Suggestive measures on quality education Vis-a-vis RTE Act 2009

[dropcap]U[/dropcap]niversalization of Elementary Education is envisaged in the Directive Principles of State policy. It states that the State must strive to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14 years. The main contention is to provide proper education at this stage because it is most crucial for a child foundation to develop and shape his / her personality and character. It will also increase productivity of national literacy as well as the State provided it is supported by mass base with presentable policy by the Government.As soon as the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 was launched in the State, ANSTA submitted suggestive measures to the Govt. for modification in Nov.2010 focusing on Admission, Academic aspects, Punishment of children, Manpower and Infrastructure aspects. Had the RTE Act been framed in the context of State Educational system the continuity of the academic standard would have been sailing smoothly. The policy sounds appreciable but actual implementation as whole is not applicable. For instance, whether a child is capable or not he/she is 100% sure of qualifying to the next higher class till class 8 provided he/she is admitted in a school as per the provision is to be pondered upon. Also the learning process of child’s centered system is not of our classroom educational standard at this juncture. Interestingly parents are contented and least bothered of their child’s future but very soon their silence may burst out because this similar policy (non detention policy) was implemented during late eighties and experimented. The present system has a wide gap between urban and rural students too i.e., urban students can manage to get their lessons project work done through costly internet but rural students are being deprived off due to lack of such modern facilities. Is it justified for equality? It is a fact that the career of a child foundation is built at the elementary stage before going into secondary stage and beyond. And therefore more importance must be given in the elementary section and special attention is needed with conducive policy. As such there is an urgent need of separate Elementary Cell in the Directorate to look into the needs along with subordinate Officers if the univeralization of elementary education is really concerned. In this regard, if the policy of non detention cannot be done away, I as a concerned Teacher and parent may honestly suggest to review the present system of RTE Act for further modification as mentioned here below:-
1. That present system of fourth quarterly assessment test be made with 60 marks external and 40 marks as internal under CCE in all the subjects or First & Third quarterly assessment be made internal and Second & Fourth quarterly assessment be taken as external with 100 marks each so as to have equality and achieve its targeted goal to literate every child in the state without any discrimination.
2. Even after completion of Class VIII standard most of the students could not write a single sentence is a disastrous issue which is to be looked into. And therefore there should be detention to those weak students and it is suggested to maintain 40 marks as the qualifying marks. This is so required because there is overcrowded admission in Class IX where there is regular Board Examinations from this stage onward up to Class XII. And as reported earlier most of the students failed in Class IX and Heads of the School are finding it difficult to accommodate them along with qualified new students.
3. In order to draw the children’s attention with more seriousness there must be eligibility column in PCR for admission to Class IX on completion of elementary education.
4. In the absence of examination system children are losing interest to compete one another and teachers are also helpless to assess who is good and who is weak. As such examination is unavoidable so as to increase the child’s retention ability.
I am pessimistic that results of ongoing HSLC examination may be even worse than the past years because the first product of RTE. 2012 batch are appearing this public examinations. As usual the Govt. Schools will be blamed for producing poor and nil results without having considered any measures on the quality control of the system may be obstructive. And therefore a tangible policy be evolved to ascertain their area of difficulty and remedial measures be initiated to redress more particularly on rationalism of Subject Teachers in GHS. Besides, it may be suggested to open a separate Academic Cell in the Directorate along with Inspecting & Monitoring Officer to supervise GHS for academic results improvement in the larger interest of the students as a whole.
N. THUNGCHIO SHITIRE
AHM & Advisor, ANSTA. Nagaland