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Shifts in schools can optimise infrastructure use
(Times of India, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 22--NEW DELHI -- There's a 2 percent special cess for education. And yet crores of children have not seen a school, let alone being enrolled in one. To tackle the challenge of universal quality education for the future generation, Times Foundation initiated a round-table discussion.
Attending it were members of a visiting high-powered delegation of European Parliament, educationists and social workers.
And the broad conclusions reached for ensuring quality education were -- make available infrastructure, adequate teachers and their training programmes; institute a public-private partnership to monitor the use of cess funds; and, maximise school infrastructure by working shifts.
And above all, inculcate human values in the overall education system. In 2002, the European Commission had committed 200 million euros for elementary education in India and 80 percent of that money has already been released.
The delegates had come to India for a review. By the time they came in for the discussion, they had travelled to various parts of the country and seen for themselves what was working -- and what was not.
Addressing the gathering, Times Group chairman Indu Jain suggested that the government, in order to make maximum use of the infrastructure, should consider starting three or more shifts in all schools -- the first shift for children of economically better-off families that will take care of the school's economics, the second shift can be for children from poor families and a third shift for vocational courses.
"But if civil society is not involved, proper implementation of the schemes cannot be ensured," she added. Chairperson of the EC delegation, Neena Gill, talked about how India was making good progress towards the millennium development goal of ensuring education for all children.
"Between 2002 and 2006, the number of out-of-school children has reduced from 25 million to 13.5 million. To look at the issue of quality we are about to conduct studies, some of them with the NCERT that will assess performance and achievement levels," she said.
The issues of teachers' training to provide a good base and the role of public-private partnership figured prominently in the discussion. Lok Sabha member Ravi Prakash Verma called for constitution of a special commission for education "on the lines of the NHRC" to look after quality.
EP member Marianne Mikko said: "There is a need for computerisation of all schools to make best use of technology. But in rural areas lack of electricity may be a hurdle. The business community and the government need to devise ways to implement this."
Kailash Satyarthi, president of Global Campaign for Education, defined quality as a five-pronged approach comprising "quality environment for learning, quality infrastructure, quality teachers, quality expansion and quality participation.
When we talk of public-private partnership, it cannot be just sub-letting of responsibility." He added that in order to eradicate child labour that remains a formidable obstacle to the universalisation of elementary education, various government departments have to work in unison.
Sanjeev Kakkar of the Art of Living Foundation highlighted the need to integrate human values in the education system.
"An element of spirituality, not necessarily in the religious sense, has to be incorporated to inspire people and awaken love in them. The teacher-student relationship should be based on love," Kakkar said.
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