digitalLEARNING-Jan-2010-[50-51]-Event Report-Revolutionising School Education in India

event report

50th issue special

Revolutionising School Education in India The mission and vision of the 21st century education agenda

Education has to be for all and that too quality education with more and more be seen heading for higher education – the issues voiced in the sessions of 11th National Conference on 21st century education and Grading Framework and Class xth Exams organised by Independent Schools Federation of India, an association of Central Board of Secondary Education and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination Affiliated Schools in cooperation with S. Chand Harcourt (India) Pvt. Ltd (an association of S. Chand & Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, USA) on 13th December 2009 at Ashoka Hotel New Delhi.

The major issues discussed in the conference were the grading system, the issue of 10th Class exams being made optional, the provisions and the issues of implementation of the Right to Education Act 2009 and discussion on structures on establishing independence at different level of the education system.

The objective of the conference focused upon the matters like implications of the various recommendations for schools, the role of Boards with regards of teachers training and the role of schools to implement recommendations as well.

In the occasion, Destination Success Solution from S Chand Harcourt was also launched by Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India.

The session was inaugurated by Himanshu Gupta, Joint Managing Director, S. Chand Publishing Group.

S. Chand has launched a joint venture with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt of USA being the World’s number one K-12 school publishing. The outcome of this partnership is S Chand Harcourt (India) Pvt. Ltd. which is why first time in India they have got interactive content, map of the C.B.S.E curriculum, integrated teacher training and hardware tools. This 250 years of joint experience also for 50

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Public Private Partnership can be seen as the best possible way to reach out to maximise the access to education the first time in India the goal of bringing technology in education. It is our privilege to launch definition success, interactive classroom with interactive content of today.

Shri Sibal was the chief guest of the conference. Vineet Joshi, Chairman, CBSE had also chaired the sessions.

Besides the luminaries and dignitaries, principals of schools from across India attended conference, participated in the sessions and contributed their ideas in the issues.

In India, currently about 220 million children go to schools everyday. Out of that 220 million children only 26 million that is 12.4 per cent reach class XIIth and the rest of 87.6 per cent of the total could not make possible which counts around 194 million in number. We assume that the goal for development for us is that India should achieve a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of above 40 per cent. In UK the GER is 43 per cent and in US it is

63 per cent. So the big challenge that India faces is how to increase the GER from 12 per cent to 40 per cent. Even if we achieve the target of GER of 30 per cent by 2020 only 76 million children will go beyond class XII. Government is really looking forward to increasing the access to education to the people of India at all levels.

A proper implementation of the Right to Education Act is also one of the challenges in front of the Government. Reforms at the level of quality in education, increasing the horizon of a teacher’s role, encouraging creativity in the thoughts of the child so that real learning can take place should be emphasised on the need of bringing a change from the learning through rote memory to qualitative learning.

Shri Sibal also presented awards to the principals and Directors of several institutions for their distinguished services in the field of education.

The sessions also emphasised on

50th issue special

meeting the aims and objectives of the new education system by devising more parameters to broaden the scope of education in India and make the system more effective.

According to H.S Hanspal, Member, National Minority Commission, without the help of privatisation Government of India cannot provide education to the masses but there is a need to place the right proposal before the government with the right recommendations.

Further to that, Dr Anoop Swaroop Vice Chancellor, Shobhit University added that the most important issue is the access to education and to improve that access to masses the government has to involve the private sector invariably.

The goal of the Prime Minister is to open

1500 universities by 2020 to cover all the gaps in the higher education but at the same time the schools will also have to contribute at their own level to reach out to the masses. At the background of these issues is the National Youth Policy and the National Education Policy were also discussed in brief. A lot was also spoken about the grading system – the achievements and the pitfalls.

But to inculcate values in the education system, grading system has to introduced.

D.V Sharma, Secretary, Council of Boards for School Education (C.B.S.E) in India spoke on how C.B.S.E as a central institution is playing a vital role in bringing about a positive change in the examination system being a crucial

Key outcomes of the conference •

• • • • • •

Introduction of the Grading system in the Xth examination by CBSE in place of a numeric system replaced by Continuous Comprehensive evaluation throughout the learning session CBSE and ICSE boards need to come together to evolve a uniform standard with a common syllabus for students without impacting quality Making of class Xth examination optional in near future.

Introduction of Aptitude test for deciding the future course of study for the students.

Emphasis to be laid on the development of both the scholastic and nonscholastic domain of the students Private participation to be encouraged and private players should be given incentive for running schools.

Launching of inservice training programmes for imparting proper training for the teachers.

element of the educational structure of the country. C.B.S.E is trying to come up with a module in which learning does not happen through examination rather it becomes a comprehensive, continuous and a motivational process for the students. It is high time now that the teachers are also involved actively in the new teaching-learning process to meet the expectations of current educational demands. For this the Board is going to conduct inservice training programmes so that learning becomes an integral part of the teaching process.

It is also important to adopt to the methods of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the latest tools into education and that should be probably the rightest choice, commented Amit Gupta, CEO, S. Chand Group in his presentation in one of the sessions.

According to Vineet Joshi Chairman, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the board along with Management Development Institute, Gurgaon had organised for a research report based on the feedback from the students, guardians, school authorities, principals and thousands of individuals at all levels across the country to arrive at the conclusion about the issue on the 10th Class exams being made optional or not. The report says that the students undergo examination stress and principals of schools are worried about the image of the schools. There is too much weightage that is given on the Xth examination because of which the teachers are forced to adopt unfair means and ineffective pedagogy. There is also enormous amount of pressure on the teachers to complete the syllabus. But it is also required to look at the positive aspect of the class Xth examination which motivates the students to perform better that gives him an understanding of the amount of stress which is needed to move forward in life further. But the report has also clearly mention that the stress should not be so much that students and teachers lose interest in studies. Mr. Joshi highlighted some of the key features of the new scheme of Xth examination that the Board has planned to adopt. It includes evaluation to be done in the schools with the implementation of the formative assessment thoroughly. Through these reforms the Board aims to make today’s examination system as a great social equaliser, confirmed Mr. Joshi. \\

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january 2010

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