Posted by Ninad on December 21, 2009 under All Posts | 
Enrollment in primary school has shot up to nearly 95 per cent level in recent years, due to a massive effort by the government, NGOs and other initiatives. However, there is a big bottleneck in the secondary education as enrollment drops to 50 per cent in grade 9 and 10.
Enrollment for girl student is particularly poor at the secondary level and drop outs of girls rise significantly due to distance, safety and lack of sanitation.
For the primary level, government has launched Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV). This is a residential school which caters primarily to girls who are first generation learners from disadvantaged castes. These schools provide free teaching, lodging and boarding until class 8. It is part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Central government’s program which aims at ensuring that all children between 6 and 14 years enter primary school.
The government has recently launched a sponsored scheme for secondary education – Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), which aims at setting up a mass secondary education structure. If the girls’ hostel scheme is extended beyond class 8 and if RMSA is successfully implemented, it could make a huge impact on secondary education in India.
Here are some facts on secondary education in India:
- Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for secondary education at 40 per cent is lower than 70 per cent in East Asia and 82 per cent in Latin America. It varies widely between States: Kerala (92 %), Bihar (22%), Jharkand (4%).
- 40 million children were enrolled in secondary education in 2008. Majority of them were boys from urban areas with privileged background
- 37 per cent of secondary students fail and 11 per cent dropout before the exam.
- There are 3 National Boards and 34 State and Union Territory Boards, with their own curriculum.
- 60 per cent of the secondary school system is privately managed
There is enough evidence to prove the importance of secondary education, particularly for girls, in bringing about social and economic change at the grass root level.
As Sam Carlson of the World Bank has commented:
“Secondary Education is vital for breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and provides hugely beneficial social impacts… It is a very high return on investment”
Posted by Ninad on November 13, 2009 under All Posts |
Recently, the State Bank of India advertised for 11,000 clerical posts. It received a staggering 3.4 million applications!
With roughly 300 applications for every vacancy, SBI is now planning to conduct exams in 83 centres over 6 sessions. This exercise is estimated to cost around Rs. 560m (approx. USD 13m), which will be recovered from the applicants.
Although the minimum qualification for the job is Class 12, many of the applicants are engineers and MBAs.
There have been many reports which suggest that only one in four graduates from colleges in India is employable. A NASSCOM study also concluded that most of the 400,000 engineers who graduate every year do not have required technical skills or fluency in English.
So, what is the solution?
Clearly, a university graduation in India is not enough to make a student employable. A lot more needs to be done.
A student needs to continually add skills in addition to his university studies. These could be in the form of learning IT skills or even learning communication and presentation skills.
Summer internship with companies will also help students to get the relevant industry experience during their vacations.
In addition, a proper vocational experience will help a student to become truly professional. In the Western countries, more than half the students who graduate have vocational experience. In India, it is in single digits.
Unless and until a student graduating from a University in India gets a holistic experience, he will not become employable. Till such time, we will continue to see millions apply for jobs in State Bank of India, for which they are clearly over-qualified.
Posted by Ninad on October 26, 2009 under All Posts |
Getting admission into any of the 15 IITs remains a high aspiration for many young students in India.
In 2009, 3.85 lakh students took the IIT JEE (Joint Entrance Exams) and 20,035 students qualified. The ratio of 46:1 (aspirants to seat ratio) is probably the most competitive for any institution in the world.
Due to this stiff competition, students of Class XII cram in as many hours of studies for the entrance exam as possible. As a result, they do not focus on class XII exams and count on getting the minimum 60 percentage with minimum effort.
Recently, Kapil Sibal, Education Minister, was quoted as saying that there was a proposal to increase this minimum percentage of Class XII to 80 per cent. The ostensible reason was to curb the mushrooming of the coaching classes for IIT entrance exams and also to ensure that students pay attention to class XII exams as well.
There was a sharp reaction to this statement of Kapil Sibal and he had to retract it the next day when he mentioned that it was up to the IITs to decide.
Raising the minimum percentage of Class XII exams for seeking admission to IIT will really not solve the problems mentioned by the Minister. In fact, it will make it worse!
Presently, students seeking admission to IITs have a singular focus on the JEE. If the minimum pass percentage for Class XII is raised from the present 60 per cent, it will really add to the plight of the students. They will be burdened with far more studies and far more pressure. Also, the requirement for coaching classes will actually increase, as students will scramble from coaching classes for IIT JEE and or class XII.
A proper solution to this problem is to give good options to IIT for students who seek quality engineering education.
Posted by Ninad on October 16, 2009 under All Posts |
Gross Enrollment ratio (GER) at the secondary level in India is 52%, which is far inferior to the GERs in countries like Vietnam (72%), Sri Lanka (83%) and China (91%).
It also varies significantly from State to State – 22% in Bihar and 92% in Kerala.
The drop-out ratio at the secondary level is significantly higher, due to challenges of access and quality. There are also huge disparities of genders, social groups and urban and rural areas. Private schools account for more than 60% of all secondary enrollment and most if the secondary school boys are from more affluent families.
I read an interesting article in the 10th October issue of Hindustan Times, titled “School’s out”.
The author had written about the state of secondary school education in a remote Ghoda village in Parbhani, about 650 kms east of Mumbai.
It gave details of how children were forced to drop out of school in the village as the there was no secondary school in the village. The nearest secondary school was 7 kms away.
There is no transport available from the village to the school and children have to walk to school. Girls have an added fear of security in this long trudge and to add to their woes, there is lack of toilets in the schools.
Result? Girls and boys cannot pursue their secondary education and have to live a life of being a farm help.
The Government has launched a scheme called Rashtriya Shiksha Abhiyan in 2008-09, with the objective to universalize access and improve quality of secondary education.
Clearly, much more needs to be done…
Public-private partnerships for secondary and higher secondary schools need to be encouraged, more teachers need to be hired, double-shifting of schools should be started, financial aid to disadvantaged students need to be offered…. The list can go on and on.
Secondary education plays an important role in a child’s development. Any amount of investment in primary and higher education will not yield the desired results, if secondary education is ignored.
Hopefully, this sector will also get equal attention with the ongoing process of reforms.
Posted by Ninad on October 12, 2009 under All Posts |
The government is laying a lot of emphasis on primary education. Sarva Shiksha Abihyan (SSA) is one of the largest programs of its kind in the world. It aims to enroll all 6-14 year old children in school by 2010 and have them complete eight years of schooling. India has more than 194 children in 1.1 million habitations spread across the country.
This program has made some impact on primary education. Net Enrolment Rate (GER) at primary level has risen from 68% in 1993 to 85% in 2005-06. The gender gap has reduced and there are now 92 girls for every 100 boys in primary school.
This program is complimented by the mid-may meal scheme, where hot cooked food is made available to children who attend school, to incentivize them to attend school. Mid-meal scheme of India is the largest of its kind in the world.
Expenditure on primary education is 53.5 % of the total Education Budget in India (2006-07). Higher education gets 18% and secondary education gets 30 %.
There is a lot of focus on higher education with a large number of institutes and colleges mushrooming across the country.
Caught between primary and higher education, secondary education is suffering. Sam Carlson of the World Bank calls it the “forgotten middle” and has pointed out in a recent report that investment in secondary education has declined.
Posted by Ninad on October 5, 2009 under All Posts |
Last week, I had written a BLOG on the Education Minister’s move to have CBSE schools rated.
National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET) is the country’s first initiative to certify and rate educational institutions. Rating is done on the basis of standards developed by the Quality Council of India, its parent organization.
Quality Council of India is a non-profit, autonomous body set up jointly by the Government Indian Industry, to establish and operate national accreditation structure and to promote quality through nation- wide quality campaign.
Copy of the Accreditation Standard for quality school governance issued by NABET in September 2008 is attached in this BLOG. NABET accredits primary, secondary and higher secondary schools.
One of the first schools to get a certification from NABET is Kendriya Vidyalaya at R.K. Puram, Delhi. NABET has around 40-50 schools in the pipeline for rating.
For government schools, NABET has a program of preparing a program to get them to a minimum standard.
NABET is a pioneer in this field and we will see a lot more school rating agencies in future. Hopefully, this entire process of rating is executed properly and parents get objective information on the quality of a school.
Please go through Accreditation Standards for Quality School Governance
Posted by Ninad on September 29, 2009 under All Posts |
In the corporate world, one is used to a rating agency and the process of rating of a company. There are established rating agencies which regularly rate companies.
But, a rating agency for schools! It sounded incredible, till Kapil Sibal pushed it as part of his 100 day agenda.
Reputation and goodwill of a school is generally built over a period of time. Parents choose to send their children to a school based on the reputation it has acquired over time, and the consistent performance it has shown.
However, in recent times, we have seen several new schools spring up all over the country. Many school projects are in the pipeline and we will witness a large number of new schools jostling for the “reputation” of being a good school. You see so many advertisements of new schools – this was unheard of some years ago.
With this backdrop, the proposal to have all CBSE schools rated is welcome.
A draft note prepared by the CBSE Board has recommended that all CBSE schools should undergo formal accreditation by a set of rating agencies and repeat the process every few years.
There are more than 10,000 schools in India and abroad which are affiliated to the CBSE Board. Presently, the CBSE Board formally examines the quality of a school only at the time it seeks affiliation or wants to expand.
So, what will be the parameters for rating?
- Faculty
- Admission, assessment and evaluation procedure
- Physical infrastructure and other facilities (sports, extra-curriculars)
- Health & Safety of the students and teachers
- Contribution to community
- Complaints sent to rating agency
Private rating agencies can apply to the CBSE Board and get a license to become a rating agency. CBSE will set up an expert advisory committee to regulate these agencies.
When all this becomes operational, will it really have a big impact in the decision-making process of parents? Will it put pressure on schools to ensure that there is no slackening in the quality of the school to ensure that its rating remains high? Will it create more competition between schools?
A lot will depend on how the entire process of licensing and regulation is handled. If reputed rating agencies get into this activity, the entire methodology and process is bound to work well. In India, there is expertise available on rating of companies but rating agencies will need to build up expertise for rating of schools.
Good schools will always vie to get the highest rating and average schools will want to improve their ratings.
Even with a formal rating of a school, a parent will ultimately try and find out the actual reputation of the school. Rating will be an additional factor in the decision-making process.
Posted by Ninad on September 22, 2009 under All Posts |
Education is a regulated sector across the world. Most countries do not easily allow foreign universities to operate in their country and if they do allow, it is done with a lot of regulations.
In India, The Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill has been waiting in the wings since 2007.
The Bill seeks to regulate the entry, operation and maintenance of foreign education providers.
It has been reported that Kapil Sibal, Education Minister has cleared the draft of Foreign Education Providers (Regulation) Bill and it will be placed before the Union Cabinet soon.
Once cleared by the Parliament, foreign universities will be able to offer degree programmes independently in India.
Presently, there are many foreign universities offering degree courses in India in partnership with local universities. Once the Bill is passed, foreign universities will be able to offer independent degrees, without the need to tie up with a local university.
The raison d’etre for this bill is that it will save millions of dollars as Indian students will be able to study in foreign universities while staying in India. More than 250,000 students from India are studying in various universities outside India.
Students will still travel abroad to get a holistic education experience –- after all, education is much more than a degree. Hence, it is unlikely to save foreign exchange.
Foreign universities operating in India will allow students who cannot afford to travel abroad to get the same degree in India. To that extent, it will cater to a different category of students.
If foreign universities start operating in India, it will give students a choice and expand higher education offerings in India. There is a huge gap in the demand and supply in higher education and foreign universities will fill some part of this gap. Hopefully, some of these foreign universities will also improve the culture of research in India.
Kapil Sibal has mentioned that some of the best universities in the world are waiting in the wings to set up shop in India. One only hopes that good quality education is provided by foreign universities and India does not become a happy hunting ground for mediocre universities.
We will have to wait for the details of the Bill. However, if it does become a law, it will augur well for the Education sector in India. Students in India will get a far better choice and competitive pressures will also improve the quality of the present education providers in India.
The good old days of getting a degree from Oxford University only in Oxford may be over — it might soon be available in Pune!
Posted by Ninad on September 14, 2009 under All Posts |
After I wrote the BLOG last week on the issue of optional exams for CBSE students, I have been discussing this with many friends.
One of my friends from Delhi had an interesting comment to make. He said that this concept was good in theory, but how will it really pan out in the real world? Will the student be at the mercy of the teacher? How will the student know that the grades are objective? Will it increase his servility to the teacher? Isn’t he entitled to take a test and compete equally with his peers?
This got me thinking…
As a society, we have been obsessed with exam percentages. This has happened due to the problem of sheer numbers. On the one hand, there is an acute shortage of good higher educational institutions driving up a huge demand for limited seats and concomitantly, higher percentages for entry. On the other, the number of students is so large that an examination system seemed to be the only clean, objective method of measurement — a standardized test of a child’s intelligence.
Another dimension is the impact across various strata of society. Is cut-throat competition for getting that extra mark a middle-class phenomenon? Do they see exam results and the ensuing entry into the best institutions for higher learning as the panacea towards upward mobility in society? The answer to both the questions is “Yes”.
Then, how do you convince these folks that they need not worry about exams? Will they feel that the concept of “no exams” is non-practical? And, will it blunt a child’s competitive spirit?
So, what are the challenges of the new system of grading?
- Re-orientation of teachers and parents. Both will need to adapt to the new system of learning and grading. The vicious circle of the need for high marks and exams will have to be broken with an attitudinal change.
- Uniform applicability across all schools. While some CBSE schools may adapt to this, others may not. Government schools, in particular, are struggling with far more pressing issues of salary payments, infrastructure etc. Shouldn’t they focus on these issues, rather than grapple with a new grading system?
- Preventing nepotism: This problem may happen in the implementation of the grading system. Parents will really have no option but to accept the teacher’s diktat. A proper redressal method should be evolved at the school level.
The grading system for CBSE will have many teething problems. However, if it is executed carefully by schools, it can really make a big difference in the alleviation of academic pressure on students.
I will end my BLOG post with a quote by William B. Yeats “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”.
Hopefully, the grading system will end up “lighting the fire” in a CBSE student!
Posted by Ninad on September 8, 2009 under All Posts |
Most of us have grown up in India in the traditional format of mugging up at the end of the term and appearing for an examination where you have to spew out all that you have studied through the year.
This will soon change for CBSE students.
The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) approved a decision on 31st August, 2009 to implement CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation). In simple words, it means that exams will become optional for Class X CBSE students from academic year 2010-11 onwards.
CABE is the apex education advisory body consisting of all state education ministers, independent educationists and key central ministers. In their meeting, Mr. Kapil Sibal, Education Minister, managed to get a broad consensus on education reforms, including making exams optional.
Under the CCE system, students will be evaluated throughout the academic year, consisting of two terms and there will be a formative assessment and summative assessment.
Formative assessment will include continuous assessment throughout the year. It will evaluate class work, homework, assignment and project work. There will be two evaluations in each term and each evaluation will carry 10 marks.
Summative assessment will require students to appear for exams at the end of each term. The first term exam will carry 20 marks and the second term exam will carry 40 marks. Students of class IX and X will be evaluated on a nine point grading system. Each grade will correspond to a range of marks:
Grade Marks
A1 95 and above
A2 90 to 94
A3 85 to 89
B1 80 to 84
B2 70 to 79
C1 60 to 69
C2 50 to 59
C3 33 to 49
D Less than 33
Students will also get grades for their co-scholastic and learning skills.
The option of grading in Class X instead of Board exams will be available only to students who will continue in the same school in Class XI.
So, does this move of optional exams for Class X students of CBSE augur well for the education system in India?
Yes, it does.
There is serious need for reform in the Indian education system. Giving flexibility to students to appear for exams is really a great first step.
The need to reduce exam related stress on students has been a long-standing demand of many educationists. In fact, a method of continuous assessment is far superior to a year-end examination.
Acceptance of this reform by CABE and all State education ministers is a big victory for Kapil Sibal. Making exams optional for Class X students of CBSE was stated by Kapil Sibal in his 100 day plan when he took over as the Union Education Minister. One of the big challenges that schools will face is the transition from a year end exam to a continuous assessment. With the large number of students in the school system, a year-end exam does have a fair bit of objectivity. A system of continuous assessment through the year does have the vulnerability of being subjective.
Whilst Kapil Sibal may have pulled off a coup of sorts by getting consensus on making exams optional for CBSE students of Class X, will other Boards follow suit?
