The year 2010 was a landmark year
for education in the country. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education (RTE) Act, 2009, representing the consequential legislation to the
Constitutional (86th Amendment) Act, 2002, was enforced with effect from 1st
April, 2010.The RTE Act secures the right of children to free and compulsory
education till completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school.
The Act lays down the norms and standards relating to pupil teacher ratios,
buildings and infrastructure, school working days and teacher working hours.
The process of aligning the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan strategies and norms with the
RTE mandate was initiated.
PREPARATION OF MODEL RULES UNDER THE RTE ACT
The Model Rules under the
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act have been prepared and
circulated/sent to State Governments to adopt/adapt the same while making their
own rules.
FRAMING OF CENTRAL RULES:
The Central Rules under
the RTE Act titled “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
Rules, 2010” was published in the Gazette on 9th April, 2010.
NOTIFICATIONS UNDER SECTION 29 AND
23 OF THE RTE ACT.
The Central Government has
issued the following Notifications on 5th April, 2010.
(i)
in
exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 29 of the Right
of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009, the Central Government has authorized the National Council
of Educational Research and Training would be the academic authority to lay
down the curriculum and evaluation procedure for elementary education, and to
develop a framework of national curriculum under clause (a) of sub-section (6)
of Section 7 of the Act; and
(ii) in exercise of powers conferred by
sub-section (1) of Section 23 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
Act, 2009, the Central Government has authorized the National Council for
Teacher Education as the academic authority to lay down the minimum
qualifications for a person to be eligible for
appointment as a teacher.
LAYING DOWN MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS FOR APPOINTMENT AS
A TEACHER
The National Council for
Teachers Education (NCTE) has vide Notification dated 23rd August, 2010 laid down the
minimum qualifications for a person to be appointed as a teacher in schools.
FORMATION OF NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL
Section 33(1) of the Right
of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 provides for
constitution of a National Advisory Council (NAC) by the Central Government.
The functions of the NAC shall be to advise the Central Government on
implementation of the provisions of the RTE Act in an effective manner. The
National Advisory Council was constituted under the chairpersonship of Minister
of Human Resource Development.
Notification to this effect has been published in the Gazette of India
on 8th July, 2010.
GUIDELINES ISSUED UNDER SECTION 35(1) OF THE RTE ACT:
a)
Clarifications
regarding Duties of teachers under
Section 27: “Duties relating to election to the local authority or the State
Legislatures or Parliament relate to actual conduct of elections and the
consequent deployment of teachers on the days of poll and counting, the time
spent on training imparted to them and collection of election material for such
deployment. All other duties relating to
electoral roll revisions will be undertaken on holidays and during non-
teaching hours and non-teaching days.”
b)
Procedure
for admission in schools under section 13(1) and section 12(1)(c) of the RTE
Act – i.e. the unaided and ‘specified category’ schools shall follow a system
of random selection out of the applications received from children belonging to
disadvantaged groups and weaker sections for filling the pre-determined number
of seats in that class, which should be not less than 25% of the strength of
the class and for remaining 75% of the seats (or a lesser percentage depending
upon the number of seats fixed by the school for admission under section 12(1)(c),
in respect of unaided schools and specified category schools, and for all the
seats in the aided schools, each school should formulate a policy under which
admissions are to take place
c)
Applicability
of RTE to Minority Institutions - Institutions, including Madrasa and Vedic
Pathshalas especially serving religious and linguistic minorities are protected
under Article 29 and 30 of the Constitution.
The RTE Act does not come in the way of continuance of such institutions,
or the rights of children in such institutions and schools of minority
organizations covered within the meaning of section 2(n) of the Act, will be
governed by the provisions of the RTE Act, 2009.
d)
Relax
the minimum qualifications required for appointment of teacher for a period not
exceeding five years as required under Sub-section (2) of Section 23 of RTE Act
to a state along with the prescribed format for seeking relaxation by the
State.
e)
For
maintaining PTR mentioned in the
Schedule to the Act, the States may undertake two processes within a period of
six months
i)
Rationalize
the deployment of existing teachers to address the problems of urban-rural and
other spatial imbalances in teacher placements and
ii)
Initiate
the process of recruitment of new teachers to fill vacant posts as per the PTR stipulated in the Schedule.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is the main
vehicle for implementation of RTE Act, 2009.
The major achievements of SSA
till September, 2010 are
(i)
Opening of 309727 new schools,
(ii)
Construction of 254935 school buildings,
(iii)
Construction of 1166868 additional
classrooms,
(iv)
190961 drinking water facilities,
(v)
Construction of 347857 toilets,
(vi)
Supply of free textbooks to 8.70
crore children,
(vii)
appointment of 11.13 lakh teachers
(viii)
In-service training to 14.02 lakh
teachers.
(ix)
Central budget provision for SSA
for 2010-11 is Rs.19000 crore, out of which Rs.15212 crore has been released to
States/UTs till 30.11.2010.
GRADING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED IN CLASS 10
2010 saw the
initiation of the grading system at the class 10 level . It has also been decided to do away with Class X
board examinations from 2011 in CBSE schools affiliated up to senior secondary
level, for such students who are not moving out of the CBSE System. Further, students of class IX and X will be
assessed on the basis on CCE
(Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) to be implemented at the school
level.
MODEL SCHOOLS
The
government has decided to set up 6000 high quality model schools at the rate of
one school per block. During
2010-11, 401 model schools in 5 States have been sanctioned and Rs.229.51crore
released as first instalment of central share,
The Project Approval Board(PAB) has also recommended 53 more schools in 3 States as mentioned below:
(i) Assam 24
(ii) Uttar Pradesh 3
(iii) Tamil Nadu 26
RASHTRIYA
MADHYAMIK SHIKSHA ABHIYAN
This scheme was launched in March,
2009 with the objective to enhance access to secondary education and
improve its quality and the implementation of the scheme started from 2009-10.
It is envisaged to achieve an enrolment rate of 75% from 52.26% in 2005-06 at
secondary stage within 5 years by providing a secondary school within a
reasonable distance of any habitation.
During 2010-11, based on the Annual
Plan proposals submitted by the State/UTs government upto 30.11.2010, the
Project Approval Board (PAB) has
approved following interventions in 13 States/UTs:
Ø
New/ upgraded schools : 1257
Ø
Additional class rooms : 8511
Ø
Science lab : 4101
Ø
Computer room : 2554
Ø
Art/craft/culture room : 5359
Ø
Library : 5095
Ø
Separate toilet block
& drinking
water facilities : 4330
Ø
In service training of
teachers : 459215
NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHER EDUCATION
“National Curriculum Framework for
Teacher Education” developed by the National Council for Teacher Education
(NCTE) was released this year. Two significant developments – the National
Curriculum Framework, 2005 and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009, have guided the development of this Framework. The document deals with preparing and
re-orienting teachers for enabling the child to learn through activities,
discovery and exploration of his environment and surroundings in a child
friendly and child-centred manner, inclusive education, perspective for
equitable and sustainable development, gender perspectives, role of community
knowledge in education and ICT in schooling as well as e-learning
COBSE UNANIMOUSLY ENDORSES CORE CURRICULUM FOR MATHS, SCIENCE
AND COMMERCE FOR THE
COUNTRY FOR PLUS TWO STAGE
The
Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) approved in two meetings, in the first one in Delhi a common core
curriculum in Science and Mathematics, and in a later meeting in Jaipur, a
common core curriculum for commerce, for the plus two stage, for the
country. Most of the Boards were in
favour of the implementation of the core curriculum for science and maths from the year 2011 and for commerce from
2012..
MOU SIGNED BETWEEN HRD AND
RAILWAY MINISTRIES
An
MoU was signed between the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the
Ministry of Railways to develop educational infrastructure in the form of
around 50 Kendriya Vidyalayas in civil sector (about 20 during the 11th
Plan and the balance during the 12th Plan), 10 Residential Schools
on the pattern of Navodaya Vidayalayas ( to be set up by Ministry of Railways
in collaboration with Ministry of HRD on mutually agreed terms), an appropriate
number of Model Degree Colleges and Technical and Management institutions of
National Importance to meet the demand for education including wards of Railway
employees, either as per the norms specified under the existing
schemes/programmes and projects being executed by Ministry of Human Resource
Development or through special programmes and projects mutually agreed by the
parties or through innovative financing under Public Private Partnership Models
or any combinational thereof.
NCTE PORTAL LAUNCHED
An NCTE Portal was launched which provides for
on-line application for recognition of teacher education institutions, on-line
submission of appeals, on-line registration of teacher education institutions,
teacher educators and teacher trainees, and electronic processing of applications
submitted on-line through MIS-integration.
MOU SIGNED BETWEEN HRD AND UIDAI
Ministry of Human Resource Development and Unique
Identification Authority of India have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on
27th October, 2010 The proposed MOU would be helpful in tracking
student’s mobility by creating an electronic registry of all students right
from primary/elementary level through secondary and higher education, as also
between the institutions. It would also
be useful in the implementation of Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Imprinting of UID number on performance
record of individual students (Marksheet.merit certificate, migration
certificate) will also be helpful to prospective employers and educational institutions. UID number will help in tracking problems of
fake degrees. UID can also be utilized
while dematting of academic certificates as also education loan and scholarship
schemes.
SAAKSHAR BHARAT
The Prime
Minister launched Saakshar Bharat on 8th September, 2009 and it was operationalised w.e.f. 1st October, 2009. By 31st December, 2009, which is within six
months of the Government’s decision, the
Mission has been rolled out in 167 districts in 19 States, covering over 81,000
Gram Panchayats, with a budgetary outlay of Rs.2524 crore up to 31st March,
2012. In all 3.82 crore non-literate
adults will be benefited in these districts. The Government of India’s share of
Rs.374.35 crore, as the first installment, has been sanctioned. In 2010-11,
43 more districts are being taken up for implementation of Saakshar Bharat to cover over 11000 Gram Panchayats.
AN AUTONOMOUS OVERARCHING AUTHORITY FOR HIGHER
EDUCATION AND RESEARCH BASED ON
THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF YASH PAL
COMMITTEE AND NATIONAL KNOWLEDGE
COMMISSION.
The restructuring of the Higher Education sector,
in the context of a knowledge economy that thrives on innovation, the ceaseless
germination of new ideas and raising the consciousness of people, requires a
new spirit of regulation that respects the autonomy of institutions amidst the
need for accountability with opportunities for access to all. The establishment of an over-arching
institution with power, inter-alia, to prescribe academic standard, norms of
accreditation and mechanism for financing and governance of institutions, will
enhance the endeavour to promote credible standards of higher education and
research in the country. A Task Force
has been constituted for aiding and advising the Government in the establishment
of the Commission. The Task Force has
submitted its report to the government on 21st October, 2010.
A LAW TO PREVENT, PROBIBIT AND PUNISH EDUCATIONAL MALPRACTICES
There is public concern that technical and
medical educational institutions, and universities should not resort to unfair
practices, such as charging of capitation fee and demanding donations for
admitting students, no issuing receipts in respect of payments made by or on
behalf of students, admission to professional programmes of study through
non-transparent and questionable admission processes, low quality delivery of
education services and false claims of quality of such services through
misleading advertisements, engagement of unqualified or ineligible teaching
faculty, forcible withholding of certificates and other documents of
students. Responding to this concern, a
comprehensive legislation that would prohibit and punish such practices has
been introduced in Parliament in the month of May, 2010 to provide for
prohibition and punishment for adopting of unfair practices.
A LAW FOR MANDATORY ASSESSMENT AND ACCREDITATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGH AN
INDEPENDENT REGULATORY AUTHORITY
Objective quality assurance frameworks are needed
for the student community to make informed choices about institutions and
courses. Presently, accreditation is
voluntary as a result of which less than one-fifth of the colleges and less
than one-third of all universities have obtained accreditation. Mandatory accreditation in the higher
education would enable the higher education system in the country to become a
part of the global quality assurance system.
A legislation has been introduced in Parliament in May this year to
provide for mandatory accreditation of all institutions of higher education and
creation of an institutional structure for the purpose. This is in accordance with the general
principle of moving from “inspection approval” based mechanism of recognizing
institutions to a “verification assessment” method, the attainment of which has
often been stressed in public policy discourses.
A LAW TO REGULATE ENTRY AND
OPERATION OF FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL PROVIDERS
A large number of foreign educational
institutions are reportedly operating in the country. Some of them are resorting to various
mal-practices to allure and attract students, particularly in smaller cities
and towns. There is as yet neither any
centralised policy nor regulatory regime for Foreign Educational Institutions
in the country. The regulation on entry
and operation of Foreign Educational Institutions is in the public interest to
maintain the standards of higher education within the country as well as to
protect the interest of the student’s community. An ideal regulatory framework could be one in
which reputed institutes are able to enter and operate in terms of India’s
national policy, while at the same time sub-standard or ‘fly-by-night’
operators are checked and controlled.
The legislative proposal to regulate entry and operation of foreign
educational institutions has also been introduced in Parliament.
A LAW TO ESTABILISH A TRIBUNAL FOR FAST –TRACK ADJUDICATION OF DISPUTES CONCERNING
STAKEHOLDERS
The existing justice system suffers from delays and
prolixity. Educational disputes need a
fast-track and affordable adjudication mechanism. For this purpose, a legislation to establish
Tribunals at the states and at National level, has been introduced in
Parliament to perform the role of providing an independent, enforceable,
speedy, fast track adjudication of disputes in a quasi-judicial manner in regard
to students, teachers and other employees, between institutions and between
institutions and the regulators. This legislation has already been passed by the
Lok Sabha and is before the Rajya Sabha for consideration.
A LAW TO PROVIDE FOR
ESTABILSHMENT OF UNIVERSITIES FOR INNOVATION
Another facilitating process has been set in motion,
which contemplates creating institutions of excellence to attract world class
faculty, advanced learning facilities and pure research oriented
atmosphere. . Despite having one of the largest higher
education systems in the world, only a few institutions of learning have been
able to make a mark on the global stage.
The contribution of the alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology
(IITs), the Indian Institute of Sciences and the Indian Institutes of
Management(IIMs) have been widely recognized all over the world. Recognizing this, the government has proposed
establishment of Innovation Universities aimed at world class standards. These Universities would be at the fount of
making India
and global knowledge hub and set benchmarks for excellence for other Central
and State Universities. The proposal would also facilitate
participation of reputed private sector agencies in establishment of these
universities in PPP mode. A legislative proposal in this regard has
been already formulated by the Ministry and the proposal in the stage of
inter-ministerial consultations.
A LAW TO PROVIDE FOR
NATIONAL ACADEMIC DEPOSITORY
The ministry has also formulated a legislative proposal
for creating and maintaining a national electronic database of academic records
and awards in de-mat form. What is
envisaged is a shift from the current practice, through dematerialisation of
certificates, to a technology-based solution that would ensure confidentiality,
authenticity and fidelity, enabling online verification and easy retrieval of
academic qualifications. Holding of academic qualifications in an electronic
depository would provide immense benefit to educational institutions, students,
alumni and employers by enabling online access of academic qualifications,
eliminating the need for persons to approach educational institutions for
obtaining transcripts of such qualifications or for verification as well as
reduce the need for institutions to preserve records related to academic
performance of students over a long time.
The system could also eliminate fraudulent practices such as forging of
certificates and mark sheets through facilitating online verification.
INDIAN INSTITUTES OF
TECHNOLOGY (IITs)
The Government has set up eight new IITs in Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh (Indore) and
Himachal Pradesh. Out of these 8,
Classes for B.Tech. couses have been started from 2009-10 in IITs at Mandi
(H.P) and Indore (M.P.). classes had already been started from July-August 2008
in 6 new IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Rajasthan, Orissa, Punjab and Gujarat .
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF
MANAGEMENT (IIMs)
In view of the felt need for expansion of facilities for
high quality management education, during XIth Five Year Plan seven new IIMs
have been established in the country.
The IIMs at Rohtak, Ranchi
& Raipur
have commenced their academic session from 2010-11. The IIM at Tiruchirappalli will be
operationalized in 2010-11 with executive programmes and the IIMs at Udaipur
& Kashipur would become functional from 2011-12.
LOW COST ACCESS –CUM-COMPUTING
DEVICE UNVEILED
The
Union Minister for human Resource Development unveiled a low cost
computing-cum-access device in July this year. The price of the device is
expected to be around $35 per piece. The aim is to reach such
devices to the students of colleges and Universities and to provide these
institutions a host of choices of low cost access devices around Rs.
1500/- ($35) or less in near future.
GATE
ONLINE IN TWO SUBJECTS
Indian Institutes of Technology at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee and the Indian Institute of
Science Bangalore
successfully conducted online Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2010 for two out of 21 papers this year.
Examinations in two subjects, namely Textile Engineering and Fiber Science
(TF), and Mining Engineering (MN) were conducted using computers by these
institutes. About 1700 candidates were registered for these examinations which
were conducted simultaneously in eight cities over two shifts.
E-GOVERNANCE
MODEL FOR AICTE
The web
portals of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National
Board of Accreditation (NBA) at URL://www.aicte-india.org and
URL://www.nba-india.org respectively were launched in order to bring in
transparency, accountability, efficiency and swiftness in its decision-making
process. Through this portal, the processing of applications for approvals
has been made on line this year.
INDIA AUSTRALIA EDUCATION COUNCIL TO BE
CONSTITUTED
A
landmark initiative to constitute the India-Australia Education Council has
been agreed on by India
and Australia
A first of its kind, this Council will bring together government, academia,
business and industry of both the countries to further bilateral collaboration
in the education sector. Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource
Development, and Ms. Julia Gillard,
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Employment and Workplace
Relations, Australia
decided upon this in a meeting held in Melbourne,
Australia, in
recognition of the fact that education is central to sustained, inclusive and
equitable growth.
HRD MINISTRY FINALIZES
SCHEME FOR INTEREST SUBSIDY FOR EDUCATION LOANS
Ministry of Human Resource
Development has finalized the modalities for implementation of a new Central
Scheme to provide full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium on
educational loans for students belonging to economically weaker sections (with
parental family income from all sources of less than Rs.4.5 lakh annually) from
scheduled banks under the Educational Loan Scheme of the Indian Banks’
Association (IBA) for pursuing
courses of studies in professional/technical streams from recognized
institutions in India. The modalities
have been finalized in consultation with the Indian Banks’ Association. The
Scheme is effective for all IBA
approved educational loans sanctioned in form of eligible students’ in respect
of approval course of studies from the academic year 2009-10.
YALE
UNIVERSITY
ENTERS INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH IIT KANPUR AND IIM KHOZIKHODE FOR DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP
PROGRAMMES
Indian
Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode,
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
– Kanpur and Yale University, USA have entered into a partnership to advance
higher education in India through academic leadership development programmes
for higher education leaders in India and through research on Indian higher
education..The flagship programme of the partnership will be a new “India –
Yale University Leadership Programme,” to be developed by Yale University in
consultation with IIM – Kozhikode and IIT
– Kanpur, that will expose university and academic leaders in India at the
levels of vice-chancellor, director, and deans to the best practices of
academic administration and institutional management in the United States.
NATIONAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION QUALIFICATION
FRAME WORK
The HRD Ministry has
initiated the process for the preparation of a
National Vocational Education Qualification Framework. The first two round tables have been organized by the All
India Council for Technical Education, (AICTE) for the development of a
national vocational education qualification framework, the first one with
regard to the automobile sector, and the second one with regard to the IT, ITES and Telecom Industry. More round
tables are proposed to be organized in order to address a gamut of
vocations. Subsequent to the
discussions, to develop the course curriculum, core groups have been
constituted for the preparation of the curriculum for the automobile, for the
telecom and for the IT sector.. These
groups are to submit their recommendations to the HRD Ministry within 3 months.
MV/Hb