Over two years after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) was notified by the central government, more than 95 percent of schools in the country do not comply with its guidelines, a study by an NGO has found.
Data compiled by RTE Forum with inputs from its members from across the country points out that only one out of 10 schools in 2010-11 had drinking water facilities, while two out of every five schools lacked a functional toilet.
The report accessed by IANS also shows lack of training facilities for teachers, adversely affecting the quality of primary education in India.
Nearly 36 percent of all sanctioned posts of teachers in the country are lying vacant. Of this, the national capital alone accounts for 21,000 vacancies, while 1,000 posts are vacant in Odisha, RTE Forum’s report says.
The guidelines under the RTE act specify that schools “established, owned, controlled or substantially funded by the government or local authorities” must ensure that the vacancy of teachers “shall not exceed 10 percent of the total sanctioned strength”.
The study also found teachers in Haryana being engaged in non-teaching activities like construction work or working as contractors in the mid-day meal programme.
“95 per cent schools don’t follow the RTE guidelines”
Over two years after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) was notified by the central government, more than 95 percent of schools in the country do not comply with its guidelines, a study by an NGO has found.
Data compiled by RTE Forum with inputs from its members from across the country points out that only one out of 10 schools in 2010-11 had drinking water facilities, while two out of every five schools lacked a functional toilet.
The report accessed by IANS also shows lack of training facilities for teachers, adversely affecting the quality of primary education in India.
Nearly 36 percent of all sanctioned posts of teachers in the country are lying vacant. Of this, the national capital alone accounts for 21,000 vacancies, while 1,000 posts are vacant in Odisha, RTE Forum’s report says.
The guidelines under the RTE act specify that schools “established, owned, controlled or substantially funded by the government or local authorities” must ensure that the vacancy of teachers “shall not exceed 10 percent of the total sanctioned strength”.
The study also found teachers in Haryana being engaged in non-teaching activities like construction work or working as contractors in the mid-day meal programme.
“No teacher shall be deployed for any non-educational purpose other than the decennial population census, disaster relief duties or duties relating to elections to the local authority or the state legislature or parliament,” according to the guidelines of the RTE act.
The data shows that the national average for pupil to teacher ratio is worryingly high at 1:80, against the prescribed ratio of 1:30 for primary and 1:35 for upper primary level under the act.
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ApnaCircle revamps its profile
ApnaCircle, India’s local professional networking site has refreshed its look and feel by redesigning its interface for easy navigation. The new interface has been developed after careful research to equip users with enjoyable navigation and at the same time make it easy for them to gain and maintain repute in their chosen industry.
The new Summary Tab and Career Visualizer are just a few of the features that are sure to help enhance your profile.
The upper part of the new profile now displays crucial information such as current job, number of contacts within the network and the received recommendations. You can also download your visiting card in the accepted format.
A new add on and improvement which gives an overview of your career path. It emphasises recent work experiences, recommendations (which are a great help for potential recruiters) as well as skills.
The networking site has updated its profile so that you can get the best brand value out of it.
PTUsignsMoUwithIBM for faculty polishing
IBM Academic Initiative (AI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, on to conduct a series of Faculty Development Programs (FDP) across affiliate colleges of PTU.
IBM AI program has been created to equip educational institutions with the latest IT tools in the market, to better prepare students for the professional world.
PTU vice chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora said that this partnership was aimed at making faculty and students familiar with IBM technologies in pursuit of their academic excellence. IBM is offering this as a pilot project to PTU looking into the potential offered by faculties and students of PTU. This collaboration will initially help in training and certifying 300 faculty of PTU and impacting knowledge base development of more than 1500 PTU students on software technologies that will increase their employability. The development program will cover all affiliated colleges of PTU and extended to students across all the colleges of PTU, said a PTU spokesperson.
Meanwhile Karthik Padmanabhan, country manager – ISV & developer relations, IBM India, said, “This partnership aims to bridge the academia-industry gap by training the faculty and students on cutting edge software tools and technologies. The ongoing series of faculty development programs will ensure smoother knowledge transition to students.”
Need for better investment in early childhood education, says report
Several recent reports have strongly indicated that the most vulnerable children in New Zealand are at risk of missing out on quality early childhood education.
NZEI executive member Hayley Whitaker says these findings should send a clear message to the Government that its changes to early childhood education policy are putting our most vulnerable children at risk.
“The Government needs to restore funding for early childhood education so that all children get better access to qualified teaching and better teacher:child ratios.
“These reports need to be taken seriously because good quality early childhood education is a key indicator for long term success at school. And this is especially crucial for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.”
“ECE is one of the single biggest influences on education achievement and the effects are still apparent at age 15 and older,’’ Ms Whitaker says.
The reports*, from the Government’s own advisory groups as well as independent research, show that New Zealand is falling behind in its investment in early childhood education.
This comes in the wake of changes to funding for early childhood education that removed an earlier target of 100 percent qualified teachers in ECE centres by 2012.
Instead, the Government has reduced the required teacher qualification rate to 50 percent and reduced the 100 percent funding band to 80 percent.
The reports have concluded that the quality of early childhood education is suffering, partly as a result of these changes.
“The Government’s own advisory groups’ reports make it clear that adult:child ratios, group size and teacher qualification are cornerstone indicators for high quality ECE for children,’’ Ms Whitaker says.
“Quite simply, the evidence shows that children who attend early childhood centres with a higher proportion of qualified, registered teachers get access to better quality early childhood education than those who attend centres with a lower proportion of qualified teachers.”
For instance, a report by Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/NZ Childcare Association found that children in “100 percent qualified” centres are more likely to have conversations with teachers, partake in shared sustained thinking with teachers and engage in complex play.
The Early Childhood Education Sector Advisory Group has recommended that the Government ensure that from 1 July next year all centre-based services be required to have at least 80 percent registered teachers.
For under twos, the working party recommends a reduction in the adult:child ratios of be 1:3 for children under one and 1:4 in the 1-2 age group. The current ratio is 1:5.
While the Government, in its last Budget targeted “high needs” areas in order to increase participation rates, Ms Whitaker says it is vital that all ECE services are adequately funded to ensure that quality education is provided.
Opposition walkout on private engineering colleges issue in Kerala
CPI-M led LDF Opposition in Kerala staged a walkout dissatisfied with the government response to an High court order regarding effective steps to improve the quality of education in private engineering colleges.
Both Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb assured the House that government would adhere to the court directions and take steps to ensure that infrastructure and faculty in private professional colleges were of high-quality.
The court had also made the observation that pass percentage in most of these institutions was very low.
Rabb said the state government was yet to receive the copy of the court order. Government would examine the order and take steps, he said.
However, he said it was not practical to close down the private colleges where the pass percentage was less than 40 per cent as it would lead to several other social problems.
Government would come out with guidelines for functioning of private colleges in the light of the High Court observation, he said.
