Primary/Secondary/Higher Secondary Education

Email sent to HRD Minister Smriti Irani on 02-Jun-2014

Dear HRD Minister,

Congratulation for being the youngest cabinet minister in the parliament. I believe you already got hundreds of suggestions, advice on what you should do in next 1 year (10 suggestions from Sagarika on twitter). This mail is no exception. We know that education is a state subject, but centre's role should not be limited to formulating strategy like RTE and do nothing.  Let me share my ideas what HRD ministry at the centre can do to compliment state investment on education.

Primary/Secondary/Higher Secondary  Education

Build at least 5 iconic schools (from primary to H.S.) in each block in next 3 years totalling 25,000 schools. These schools will have all the modern facilities like spacious class room with big LED TV and projector, good library, educational software, 1 computer for every 10 students, state of the art practical room, big kitchen with dining hall to accommodate 1,000 students, playground, swimming pool, auditorium, facility for indoor games like badminton, table tennis, branded school bus.

Number of students in each class should be limited to 100 divided into 2 sections. Number of teachers should be at least 40. Lunch will be cooked and served in the school itself.

I guess each school will cost onetime Rs 4 crore to build and running cost of school maintenance, teachers' salary and mid day meal. Big question is who would finance it? Short answer is We. let's work out some out of box ideas

a. Corporate finance: For every 25 employees, company has to buy an education bond which is equal to the average annual salary of the company or Rs 1 lakh whichever is lower. The bond will mature after 20 years with certain percentage of interest. Company has to purchase this bond each year for next 5 years.

b. Individual finance: Each individual earning more than Rs 20,000 per month must buy similar education bond which is 3% of his annual salary. The bond will mature after 20 years with certain percentage of interest. Individual has to purchase this bond each year for next 5 years.

c. Each student owes to the school Rs 2,000 per month as tuition fee which needs to be paid off within 3 years of getting a job. 

d. Part of education bond money will be paid off on maturity from recovered loan to the company and individuals

e. Allow advertisement within the school premise to raise money

f. Companies whose average salary is more than Rs 50,000 must sponsor a teacher for every 25 employees

Identify 10% of the school where special emphasis will be given on all kinds of sports specially Olympic events. So, additional investment is required to build indoor sports complex. We should hire a consultant from Russia or Germany to advise the ministry how to build world class sports infrastructure in the school.

We should encourage students to study astronomy. Powerful telescope should be installed at minimum 1,000 school premises.

Every school should be attached to an industry and experts would hunt for talents who will receive scholarship for higher study and special mentoring session. Number of scholarship may be limited to 1 or 2 per school.

I think centre needs to invest Rs 100,000 cr to build these 25,000 schools in next 3 years.

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.

OBC Quota

10-Sep-2006
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

SC/ST and OBC require better access to basic schooling, food and shelter so that they can compete with the world when they grow up. They don’t deserve political exploitation to be used as vote bank. You  politicians divided the country in the line of religion. It was not enough. So Mr V P Singh invented new form of self destruction through Mondal Commission and now it is Mr Arjun Singh’s turn to make it more lethal. I do not understand what’s wrong with you guys.

In early eighties Mr Jyoti Basu and comrade Promode Dasgupta decided to stop teaching English in primary schools in West Bengal. By communist ‘fatwa’ English was taught from class V instead of at nursery. Not a single communist teacher opposed it because it was a party decision. After 20 years Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharyya accepted that withdrawing  English from nursery was a great mistake. Now same Mr Bhattacharyya is heading for a new blunder - handing over most fertile agricultural lands of Bengal to industries. Everyone is warning him of future scarcity of food in Bengal. But who cares? Party will say sorry after 10 years. Dr. Singh by the time you realize your  mistake it will be too late to reverse the process.

You said you will increase number of seats so that current number of general quota would not be affected. It easier said than done. You didn’t give any detail plan. You will definitely increase the number of seats in IITs and other institutes, but without improving required infrastructure or increasing teaching stuffs or other amenities.

If I were in your position I would have created dedicated college, universities in each state for SC/ST and OBC without disturbing existing institutions as they are already stretched to limit.

Dr Singh, are you listening? History is watching.

Education Bill

7-Jan-2010
Dear Mr. Sibal,

I have some queries regarding Right to Education Bill

1. Bill says compulsory education of all children between ages 6 to 14 years. This is a most welcome statement. But I have few concerns
a. When a father will take his 10 year son to work with him, how will you stop that? You cannot arrest the father.
b. When a half fed or starved child will refuse to go to school, what will you do? Mid day meal program is a big failure.

I think government should pay Rs 10 per student for each day of attending school. It might cost Rs 10,000 crore annually, but it will be a great incentive for parents to send their children to school.

2. Out-of-school children to be admitted to a class appropriate to their age, with special training to help them.a. Do you have any data on how many students require special training?
b. How the special training will be imparted - one-to-one or in a group?

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 8a. Can you implement it in reputed schools?
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 same syllabus. Bifurcation should start from Class VII.

I do agree that students should not be held back or expelled. But abolition of board exam may not be a good idea. In mid eighties Mr. Promod Dasgupta, the then chairman of left front in WB stopped teaching of English in primary school. Twenty years later CPM leaders realized their mistake and restored English in primary school. A generation was lost by then.

I think whole examination system should be revamped.
1. Question paper should be randomly generated for each student.
2. 20% of the questions should come from the chapters of her/his choice. Each subject should have predefined set of chapters.
3. 30% of the questions should come from question bank
4. Student can take exam any day any time from 9am to 5pm on any subject within a period of 40 days
5. Student can appear for any exam more than once during that 40 days window.
6. Questions should be comprised of multi choice and open ended.

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. Each school should focus on at least two sports with trained coach. Lecture of eminent teachers may be video streamed through internet.

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 ambience etc. We should try to create a brand image.

5. Teacher standards, including minimum qualifications, to be enforced This is the greatest challenge. There will be a shortage of 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.

6. Maintain records of all children up to 14 years of ageThis is not an easy task. Biometric id and CCTV in each class will help to monitor proper attendance by 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 utilisation.
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. Government schools to provide free education to all. Aided schools to provide free education proportionate to their funding, subject to a minimum of 25 per cent. All unaided schools to provide free education to 25 per cent of students from disadvantaged groups. Fee will be reimbursed by the state government to these schools. Funding is one of the critical success factors of this bill. Corporate houses must play a big role. Funding consists of one time investment on proper infrastructure and maintenance cost. I think we should take multiple measures to raise the fund

1. Corporate should sponsor one school for every 5000 employee or one college for every 10,000 employee.
2. Everyone earning more than Rs 10,000 per month must spend 3% of his earning on education.
3. Central and all state government together should spend USD 20 billion on education every year

9. 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 look after infrastructure of all government aided schools. We should introduce bachelor and master degree on sports like bachelor of football. Such graduates can be groomed as coaches in future. Currently we have a huge shortfall of quality teachers. Ministry of human resource should produce educational video based on curriculum for each class. Such video may be played in the class.

Doordarshan should broadcast separate educational channel for each class.

10. No child shall be subjected to physical punishment or mental harassment by teachers/officials.CCTV should be made compulsory in each class room.