The crisis confronting school education…..R N Bhaskar
Principals’ Talk is an annual event with DNA, where principals of some of the best schools in Mumbai gather to discuss the most important policy issues confronting the future of education and the management of educational institutions. As always, the response of the principals was overwhelming. At a Conversation Forum moderated by DNA’s RN Bhaskar, these principals and the principal secretary, education, government of Maharashtra, Sumit Mullick, discussed some of the issues bothering them.
Principals’ Talk is an annual event with DNA, where principals of some of the best schools in Mumbai gather to discuss the most important policy issues confronting the future of education and the management of educational institutions. As always, the response of the principals was overwhelming. At a Conversation Forum moderated by DNA’s RN Bhaskar, these principals and the principal secretary, education, government of Maharashtra, Sumit Mullick, discussed some of the issues bothering them.
This year the topic was ‘How to cope with new regulations relating to education’. The issue that most principals found extremely vexing was the manner in which the Right to Education (RTE) Act would be implemented in schools, and the long-term consequences of following this act.
Most principals were extremely worried about three provisions of the act.
Automatic and compulsory promotion of all students up to Std VIII: This, many principals believe, would allow the undeserving to get promoted, thereby becoming a stumbling block to the learning process for both the brighter students in the next class and to the teacher trying to teach the class. Some education administrators openly stated that they had advised their teachers not to detain any students in Std VIII and Std IX as well, because no school would have the courage to detain some 30-50% of the students at the Std VIII examination. “Why should we, when we could have weeded out such students more gently in stages from Std I to Std V?” said one principal. Another quipped, “It is time the RTE Act was amended to allow for all students to be promoted automatically to Std X.” In fact, no state government would have the political will to detain more than 50% of the students at the SSC examinations either. The result: more sub-standard students clearing the SSC examination.