National education Policy 2019-comments (1)

National Education Policy 2019 – Draft

“Universal access to quality early childhood education is perhaps the best investment that India can make for our children’s and our nation’s future.” Well articulated in the Policy document. Good things should begin well.

ECCE truly needs lot of effort at the systemic level. First and foremost, is the tacit acceptance of the Government that the existing school education can be improved with improving the stock of teachers. Second, future recruitment of teachers shall not be bound by the ‘Reservations’ of any kind. That should be totally on merit. Third, meritorious can join the stream only when they have job security and satisfaction. Fourth, parent’s responsibility has an important role to play in effective ECCE. Structured incentives and disincentives play a crucial part. Parents cannot do away with their responsibility by just paying up as much fees as required/demanded but by spending good time with their ward at home. The entire stock of existing teachers should be put to rigorous training in the otherwise vacation period and their learning outcomes should be measured.

Drawing ‘Gurukul’ concept would mean that the parent leaves the child to the care of teacher and only occasions him once in a way to see the progress of the child. That situation as the epics tell us would not question the methods of teaching of Gurus or the Gurus do not go on a prescriptive ordain of the king. Drawing the analogy closer, the social, ethnic and cultural diversity of the nation should distance community-oriented schools/ashrams.

Sanskrit and Urdu should be the two foundation languages pre-school and primary school education. Hindi, vernacular and English should be taught simultaneously from class-1. The child has innate capabilities of catching any diction and remembering well. How much we impart is what that matters. The teacher’s job is to create interest in each of these languages at the pre-schooling and primary levels. After Class VI the curriculum follows with Hindi, English and vernacular language at the required level.

Spirit of nationalism should be inculcated right from childhood and this can be done effectively through Chanakya’s Neeti Chandrika, Pancha Tantram, select short stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Gautam Buddha teachings apart from Persian tales and fables. Story telling is again an art. Some languages like Telugu have Neeti satakams  (100 poems) – Vemana, Sumati, Bhartruhari etc. Each child shall learn by-heart at least one such satakam with meaning of each of the 100 poems. The best way is to let each student recite and tell a story relating to that poem. There can be recitation competitions right from pre-schooling to primary education level at every class.

Curriculum should have compulsory play time both in the morning – indoor, and evening, outdoor. Both art and craft shall be part of the curriculum. At the end of each half year, students’ art and craft creations can be placed in exhibitions for sale. This will eventually serve as incentive for the student to excel in the art or craft. These should also merit attention in assessing the child at the end of the year. School should be seen as much a playground as a temple of learning.

Dissociate the child from carrying bag full of books. Let there be a few notebooks or electronic slate to graduate the child to digital learning at the cost of the Government. There shall be a well equipped pre-school and primary school within a radius of 5km from every household. Every such school shall have a good library – each student should be trained to use the library right from primary school to the same degree as he picks up a toy or play-tool at the pre-school stage.

Learning should be an enjoyable journey for the child. Creating the environment for such learning environment for such journey shall be the responsibility of the Government. This calls for doing with the primary and pre-schooling in the private fold. Every parent should feel happy to invest in incremental education.

If the Government schools were to improve, maintenance budget annually is imperative that it totally absent today. All government employees, officials of all cadres and all politicians irrespective of party affiliation shall send their children pre-school and primary school to only government schools.

Secondary education, class VI to XI should be moderately priced. Investment should be more on computer learning, library learning and should be graduated to self-learning techniques as he moves out to Higher Education.

The NEP recommendations on the rest of the tiers of learning are well thought of. From the graduate level, digital learning and self-learning make lot of sense. All the measures in this direction are most welcome.

Essay writing shall be part of the curriculum right from under-graduate level. Short stories, playlets, drama etc will be developed as hobbies.

Higher education is investment oriented. Laboratories and equipment access cannot come with measly investments. Parents must spare enough money for high quality education. From under-graduate to graduate and professional courses, the students get into intense competition. They get into choiced and exploratory learning to move to vocations of their choice. In order that the parents build resources to meet this advanced learning both by debt and investment, appropriate insurance policies can be introduced by the Insurance Companies with 10-15 year endowment policies.

The inverse proportion of costs of education – spending lavishly in primary and secondary through so-called public schools and private education and subsidized higher education do not contribute to a good Education Policy. At the same time, affordability of higher education should be enabled through credit and insurance mechanisms.

Constitution responsibilities that are rightly highlighted by the Committee shall serve as the basic plank on which the National Education Policy shall rest.