How the education system in India is going to change making the children enjoy their studies?

Question

Even from KG, children are bardoned with homework. Not much of practical knowledge is imparted. They just mug up answers and vomit in the exams. They carry heavy loads of books daily.

Answer 1

It's very bad and the same here. You need to get your child out of that system.

Answer 2

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is Government of India's flagship programme for achievement of Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) in a time bound manner, as mandated by 86th amendment to the Constitution of India making fee and compulsory Education to the Children of 6-14 years age group, a Fundamental Right. SSA is being implemented in partnership with State Governments to cover the entire country and address the needs of 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations. The programme seeks to open new schools in those habitations which do not have schooling facilities and strengthen existing school infrastructure through provision of additional class rooms, toilets, drinking water, maintenance grant and school improvement grants. Existing schools with inadequate teacher strength are provided with additional teachers, while the capacity of existing teachers is being strengthened by extensive training, grants for developing teaching-learning materials and strengthening of the academic support structure at a cluster, block and district level. SSA seeks to provide quality elementary education including life skills. SSA has a special focus on girl's education and children with special needs. SSA also seeks to provide computer education to bridge the digital divide.

Quality issues in elementary education will therefore, revolve around the quality of infrastructure and support services, opportunity time, teacher characteristics and teacher motivation, pre-service and in-service education of teachers, curriculum and teaching-learning materials, classroom processes, pupil evaluation, monitoring and supervision etc. Indeed improvement of quality in these parameters and its sustenance is a matter of grave concern for the whole system of education. Some issues are mentioned below:

Providing for reasonably good school building and equipment to all schools and centers for alternative schooling;

Providing quality ECCE to all children until 6 years of age;

Ensuring a minimum of 4 to 5 hours per day of meaningful stay of each child in school;

Providing trained and committed teachers in all schools and really interested and oriented instructors for all non-formal education centers (EGS & AIE);

Improving the quality of existing pre-service teacher education;

Organizing quality in-service teacher education to all teachers on a periodical basis and with a follow up mechanism;

Creating and sustaining teacher motivation;

Revitalizing supervision system for quality elementary education;

Re-organization of curriculum to imbibe local needs and in-corporating the concerns of the National Curriculum Framework 2000;

Development of competency based and contextual teaching-learning material;

Improving teaching-learning processes to make them child centered, activity based, mastery learning oriented;

Providing for remedial teaching and enrichment programmes at due occasions in all classrooms;

Introduction of formative evaluation and grading system to make it stress free for children;

Reduction of curriculum load; and

Introducing participatory management of elementary education with community support.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will make efforts to take a holistic and comprehensive approach to the issue of quality. Efforts to decentralize the whole process of curriculum development down (grassroot level) to the district level will be made. Reducing the load of non-comprehension by facilitating child-centered and activity-based learning will be attempted. Learning by doing, learning by observation, work experience, art, music, sports and value education shall be made fully integral to the learning process. Appropriate changes will be made in the evaluation system to make it more continuous and less threatening. Performance of children will be constantly monitored in consultation with parents but shall not be restricted only to cognitive areas. Teachers’ role in preparation of textbooks and secondary learning materials will be enhanced. School timings will be made contextual. Based on a broad curriculum framework, districts would be free to define their content areas in their local contexts. State and national level institutions will facilitate this process of decentralized arrangements for development of curriculum and evaluation systems. Some guiding principles in curriculum and evaluation reform will be as follows:

Teacher/ community participation in material preparation and in developing a school vision;

Focus on good quality printing, illustrations for books along side improvement in content; freedom from ‘cheapest syndrome’ in matters of children’s books;

Use of local dialects as language' in classes one and two;

Community-based and school-based projects for work experience;

Association of local artisans/workmen in school activities;

Primacy to cultural activities, art, sports, etc.;

Content based and motivational training for teachers;

Continuous assessment of students for all round development;

Facilitating child-to-child learning;

Looking upon quality improvement as integral to a holistic School Improvement Programme.

Norms approved under the scheme of Restructuring of Teacher Education will apply. Block Resource Centres and Cluster Resource Centres will be set up as per the norms mentioned earlier. They will function under the guidance of DIETs.

Efforts to identify teachers as resource persons will be attempted through adoption of objective criteria. Teachers as resource persons could then interact with pedagogy experts and other teacher educators to develop useful learning approaches for children. Efforts to recognize the unique learning needs of children must be made. The diversity of learning environments and learning approaches should be encouraged and teachers should have the freedom to experiment on a much larger scale.

USEFUL AND RELEVANT EDUCATION AND EDUCATION FOR LIFE

One of the goals of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to promote education and for life. The debate on learning skills and life skills is an old one in India. There is a lot to learn from the Basic education system advocated by Mahatma Gandhi and the 'Nayee Taleem' advocated by Dr. Zakir Husain. The whole issue of relevance of education has been raised in the context of education for life. A lot of experts feel that education is not just the process of imparting literacy and numeracy. It is actually a process of socialization that helps children cope with the natural and the social environment. They have therefore, emphasised the need to develop a school system that builds on the solidarities in societies and tries to learn from the natural environment. The pursuit of useful and relevant education would imply a much greater focus on integrating physical and mental development.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan would encourage States to focus on total development of children. Encouragement to sports, cultural activities, Project work involving interaction with social and natural surrounding, activity based learning, exposure to life skills with regard to health, nutrition, professions, etc. Such a focus will entail looking upon a school as a social institution that is the hub of community activities. Encouragement to work experience would require the attachment of children with professionals, farmers, artisans, in order to master the social and natural context.

The shift in focus should result in a greater involvement of a number of extension workers in schools. Agriculture Extension Workers, Health Workers, Aanganwadi Workers, extension workers in artisan based programmes, activities of the Khadi and Village Industries Corporation, learning from traditional wisdom by interaction with the respected senior citizens in an area, etc. should form an integral part of the strategies of education for life. Children should be encouraged to think and observe independently and the classroom should be a forum for interaction.