The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘School education system should be internationally compatible'

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘School education system should be internationally compatible'

Swathi.V

Schools churning out ill-educated
and unequipped students, says
R. Govinda

R. Govinda

HYDERABAD: India as a country is not adequately engaged with the issue of equity, as is evident from the huge gap between haves and have-nots in the vertically divided educational system, R.Govinda, Vice-Chancellor of National University of Educational Planning and Administration said.

Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the ongoing International Conference for English Language Teacher Educators, Prof. Govinda said we need to have a standardised and internationally compatible system of school education in place of the “banana-republic” where schools churn out masses of ill-educated and unequipped students.

Indifferent

But government is indifferent, so are the political clan and the upper-middle class they represent.

“We are often talking in terms of demographic dividends derived from the country's predominantly young population. But what kind of youth are they? A great majority is absolutely unskilled and unemployable,” he said.

Student-flow pattern from lower level is static, and only a minuscule portion of children joining primary schools are coming out as graduates. Considering the diminishing growth rate of population and of the number of children joining primary schools, the nation will be in a trouble if it does not address the issues here and now.

Teacher training

Pointing to the limited reach of teacher training facilities, Prof. Govinda said the country's teacher education is in crisis.

There are many States without a training facility at all, as opposed to the five lakh vacant posts in the country. This spawns teachers seriously impaired in their subject knowledge.

Pinning his hopes on the Right to Education Act, Prof. Govinda hoped that the State Level Eligibility Test proposed for teachers could set a benchmark for entry level educators.

“This is the right occasion to infuse quality into education. Most of the teachers lack not only in pedagogic skills, but also in subject knowledge,” rued the academician-administrator who worked with Union Minister Kapil Sibal in the initial drafting of the RTE Act.

The culture of gauging schools in terms of students' performance too has to change, he asserted, to a question on the increasing incidents of child-abuse and corporal punishments. We are not celebrating good schools, good teachers and good practices in education. Only results do matter, and such instrumental approach towards education could be disastrous.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

While the training programmes of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan focus at length on pedagogic skills, they too ignore the need for social skills and transcendence of one's own belief systems inherited from the society, he says.

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