News
PM Modi rethinks the entire education sector
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a slew of measures along with the Ministry of Human Resource Development for the overhaul of the education sector. Many measures are innovative while most are tailored to increase accountability and performance parameters.
It is an exciting time in the education sector in India. It seems that the PMO and the office of the Ministry of Human Resource Development are working double time and bringing in initiatives at break neck speed. It has been less than a week that the MHRD released the first ever government-backed University Rankings when the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has suggested a series of structural reforms in education.
These reforms when observed in their entirety are nothing short of an overhaul of the education system. Some of these reforms are dictated by the practicalities like schools being mandated to display grade-wise learning goals for each class. For this Niti Ayog has been entrusted to recommend overhauling of University Grants Commission and All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).
Some reforms are innovative and have been borrowed from the corporate world where, for the first time, school students will be asked to evaluate their teachers. It is mooted to start a university for teacher training. In a meeting that the PM held with Niti Ayog and HRD top brass, including Minister Smriti Irani, a series of such decisions were taken. A detailed outcome-led presentation was made by Niti Ayog.
A senior HRD official said, "Access to school education has more or less been achieved. The problem is with quality. The meeting emphasised on outcomes, be it school or higher education. Equal emphasis was laid on vocational education." As for UGC/AICTE, the meeting expressed disappointment with their functioning and complete failure as regulators. Niti Ayog has been asked to recommend big changes so that they can address present concerns in higher and technical education.
In school education, it was decided that minimum grade-wise learning goals from class I to VIII will be displayed on school board. As far as funding goes, HRD sources said, a substantial component of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) will be linked to learning outcomes and fund release will depend a lot on quality. This move has in effect tied in the teacher or the school performance with the fund allocation from the government.
To ensure that schools remain competitive, it has been decided to grade schools. While a decision on doing away with 'no-detention policy' was not taken, it was decided that till then Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation should continue in a rigorous fashion. It was also decided to start remedial classes for weaker students. At regular intervals, national/regional workshops will be held for sharing best practices.
Teachers' profiles will be linked to Aadhar and to deal with their skewed ratio in rural and urban India, teachers will be regularly transferred to rural schools. In secondary education, the PM also suggested introduction of 800 vocational courses as part of the syllabus.
The slew of initiatives announced along with the sheer length and depth of the measures, definitely show the seriousness of this government towards the education sector. While in the past too, many well intentioned schemes have been announced but most fall flat during the implementation phase. Hence it needs to be seen what reaches the ground level.