Common School System

1
Common School System

• The Bihar Report 2007

2
Central interventions

• Earlier centrally sponsored schemes Operation
  Blackboard, NFE, BEP, DPEP etc
• SSA (2001) a new scheme with amalgamation of
  other schemes and extension of DPEP
• A few css and cs in secondary also
• Article 21A (2002) a major central intervention
• Called for a central legislation
• Also, a revisit of the SSA
• None of the two has happened
• CSS not a scheme, but a systemic reform project

3
Revisiting SSA

• S SSA conceived prior to Article 21A has not
  been designed from systemic changes and
  inclusion with equal opportunity to schooling
  perspectives.
• R Rigidly designed normative scheme like any
  other centrally sponsored schemes does not
  define a school, and has not set up norms and
  standards for a school government or private.
• H Has not succeeded on the quality fronts
  because it treated access and quality separately
  as elements of a scheme.
• O Out-of-school and dropouts treated differently
  by convenient definitions though both refer to
  the same thing children are not in schools from
  this angle, even access/enrolment claim of SSA
  is flawed.
• U Unproductive approach low quality, a bit of
  education, withdraws children from unskilled
  workforce and disables them for further life
  chances deepens poverty and makes the whole of
  SSA derived education unproductive.

4
Absence of systemic reformshierarchy of schools
more of exclusion, less of inclusion
1. Growing number of elite schools offering
international certifications
2. High fee charging private schools for upper
middle/rich classes
3.Excessively funded govt. schools for
privileged and talented children
4.Ordinary govt./local body/aided schools,
starving for funds and teachers, for
lower/poor classes
5.Low fee charging private schools
6. Residential schools for SC, ST etc
7. Special schools for children with disabilities
8.Madarsas, Sanskrit etc schools
9.EGS/ NFE/ AIE/NCLP schools for poor and
child labour
5
Way Forward

• M Make a central law to give effect to Article
  21A aimed at systemic reforms
• S Set up national norms and standards for a
  school, and the SSA must fund that onlyCABE
  report and earlier Tapas Mazmudar report had
  some elements of it.
• F Funding for removing gaps in existing schools
  as also for establishing new schools.
• A Address demand side of interventions by
  defining free in Article 21A

Remove private- public divide by bringing private
under 21A by giving level playing field to the
both the categories
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Common School System Commission, Bihar
Set up on 15 September, 2006 Submitted Report on
8 June, 2007 Members Professor Muchkund Dubey
Chairperson Professor Anil Sadgopal Member Dr.
Madan Mohan Jha Member Secretary
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Terms of reference

• To Carry out a comprehensive study of the present
  school system in the State
• To Recommend a framework for Common School
  System from the standpoint of ensuring
  childrens Fundamental Right to Free and
  Compulsory Education under Article-21A of the
  Constitution
• To Recommend Norms and Standards and other
  necessary provisions for ensuring education
  of equitable quality for all children in the
  State
• To Make an assessment of its financial
  implications
• To Formulate a plan of action for implementing
  the Common School System
• To Study the teacher education institutions and
  make recommendations
• To Examine within the context of building the
  Common School System, the role of Gandhis
  Basic Schools (Buniyadi Vidyalaya)

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Misconceptions about the CSS

• I It is a uniform school system.
• I It wont permit privately managed schools to
  retain its non-govt. character.
• I It will mean complete govt. control over
  schools.
• I It will infringe upon minority rights under
  Article 30 of the Constitution.
• I It will cost unsustainable burden on the State
  exchequer.

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5 guiding principles for the CSS

• E Elementary Education States sovereign
  responsibility
• F Fundamental Right to Education has to be
  within the equality framework, to be exercised
  in a school
• N Norms and standard for a school since the
  concept of the school as an institution for
  education in the modern era is valid and
  applicable for all children.
• N Neighbourhood schooling education should be
  inclusive of children with different abilities
  and socio- economic backgrounds
• P Private schools Right to manage but no right
  to refuse admission

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Norms and Standards for a school in the CSS

• The Commonness of the CSS drives from Common
  minimum Norms and Standards.

• They are designed to ensure three core elements
  of access,
• quality and equality simultaneously within the
  system.

• The most fundamental among the minimum Norms is
  adherence by all Schools to the values enshrined
  in the Indian Constitution i.e. secularism,
  equality and social justice.

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• Seven Core Elements-

• Minimum infrastructure consisting of land,
  building and other facilities.

• Well- qualified trained teachers in the desired
  numbers.

• A common curriculum with adequate flexibility of
  teaching learning style.

• A holistic and child- friendly pedagogy.

• A decentralized school management with adequate
  autonomy and representation of parents.

• Common language policy.

• Based on the concept of neighbourhood schools
  according to which a school must admit all the
  children living in the neighbourhood,(Poshak
  Kshetra) which is to be specified and delineated
  for each school.

12
Some imp norms and standards

• P Primary schools - 1km Middle -3 km Sec/Sr.
  Sec - 5 km
• A Primary school (5 classrooms) for 200
  children a Middle school (11 classrooms) for
  440 students a Sec/Sr. Sec school (12
  classrooms) for 420 students In urban/
  municipal areas, bigger size of schools
• Each class/section in primary, middle or sec
  to have a max of 40 students but in sr.sec it
  should be 30
• Norms relating to land and floor areas on the
  basis of sq.meters per child and other
  facilities 12 D for primary 20D for middle 1
  acre for play field 29D for sec/sr.sec
  1.00-1.58 for play field)

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Norms continued

• I In each primary and middle a hall of 50
  sq.mts. for pre-elm children
• Norms for furniture, library, lab, games and
  sports, office equip, teach-learning equip
• 8 teachers in primary, 17 in middle and 20 in
  sec/sr.sec schools of std size
• Teachers to be trained as required under the
  NCTE regulations before service or soon after
• Note Norms drawn from the TM report
  (1999),CABE report (2004),CBSE schools, KVS
  schools

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Required no of schoolsbased on present and
projected children pop

• 6 60,700 primary before 2012-13 from 34,800 in
  2007-08 (15,000 being established)
• 3 31,000 middle before 2012-13 from 15,500 in
  2007-08 (3000 being established)
• 21,700 sec/sr.sec before 2016-17 from 2,600 in
  2007-08 ( around 1000 being brought within the
  CSS fold)

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No of teachers(in Lakh)
S.cat
year
CSS is a social investment to generate huge
employment
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Estimation of total expenditure

• Determination of unit cost Unit costs were
  determined
• For building new schools and renovating
  existing schools
• Average monthly salary of teaching and
  non-teaching staff
• Non-salary recurring expenditure
• Non-recurring expenditure on building and
  renovating teacher education institutions
• Recurring expenditure on teacher education
  institutions
• Expenditure on training teachers
• Costs included supply side defined as free
  education and covered books, stationeries,
  uniform and meal

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3 overall goals of the CSS

• The goal of free and compulsory education for all
  children in age group 5-14 in 5 years from April
  2008i.e. by 2012-13
• The goal of universalising secondary education in
  8 years i.e. by 2015-16
• Assuming 70 children to complete sec schooling
  senior sec by 2016-17

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On Policy CSS Report

• S Schools with min norms and standard to be
  recognized
• U Unrecognized schools to close
• P Private schools to be a part of the CSS,
  minority private schools if they accept grant
• N No selection, interviews etc by private schools
  
• P Poshak Kshetra or Neighbourhood principle for
  admission
• A Per - child-payment of fee / reimbursement to
  be determined, and paid by the government
• P

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On management

• S School level management Parents of poshak
  kshetra to elect 12 members, 2 to be nominated
  from PRI, and head teacher ex-officio
• L Linkages with PRI
• E Educational Management to be restructured from
  Block to State levels
• E Educational managers to have distinct
  responsibility w.r.t. planning and financing
• A Academic supervision with SSM,PSM, DIET and
  SCERT
• S Setting up of the State Commission for School Ed

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On Resources

• T Total addl.exp over 9 years 1,54,994 cr.
  Option I (Av 17,221cr) 1,42,326 cr. Option
  II (Av15,814cr.) capital of around 44,000 cr.
• G GNP 42 lakh cr. 6 2.52 lakh cr. Assuming
  75 for school ed 1.89 lakh cr.
• B Bihars share on the basis of 8.3 of its pop
  15,700 cr. close to Option IIand with its own
  resources it can easily achieve Option I of the
  CSS
• H Hence the need for a campaign for enhancing GOI
  exp on education to 6 of the GNP
• Also, campaign for the continued funding pattern
  under SSA, to be extended to SUCCESS for sec
  education.

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Resource mobilization non-conventional

• F Funding under RIDF of the NABARD
• F Financial Institutions including banks
• C CCT concept Budgetary support loan from the
  WB
• R Rural and urban community donations and
  charity
• E Education dept lands with existing institutions
  over 15,000 acres with 2500 sec schools
• P PPP in social sector talk with ILFS and IDFC
  going on

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Private sector participation

• Robust approach any private school complying
  with outcome indicators such as minimum
  infrastructure for school, and teaching
  facilities, should be equally eligible for state
  funding as any government school in fact, the
  payment to both government and private schools
  should be on a per child basis
• Existing private schools, if they upgrade to
  these standards
• Autonomy on
• Teachers salaries
• Management Committee
• Fees to be charged, beyond Government support
• Conditionality children from the poshak
  kshetra, no selection or interviews, requisite
  qualifications and training of teachers,
  per-child-payment determined by the independent
  regulatory authority

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Creating an entity BSRA

• Large scale private sector investment ONLY if
  independent regulatory entity e.g. Bihar School
  Regulatory Authority (BSRA)
• BSRA may focus on private and non-government
  schools once capacities develop, could be
  assigned oversight of Government schools as well
• BSRA would determine the per-child payment to be
  made to private schools who are CSS compliant
• BSRA would manage all moneys relating to such
  payments, and transfer these funds after
  transparent measurement mechanisms
• To be created by law with full functional
  independence
• BSRA would ensure compliance with CSS standards
  through independent monitoring
• Certification of Schools as well as Teachers
• Performance manuals
• Operations and Maintenance manuals
• Strict action in case of non-compliance with CSS
  standard

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GOB commitment to the CSS

• C CSS Commission was set up for suggesting ways
  and means presenting a road map for
  implementation
• H Chief Ministers public commitment to implement
  with given resources
• S Some examples of CSS implementation
• - Para- or contract teacher, and learning
  centers abolished as rec.by the com.
• - School centre for ed all children bridge
  courses phase out, rec. by com.
• - Teacher appt 140 norms, process is on
  1,20,000 appt made
• - Mukhya Mantri Samagra Vidyalaya Vikash Karykram
  in line with com. rec.
• - Mukhya Mantri Balika Poshak Yojna as a part of
  free education com. rec.
• - Abolition of Intermediate Council and
  de-linking of inter from university and
  colleges gradual up gradation of sec schools,
  rec. by com.
• Passing of the Prarmbhik Vidyalay Shiksha Samiti
  Bill 2007 as rec. by the com.
• Poshak Khestra of primary and middle schools
  being determined, com. rec.
• - Non-aided private schools to be offered to come
  under per-child-payment regime on the principle
  suggested by the commission

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Rationale for the CSS

• P Promotes equality and social justice and helps
  in nation building.
• H Helps in building the creation of social
  capitalessential for sustaining democracy,
  ensuring economic progress and prosperity.
• A neighbourhood school will provide good
  education to children because sharing life with
  common people isan essential ingredient of good
  educationthe establishment of such schools will
  compel rich, privileged and powerful classes to
  take interest in the system of public education
  and thereby bring about its early improvement (
  First Education Commission ).
• I If poor students are mixed in middle class
  schools, the overall performance of all children
  improves (Kahelnberg, 2001).

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Continuedrationale for the CSS

• I It has been observed in the UK since the 1950s
  that way to raise the achievement of all
  children is to have schools which incorporate
  socially mixed intake with a range of abilities
  (Tomlinson, 2004).
• I It can be empirically demonstrated that the
  successful schools in the post- industrial era
  21st Century will be the ones that achieve
  excellence and equity simultaneously indeed
  one that recognizes equity as the way to
  excellence (Skrtic, 1991).
• I In the present era of flexi-mode of production,
  we need a wide base of people having received
  education which inculcates generic competencies,
  and not merely a pool of skilled persons in
  their narrow fields of specialisation (Bihar
  Report, 2007).
• O One of the opportunity cost of not having a CSS
  is mis-governancethe seeds of superiority,
  hierarchy and insensitivity against people,
  particularly the poor among them, are shown at
  an early age in the existing school system, and
  that gets reflected very strongly in governance
  at each level (Bihar Report, 2007).
• M More of inclusion, less of exclusion !

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For the Bihar CSS Report visit
www.educationbihar.in
For continuing dialogue yours truly,
drmjha_at_gmail.com
And, for your interest in an idea that was
forgotten but is reborn!
THANKS A LOT !