Emphasis on universal schooling is fine,but the discourse must now shift to quality
Three reports in three months paint a grim picture of school education in India.First,a leading corporate published the Quality Education Survey on high-end schools in metropolitan cities,which found them lacking on quality parameters and indicted them for excessive reliance on rote learning.Second,the OECDs Programme for International Student Assessment ranked Indian higher secondary students only better than those from Kyrgyzstan among 74 participating countries.And third,Prathams Annual Status of Education Report (ASER),2011,assessing schools in rural India,found declining attendance,over-reliance on private tuitions and declining reading and mathematical abilities of children in the six to 14 years age category.
Taken together,the three reports make it amply clear that despite a welcome high enrolment rate around 96.7% at the primary and upper primary levels,the quality of school learning is simply not up to the mark.Most government schools lack basic infrastructure such as blackboards and textbooks.Teaching standards are poor,with high teacher absenteeism.It is little wonder then that only 48.2% of class V students surveyed under ASER were able to read class IIlevel texts,among other depressing statistics.
Unless school education is rescued from this quagmire of mediocrity,all talk about developing a skilled human resource pool and realising the countrys demographic dividend will be without substance.In this regard,the Right To Education (RTE) Act,with its objective of providing free and compulsory education to all primary schoolchildren,misses the quality issue.Two years after the RTEs introduction,government schools have continued to wallow in pathetic conditions.Meanwhile,by imposing strict parameters on private schools,the RTE has squeezed the few entrepreneurs engaged in this field,disincentivising further investment.
There is no denying that in the quest for universal education the public sector must take the lead.Private schools can only play a supporting role,and that too needs to be incentivised.Issues of quality can only be addressed by raising the standards of public schools.This can be done by ensuring they have enough resources and introducing better pedagogy as well as oversight of teaching staff,so that pay and promotions are linked to performance.Its an administrative rather than legislative issue.The human resources ministry as well as education departments of states cant duck their responsibility.
http://www1.lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=20&edlabel=CAP&mydateHid=18-01-2012&pubname=&edname=&articleid=Ar02004&format=&publabel=TOI&max=true
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
No lesson learnt, 50% Class 5 students can't read Class 2 books
India's school education success story has a flip-side - more than half of the students in class V in rural India cannot read the text taught in class II in 2011, - even though around 97 % of children in 6 to 14 age group are now enrolled in schools.
The startling fact is finding of NGO Pratham's annual education survey of 6.3 lakh children across India in over 16,000 villages, who under the Right To Education Act are supposed to get quality education. A non-government report, an annual feature since 2005, evaluates the learning ability of students through a simple test based on what students are taught in their classrooms.
A survey conducted 18 months after watershed RTE law was implemented found that there is a decline of 5% in learning ability of students in schools even though the parents are employing more private tutors than ever before.
Around 52% in Bihar had age appropriate learning level in Pratham's first survey in 2006. Five years down the drain, the number has fallen to 29.9 %. Those in class V student, who can read a class II textbook, have the basic ability to learn.
Bihar is not alone. Similar decline in reading and mathematics was also reported from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Haryana even though many of the students surveyed were taking private tuitions.
"The tutor is a complementary factor and if the school functioning declines, the effectiveness of the tutor is lower too," the survey report of 6.3 lakh children released by HRD minister Kapil Sibal said.
The survey found that falling attendance in rural government schools in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan was a clear reason for declining learning levels. Average attendance of students in Bihar has declined from 59% classes in 2007 to 50 % whereas in Uttar Pradesh it fell from 67 % to 57 %. Another reason was increase in multi-grade classrooms in these states, which Prathan chairperson Madhav Chavan termed as a "quiet disaster"
The drop in learning levels among children in government schools despite the government pumping thousands of crore of rupees for implementation of the Right To Education Act, is a reason for parents opting for private schools even in rural India, the report said.
Enrolment of number of children in 6-14 age group in private schools has increased from 18.7% in 2006 to 25.6% in 2011. The learning level in private schools in most states has either remained same or has improved.
Sibal, however, blamed the state governments for poor showing of the government schools. "Central government can bring a law, facilitate the process but implementation is with the state governments. In Hindi speaking states there is not involvement of the state governments," he said.
On the positive, the report said the learning levels in Punjab and Tamil Nadu witnessed maximum improvement, where the state governments ran special programme to improve reading ability and numeracy under the government's Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA).
To measure student abilities, Chavan suggested a learning evaluation test at class VIII level which Sibal termed unviable unless entire education system is changed. He also ruled out accepting another suggestion of giving money under SSA for three years and termed school education problem as "political" rather than administrative.
Other findings:
* Private schools enrolment increased from 18.7% in 2006 to 25.6% in 2011.
* Between 30-50% of children in rural areas of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland are enrolled in private schools.
* About 44% of students in schools take private tuitions.
Attendance decline:
* All India level 73.4% in 2007 to 70.9% in 2011.
* Bihar attendance fell from 59% to 50%. In Madhya Pradesh, 67 % to 54.5 % and in Uttar Pradesh from 64.4% to 57.3%.
Learning levels:
* 48.2% of students in class V can read text taught in class II, a fall of about 5% since 2010.
* In Bihar, it dropped from 51.7% in 2006 to 29.9%. In UP, from 23.5% to 18%, in Rajasthan 31.6% to 22.6%.
* In Gujarat, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, the learning level in 2011 was better than 2010 with not much change observed in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
* Over 96.7% of children in 6-14 age group enrolled in primary schools.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/798081.aspx
© Copyright © 2011 HT Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Tracking Hunger (GK Backgrounder; HT Report
By re-imagining the corroded plumbing of government-where a substantial part of India's multi-billion-dollar spending on social-security programmes leaks away-Ramani has shown how the nation's dismal malnutrition statistics can be improved without great cost.
Thanks to Ramani's work, Maharashtra reported a 60% drop between 2005 and 2010 in the number of severely malnourished children. Thousands more now have a chance at a healthy life in a country with the world's largest number of malnourished people.
Ramani, 54, an Indian Administrative Service officer who set up and headed Maharastra's nutrition mission until he left the government in 2010, had a seemingly boring formula: Commitment, strategy and a refusal to let his officials blame colleagues in another department. He developed protocols and innovations for treating acutely malnourished children covered under the Rajmata Jijau Mother-Child Health and Nutrition Mission.
As with other state-run programmes, there was no independent assessment of the mission's performance, but non-governmental organizations (NGOs), usually critical of the state's lackadaisical approach, commend Ramani's work.
"The nutrition mission in Maharashtra was a first-of-its-kind initiative that actually delivered results," said Ashish Satav, a physician and founder of the NGO Mahan, which works among malnourished children in tribal-dominated Melghat in Amravati district. Mahan and Khoj, another NGO in the area, are fighting a case against the state government over the issue of malnutrition-related child deaths in Melghat.
In an implicit recognition of the nutrition mission's work, a two-judge bench of the Bombay high court recently asked the state government to launch more child development centres, introduced by it in 2007, in Melghat. Ramani's work has also inspired similar missions in other states and set the stage for the second phase of the programme in Maharashtra in the next five years. Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, two of India's most malnourished states, have started similar missions. So has Karnataka.
The Marathwada initiative Ramani's fight against child malnutrition began when he was the divisional commissioner of Aurangabad division, comprising eight districts of the arid, poverty-stricken Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
"After I took charge as the divisional commissioner here, I identified health and education as the two areas where one could make a key difference and in this I was influenced by Amartya Sen's book, Development as Freedom," Ramani said in an interview.
Ramani's extraordinary success formed the basis of the Rajmata Jijau mission's strategy. The Marathwada initiative, as it came to be known, brought down rates of severe malnutrition in the state by 62% in just two years and by 90% in three years after it was launched in 2002. The key to its success was administrative will. The Marathwada initiative showed how the existing machinery can deliver without any additional funding or recruitment when the government shows commitment to change and the staff are trained and motivated, Sujata Kelkar Shetty, a former post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the US, wrote in a 2009 Mint opinion piece.
There is little attempt to understand the problem of malnutrition systematically before trying to solve it, a key reason for the stasis in India's nutritional indicators, said Ramani.
As many as 48% of Indian children are stunted or chronically under-nourished, the number having fallen only by 5 percentage points since 1992. This is despite the country having the world's largest nutrition programme for children, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Started in 1975, ICDS is the nation's oldest nutrition programme run through day-care centres across India, but does not offer special care for the severely malnourished.
The Marathwada initiative was prompted by the deaths of 14 children in the Vaijapur block, 70 km from Aurangabad, in 2001.
The Rajmata Jijau nutrition mission has helped people like Sunita Thomre, who is holding her child Tejas at an anganwadi centre in Mandki village in Vaijapur block of Aurangabad. Anganwadi worker Nirmala Thomre is also seen in the photograph. HT Photo
"The focus on nutrition came... when the 14 child deaths occurred and it forced us to think on how to approach the problem of malnutrition," Ramani said. "The knee-jerk reaction in such cases is to provide food and food supplements but the problems often lie elsewhere."
Ramani, an economist by training, identified three key problems with the state system:
- Under-reporting of malnutrition by ICDS;
- The nearly exclusive focus on food-support by ICDS at the cost of other objectives such as growth monitoring; and
- A lack of coordination between the ICDS and health departments.
"We made it clear that if anything goes wrong, both departments will be held jointly responsible," said Ramani.
The intensive focus on these children involving regular check-ups, counseling of mothers and nutrition supplements saw the proportion of severely malnourished fall five times faster in Marathwada than in the rest of the state between 2002 and 2005.
Impressed, then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh asked Ramani to head a state-level nutrition mission named after the mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji, founder of the Maratha emprire. It began work in April 2005 in Aurangabad and completed its first phase in 2010. Ramani currently works as an independent consultant and plans to start an NGO.
Saving children
Parveen Sheikh of Ellora village in Aurangabad, about 400 km north-east of Mumbai, is among the thousands of mothers grateful to the mission for saving the lives of children.
Sheikh's son Rehan had a low birth weight and was often ill. After the local Anganwadi worker Sangeeta Vaidya reported Rehan's case to health officials, the baby was admitted to a child development centre in April 2010, where was put on a three-week treatment regime and a proper diet. That helped him gain weight and today he's a healthy child. Vaidya continued to monitor the growth of the child and counseled his mother on what to feed him.
Child development centres, re-christened child treatment centres (CTCs), are among the pioneering initiatives launched by the mission. As a good-health incentive, mothers who have to stay at the centres with children being treated there are compensated for loss of wages.
The mission uses funds from existing schemes such as the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to run both CTCs and village-level child development centres (VCDCs).
Started in 2009 to treat children who were malnourished but did not require hospitalization, VCDCs are month-long camps at the local ICDS centre where children are de-wormed, given micronutrient supplements, and fed six times a day. Mothers are counseled on ways to modify the child's diet and make it more nutritious.
In ordinary circumstances, a child such as Rehan would be merely entitled to extra take-home rations (THR) from ICDS-which very few families use-and added to the long list of severely malnourished children.
"We had almost given up on the child and were it not for the help from Vaidya and at the child development centre, I don't think he would have survived," Sheikh said.
Rehan is one of 27,000 children who have benefited from CTCs in the last three years. Nearly 100,000 children were admitted to VCDCs in the last financial year alone, according to health department data. A majority of children admitted to CTCs and VCDCs have seen an improvement in their nutritional status.
Ramani led a committed team of six who worked tirelessly to train and motivate field officers and introduce innovations. According to ICDS data, the proportion of severely malnourished children in the state fell from 0.31% to 0.12% and the proportion of normal children increased by 15 percentage points to 64% between April 2005 and April 2010.
Unequal progress across the state and a lack of focus on preventing malnutrition are the main chinks in the nutrition mission's story so far.
A children's corner at a child development centre in Dangaon village in Aurangabad division. HT Photo
The mission started work in five tribal districts--Amravati, Gadchiroli, Thane, Nashik and Nandurbar--that accounted for 34% of the severely malnourished children of the state. Later, it spread to other areas of the state.
Six years later, these districts account for over 30% of the state's severely underweight children though they account for fewer than 20% of the children covered by ICDS.
Ramani said the mission has not been able to make as much of a dent in tribal malnutrition in the first five years as he would have liked. The Rajmata Jijau mission, unlike the Marathwada initiative, is heavily reliant on the drive of district officers. Monitoring is a weak link, leading to leakages in poorly administered tribal areas.
Ramani, who has authored a strategy note for Unicef on malnutrition, argued that the issues of livelihood security and women's empowerment are critical to tackling malnutrition.
The gist of his recommendations for a nutrition mission include a focus on preventing malnutrition, monitoring pregnant mothers and increased home visits, especially in the first few months after a child is born, and universalising immunisation.
The second phase of the mission intends to prevent malnutrition by focusing on the first 1,000 days of life: from the mother's womb till the child is two years old, said Nand Kumar, the new director general of the mission. Two members of Ramani's crack team--Gopal Pandge and Ulhas Khalegoankar--are aiding Kumar in redrawing strategies for the second phase.
"The biggest gain from the first phase of the mission is that now we know we can make a difference," Pandge said.
© Copyright © 2011 HT Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Malnutrition status: don't blame the politicians only
With reference to the report Malnutrition a national shame, says PM (January 11), our political leaders and policy-makers should be ashamed of themselves that even after so many years of Independence, 45% of our children are malnourished. But let's not blame the political class only. The fault is ours too because we don't keep a tab on the usage of funds meant to tackle these issues. Every election, voters get swayed by caste and religion. Instead, we should demand a report card on development issues from the leaders. Only then, will they be forced to take constructive action.
--Gyan Prakash Jain, via email
Action to take report
Statistics can be mind-numbing, especially when they set out to tabulate human deprivations. But taken in the right spirit and with the right purpose in mind, statistical reports can work as guiding light for focused action to overcome those challenges. Which is precisely how the central and state governments must look at the Hunger and Malnutrition Report (HUNGaMA) that was released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The report, a work of the Citizens' Alliance Against Malnutrition, is alarming as well as upsetting. Of the 112 districts surveyed across Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — some forming parts of India's infamous 'Bimaru' club — the report found that almost 42% of India's children, numbering over 61 million, are malnourished and stunted. Unsurp-risingly, it also found that girls lose their nutritional advantage that they have over boys in the first few years of their life as they grow older. While lack of nutritional food is one reason for this dismal state of affairs, the report also found that income of families, mothers' education level and awareness of and access to proper sanitation facilities also have a direct bearing on the nutritional status of children.
Importantly, the report has put a question mark on the three most important targeted welfare schemes run by the Indian government, which are also the world's largest: the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), the Mid-day Meal Scheme for schoolchildren, and the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan. Since all three programmes reach out to millions of underprivileged children and have a big footprint on the health of children, it is time to seriously look into the problems dogging the system.
And if there is one point of intervention that should be completely overhauled, it is the anganwadi system, a crucial link between the ICDS and its beneficiaries, women and under-6 children. To do that, the government needs to look at the most important player in the system: the anganwadi worker. Most anganwadi workers are underpaid, are not on permanent rolls and don't receive regular trainings.
They are unmotivated and their work zones — the anganwadi centres — are often run down and barely standing. For example, in Rajasthan, the main anganwadi worker gets just Rs 1,800, the helper much less. Yet, there's no job guarantee or pension. In Tamil Nadu, the same system has been working better thanks to, what many say, political will and better fund allocations. The anganwadi workers are better paid there — R4,600 with health reimbursement accounts, bonus and increments. Malnutrition is not solely a health issue. It has a direct bearing on the long-term development of the country. In his speech after the release of the report, the PM admitted that "despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of malnutrition is unacceptably high". This is exactly our thought too.
India's shame: 42% children malnourished
At a time when India is striding ahead economically, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday termed the prevalence of 42 % malnourished children in the country a "national shame."
Releasing a report on Hunger and Malnutrition survey, brought out by Naandi Foundation, the PM said though child nutrition is on a decline, the prevailing levels are still unacceptable. "... the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame. Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high," the PM said.
The report, which surveyed 1,09,093 children and 74,000 women in 112 districts, including 100 districts with the poorest child development indicators found that prevalence of child malnutrition had dipped to 42 % from 53 % in the last seven years. "This represents a 20.3 % decrease over a seven year period with an average annual rate of reduction of 2.9 %," the report states.
While 42 % of the children under five are underweight, 59 % had stunted growth. The 100 focus districts surveyed are located across six states -- Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
The survey also found that awareness among mothers about nutrition is very low, with a whopping 92 % never having heard the word "malnutrition". The survey also revealed that though prevalence of malnutrition is significantly higher among children from low-income families, children from Muslim or SC/ST households generally have worse nutrition indicators.
Calling it an "unacceptably high occurrence", Singh said, "We need to focus on districts where malnutrition levels are high and where conditions causing malnutrition prevail. Though the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) continues to be our most important tool to fight malnutrition, we can no longer rely solely on it."
ICDS is the country's oldest programme to monitor health and nutrition among children under the age of six years. It has come under repeated flak for failing to check the high rate of child malnourishment.
SLS VOCAB IN NEWS L-1/2 12-01-12
Ratan Tata calls on Narendra Modi along with Cyrus Mistry
Ratan Tata, the outgoing chairman of over USD 80 billion conglomerate, on Thursday introduced his successor Cyrus P. Mistry to the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during a courtesy visit at his residence in Gandhinagar, a top state official said.
"Mistry has evinced interest in strengthening business ties with Gujarat," official sources said.
The 43-year-old Mistry, the son of Pallonji Mistry, Chairman of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group that holds 18 per cent stake in Tata Sons, holding company of Tata Group, will take over the reins from Tata after he retires in December, 2012.
On invitation of Gujarat government, Tata Motors had relocated the mother plant of Nano to Sanand from Singur in West Bengal in 2008, after it faced stiff opposition there.
The Tata group companies like Tata Chemicals Limited and Tata Consultancy Services already have operations in Gujarat, while Tata Power Limited is setting up an ultra-mega power plant at Mundra in Kutch district.
http://www.thehindu.com/business/companies/article2758039.ece?css=print
Wordrobe
Call on somebody: to make a short visit to a person or place Let's call on John
Conglomerate: a large company formed by joining together different firms a media conglomerate
Successor (to somebody/something)a person or thing that comes after somebody/something else and takes their/its place Who's the likely successor to him as party leader?
Courtesy visit or courtesy call: a formal or official visit, usually by one important person to another, just to be polite, not to discuss important business
Evince: to show clearly that you have a feeling or quality
He evinced a strong desire to be reconciled with his family.
She evinced little enthusiasm for the outdoor life.
Business ties: business relations
Stake: share in the company
Take over the reins: to assume the main decision making and control position in the company.
Relocate; change location of the unit
Stiff opposition: great opposition
Setting up: to establish
Vineet Ramananda
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything Rama Baan 120112
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence", said Robert Frost. An educated person respects the diversity of opinion. He enters into an argument with an open mind not to prove his point but to add a new perspective to his understanding of the issue. He has the ability to integrate seemingly contradictory ideas to form a holistic picture. This provides better insights into the nature of the problem and its complexities.
Vineet 'Ramananda'
IIT alumnus named Dean of Cornell's business school
IIT-Delhi alumnus Soumitra Dutta has been named the new Dean of the Ivy league Cornell University's business school, joining a growing list of noted Indian-origin academicians assuming leaderships roles at prestigious global universities.
Dutta, 48, is the first Indian-origin dean at the 66-year old Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. He will become the 11th dean of the New York-based Cornell University's business school when he begins his renewable five-year term on 1st July. He is currently a professor of business and technology and founder and faculty director of a new-media and technology innovation lab at INSEAD's French campus, where he has been for more than 20 years. Johnson becomes the first major business school in the United States to hire a dean from a business school outside the country.
Cornell President David Skortan termed Dutta's appointment as a "natural fit" with Johnson's increasingly global outlook. Dutta "has expertise in new and emerging media, he has studied the conditions that promote innovation and he has extensive experience on the international stage. Among other qualities, these prepare him well to oversee the education of our next-generation business leaders and entrepreneurs," Skortan said. The University's Provost Kent Fuchs said Cornell used recruiting firm Spencer Stuart and a 12-person search committee comprising alumni, students and administrators to select the new dean. Dutta received his Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology and did his Master's in business administration, computer science and a PhD in computer science from the University of California-Berkeley.
"This appointment is an exciting opportunity for me, in part because of Johnson's commitment to global perspectives, entrepreneurship and innovation, and business sustainability, but also because as an early adopter of approaches such as performance learning, the school itself exemplifies innovative thinking in business," Dutta said. Indian-origin academicians are increasingly being named at the helm of prestigious universities in the US. In 2010, Harvard Business School named as its Dean Nitin Nohria, who became the first Indian-origin head of the top ranking business school. In the same year University of Chicago's Booth School of Business had named Stanford University professor Sunil Kumar as its Dean. Cornell University recently won Mayor Michael Bloomberg's competition to open a USD 100 million New York City engineering and applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island in partnership with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
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