Positive changes in our education sector
By: NISAR HUSSAIN HAJAM
The department of education is always on toes to revolutionize the education system and has been spending a large amount of money to bring the education system back on track. The system had derailed owing to certain disruptions and uncertainties in the past when the valley often witnessed closure of schools and the students used to suffer a lot thereby affecting their studies badly. But from the past decade or so, the schools have started functioning smoothly without that much of disruption leading to considerable amount of improvement in the overall educational standard of both government as well as private institutions. If a comparison is drawn, the government run institutions have improved a lot when it comes to overall achievements.
We know that certain factors determine the success of an institution. The more the peaceful environment, the better the school improves it’s functioning. The location of a school has a big role to play in the academic achievement of students. Akinyale (2011) stated that the immediate environment of a child plays a major role in his socialization. According to him, the area in which a school is located can affect the academic achievement of a student.
Infrastructure is one more factor which determines how successful an institution is and it includes school building, furniture for students, teaching Learning material, library, laboratory, games material, playground etc. Besides, the classrooms must be well ventilated, good looking and attractive with proper seating arrangement. Playground is a must for conducting curricular as well as co-curricular activities.
Several researches have proved that good infrastructure encourages kids to attend school more regularly than the ones without good facilities. It also makes students more attentive during teaching learning process thereby making learning comfortable. Moreover it allows space for talent development.
Strength of staff also determines how much successful an institution is since it includes both quantity as well as quality. Number of staff members must be in synchronization with the total enrolment as well as the number of classes. Moreover the staff must be dedicated, versatile, efficient and above all experienced. “Effective teachers can contribute up to 50 percentile difference in student achievement as compared to less effective teachers.”Scander& Rivers 1996.
One more important factor is the ‘Curriculum’ which includes all the activities that are performed in an institution. It must cater to the needs, aspirations and level of the students and must be inclusive in nature. A curriculum lays down a blue print for different aspects of students &teachers life including student’s learning tools, time available for class, duration of a session, lesson plan, assessments and methods to evaluate students. So it plays an important role in the development of the student.
Clearly the curriculum is instrumental in the development of students in school. Teaching Learning Process is also an important factor that determines the success of an institution. The more the TLP learner centred the better is the outcome. Individual attention is an essential step to make TLP inclusive. It fulfils the aspirations of the learners and makes up for individual differences.
Since education is a tri-polar process based on three main pillars i.e. learner, Teacher and Parent- unless and until all the three build rapport with each other, it is impossible to get the best result. A teacher needs support from the parent and vice versa, to get the desired results. If any of the two shows negligence in one way or the other then the education of the learner gets badly affected.
Similarly community involvement is also part and parcel of education. It results in increased academic achievement and improved class room behaviour. Moreover it has an overall impact on a child’s personality and encourages children to be more involved in many activities. Accountability of teachers also adds to the improved results. Lastly it is strong foundation that determines the success of an institution. The more strong the foundation of an institution, the more is the success rate.
Keeping in view the pre-requisites as mentioned above, government run institutions fulfil many criteria but still lag in certain factors which act as obstacles in their progress.
Unfortunately a general perception has been developed in our society that government schools are inferior to private ones in many ways. It is said that their standard of education is not at par with private institutions. The question is why this false notion is spread in our society?
Government institutions are in essence the carrier of quality education and the staffs in these have a lot of expertise and are well equipped with modern trends and techniques. I strongly believe that in comparison with private sector, better educational standard is offered by these institutions. But the matter of fact is that these institutions lack strong foundations. Since Primary education forms the basic building block of educational set up and we know that a solid foundation is the key to success, when the foundation is weak, how come we expect better results?
A close look at the primary department of government schools revealsthat they usually function in a single building with only three class rooms for six classes and only two teachers at most places. The teachers here are bound to teach three classes at a time. Will this attain the desired learning outcome? In addition to teaching, there are certain assignments within the school for the teachers that is supposed to be completed on daily basis. On the contrary primary department of private institutions is far better in each and every respect, be it staff strength, accommodation, infrastructure, parental care & support and what not.
Ignoring primary schools has hampered the overall progress of government run institutions. When the same student reaches the secondary stage of education the concerned subject teachers feel desperate on finding that the student lacks basic competencies and it becomes an uphill task for them to develop the competencies of secondary level. Thus the required learning outcome is not achieved. At the same time when a student of a private school enters the secondary stage, teachers find it easy to achieve the desired learning outcomes as they have already developed the set competencies up to that stage.
Thus it is clear that lack of sufficient teaching staff, accommodation, infrastructure etc at the primary stage is the main reason that government run institutions are still lagging behind. So the need is to strengthen the foundation i.e. primary education system.
One more reason is lack of desired parental care. Once the child is admitted in government institution the parents feel that they have less responsibility on their shoulders to look after him/her and eventually results in weak academic achievements.
Here it is in place to mention that National Education Policy has laid special emphasis on primary education and Early Child Care and Education. Certain initiatives like FLN (Foundational Literacy and Numeracy) under NIPUN Bharat programme ( National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy Bharat Programme ) and other such initiatives will definitely bring a revolution in the primary sector of government institutions and days are not too far when we see these institutions progressing in leaps and bounds and people will prefer to admit their wards in government institutions.
