Right to Education Bill

Email sent to HRD Minister on 09-Jun-2014

Dear HRD Minister,

I have following comments about Right to Education Bill

1. Compulsory education of all children between ages 6 to 14 years 

We have to ensure that parents send their children to school on a regular basis. I think government should pay Rs 20 or 200 gram of food grain per student for each day of attending school. It might cost Rs 20,000 crore annually, but it will be a great incentive for parents to send their children to school. It will also eliminate management overhead of running Mid-day meal program like cooking cost, transportation of food grain, salary of cook, construction of kitchen and store.

2. Out-of-school children to be admitted to a class appropriate to their age, with special training to help them 

There are millions of students who require special training. We do not have that many teachers. Why can't we use our under graduate students for such special training for 2 weeks in a year. Each under graduate students will spend 2 weeks in some village every year to train a group of 20 school drop outs. Each drop out student must get at least 10 such 2-week special training in a year.

3. Children will not be held back, expelled, or required to pass through a board examination until Class 8

I think same syllabus is not suitable for all students. We should have two standards in CBSE/ICSE/state boards, one for brilliant students and other for average students. Up to class VI all students should follow one syllabus. Bifurcation should start from Class VII.

I think whole examination system should be revamped. 

1. We should introduce computer based exam system. For open ended questions student can either type or write on a digital pad. It will be a paperless exam system. Since answer sheet is digitized, examination and moderation of answer can be done online.
2. Question paper should be randomly generated for each student.
3. 20% of the questions should come from the chapters of her/his choice. Each subject should have predefined set of chapters.
4. 30% of the questions should come from question bank
5. Student can take exam any day any time from 9 am to 5 pm on any subject within a period of 30 days. 
6. Student can appear for any exam more than once during that 30 days window.
7. Questions should be comprised of multi-choice and open ended
8. We have to build permanent exam centres all over India and install 100,000 computers with LCD monitor
9. Exam duration can also be extended by 50% of standard duration so that no student submit incomplete answer sheet due to lack of time

 4. Within three years of the commencement of the Act, the state government is expected to establish a school in every neighborhood 

a. How do you ensure that all neighborhood schools maintain a minimum standard?

b. Definition of neighborhood school is not yet defined. India has 600,000 villages. Eighty percent of them have fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. Do you intend to establish one school in each village?

c. What will happen if state government does not establish a school in three years?

d. What will happen to those schools which have poor infrastructure?

I think there should be a strict guideline on size of classroom, number of students in each section, student teacher ratio, quality of table, chair, blackboard, computer facility, internet bandwidth, LCD TV in each class room, use of educational software, library, size of playground, facility for indoor game like badminton, table tennis, basketball, school bus facility. 

Guideline should be given on design of school building with respect to number of levels, number of classrooms, toilets, auditorium and indoor game area, swimming pool, overall ambiance etc. We should try to create a brand image.

5. Teacher standards, including minimum qualifications, to be enforced 

This is the greatest challenge. There is a shortage of quality teachers. Every graduate, post graduate and engineers with good academic result must spend at least 1 year as a teacher in these schools before taking up other profession. HRD Ministry should produce educational video for each subject based on curriculum for each class. Such video may be played in the class.

Lecture of eminent teachers may be video streamed live through internet.

Doordarshan should broadcast 1 hour program for each class on each chapter of the subject for that class.

6. Maintain records of all children up to 14 years of age

This is not an easy task. Biometric id and CCTV in each class will help to monitor proper attendance of both students and teachers. CCTV will also help to evaluate quality of teaching remotely.

7. All schools have to form a School Management Committee (SMC), comprising of parents, guardians, and elected representatives, with 50 per cent seats in it reserved for women

The SMC will monitor the working of the school, prepare a development plan, and monitor fund utilization. 

In every locality there should be a panel of educationist. Panel should be created by an independent body. There must be a minimum qualification and experience required for the individual to be part of the panel. SMC should be formed from the members of that panel in rotation. Tenure of the SMC should be 2 years. Elected representation is not required. Active members of political parties, MP, MLA and other elected members should not be part of SMC. Why do you want to reserve 50% seats for women? Can you really meet the number?

  

8. School to maintain minimum standards on number of teachers, school building, number of working days, per week working hours, library, and sports & games equipment 

There should be a central agency like national highway authority that should develop and look after infrastructure of all government aided schools. 

9. No child shall be subjected to physical punishment or mental harassment by teachers/officials

CCTV should be made compulsory in each class room.