New Policy of Education-2020 : Part 2

In my previous post I had restricted myself to ECCE being introduced as part of NPE2020: Its importance and the details as per the policy. In this part I thought I will address the next important aspect of the policy i.e. curtailing Dropout Rates and Ensuring Universal Access to Education at All Levels.

India’s near universal enrolment in school through initiatives like Sarva Shikha Abhiyan and the Right to Education hides two major challenges of school education: High dropout and Low attendance. Children dropping out or not attending school results in loss in productivity of the education system and reduces human resource development. Dropouts are likely to be engaged in semi-skilled and unskilled employment, according to a 2011 study by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration .

In the policy context, for the present government’s “Skill India” and “Make in India” programmes to see a success, it would have to address these two issues related to school education.

The reason cited for dropouts in secondary schools is often access (such as “school is far”, especially, for girls). Also another most important reasons for dropping out is “lack of interest”, according to the ASER Centre’s Middle School Study, conducted in Nalanda district in Bihar and Satara in Maharashtra, between 2013 and 2015.

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is a statistical measure used in the education sector. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), describes "Gross Enrolment Ratio" as the total enrolment within a country "in a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the official age group corresponding to this level of education". In India the GER for Grades 6-8 was 90.7%, while for Grades 9-10 and 11-12 it was only 79.3% and 51.3%, respectively. These figures indicate that a significant proportion of enrolled students begin to drop out after Grade 5 and especially after Grade 8. As per the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) an estimated 6.2 crores children of school age (between 6 and 18 years) were out of school in 2013. It must be a top priority of the country to bring these children back into the educational fold as early as possible, and to prevent further students from dropping out. The policy has a goal to achieve 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio in pre-school through secondary school by 2035.

As per the policy a concerted national effort by both the Centre and States/UTs will be made to ensure access and afford opportunity to all children of the country to obtain quality education from pre-school to Grade 12, including vocational education.

There are two overall initiatives that will be undertaken in order to bring children who have dropped out back to school and to prevent further children from dropping out.

1. Provide effective and sufficient infrastructure so that all students have access to safe and engaging school education at all levels from pre-primary school through Grade 12. This will be attained by:
   • Upgrading and enlarging the schools that already exist.
   • Building additional quality schools in areas where they do not exist,
   • providing safe and practical conveyances, especially for the girl children,
   • Constructing hostels so that all children have the opportunity to attend a quality school of the appropriate level.
   • Alternative and innovative education mechanisms and systems would be put in place to ensure that children who are dropping out of school presently will be brought back into mainstream education.
2. By carefully tracking students, as well as their learning levels, in order to continually work towards ensuring that they a) are enrolled in and attending school, and b) have suitable opportunities for remediation and re-entry in case they have fallen behind or dropped out.

Counselors recruited to schools/school complexes or well-trained social workers and teachers will continuously work with students and their parents, and will travel through and connect with communities to ensure that all school-age children are attending and learning in school. Apart from infrastructure and participation, to retain interest of the students and parents in education, a quality education across all boards. To achieve this a strong channel and incentives must be put in place to attract best teachers especially in areas where dropout rates are high. Also the curriculum must be such that it is more engaging.

To facilitate learning for all students, with special emphasis on socio economically disadvantaged groups, the scope of school education will be broadened to facilitate multiple pathways to learning involving formal and non-formal education modes.

Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Programmes offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) will be expanded and strengthened for meeting the learning needs of young people in India who are not able to attend a physical school. States will be encouraged to develop State analogues of these programmes in regional languages by establishing State Institutes of Open Schooling (SIOS).

To make it easier for both governments as well as non-governmental philanthropic organisations to build schools, to encourage local variations on account of culture, geography, and demographics, and to allow alternative models of education the requirements for schools will be made less restrictive. The focus will be to have less emphasis on input and greater emphasis on output potential concerning desired learning outcomes. Regulations on inputs will be limited to ensuring safety of children (both physical and psychological), access and inclusion, the non-profit nature of schools, and minimum standards for learning outcomes. Other models for schools will also be piloted, such as philanthropic-public partnerships, public –private partnerships etc.

The policy seems to have broader plans to curtail drop out and low attendance issues of Indian schools. The exact steps to achieve these policy decisions needs to be elaborated upon. Building and expanding infrastructure is more easy to achieve as it only involves financial component. But to promote best teachers to work in areas where dropout rates are high is still going to be a challenge. That's because high drop outs are known to be more in rural areas and tribal areas. It's difficult to get teachers to work in such areas and it will be even more difficult to get the best teachers to work there. I hope government brings in good initiatives to achieve all these policy decisions.