On the Right to Education Act - to detain or not to

When the Right to Education (RTE) Act was promulgated in 2009-10, the most talked about provision was 'no detention' of students up to Class-VIII. The philosophy behind this provision was to ensure that all students in the age-group of 6 to 14 years would not be deprived of education. As 25% seats were being reserved for students from the disadvantaged sections of the society, this provision was supposed to ensure that such students were not thrown out of the system due to their failure to cope up with it, coming as they were from a background which had no educated parents or additional teaching support. Furthermore, there was also a provision of age-appropriate admission. If a none year old was coming to school for the first time she had to be admitted to Class-IV. The school and the teachers were supposed to ensure that such students were brought at par with others. Sadly, this did not happen.

In reality, the states' education departments took some time to implement the lottery-based system for admission and ensuring reservation of 25% seats for the students from the disadvantaged sections of the society. In Chhattisgarh for instance, the lottery-based admissions could be implemented only with the 2015-16 academic session, though reservation at a lower scale was implemented without a pattern as schools invented ways not to implement reservation through excuses. We at Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) had successfully implemented a lottery-based admission system immediately after the RTE Act was promulgated with effect from 1st April 2010. Since admissions had already been completed by then for the 2010-11 academic session, the provisions of the RTE Act were implemented from the 2011-12 academic session by BSP schools.

An important aspect of the 'no detention' clause was to ensure that all students were brought to a learning level so that they could move seamlessly to the next class through Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). Schools were supposed to run for six hours, with teachers spending the next 90 minutes coaching and guiding weak students. This did not happen. While the CCE required newer methods of evaluation, the untrained teachers merely retrofitted the examinations they were conversant with, with smaller tests. Lip service was the norm as far as training of teachers is concerned, that too in short measure.

So for an entire generation of students have passed through the system without detention. Somewhere down the line, the gullible young minds in their subconscious understood that they could move on without actually learning. That is what the advocates of the detention clause have been harking since the new government came in four years back. Hence the examinations at Class-V and VIII levels have been brought in. But without having teachers trained to look after the disadvantaged students, it is this category of students who will suffer the most. It is not about detention or no detention. Their right to education is going to be the first casualty.

P.S.: Views expressed above are personal, though they are drawn from personal professional experience in BSP's Education department.

When journalists jump ship

The case of Chandan Mitra who has jumped ship by moving from the BJP to the TMC is indeed curious. It is indeed intriguing that someone who has spent the best part of his life in Chandigarh as the editor of The Pioneer, been two-time Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, and could not win a Lok Sabha seat from West Bengal in 2014, has resigned because he was not able to do much for his state (West Bengal), as mentioned by him. This is political opportunism, and nothing else.

We have had prior examples of journalists jumping into politics like M J Akbar, who first joined the Congress and then the BJP; Rajiv Shukla, who first joined the Congress and then moved to the BCCI and the IPL, and whose example is being partly emulated by Rajat Sharma who had the BJP's backing in the recent DDCA elections; Arun Shourie, who was a vehement champion of Hindutva in his initial days in the BJP, and is now a vociferous critic of the present dispensation; to name a few.

What is worrying that each one of the illustrious scribes has tried to pull wool over the eyes of the readers by resorting to hypocrisy so typical to politicians.

Lopsided Tour Itinerary to Australia

Indian cricket team's tour itinerary to Australia is highly lopsided. India begin their tour with three T20Is, followed by four Tests and finally play three ODIs. Playing the shortest format of cricket ahead of the longest format is no practice when a majority of the Test players like Pujara, Vijay, Rahul, Rahane, and Ishant do not play T20 for India. When a team is going primarily for 4 Tests on a difficult tour to Australia, it should ideally play 2 to 3 three-day or four-day games to get a feel of the weather, pitches and playing conditions. Though it has not been mentioned specifically in the published itinerary, one hopes the team plays at least two three-day first class games in the ten days between the last T20I and the first Test. 

The Test team needs a rhythm, as was seen in South Africa recently when India improved as the series went on, having jumped off the plane straightaway into Tests after playing a limited overs series at home against Sri Lanka. Virat Kohli had raised the issue of proper preparation ahead of a tough Test tour but his demand was not heeded. So India plunged into South Africa, even picking limited overs specialists like Rohit and Shikhar who were in form at home against Sri Lanka ahead of Test specialists Rahane and Rahul for Tests against South Africa when the tour began.

The Indian team will be playing the limited overs series in England ahead of the five Test series later this year. And will have only one four-day game before the Tests. While it would not be a problem for players like Ishant and Pujara who are playing county cricket this year, the limited overs players who are also part of the Test squad will have to quickly switch over to Test mode.

Integrity

What India faces today is the crisis of integrity. Integrity of behavior in public life has been under a cloud, accentuated by first the way the political establishment has appropriated authority and the manner in which the bureaucracy has stamped its mark on embezzlement of funds. The bank scams of recent years are the tip of the iceberg made up of siphoning off of public money by a plethora of state and central government departments since times immemorial. As a teenager who had started seeing the  funny side of misuse of power depicted in cartoons, I remember how the minister's wife would be looking forward to the opportunity for an aerial survey of flood-hit areas while the minister would be licking his lips at the aid material.

The problem with we Indians is that we have always seen only the funny side of corruption and corrupt behavior which includes violating laws, rules and regulations. If our MLA or MP or a minister in our vicinity was not living in a mansion that was getting richer year after year or whose kids did not enjoy having gas or petrol agencies, what good was s/he going to do to his subjects. We have always worshipped people in power. This includes top bureaucrats who can have big houses or cars and staff at their beck and call. Young children see them as idols and work hard to attain the status symbols, by hook or crook.

We do not teach our children values of Honesty, Integrity and Transparency (HIT) either in our families or schools. Parents and teachers exercise tremendous influence over young children. They can be excellent role models for the citizens of tomorrow. But conformity gets the better of them and they let another generation of the future to get lost in the morass of corrupt behavior.

Recently I had a few opportunities to talk to school and college students. I somehow manage to move to HIT. My advice is simple. Never forget what you feel right now is right or wrong, and act ethically in whatever decisions you take in whatever position you are in later on in your life. Don't indulge in corruption because your salary is less. Remember, whatever salary you get, you only deserve that. So don't use it as an alibi for making money or flouting rules. If you stick to rules you will be deemed stubborn or impractical, but so be it. I was just reading about an IAS officer in Haryana who has been transferred 74 times in 34 years. Whatever the political dispensation, he has been at loggerheads with the corrupt, as has been Khemka. Their cases is proof of the fact that we need not wait for messiahs to bail us out.

What we need is Integrity, at any cost. No one can force you to be dishonest. So stick to your personal integrity. It is amazing how scamsters can fly off with public money with ease. As Khemka mentions in an interview recently, the big corporates are at the triumvirate of bureaucracy and polity in this corruption triangle. This has been possible because a lot of people in the banking or regulatory or auditing systems compromised their integrity. It was possible because the bureaucratic and political systems failed to sniff the frauds as they happened one after another. Those in public positions are prone to hiding irregularities to show that everything is fine. Such indiscretions result in gross improprieties like the one India is facing right now.

Will all the money come back or will the absconders be brought to book? That will ultimately not matter as long as we don't have people with integrity in our society and various systems. So let us pick the middle 'I' in my HIT model to begin with.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are personal and in wider interest of the most valued of my stakeholders alone - my students. I hold no grouse against others who may not agree with what I have to say or practice, including those with whom I had the pleasure of interacting in my various official dealings.

The thrill of the morning paper

For almost a month now, and perhaps for 13 months in 2012-13 and 12 months 1989-90, I have had a blissful experience of the morning paper, literally in my hands.

When I shifted to Bhilai in 1990, it would be The Times of India, Delhi edition being delivered in the evening. The newspaper would come by air to Raipur and would be delivered in the evening. So the year long luxury of fresh newsprint while I was in Delhi, came to an end. Logistics issues meant there would be no regularity of the TOI being delivered on time. Though it scares me now, but I must confess that for almost two years I had no morning newspaper to read. Gradually I shifted to Teh Hitavada and The Indian Express - Nagpur editions. When The Hindustan Times was launched from Raipur, I shifted to that as well. But my discomfort continued, so to speak. Even prior to 1990, I missed the morning 'national' newspaper having lived in smaller towns like Ranchi, Obra, and Muzaffarpur.

It was only in 2007, during a visit to Chennai that I came across The Hindu again after a gap of 17 years, having last read it while in Delhi. On my return to Bhilai, I immediately asked the newspaper vendor to start delivering The Hindu. First it was the Delhi edition, then Kolkata and finally Vizag or Hyderabad. But each time it would be a day or two late. But that chain was broken in December 2017 when I latched on to the 10-year special subscription offer and decided to subscribe to the digital edition.

So now I open my laptop at anytime I get up, which is usually around 4.00-4.30 am, which in a way coincides with the availability of the digital edition online, and sift through the 'pages', a cup of coffee or tea in hand. Till say around 6.00 am this liaison continues which gets extended if there s more material to read on Sundays and specific days, often at the cost of my morning walk. The smell from the newsprint is missing but the thrill of the morning news is fresh. And shall remain for another 10 years, at least.

Education and Learning

That we had to bring in a law (the RTE Act, 2010) to make education a right six decades after independence itself speaks of how two of our basic rights - healthcare and education were denied to the masses. In the backdrop of huge investment - public as well as private - in the two areas notwithstanding, should have been taken as an indictment of India's failure to fulfill the basic needs of its citizens. 

The ASER 2017 report by Pratham (http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/ASER%202017/aser2017fullreport.pdf) has only confirmed our worst fears. The teenagers (14-18 years) are badly disabled, so to speak when it comes to basic skills. Let us not forget that these are amongst those who suddenly, from an exam-based evaluation system, which was in vogue till 2010, had to shift to no exams at all for the last seven years. The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), in the absence of proper teacher training and ineffective implementation, resulted in schools pushing children up the ladder under the guise of no-detention. What RTE Act meant by no-detention was that teachers should have brought the weak students at par and not detain them for failing an exam. What actually happened was that the weakest students got promoted without acquiring adequate learning.

That those in classes 9 to 12 are so poor in basic skills should come as no surprise. The RTE Act has ensured compulsory enrollment of out-of-school children. But are they learning? How are Class 9 and 10 students going to cope with annual exams this year? 

So it would be alright to extend the provisions of the RTE Act to those aged 14 to 18 years, our learning from the actual reality of its implementation for the 6-14 age-group should be first looked into. There is a humongous shortage of teachersrs in our schools. Teachers need to be trained as well and assimilate the tenets of continuous learning and evaluation of students. The availability of free books and uniform is also a problem, particularly for those from the disadvantaged sections of society. The present reimbursement model gets stuck up in bureaucracy and poor parents often do not get their due on time.

If ASER 2017 report is not a wake-up call, then perhaps nothing else shall be.

Otimising the School Academic Calendar

Arriving at an optimum examination schedule keeping in  mind the holidays, festivals and elections (at times), is a challenge. Last year the Class-X and XII Board examinations conducted by the CBSE started late on account of elections in U.P. Otherwise March 1 has been the traditional start date for the start of the examinations, year after year.

The CBSE Class-XII Examination Schedule for 2018 is badly skewed against the interests of science students. There is absolutely no gap between Mathematics (on 21st March) and Engineering Graphics (22nd March). It is a given that all the Engineering Graphics students study Mathematics. 

Stung by delays and inaccuracies in evaluation last year, the CBSE had earlier talked of advancing the start of the board examinations to February. However it did not find favour with schools as it would have affected course completion as well the schedule of the school-level examinations for other classes which are held simultaneously with the board examinations. 

For the first time in many years the Class-X examinations have spilled over to April. With both Class-X and XII examinations running into April, the new academic session that starts on 1st of April gets affected. Schools have to suspend classes on examination days as most of them are examination centers as well. Another critical issue is availability of teachers for classroom teaching as they are away on evaluation duty for at least 7 to 10 days. With summer attaining scorching heights by mid-April in most parts of India, the local administration steps in with either suspension of classes or truncation of schools' working hours. Would it not be a good idea to revert to the earlier practice of holding examinations in April (in the morning hours, say from 7 am to 10 am or 8 am to 11 am) and starting the new academic session from July? The six-week summer vacations in May-June can then be utilised for evaluation. The problem is going to be acute for schools in 2018-19 with a plethora of state elections as well the general elections coming up as teachers have also a big role to play in conducting them.

What ill-prepared and frustrated managers do - on a cricket field, and other things

The abject surrender by the numero uno Test team's famed batting line-up - not once but twice at Newlands, Cape Town in the first Test of the ongoing series - is not unexpected.

The Indian team landed in South Africa without any preparation at all. Only a few days back they were playing Sri Lanka at home and decimating them. But even against one of the weakest teams today, the Indian batting line-up struggled in the Kolkata Test due to seaming conditions. In fact, India surrendered to Lakmal and co. at Dharamshala in the first ODI. In 2016, India had lost to Sri Lanka in a T20I at Pune on a grassy 'English' pitch. So against the weakest team if we had demonstrated again and again that our world-record beating batsmen cannot stand muster on seaming pitches with grass, was there any doubt that we will not surrender in South Africa, or for that matter England and Australia later on in 2018?

Not that this issue wasn't raised? Skipper Kohli himself raised the issue and when no one listened in the BCCI, he chose to take a break for personal reasons like all frustrated managers do in any organisation when the bosses aren't listening. In response to Suresh Menon's column - Between The Wickets - Another Tough Tour Without Enough Preparation Time (The Hindu, Dec 19, 2017), this reader had suggested (vide letter dated 22 December 2017 to the editor of The Hindu) that instead of a meaningless series of matches against Sri Lanka, the top-22 players of India could have played a couple of three-day games at Dharamshala in conditions similar to South Africa. It was also suggested that India should have played at least three warm-up matches in South Africa against any opposition to get used to the conditions. What the Indian team management chose to do, in their frustration at the upcoming improbable challenge, was to scrap a two-day tour game to give the overworked players a rest! 

So if anything hasn't changed, it is the same dismal start to an overseas tour. Losing inside, effectively three days, is definitely better than what Zimbabwe had to suffer in a Test match recently - losing in two days. The Indian bowlers gave the South African batsmen a virtual scare, not once but twice in the match. But the batsmen failed to answer the call of duty.

Team selection was the starting point of it all. Why drop K L Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane in preference to Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, who are flat-track limited-overs bullies at home? Pujara's failure and also Kohli's and Vijay's raises deep concerns. But these three are sure to figure out what went wrong. India may also have to think of playing four fast bowlers and forego the spin option altogether if conditions are similar in the remaining two Tests.

The numero uno lesson for the numero uno Test team - prepare properly.