Human Values Portfolio

Amity University, NOIDA HVSO5 Semester II Academic Year 2014/15.

TOPIC

Education for all

Name of Student – Harshit Singh Enrollment Number – A11911113183 Institution – Amity Law School Centre-II Date of Submission

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Acknowledgement This project has been completed under able guidance of Mrs. Satinder Ragobur. No part of this project has been copied from any existing text or virtual sources. This complete portfolio is based on the tasks performed during the 20 hours community service at Parsvnath Paradise, Mohan Nagar (R.W.A.).

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Contents Topic

Page No.

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………..4 Literature Review………………………………………………………………………..5 Work Undertaken………………………………………………………………………..9 Outcomes………………………………………………………………………………..11 Evaluation……………………………………………………………………………….12 Recommendations………………………………………………………………………13 References………………………………………………………………………………14

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Introduction Education in India is the root cause of many social evils, and to eradicate these evil everyone needs to support from the grass root level. Keeping in mind these problems regarding education I decided to provide my services at Parsvnath Paradise (R.W.A.) to help the under privileged children. The main motive was to help these children in getting basic education. These children had no sources to get educated and neither their parents were aware that their children have a fundamental right to get primary education. It is the duty of the state to provide basic education to all the children until the age of 14. Without primary education it is not possible for any citizen to express his ideas in the society and moreover he is underestimated in the society due to his incapacities. Each human being has special skills and talents but to explore these talents and nourish them it is important that each and every human being is equipped with basic education. The overall motive of the whole program was to group up with R.W.A. executives and find out solutions to these problems. After figuring out the solution it was important that we implement these solutions in the housing society and help the underprivileged in getting basic level education. The plan was huge and the solutions were kept as practical as possible because a plan without implementation is of no use. Our group was clear about the basic idea of the project and how we need to proceed so that we can give this plan a perfect work schedule.

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Literature Review Education is the basic necessity of human life. It is the tool which separates humans from other life forms. Without education a human life is mere animal existence on this planet. To be a fruitful and active citizen of the society it is necessary that one should be educated. Only a sensible and educated society can progress and evolve with changing time and needs. But in India the conditions is not good and even the criterion which has been set up for defining an educated person is too lame and impractical. In India today, 4% of our children never start school. 58% don’t complete primary schools. And 90% don’t complete school1. The govt. claims the success of its educational programs and based on the govt. data it is believed that India has made progress in terms of increasing the primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately threequarters of the population in the 7-100 age group, by 2011. India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to its economic development2 Much of the progress, especially in higher education and scientific research, has been credited to various public institutions. At the primary and secondary level, India has a large private school system complementing the government run schools, with 29% of students receiving private education in the 6 to 14 age group3. Certain post-secondary technical schools are also private. The private education market in India had revenue of US$450 million in 2008, but is projected to be a US$40 billion market. As per the Annual Status of Education Report 2012, 96.5% of all rural children between the ages of 6-14 were enrolled in school. This is the fourth annual survey to report enrollment above 96%. Another report from 2013 stated that there were 229 million students enrolled in different accredited urban and rural schools of India, from Class I to XII, representing an increase of 2.3 million students over 2002 total enrollment, and a 19% increase in girl's enrollment. While quantitatively India is inching closer to universal 1 http://www.teachforindia.org/about-us/india-education-crisis 2 India achieves 27% decline in poverty, Press Trust of India via Sify.com, 2008-0912 3 Over a quarter of enrollments in rural India are in private schools". The Hindu. Retrieved 21 August 2014. 5

education, the quality of its education has been questioned particularly in its government run school system. Some of the reasons for the poor quality include absence of around 25 percent of teachers every day4. States of India have introduced tests and education assessment system to identify and improve such schools5.

Though the ground level reality is nowhere close to what govt. claims? Govt. schools are the most inappropriately equipped schools in the country and both the student and teacher turnout rate is low. In the name of Right to Education, Government has opened satellite schools in remote areas. These schools are often run by ill trained 'teachers' who are paid a pittance. They are often single classroom, multi-grade affairs. The reasoning seems to be that it is alright to fob off those living in remote areas with substandard facilities so long as one can tick the box of having provided a school. These substandard schools lead to poorly educated kids, which in turn leads to poverty and an illiteracy trap. Even if the child does get enrolled in a school, there is no guarantee that he will attend. There are number of factors that keep the child away  Teachers are held accountable for enrolment, seldom for attendance; they don't see the need to push.  The child needs to work, at home or in the family enterprise (farming, trading etc) or in another enterprise to bring in money to help feed the family.  The pedagogy is so boring and the subjects so irrelevant that no self-respecting child will be lured to stay on.  Teachers are often uninterested in teaching. Their knowledge is limited. Delhi University is offering students options of quitting a 4 year diploma course in 2 years, if they want to be primary school teacher. That it is all right for poorly qualified people to be primary school teachers. Teachers are often used for all sorts of extension work by government. They are often 'returning officers' in 4 Sharath Jeevan & James Townsend, Teachers: A Solution to Education Reform in India Stanford Social Innovation Review 5 B.P. Khandelwal, Examinations and test systems at school level in India UNESCO 6

elections and that makes them powerful. They are feared by the students. In India over 15 years we have seldom seen a classroom where the teacher did not have a cane on the table. There were occasions when he did not have chalk but he always had a cane.  Teacher truancy - if the teacher skips classes with impunity all the time, why would the kid want to go?

About 93% of elementary school students attend government schools. There are multiple issues linked with the government run elementary schools: high dropout (about 50% dropout before completion of primary school, poor infrastructure 47% do not have separate female toilet, and 33% do not have any toilet, poor accountability of teachers. Almost 25% teachers are absent on an average day, and half of the teachers are involved in ‘non-teaching activities, and poor quality of teaching about 50% of 5th grade cannot read grade II level and about 58% cannot perform simple division and subtraction. India today boasts of its educational system being the second largest in the world. It consists of nearly 610 thousand primary and 185 thousand upper primary schools, about a quarter million non formal education centers, about 1.87 million teachers and 110 million students study in primary classes in the recognized schools (1997-98). As per 1991 Census estimates there were about 115.6 million children in primary school going age group in the country6. The latest educational statistics indicate a GER of 89.7 percent for primary classes (81.2 percent being for girls and 97.7 percent for boys)7. The number of students in primary classes in India is larger than the total population of the neighboring Bangladesh. No doubt, the system can claim it to be one of the largest, but it cannot make similar claims for efficiency, quality and achievement of learners? Various five years plans incorporated programs and strategies based on periodic assessment of the progress of education by the Ministry of Education, Commissions and Committees appointed by the central and state governments. The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 and the revised NPE, 1992, reiterated the urgency to address the quality concerns in schools education on priority basis. Quality cannot improve by itself. It requires reforms in teacher training; improvements in the facilities and infrastructure in 6 The data on the number of school going age group children is computed from Social and Cultural Tables, Census of India, 1991. 7 Selected Educational Statistics, 1997-98, MHRD, New Delhi. 7

schools; teachers’ motivation; and a change in the style of teaching to make it attractive to the students. However, in actual practice, there has always been a trade-off between quality and quantity, in favor of the latter. This not only affected the internal efficiency of the educational system but also resulted in a situation where only a few graduates of the school and higher education system could attain the expected skills and competencies. The labor market policies and predominance of public sector employment opportunities did not put enough pressure on the educational systems to change as the degree was more important than the acquired knowledge and skills. The gap between the planned and the realized goals of education continues be so large that even the basis of educational planning and underlying assumptions can be easily challenged. The basic educational planning models have gone off the trajectory both at the central as well in the states. Bringing it back on the tracks remains a serious challenge for the development planners. The inter-state and intra-state variations in school facilities, quality of teachers and learning outcome are large and so are social and economic conditions of the areas where the primary schools operate. While indicators to measure the access, retention and internal efficiency of the educational system in terms of participation rate, accessibility, repetition rates, promotion rates, dropout rates and input-output ratio have been developed, but little information is available about the learners’ achievement of cognitive and non-cognitive competencies. Under the no detention policy, followed by most of the states, a child is not even tested on the learning outcomes for many years after entering the school. The no detention policy prohibits the use of examinations in first few years of schooling. The proposed system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation is yet to be implemented on sustainable basis. Reforms in the quality of education have not received serious attention of many states.

Though my contribution is at a very low scale, but it is a step towards initiating a change in the society. This may not affect the nation at large but as it is said that charity begins at home. If we make some changes at the basic levels then only we can expect some big changes in the human society.

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Work Undertaken At the housing society I grouped up with R.W.A. executives and carved out the basic idea of our plan. It contained following broad objectives

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Data collection Awareness Admission Guidelines Basic tutoring Co curricular Activities

Data Collection In this regard we started collecting data about the children of house hold maids, daily wage laborers, hawkers etc. This data gave a clear image about the exact no. of children and whether or not they are in need of any educational aid. We found out that around 70% of these kids were not attending any kind of school and neither had they gone through any basic education. They spent their whole day roaming here and there or helping their parents at home. Some of them even were quite rowdy and unruly due to bad friendship circles. The data was collected only at the housing society level and was collected by our group. This data was based on the information received on personal level as proper survey was not possible.

Awareness After collecting the data it was important to convince their parents. As they didn’t valued education and neither they had resources to send their children to school they looked over this aspect. Hence it was necessary to create awareness among them and how educating their children could give them and their children a better life in future. They were called 9

for a group session with R.W.A. and were explained in detail about our plan and some aspects of educating their children. They were explained about importance of education in pure laymen language so that they could easily understand our objectives. This helped us in getting their consent.

Admission Guidelines Parents were given some basic information about getting their children enrolled in govt. schools at as cheap rates as possible and even to use government policies to get free education for their children.

Basic Tutoring The group also started tutoring at basic level. It included people from all age group. Though the no. was less but we tried to impart some primary education like reading and writing, Hindi grammar, their basic rights being an Indian citizen, mathematics etc.

Co-Curricular Activities So as to ensure active participation some co-curricular activities and sports were organized. This was done at the R.W.A complex and children played various games which they discovered themselves and even we didn’t know that such games existed.

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Outcomes The program started by us helped numerous children in getting admission to govt. schools and their parents were quite happy about it. But it was not possible for everyone to get admission. However numerous children possessed basic education till the end our internship program. The basic tutoring program proved to be beneficial for the children as they were able to grasp a lot within limited time. And as per the standards set up by the government of India they will be considered as literate. But I do not agree with these standards. Some adults who attended the tutoring classes were also able to learn to read and write. But it was a hectic task as it is not easy to teach grownups. The team also successfully accomplished the task of creating awareness amongst the labor class and this awareness will bear it fruits in distant future. They were able to understand that education will act as a tool for better employment. This will help their children in securing better positions in the society. These small efforts made by our team resulted in implanting the ideas of better education and better life. These steps have helped the unprivileged to know this world in a better way.

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Evaluation The objectives were achieved on time with desired results but I found out that illiteracy is rampant in India. Knowing how to write your name and read can never be a scale of determining literacy. A person unaware of the present conditions, law, rules, regulations, rights and policies can never be an active citizen of the country. This illiteracy can only be eradicated with a very strong political determination. As it is the duty of the state to provide free education to its citizens. It is also a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. Acts like Right to Education was also passed but such acts will remain useless unless they are implemented at basic level. Its implementation requires a large scale infrastructure, proper govt. support and funds. What we did at our society can be done at other residential societies but to do that a large work force is required. The tasks performed by our team and our sincere efforts helped those who never even dreamed of studying. In the 20hrs internship period I learned how this problem can be tackled at basic level. But there is a need off involvement of administrative bodies to see better results at large scale.

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Recommendations These types of programs can be beneficial at local levels, following steps can be taken to popularize this program and spread it at large scale.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Involvement of local NGOs Involvement of local government Taking the help of administrative officers Arrangement of funds through govt. policies Creating awareness in colleges and educational institutions Promotion of peer to peer learning system Awareness drives in daily wage labor concentrated areas

References www.aicte-india.org www.theglobaljournals.com 13

www.businesstoday.intoday.in/story/innovation-education www.schoolofeducators.com

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