10 Jan 2008
PCEF Schools Group
The Schools Group is concerned with the Learning Environment for Children of Pune, with a focus on PMC Schools
The framework of the chapter on schools in the ESR is as below:
The Numbers
Number of PMC schools: 320
Number of children enrolled: 130000
Around 35% of the children in Pune attend PMC elementary schools.
What the law promises
The right to good quality elementary education is guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which India is a signatory.
Free and compulsory education from age 6-14 is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution of India.
Municipal Corporations, councils, ZPs are responsible for elementary education
Implications for PMC Education Dept
The PMC must provide, free of cost, elementary education that is of good quality to each child in the local area.
The schools run by the PMC must provide easy access, enabling environment, opportunity for all-round development to each child.
Major problem areas in PMC schools as seen by child rights activists
1) Access
a) Physical access is often blocked by busy roads, flyovers, rail tracks, digging, parked buses
b) Access is also blocked by lack of relevant documents, language.
2) Enabling environment: Physical environment is usually dismal. Attitude of adults in the school is often equally dismal, discouraging, disparaging.
3) Opportunity for development:
a) Teaching methods remain for the most part uninteresting and irrelevant. As a result, most poor children do not actually learn what they are supposed to be learning.
b) Evaluation methods reward rote learning
c) Absence of facilities and people for anything except ‘covering the syllabus’ and taking exams.
Problems expressed by teachers
1) Complete absence of any sort of autonomy on when and how to teach and evaluate
2) Overload of meaningless clerical jobs
3) Absence of academic leadership from supervisors
Problems expressed by parents
1) Children do not learn even to read and write properly
2) Teachers and principals do not treat parents with respect
3) They are not welcome in the school
4) Children’s progress or lack of it is not communicated properly
5) Children are beaten
Problems expressed by children
1) Teachers beat them and shout at them
2) They are asked to sweep, fetch water and tea
3) They are scolded if they do not understand or ask questions
4) They are scared of exams, especially the scholarship exam
5) Teachers are often absent from the class and then expect them to do unit tests without teaching the lesson properly
Problem areas arising out of administrative matters
1) Funds for elementary education come from: Municipal Corporation, State Government, Centrally Sponsored Schemes (e.g.SSA).
2) Staff appointment and therefore accountability is divided between: State Government, Municipal Corporation Education Dept and other departments (eg cleaning and maintenance)
3) Centrally Sponsored Schemes have to be implemented without questioning and without local adaptation
4) Decisions regarding even simple procedural matters are apparently controlled at state level, leaving PMC Ed Dept seemingly rather powerless, going against the 74th amendment
5) The role and power of the Education Board (Shikshan Mandal) is rather unclear.
Performance Indicators for PMC Schools
1) Learning Environment
2) Staff and Administration
3) Learning Process
4) Learning Outcomes
a) These have been detailed on the basis of norms set by SSA, Unicef, etc
b) These will also include figures on school drop outs or transfer to private schools
5) Financial Efficiency
Learning Environment Indicators are about..
1) Number and quality of classrooms
2) Number and quality of toilets
3) Drinking water
4) Play area
5) Access and safety
6) Cleanliness and maintenance
Staff and Admin Indicators are about..
1) Teacher-pupil ratio
2) Teacher-pupil contact time
3) Availability of other resource persons
4) Supervision/on-site training
5) Performance reviews of teachers and supervisors
6) Role of school Board
Learning Process Indicators are about..
1) Availability of learning materials
2) Availability of facilities for sports, art etc.
3) Classroom processes, including evaluation
Learning Outcomes Indicators
Findings of annual review done by independent body for basic literacy skills
•Class 2
•Class 4
•Class 7
Financial Efficiency Indicators
1) We are studying ways in which indicators can be framed so that budgets are not cut but used more efficiently.
2) The focus for creating indicators will be on inputs planned and outputs delivered within the planned budgetary framework
Progress so far
· Except Financial Indicators, others have been detailed
· SSA has done a detailed review of school infrastructure of all school buildings.
· Data has been made available to us
· SSA/PMC has initiated repair work in a number of schools, data has been made available
· MC has taken a few important decisions regarding cleaning and maintenance of schools, e.g that a separate team be made available for school maintenance work from the ward office, that school cleaning be outsourced to a private firm.
· ARC has not been able to corroborate data on infrastructure as permission needs to be taken in writing
Tasks in hand
1) Gather and cross-check complete information against physical environment indicators along with PMC staff
2) Gather information about status against other indicators
3) Understand financing and budgeting and create financial indicators
4) Jointly with PMC create and publish first report card
5) At all levels, involve existing or newly formed ward level committees, including PMC school user community
Posts
