News
The HRD ministry is hosting a mega conference on school education this month
The HRD ministry has planned a mega-conference on school education in May. The conference will cover key areas like introduction of technology to contain drop-out rates, the frequency of the NAS and setting up of Teacher Education Institutes.
While the broad contours of the New Education Policy (NEP) are out, one can’t help but wonder how the gargantuan task of implementing so many systemic level changes would be achieved.
It seems that the upcoming major conference organised by the Central government with the states’ education ministers is a step in that direction. On the agenda are a variety of issues including introducing technology solutions like child tracking system and other systemic changes. “The ministry is planning to hold a major conference on school education in mid-May, where various issues would be discussed with education ministers of states. Latest technology solutions would also be showcased,” a senior functionary in the HRD ministry said here today.
Last week, HRD minister Smriti Irani had taken to a social network and tweeted about some of the initiatives that her ministry is working on. Interestingly, her tweets were mocked by Manish Sisodia and others.
“Introducing a child tracking system for over 200 million children all across the country to track movement class to class, identify drop outs,” Irani tweeted on Saturday about the new initiatives taken by her ministry. Irani also announced the development of an expenditure portal that will aggregate all sources of school education data in India. Also on the anvil, is the first of its kind portal dedicated for Teacher Education Institutions which will ensure transparency and grading.
Irani said that her ministry is supporting states in building composite schools by rationalising stand alone schools with low enrolment and one teacher.
“Smaller schools are either mentored by larger schools in same geographical area or are merged in the interest of students,” she had tweeted.
Importantly, the National Assessment Survey (NAS) which was normally done once in 3 years by NCERT will now be an annual exercise. NAS, henceforth, will be competency based, she had said, adding that states are to do assessment in all schools from classes I to VIII.