<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-mt-md-15 gmail-article-heading">School education in light of NEP-2016</h1>
<div class="gmail-col-md-7 gmail-col-xs-12 gmail-col-sm-12 gmail-theam-text-two gmail-pnone gmail-mt-md-101" style="font-size:10px">
THE HANS INDIA |
Dec 10,2016 , 03:28 AM IST
</div>
<div class="gmail-col-sm-5">
<div class="gmail-col-sm-5 gmail-pull-right gmail-text-right">
</div>
</div>
<hr style="margin:0px">
<div class="gmail-col-sm-12 gmail-pull-right">
</div>
<hr style="margin:10px">
<div class="gmail-fullwidth gmail-hidden-xs gmail-hidden-sm">
<ins class="gmail-adsbygoogle" style="display:block;height:30px"><ins id="gmail-aswift_2_expand" style="display:inline-table;border-width:medium;border-style:none;border-color:-moz-use-text-color;height:30px;margin:0px;padding:0px;width:648px;background-color:transparent"><ins id="gmail-aswift_2_anchor" style="display:block;border-width:medium;border-style:none;border-color:-moz-use-text-color;height:30px;margin:0px;padding:0px;width:648px;background-color:transparent"></ins></ins></ins>
<hr style="margin:10px 0px 0px">
</div>
<span style="text-align:justify"> <div class="gmail-media gmail-media-block gmail-box gmail-divider-media gmail-mt-md-10" style="width:300px;height:200px;margin-right:10px"><figure><img style="width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="http://www.thehansindia.com/assets/6514_Classroom_pic.jpg" alt="."></figure>
<div class="gmail-media-body" style="padding:0px 10px"><p class="gmail-mt-md-0 gmail-mt-md-10" style="font-size:15px;font-style:italic">.</p></div></div><div class="gmail-media gmail-media-block gmail-box gmail-divider-media gmail-mt-md-10 gmail-hidden-xs gmail-hidden-sm" style="margin-right:10px;width:300px;clear:left">
<div class="gmail-col-sm-12" style="font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;margin:5px;padding:0px">
<div class="gmail-col-sm-4" style="margin:0px;padding:0px"> Like our FB page<br>
</div>
<div class="gmail-col-sm-8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px">
Follow us on Twitter<br>
<a href="https://twitter.com/thehansindiaweb" class="gmail-twitter-follow-button">Follow @thehansindiaweb</a>
</div></div>
<ins class="gmail-adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px"><ins id="gmail-aswift_3_expand" style="display:inline-table;border-width:medium;border-style:none;border-color:-moz-use-text-color;height:250px;margin:0px;padding:0px;width:300px;background-color:transparent"><ins id="gmail-aswift_3_anchor" style="display:block;border-width:medium;border-style:none;border-color:-moz-use-text-color;height:250px;margin:0px;padding:0px;width:300px;background-color:transparent"></ins></ins></ins>
</div>
It has been nearly five decades since the first National Policy on
Education (1968) was framed. A committee constituted in October 2015 by
the Government of India, under the chairmanship of TSR Subramanian, a
former Cabinet Secretary, for evolution of a National Education Policy
(NEP-2016), submitted its report to MHRD on 27th May 2016. This report
was not made public. Instead, interestingly, a document titled “Some
inputs for the draft New Educational Policy” was posted all of sudden on
the MHRD website seeking suggestions from people and organizations, by
September30. </span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">The 43-page document organised into
five chapters, namely, preamble, key challenges in the education sector,
vision-mission-goals and objectives of the National Education Policy,
policy framework, implementation and monitoring, attempts to frame
general education at all levels right from pre-primary to research,
categorised into school education and higher education. In its preamble,
the document narrates the evolution of education system from ancient
era to post independent era, the key issues and challenges, the
chronicle of a few education committees, and the need for new
educational policy.</span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">One witnesses its tall recognition of
education as the most potent tool for socio-economic mobility, for
building an equitable, just and human society, promoter of social
cohesion and national identity, and facilitator to amalgamate
globalisation with localisation. NEP-2016 is supposed to provide a
framework for the development of education in India over the coming
several years. It chooses to continue addressing the unfinished goals
and targets set in the previous policies on education along with the
current and emerging new challenges.</span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">The policy initiatives for a few
creditable issues like Protection of Child Rights and Adolescent
Education, Literacy and Lifelong Learning, Teacher Development and
Management are counterproductive and fraught with imperfections.
Educating and recruiting teachers with genuine teaching aptitudes
without any prejudices is a first step in ensuring quality education.
Then, affirmative actions like continuous monitoring, motivating, and
endeavoring to reform, nurture them to be regular, disciplined and
responsible.</span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">Interference of politicians and
school management committees in assessing teacher and school performance
is detrimental to peaceful running of schools. Malnutrition and anemia
can be addressed by neither physical education nor yoga nor any
co-scholastic activity, but by the affirmative actions like free
provision of nutritious breakfast, lunch and evening snacks. </span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">Although the document seems to have
rightly identified the pre-school education, as a universally accepted
imperative for child’s mental and physical development, assurance to
provide pre-school education as a part of school education under the
same ministry for all children between 0-6 years is most desirable.
Since, fostering the child school-ready at that tender age is sensitive
and responsible task, it must be carried out with the help of diligently
trained staff only. Entrusting this job simply to Anganwadis or their
gradual conversion into pre-primary schools, without any constitutional
guarantee or legislation provision, will prove to be futile. </span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">The document wrongly diagnoses the
reason for the poor learning outcomes in elementary education as the
existing non-detention policy. Strangely, it says poor academic
performance is at primary level and treatment of detention policy is
said to be restored at upper primary level. Detention policy punishes
largely the students of disadvantaged groups for the fault of education
system. Chances are more for increased early-drop-outs and their
derailment from mainstream quality higher education. </span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">The proposed open school system at
elementary level legitimises the child labour, violating the
constitutional right to life, and furthering the dropout rate. The very
idea of centralisation as has been evident in higher education with CBCS
pattern, in school education fully in Mathematics, Science, English and
partly in Social Sciences disregards the diversity of India. </span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">On-demand board examinations like
Part-A and Part-B exams in class-X, conveniently ward off the students
of underprivileged sections. Students at that level are not mature
enough to make decision as to what to do after class X. Moreover they
must be delivered quality curriculum upto class-X. </span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">Irony is quoting Swami Vivekananda as
“education is not the amount of information put in brain” on one side,
and the overstating of information and communication technology (ICT) as
though an alternative for a teacher on the other side. It is menacing
when the document says ICT is used for remedial education, teacher
training, adult literacy and skill education. ICT can never be a
substitute for either a well-trained teacher or a highly skilled
instructor. Haphazard use in place of judicious use of ICT anywhere
ruins the purpose rather than energising it. Before that, a perfect
ambience for establishment of ICT machinery as well as its sustenance
must be ensured. </span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">The wrong perception of the purpose
of school education as making student job-ready brings forward the idea
of creation of skill schools, skill development programs. There are no
jobs for already vocationally, professionally trained students. The
variation of employability, several studies report, between professional
and general graduates is not much pronounced. </span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">Now, by introducing skill courses in
general education right from upper primary, where do these general
stream students with haphazard skills have to find jobs? When all the
subjects upto Class X, along with co-curricular activities, are taught
properly, students are sure to be equipped with a lot many skills
necessary in any sphere of life. Avocation of integration of
work-experience in general education by Phule, Gandhi and Kothari must
not be misconstrued.</span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">The idea of vocational-skill-based
specialist-programmes conveniently branches off the so-called meritless,
and confines them to either caste-based vocations or low-level global
market jobs well before they enter higher secondary education only.
Clarity is always needed in understanding the language policy in India,
amongst the general public and policy makers alike.</span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">Importance of
‘English-as-a-communicative language’ and significance of
‘English-as-a-medium of instruction’ up to a certain class is to be
unambiguously distinguished. For want of perfect language policy, local
aspirations and preferences are misguided by education traders. The
document proposes that those states and UTs which so desire may provide
primary education in mother tongue, otherwise any (English) medium they
wish.</span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">What stops the government from making
it a mandatory the mother tongue as medium of instruction upto
elementary level, just like RTE up to class VIII? Curricular and
procedural reforms of the policy only do no help realise the objectives
of education. They ought to be augmented with proper support and
delivery system in action, and continous and spirited monitoring system
with time-bound feedback analysis.</span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify">One of the appropriate measures could
be to make the entire education-sector autonomous to prevent
subjectivity associated with the ideologies of bureaucrats, parties, and
governments. (Writer is an Assistant Professor, Kakatiya Government
College, Hanamkonda)</span><div style="line-height:100%"><br></div>
<span style="text-align:justify"><em>By Bairy Satyanarayana<br><br clear="all"></em></span><a href="http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/News-Analysis/2016-12-10/School-education-in-light-of-NEP-2016/268014">http://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/News-Analysis/2016-12-10/School-education-in-light-of-NEP-2016/268014</a><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
</div>