Education System Reforms

The HRD minister of India, Kapil Sibal, has put forward his agenda for the first 100 days. It gives me great joy and satisfaction that the new government is enthusiastic to bring about reforms. Let us try to put a thought over the proposals.

The most revolutionary idea of all is to scrap the class 10 board exam. I guess the word scrap is wrongly used here. Mr. Kapil Sibal has proposed to make the board exam OPTIONAL and not scrap it. The students who do not want to make a shift to other schools, may choose internal assessment and not appear for the board exam. This is done to reduce the trauma students have to go through who slog over the year to put in their best. There are many who are unable to perform to the expected levels and resort to suicide.

In my opinion, most of the Indian parents are obsessed with their kid’s performance and want them to excel. This obsession comes from their knowledge of the competition which awaits the kid after school. So, most of them (urban middle class) would want their kid to appear for the exam and try to get into a better school. The exam would be compulsory for the students (mostly in rural India) who want to pursue vocational courses or a diploma certification. So, it would be a small population who may opt out of the exam.

Another proposal is about implementation of grading system in class 9^th and 10^th. This would decrease the pressure to get more and more percentages in the two classes. When I tried to find information about the grading system, I found that most of the countries follow grading system except a few like India. Refer the following article for information about grading system in different countries of the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grade_(education)

About India, the article quotes: “In India, marks are generally given in percentages to encourage perfection and good presentation, despite the extra pressure on the students. But schools often give grades too in lower classes in primary school. But in higher classes, percentage differences up to two decimals is taken into consideration for ranking. The Board exams given by students all over India in Class 10 and 12,also present the marks obtained in each subject in the report card. In colleges, a percentage or GPA system is optionally followed by various institutes.

But mostly, percentages are used. A high percentage above 90% is supposed to indicate the excellent quality of a student.Students 'burn many a midnight lamp' to achieve the 90% benchmark.”

So the grading system may bring relief for many. But the proposal says it may be a grading system or percentile system. I believe the percentile system would not be able to correctly reflect the performance of the student. For one studying in a school with thousand pupils it would very tough to get a high percentile than one studying in a less populated school.

Both the proposals are revolutionary in their nature as they attempt to change age old pedagogy. These would apply only to CBSE as a pilot. Let us hope it could have the positive effects it is intended for.

After the first steps detailed above there is a lot more to do. With 20 different boards in India it is difficult to get a standard and uniform measure for all students in class 12. It is well known that state boards in the southern region of our country are very generous in awarding marks. This creates problems for students in other boards to get admission into under-graduate and graduate colleges as class 12 results are considered in all admissions. Also, there is a big difference in the curriculum of different boards which creates problems for some while appearing in the competitive entrance examinations. There is a need for a single standard board across India to obviate these issues. Also, Indian education system emphasizes on academic performance and does not promote extra-curricular activities which may help students to search their area of interest. We need to introduce innovative ways to help students realize their interest and should have a system to promote non-conventional studies.

Also, we need to focus on increasing the number of higher education institutions which provide quality education. The number of applicants is increasing manifolds with the number of seats remaining the same. This demand–supply gap creates higher and higher levels of competition.

Other steps taken by the minister include pushing the bill for Right of children to compulsory and free education for children till the age of 14 should have far reaching effects. Besides increasing the penetration of education in the poor, it will also make education compulsory for girls in the rural India.

Proposal to set up an All India Madrassa board to impart secular education along with the regular teachings of a madrassa is also included in the agenda. It would make the students at the madrassas eligible for higher education institutions. But, wouldn’t this promote the existence of madrassa where primary education is about the religion?

Commenting on the issue of reservation, the minister said he wants to build a consensus before he takes any action. He said steps would be taken only after the current implementation is completed and after the private institutions have the infrastructure to provide reservation. I guess he made an equivocal statement just to be away from any controversy at least as of now.

An anti-ragging helpline would be setup for students across the country. Anybody can call on the helpline number and process to assist him would start within 15 minutes.

The enthusiastic movement by the education ministry leaves a positive impression of the new government. These are few steps towards reforms and there is a lot more to be done. Let us hope the enthusiasm doesn’t die down and it is realized in time.