idea and also some favour this idea. The criticism has some basis and so is the proposal itself.

Hierarchy of school education

There is a hierarchy of school education. The Very Poor Below Poverty Line (BPL) do not send their children to school. The population of this category should be around 300 plus million. With mid-day meals initiative, children have started going to school. The schools are generally run by the respective State Government. In most of the states, the education in these schools is pathetic. The teachers are absent, though they draw salary regularly. Even if they come, they hardly teach. The reasons vary from laziness and to aversion to poor (also low caste status of the poor). Some teachers are motivated to teach, but there is no infrastructure like black board or chalk or proper benches for children. The less spoken about the school building itself it is better. Many of these schools do not have toilet facility for girls and many girls opt not to come to school at all. Naturally, the medium of education is the vernacular state language. Since, the parents are illiterate, they do not demand better education. Many times, they are not motivated to send their children to school.

One notch higher is the people living above poverty line. They may also be around 300 plus million. These children also face similar situation and challenges. The only encouraging factor is, many parents from this category have some education. So, they value education and want their children to go to school. But, their motivation is not matched by the interest from the school authorities or state government. Some parents have options and are wise enough to send their children to schools run by NGOs instead of Government run schools. The schools run by NGOs are better than that of Government run schools. Unfortunately, some NGOs follow curriculum that is not inclusive, but also contains values drawn from hate ideology. Here also primarily the medium of education is vernacular language and in addition some language is taught.

In the above two categories, children go to schools that are governed by State educational boards.

Then there is a category of schools that are better than these two. Many State Governments have two boards for governing school education. One is the State Board of education and another is Matriculation Board of education. The Matriculation Board curriculum is considered of higher standards than the State Board curriculum. Many private schools opt for Matriculation Board. But these private schools charge fees for students. Most of them offer education through English medium. The private schools charges fees according to their infrastructure and other extra-curricular activities they present. The better the infrastructure, the fees proportionately goes up. Generally, these parents are educated and value English medium education, for that is the key for higher education and employment in urban areas.

The elite school are governed by Central Education Boards like CBSE (Central Board for Secondary Education) or ICSE..etc. Many students who qualify for elite institutions like IITs, AIIMS, IIMs come from these schools. The language for instruction is English and second language is most likely Hindi.

The educated do not try to bring reform in education system but send their children to private institutions. And they like to protect status quo so that their children do not face fierce competition. But, their attitude leaves a majority of children with their talents undeveloped. That leads to more poor in the country.

Discriminated

The selection of a school for children itself is rejection of certain professions or careers. For example, a child entering a village school could never aspire for entering IITs. A child enrolled in Municipal School can never aspire to enter AIIMS. The future of children is clearly determined when they are below ten years old, that too arbitrarily. The reasons are obvious: no teaching, no motivation, lack of English language skills…etc.

Single board of education

There is a need to break the hierarchy and make the school education affordable, accessible for all children of the nation; irrespective of their caste, village or city environment, economic levels, …etc. If that has to happen, there is a need to make the school curriculum uniform throughout the nation.

In the 10 plus 2 system, students in Kerala need not have second language as compulsory in their eleventh and twelfth class. Whereas, it is compulsory for students in the State of Tamil Nadu. A student studying only five subjects would have opportunity to score better marks than a student studying six subjects at the same level. The average marks scored by students who study only five subjects would be better than the average marks scored by students who study six subjects. So, this will put students from one State in a position of advantage and students of another State would be in disadvantage position. It would be wise to have uniform curriculum throughout the nation.

Regional bias in curriculum?

One of the objections for not having uniform curriculum is that, there would be regional bias in the curriculum. The history, social issues, culture will vary from State to State. This is a genuine concern. To address this, the curriculum should be flexible to accommodate regional aspirations. That means, the social sciences could be designed by the State Government while other subjects could be designed by Central Government.

No need for entrance exams for professional institutions
Presently, the entrance exams to prestigious institutions and also to many professional courses is a big scam. Millions of rupees are spent every year by parents to help their children crack the entrance exams of various institutions. The reason for the entrance exams is that students come from different streams of education curriculum and their marks do not indicate their competence. So, entrance exams become the sole criteria for selection in such institutions. When the uniform curriculum is enforced, there is no need for entrance exams; the mark obtained in school final itself becomes the measuring rod for determining competence for entering professional courses.

This will benefit in multiple ways. The unnecessary burden of children is removed and they could concentrate in their studies and also be developing extra-curricular competencies. The parents need not pay through their nose to coaching institutions that specialize in cracking exams. The institutions have simple recruitment procedure and need not spend unnecessarily in conducting expensive entrance exams. The talent that is engaged in running coaching institutions could be used for other positive purposes.

Thinking for the sake of next generation

There should be a healthy debate on this. People with concern for children, education and nation should propose their ideas. The vested interests that run private institutions for profit, coaching institutions who earn millions, teacher who earn more from private tuitions and not teach in schools…etc have reasons to perpetuate the present form of education and obstruct reforms. It is high time people with passion for education and reforms with egalitarian mindset to speak up and stand up for rights of all children.