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Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
School association condemns government's disciplinary actions
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Karnataka Private School Managements Training Expressing strong concern and disappointment, the state's school association has written to, opposing the recent move to issue notices to District Deputy Directors of Public Instruction (DDPIs) over poor Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) results in certain districts. Siddaramaiah on Saturday had instructed the Chief Secretary to issue formal notices to the Deputy Directors of Public Instruction (DDPIs) in districts where the SSLC exam results were below 60%. The CM further directed that if the responses to these notices are found unsatisfactory, strict action should be taken against the concerned a letter to the CM, the association stated that while accountability is essential, punitive actions against officials without a thorough understanding of systemic issues amount to misplaced priorities. 'Issuing notices to DDPIs may appear to be a corrective measure, but it overlooks deep-rooted policy failures and long-standing ground-level challenges,' the letter noted.'We criticise the absence of structured consultation with teachers, school heads, and education experts, despite multiple comparative studies and reports being submitted to the government. We stress that the recent dip in SSLC performance is not a reflection of individual negligence but the result of systemic shortcomings,' said Shashi Kumar D, General Secretary of Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) and Convenor of, Teaching & Non Teaching Staff Co-ordination Committee (KPMTCC). He said that these include the lack of continuous reforms at foundational levels, the poor implementation of the National Council of Educational Research and(NCERT) based spiral curriculum, the failure of the Nali-Kali framework, and the ineffectiveness of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) in providing relevant pedagogical like CRPs, BEOs, and DDPIs, the letter stated, are often overburdened with administrative tasks, leaving little room for academic mentoring. 'When the system prioritises showing results over genuine learning, it breeds artificial performance and data manipulation—practices that endanger long-term educational integrity,' the association also raised concerns about the overuse of grace marks, calling it a band-aid solution that conceals the underlying learning crisis. Instead, they proposed the introduction of a more meaningful internal assessment system aligned with NCERT methodologies, starting from early grades. Calling the crisis 'a systemic challenge, not an individual lapse,' the association urged the Chief Minister to halt demoralising disciplinary actions and instead focus on deeper said that there is a need for review of education policy in line with the 2019 Right To Education (RTE) amendment, along with foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) programmes to revive quality education at the primary level. 'There is also a need for creation of an apolitical, consultative platform comprising MLAs from teachers' and graduates' constituencies, education experts, senior officials, and teacher associations to guide long-term education reforms,' he said.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Over 10,000 unrecognised schools in Bihar, Jharkhand: Education Ministry
New Delhi: Jharkhand and Bihar together have over 10,000 unrecognised schools enrolling over 1.6 million students and having more than 88,000 teachers, according to the Union education ministry. While Jharkhand has the 'highest' 5,879 unrecognised schools in the country with an enrolment of 8,37,897 students and 46,421 teachers, Bihar has 4,915 such schools with an enrolment of 7,75,704 students and 42,377 teachers. During Project Approval Board (PAB) meetings for the approval of budget and plans under Samagra Shiksha scheme for 2025-26 with the state officials between March and April 2025, the ministry stated that unrecognised schools are violating section 19 of the Right To Education (RTE) Act 2009 which requires pre-existing schools to meet prescribed norms within three years of the Act's commencement. 'The Act also mandates that if such schools fail to fulfil the norms, the recognition shall be withdrawn, and the school shall cease to function,' said the minutes of the meetings uploaded on the ministry's website. The ministry has asked both the states to 'take further course of action and issue suitable instructions to the authorities concerned to recognise these unrecognised schools or to take appropriate action as deemed fit at the earliest.' The ministry has quoted data for unrecognised schools in Bihar and Jharkhand from Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE)+ 2023-24 report. However, the data on unrecognised schools is not publicly available in the said report released in January this year. The education ministry officials did not respond to HT's queries on clarification. 'These [Unrecognised] schools started functioning before the implementation of RTE Act 2009. The state government has already issued directions for recognition of such schools. We have formed district-level recognition committees for recognition of such schools,' Sachidanand Diyendu Tigga, administrative officer at Jharkhand education project council told HT. According to the minutes of the PAB meetings, the ministry has also flagged 'large variation' in reporting of data about out-of-school children (OoSC) by Bihar and Jharkhand on the education ministry's Project Appraisal, Budgeting, Achievements and Data Handling System (PRABANDH) portal and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) survey. The Centre describes an OoSC as a child aged six to 14 years, who has never been enrolled in an elementary school or has remained absent from school after enrolment without prior intimation for 45 days. OoSC, therefore, include both never enrolled in schools and the dropouts. Data for OoSC is uploaded by states on PRABANDH portal, the online system used to monitor the implementation and progress of Samagra Shiksha, a shared scheme between the Centre and states supporting public schools with a funding ratio of 60:40. According to the NSSO, 'never enrolled' children are those who have never attended any school or formal educational institution. In Jharkhand, the PRABANDH portal recorded 37,409 Out-of-School Children (aged 6 to 19 years) for 2023–24. In contrast, the NSSO survey for 2022–23 reported 1,07,639 'never enrolled' children in the 6 to 14 age group. In Bihar, PRABANDH data for 2023–24 showed 33,285 OoSCs, while the NSSO reported a significantly higher figure of 6,27,763 'never enrolled' children for 2022–23. The ministry advised both the states to 'monitor the data uploaded on the portal by a responsible officer under the supervision of the State Project Director (SPD).' The ministry also directed both the states to initiate a special enrolment drive with full involvement of school management committees to ensure identification and admission of all OoSC. Tigga said, 'We will look into discrepancies in the number of OoSCs. We are running the campaign 'back to school' to enroll those students who are not going to the schools.'
Deccan Herald
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Deccan Herald
Reading between results: Why we must discuss the dropouts
A few days ago, the results of the SSLC exams in Karnataka were announced. Immediately, a rush of coverage by the media followed, focusing on the numbers put out by the government, as well as on some standout performances. There were comparisons between districts, between boys and girls, between last year and this year. But there was one thing quite difficult to find – how many young people of SSLC age did not pass this stage?.The exam results are given in numbers that don't automatically make anyone think of this. What we are told is how many students took the exams, and what percentage of those students passed. But that doesn't tell us one other very important metric: how many young people in Karnataka should have taken the exam but did not because they had already dropped out?.I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations using the state's population and the typical distribution of ages in South Indian states. From what I can tell, at least 15-20% of children of that age were missing from the exam halls altogether. The Education Department tells us that about two-thirds of those who showed up to write the exams did well enough to pass. If we put those two things together, we get a fuller picture – namely, that half the children in the state do not even clear the 10th those who do pass SSLC, only about 85% enroll in a PUC programme, and of those who take that exam, typically 70% will pass each year, including those who pass with grace marks. Put all of that together and what we get is that two-thirds of future adults in Karnataka will not have completed 12 full years of shut in Pathankot after explosion-like sounds; air sirens ring out in Punjab should be the most prominent thing in the minds of our educators and political leadership, but our lens on these exams is designed to look away from this much bigger truth. Public education in Karnataka is a disaster. The system is more likely to fail a child than to help them succeed. But that's not the way it is presented to us. What we are told is that children succeeded or failed, not that the adults in charge of securing their futures failed or let's consider something else. Education has been a focus of development efforts for a long time. Various philanthropic organisations are working to improve public education in particular. Some have even staked their claim to fame on their contributions to children's education. Additionally, in recent years, big chunks of money from CSR budgets have also been steered towards schools, in the belief that this is a good and safe option for the use of that then there is the Right To Education (RTE). The government has accepted that children have a constitutional right to quality education, and private schools have also been pushed to accommodate some children who they would otherwise not short, everyone agrees that public education is important, and lots of people are doing something or the other to improve it. But that cannot take our gaze away from the results. In Yes Minister, the famous British TV series about politics in the UK, there is one episode where the minister, Jim Hacker, visits a new hospital. He finds that while the bureaucrats think that it is a splendid institution because it has great modern equipment, is very clean, has hundreds of administrative staff, etc., what it does not have are doctors and prompts a question from the minister – 'We are talking about a hospital, aren't we?' That's the kind of question that we should be asking. We are talking about the Department of Education, about schools, about learning outcomes, aren't we?.None of this is new. It has been happening for years. All we've done is congratulate ourselves for various inputs along the way – pucca buildings, toilets, running water, midday meals, teachers and administrative staff, enrollment – and decided that these are all signs of great progress. What's missing from this way of looking at things is any meaningful focus on whether we are helping children mistakes have contributed to this stark reality. We have terribly misguided notions of the ideal. What is a school? Who is a teacher? How should we measure learning? What is the measure of public education? One can spend a lot of time debating which of these failures is more to blame, and even ponder about things that might be done differently. Before any of that, however, we have to start with an admission of failure. Ours, not the children's.
Time of India
28-04-2025
- General
- Time of India
RTE admissions: 84% Nagpur seats filled, fourth round till May 7
Nagpur: Almost 84% of seats under the Right To Education (RTE) Act have been filled in Nagpur district, with the fourth round of admissions ongoing until May 7. Under this act, students are entitled to free education in private schools. According to data shared by the education department on Monday, 5,851 of 7,005 seats have been filled so far. Nagpur district received almost 30,000 applications. The selection process is conducted through an online lottery system operated by the education department. Selected students are informed via SMS and email, after which they must visit the allotted school to complete the admission formalities. At this stage, students are tagged as "selected." Once parents or guardians visit the school and submit all the required documents, the student is tagged as "confirmed." Documents required include the birth certificate, proof of residence, and other necessary paperwork. The residence proof is particularly crucial, as RTE admissions are based on the student's proximity to the school. The algorithm used by the lottery software gives preference to students residing closest to the institution.
