Performance pressure

While the new education minister Kapil Sibal took it upon himself to free education of the stress factor, the stress to ‘perform’ seemed to be at work in his case. As if in the anxiety to prove his mettle, Sibal came up with one ambitious plan after another, inviting applauds initially but forcing people to question the logic behind the haste, and making them wonder, has any sound thought gone into tempering with  such a crucial building block of society, on which depends our future. Any erratic changes might lead to a permanent damage.

Hundred-day hurry
Soon after taking over as Union HRD minister, Sibal announced his 100-day agenda to reform education. The timing was right as the summers had seen a spate of suicides following results, including from small towns.

What surprised one and all was the swiftness with which certain decisions came. The most surprising move was that class X exam would be made optional and that a single, uniform school-leaving exam would be introduced.

Students will be promoted to class XI through internal assessments. The assessments will be made based on scholastic and co-scholastic performance that will be graded. There will be nine-point grading for scholastic performance, from exceptional to unsatisfactory and five point grading for co-scholastic performance. The focus will be on year-long learning and overall assessment of the students. It will be through Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), which will be done through formative assessments per term from April to September and October to April and one end-of-term assessment.

The students will however be allowed to take an online/offline on-demand assessment if they wish to change school after class Xth and they will be issued certificates by the CBSE. The students will not only be graded for their academic performance but also on life skills like thinking skills, emotional skills, attitude towards teachers, peers etc. Also, students will have to choose from literary, scientific and aesthetic skills and they will be assessed on sports related activities as well.
 There have been different reactions by different people on this issue. Parents have shown skepticism. They wonder what would happen if the teachers, who are biased towards some students, get into settling scores. Also, are the teachers ready enough to adapt to the new system?

There’s also a feeling in one quarter that India is known for its competitive advantage and taking away that edge will affect our children’s prospects in the world job market. Another worry is when will students get to test the competitive waters, straight in class XII?

However, teachers and psychologists feel that we all have been conditioned to think of performance in terms of numbers. This new system will wipe out all of this. With no numbers in the report card, the impact will not be half as much. So, even if a student was to get a 'D', it would not seem as threatening as a 40 per cent. Hence, this new grading system will certainly help in bringing down suicide rates among students.

Long overdue
Of course there were some pathbreaking developments, which gave us a cause for cheer. The Indian Parliament adopted ‘The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2009.’ The Bill envisages free and compulsory education to children in the age group 6-14. The legislation includes the following:

• It ensures every child’s right to education
  
• It will be governments responsibility to impart it
  
• There is a provision of allocating 25 per cent of the seats in private schools to students from disadvantaged groups, including differently-abled children
  
• There is a provision to provide elementary education in mother tongue of the child
  
• The curriculum is made less rigorous, with focus on all-round development
  
• Fifty per cent seats in minority institutes will be offered to students from their communities

The Bill has been hailed as a historic legislation, which will ensure better living to citizens of one of the most populous country. This will open opportunities for the millions who enter the employable age soon.

However, there has been fierce criticisms of the same. The age bracket is causing a lot of trouble. There are questions raised as to why a child’s education will be stopped even before he/she completes the first stage of formal education — higher secondary schooling preparatory to entering college. The private schools seem to be unwilling to take on the 25 per cent extra burden. They have demanded the government to provide aid in case these kids are to be accommodated.Also welcome were the Budget provisions for education this year. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, presenting the Budget, announced, “The demographic advantage India has in terms of a large percentage of young population needs to be converted into a dynamic economic advantage by providing them the right education and skills.  The provision for the scheme, ' Mission in Education through ICT,'  has been substantially increased to Rs.900 crore.  Similarly, the provision for setting up and up-gradation of Polytechnics under the Skill Development Mission has been increased to Rs.495 crore.  The government shall take forward its intent of having one Central University in each uncovered State and for this purpose I am allocating Rs.827 crore.  I am also allocating Rs.2,113 crore for IITs and NITs, which includes a provision of Rs.450 crore for new IITs and NITs.  The overall Plan budget for higher education is proposed to be increased by Rs.2,000 crore over Interim BE.”

Deemed unfit
The deemed universities in India face trouble, as the government has decided to probe their malfunctions. Following media reports of lack of transparency and skyrocketing fee in these institutions, the University Grants Commission decided to put them under scanner, and they stand to lose their deemed status.

The UGC planned to rein in these institutes by demanding that they take 80 per cent students on the basis of pre-existing medical/ engineering or other tests.

The last few months also saw IIT faculty going on strike demanding pay hike and more autonomy. Sibal remained firm, expressing willingness to talk but ruling out salary hike. 

For the result of Sibal’s new policy to come out, we will have to wait till the time the products of schooling system enter the world of work and start performing. Of course, part of the result will be visible next year, in the form of lesser number of suicide news items.