Make Education Freedom work for children by Chandra

Where there is less freedom there will be more brutal which is evident in the Indian education system particularly in school education.

This brutalism is not only created by Governments after, Plan after plans, committee after committees so and so forth always accumulated by bad legal system in the our country and the education freedom remains under severe brutalism.

There is a quite interesting news report in today’s Business Standard. But the brutalism still continues in almost all the States education system from Pre School to University education.

There is other brutalism called Teacher Unionism which always tries to underestimate what the poor children wanted from Governments as well as private schools.

 

Parents are rule of law to their children’s SCHOOLS by Chandra

There is an interesting article by Jayanti Roy, she is a Deputy Director, Academic Staff College, Panjab University but seems me he understand quite well what parents wanted from schools.

She writes quite revealing and the following a three paragraphs are note worthy!

“In fact, the schools can help ease the parents’ burden of raising the child by having parent-friendly procedures, timings, workings, etc. They can involve parents in decision-making, take regular feedbacks about the working of the school, invite their suggestions and recommendations and implement them if these are really good.

Schools can use parents’ expertise in giving exposure to their students regarding different careers and professions. Parents should be seen as assets and human resources. Qualified and interested parents can be called in as substitute teachers, resource persons.

Had American President Abraham Lincoln written that famous letter to his son’s teacher working in one of these parent-unfriendly schools, he would have got a rebuke from the school authorities. As parents, we do not ask for much. We only want to be equal and respected partners in sculpting our children’s personalities, which will only make the school’s work easier and more in tune with social expectations”.

Read it as I pasted it below.

Parents’ role in school by Jayanti Roy

As parents, we do not ask for much. We only want to beequal and respected partners in sculpting our children’s personalities, which will only make the school’s workeasier and more in tune with social expectations.Jayanti Roy

For long, educationists and policy planners have been advocating for our schools to be child friendly. However, there is another equally significant aspect regarding the working of our schools that is seldom spoken about—schools should be parent friendly, too. Most of the schools will fail miserably, if tested on this account.
So, what is being parent friendly? It is not demanding lesser fees or more facilities or that the parents be treated specially but recognising the need of the parents to breathe easy while raising children and trying to give them a quality education.

Most of the schools make parents feel as if they have done something wrong. Today, parents seeking admission of their wards to various classes are seen as beggars. Every other day we read news reports about the highhandedness of school authorities. Most of the school managements are whimsical, arrogant and have archaic and rigid rules.

There is no transparency regarding management, its members, admissions, recruitments and qualifications of teachers, fee structure, awards, decision-making process, etc. This way schools maintain their arbitrary workings. God save the parent who wishes to know about these aspects.

The parents and their kids are subjected to different kind of emotional tortures. These things are rarely reported because parents are vulnerable targets as they are ready to suffer for the welfare of their children. Instead of raising their voice and taking stand, they prefer to keep quiet and suffer.

I know of a school principal who takes pride in turning the poor parents to tear for such small faults as rushing to the school to hand over the lunch-box to the child who has by mistake left it at home. In a much-sought-after school in Chandigarh, the staff are rude, they misbehave with parents and don’t show even the basic civil courtesy towards them.

This speaks a lot about the prevailing culture of snobbish negativity in the institute. What type of education a child will get in such atmosphere is another issue. To meet a principal of even an ordinary school, a parent has to pass through a security check. One has to divulge all the personal details, reason for appointment, etc. before he is allowed to meet with the vice-principal, who then clears the ultimate meeting.

Some schools impose heavy penalty in cash for trifle reasons. Parents are seen as culprits bent upon thwarting the school hierarchy. A school charges Rs 100 per day fine for late deposition of fee which cannot be waived even if there is a valid reason such as death or accident in the family.

Some schools refuse to refund the security money if the original receipt is lost. Annual functions and celebration of special days have become pretexts for harassment of parents. Are these rules there to improve the child’s intellect or to punish the parents?

In fact, the schools can help ease the parents’ burden of raising the child by having parent-friendly procedures, timings, workings, etc. They can involve parents in decision-making, take regular feedbacks about the working of the school, invite their suggestions and recommendations and implement them if these are really good.

Schools can use parents’ expertise in giving exposure to their students regarding different careers and professions. Parents should be seen as assets and human resources. Qualified and interested parents can be called in as substitute teachers, resource persons.

There can be joint workshops, discussion forums with school authorities and parents to mutually learn from each other, the focus being child’s all round development. In such a scenario, the emphasis would be on establishing and maintaining a bond of goodwill with the parents, which will in turn create a joyous learning environment in the school.

Had American President Abraham Lincoln written that famous letter to his son’s teacher working in one of these parent-unfriendly schools, he would have got a rebuke from the school authorities. As parents, we do not ask for much. We only want to be equal and respected partners in sculpting our children’s personalities, which will only make the school’s work easier and more in tune with social expectations.

The writer is Deputy Director, Academic Staff College, Panjab University, Chandigarh

The Fanatic Government over Schools by Chandra

The schools should be accountable to children’s and their parents instead to the bureaucratic papus and politicians. Beside, the schools irrespective of Government or private it should have autonomy to function what its customers needed that is parents and children’s. As you and I expect to satisfy particular product brought from any market.
There is a strikes by Parents Teachers Association appointed teacher’s in Himachal Pradesh, due to their validity of appointment. Though the, PTA appointed teachers are demanding for regularization of their employment but it should be based their performance instead blindly counting the number of years their served.

For the ready information I have pasted the full news below.

PTA appointees launch strike Seek regularisation, end to probe Tribune News Service
Shimla, June 23 2008 Demanding withdrawal of the inquiry into their appointment and regularisation of services, thousands of PTA appointees all over the state today went on strike, affecting studies in many schools, especially in the remote areas.
Hundreds of PTA appointees today staged a rally here today, raising anti-government slogans. Five PTA teachers sat on a relay fast close to the state secretariat which will continue indefinitely. They also distributed pamphlets about the injustice being meted out to them.
Vivek Mehta, president of the State PTA Teachers Association, said after teaching for six years in schools there was no justification in holding an inquiry into their appointments. “Our services should be regularised, a proper PTA policy be made and the inquiry being conducted into our appointment must be withdrawn immediately,” he demanded.
He said that the PTA teachers were open to a dialogue with the government but in case they are not called for talks, they would be forced to intensify their agitation. “We have been teaching in schools at one sixth the salary being given to permanent teachers, so it is totally unjustified to look into our appointments now,” he said.
Mehta claimed that the functioning of 70 per cent schools in the state had been affected and once information about the strike reaches the remote and far-flung areas, all schools would be affected. He claimed that over 220 schools, including 48 in Shimla, 16 in Sirmaur, 82 in Chamba, 12 in Kinnaur, 14 in Kullu, 15 in Solan 17 in Mandi, 31 in Kangra, 10 in Bilaspur, nine in Una and four in Hamirpur were solely being run by PTA appointees.
He also disputed the statement of the director, secondary education, that the PTA appointees had gone on strike without giving a prior notice. “We had gone to meet the director but he was not available and so we gave notice for the strike by getting it received in the central diary,” he said. He said that there was great resentment among the 15,000 PTA appointees and the government would be responsible in case they adopted an aggressive path. He said imposing new conditions on the PTA appointments was totally wrong when they had been appointed by the previous regime as per rules.

Time to accept efficient Private Firm and inefficient Government schools by Chandra

The Chandigarh UT had announced to outsource education department housekeeping works to private sector. At least the time has come in north to outsource inefficient government departments works to efficient private sector.

I have pasted the whole news below.

Private firm to keep govt schools clean
Education Dept Outsources Housekeeping Work
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chandigarh: In order to overcome the problem of filthy toilets, dirty corridors, unclean classrooms, dangling electrical wires and overgrown gardens, the UT education department has handed over its housekeeping department into private hands. The oneyear-contract has been given to Sunrise Facilitators, which starts work on June 23, which is Monday. The general scope of the work would include cleaning and maintenance of building works, public health, gardening, electrical work and open spaces, said DPI(S) SK Setia. The contract would include all model and non-model schools of the city, he added. The pri vate company would be required to clean and maintain buildings with the latest mechanical and manual equipment as per the schedule prescribed. Gardening would include development and maintenance of grassland, lawns, regular cutting of grass, doing landscape, and regular cutting and keeping gardens clean and properly maintained. ‘‘The students’ health is of prime importance to us. So we’ve asked the agency to provide anti-mosquito treatment along with regular anti-termite control, rodent control and general pest control,’’ a DPI(S) official told TOI. The official added toilet blocks and urinals would need regular attendants so that cleanliness and hygiene could be maintained. ‘‘We will provide cleaning machines for quality services to the government schools ,’’ said the contractor, Gurdeep. ‘‘As the quotation given by the department is quite less, we would provide one full-time sweeper in small schools and two for the big schools . Apart from that, we’ll be giving two part-time sweepers for the second shift in all the schools . Our main concern is to provide quality work and manage things well in the government institutions,’’ he asserted. Talking about outsourcing, Setia said the manpower would be shifted to schools reeling under shortage. Eligibility criteria The department has set minimum eligibility for the manpower and the staff that would be provided by the agency. A three years’ experience is must for the supervisor and the electrician and plumber need to be ITI certificate holders in electrical and plumbing trade.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?Daily=TOICG&login=default&AW=1214053373812

Parents and students scrutinizes Teacher performance by Chandra

It is the best system to monitor the teacher is performance through children and parents satisfaction of learning instead the other way around.
In Chandigarh, there is innovative but not shocking one. I have pasted the whole story here.

Students to decide fate of teachers on contract By Dhara Katoch/TNN
Chandigarh: UT education department has come out with an assessment report of its SSA teachers working on contracts, which, interestingly, has been done by students of government schools. The initiative, undertaken by the UT education department, is first of its kind. According to Saroj Mittal, assistant director (vocational education), “We have covered 70% of rural and urban schools (both model and non-model) of the city.” She added, “We have decided to conceal students’ identity in order to avoid any kind of harassment by their teachers later,” she said. The department has received around 400 assessment forms from some of the schools and the analyses of which has already started. The assessment is being done under strict supervision of the counsellors. This will make chances of child being pressurized by teachers or school authorities very bleak, informed DPI(S) official. “The required action to be taken against the teacher will be decided only after thoroughly analyzing the report. Moreover, the renewal of the contract of SSA teachers will also depend on their assessment and points they have earned,” said SK Setia, DPI(S). While department officials are of the view that the idea will be helpful enough, the concept has not really been an impressive one for a few teachers. Sudesh Kaur, lecture, GMSSSS, Sector 8 said, “I don’t think it’s a great idea on the part of the department. How can students assess their teachers. They can be biased while giving feedback. It’s fine at the senior secondary level but not for the younger lot.” She suggested that senior teachers or officials from outside could visit different schools and assess the teachers. However, Sunita Kapoor, senior counsellor said, I’ve personally worked on the assessment project and it is a huge success. Students are satisfied and teachers have also realized that now they have to work hard.”
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?Daily=TOICG&login=default&AW=1214053373812