Improving school education

D.R. Chaudhry

The adult literacy rate and enrolment at the school level are important inputs along with life expectancy at birth and estimated earned income to work out the Human Development Index as reflected in the Human Development Report published yearly by the United Nations Development Programme  under the auspices of the UN. Thus, school education, especially elementary education, is one of the most important yardsticks to assess the development of a particular country. 

School education has a powerful effect on quality of life, job opportunities, tackling health problems and social change. All the developed countries in the world, whether capitalist or communist, laid utmost emphasis on school education and basic health services, which were largely financed by the state in the early stages of development. A properly literate and sufficiently healthy working force gives tremendous boost to the national economy.

School education in India suffers from one serious malaise. Children of the affluent get education in English medium private schools where wards of the poor are confined to government schools where standards are abysmally low. Haryana provides a telling illustration of this phenomenon. 

Since its existence as a separate state in 1966, Haryana has made rapid strides in the quantitative growth of the school education system. The number of schools, both government and non-government, from the primary to senior secondary level, increased from 5,781 in 1966 to 23,317 in 2009-10.The total number of government schools increased from 5,488 in 1966 to 14,682 in 2009-10 while the number of   non-government schools increased from meager 293 to 8,635 in the same period. While the government schools increased by 168%, the non-government schools increased by 2,847%. 

The phenomenon has two reasons behind it: parents' growing disillusionment with the falling standards in the government schools and, secondly, the growth of career consciousness in society as an outcome of fierce competition for jobs and admissions to professional institutions. The government schools in Haryana are largely patronised by students coming from weaker sections - SCs, OBCs, marginal farmers and landless workers. There is an added incentive of mid-day meals, stipends, free textbooks etc. 

Infrastructure in government schools is not up to the mark-- dilapidated buildings, lack of safe drinking water, stinking toilets, lack of properly equipped science labs and libraries and seating equipment for students etc. The recruitment of teachers is highly flawed. Managing schools is highly bureaucratised as teachers have no say in decision-making bodies like the Directorate of School Education, the School Education Board etc. There is no rational transfer policy and consequently teachers tend to cultivate political links to get suitable postings. Then there is the burden of non-teaching work. 

According to the diary  published by the Haryana School Teachers Association, as against the sanctioned posts of 13,1958, the number of regular teachers was 76,836 and that of guest teachers 15,922, leaving 55,122 posts vacant as on 13.2.2013. At present about 500 posts of school head are lying vacant. The teaching of computer application handled by private concerns is in a mess. The semester system introduced without consulting teachers has not added to the quality of education at all. In this state of affairs it is unfair to blame teachers only for decay in the school education system in Haryana. It is expected of the Haryana government to take some effective steps to revamp school education in Haryana.

School Directorates are headed by IAS officers who do not take their assignment seriously and transfers are frequent. The minimum tenure of a Director should be for three to five years. It is not possible for a few officers in Chandigarh to look after a gigantic body with no involvement of the stakeholders in the day-to-day running of schools. There should be a local committee to oversee the working of a school. The government should provide teachers and infrastructure and the local committee should have the power to monitor the functioning of a school -- presence of teachers (in Nagaland furlough of a teacher leads to a deduction in the salary), teachers' performance in teaching and the performance of students in the examination, infrastructure, cleanliness, discipline etc. in a school. Haryana can learn a lot from the experiments being made in Nagaland, West Bengal, Kerala and Delhi.

Modern technology can go a long way in curbing red tape,   corruption and political interference. The transfer of a teacher is a big problem which puts teachers at the mercy of politicians and babus in the Directorate. It is an important source of corruption as well. The problem can be tackled online. In the beginning of the session every teacher can be asked to give options of five or more schools for transfer. A software can be developed to fix a teacher in one of the schools opted by him/her. This has been successfully tried in Delhi schools and should be replicated in Haryana.

The syllabi and textbooks prescribed in the CBSE schools should be adopted in government schools in Haryana. This is already done from class VI onwards and should be extended to the whole spectrum of the government schools. Last year the contract of publishing textbooks was given to a blacklisted concern and books could not be supplied to the students in time. 

Copying in examinations conducted by the Haryana Board of School Education has become a menace. Question banks can be designed in every subject in such a way that the reliance on help books and guides is minimised. Multiple question papers with emphasis on objective-type questions can be prepared to curb copying. Flying squads should be strengthened with the involvement of the local administration and the police. The spread of awareness among students and their parents that copying does not pay eventually in one's career can be helpful.

Periodic inspection of schools during British rule played an important role in improving the school system. Its casualty in modern times is one of the causes of the malaise. There should be a separate cadre of   school inspectors to ensure minimum three inspections of every school in a year. 

There should be a crash plan of recruitment of teachers to clear the backlog of vacancies and a comprehensive waiting list be prepared to appoint teachers when some teachers retire. There are allegations of corruption and nepotism in the recruitment of teachers (one former Chief Minister and his son are serving ten years term in prison for bungling in the recruitment of JBT teachers). Ways and means should be devised to introduce transparency in the recruitment of teachers.

Accountability of teachers and school heads should be ensured. A teacher should do extra work concerning only elections, census or a national calamity. The practice of appointing a politician as the Chairman of the School Board of Education has done immense harm. The board should be headed only by an academician of repute or a class I officer of the department. 

If the above steps are taken in right earnest, this can go a long way in improving school education in the state. Unfortunately, school education does not enjoy the priority it deserves. There is need for attitudinal change in the decision-makers. 

The writer is a retired academic from Delhi University