Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Infrastructure Facilities in Schools

CTET / NCTE / RTE : Infrastructure Facilities in Schools

Teacher Eligibility Test News  / Information 

Infrastructure Facilities in Schools
As per the District Information System for Education(DISE) 2011-12 (provisional), some States do reflect a gap in school infrastructure as 94.3% government elementary schools have drinking water, 87.9% schools have toilets and 61.7% schools have ramps.7 States / UTs have Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) above the National average of 1:31 at primary level and 8 States / UTs are above the national level of 1:29 at upper primary stage.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) seeks to augment school infrastructure with the objective of meeting the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 requirements, for which so far 3.04 lakh school buildings, 17.92 lakh additional classrooms, 8.53 lakh toilets,2.29 lakh drinking water facilitiesand 5.01 lakh ramps have been sanctioned across the States/Union Territories.

Under the SSA, efforts to improve quality in schools have been undertaken through improved textbooks based on the National Curriculum Framework 2005, the distribution of free textbooks, annual in-service training of all teachers, setting-up of academic supervision and support structures at block and cluster level and the introduction of comprehensive and continuous evaluation.For improving the Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR), more than 19 lakh posts of teachers have been sanctioned. Furthermore, under the RTE Act, 2009, the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) has notified the minimum qualifications and also made the holding of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) mandatory to improve the quality of teachers.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Dr. Shashi Tharoor in Lok Sabha today.

Source: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=90514

CTET / NCTE / RTE : Speech Delivered by DR. M. M. Pallam Raju


CTET / NCTE / RTE Speech Delivered by DR. M. M. Pallam Raju


Given below is the Speech Delivered by DR. M. M. Pallam Raju, Minister for Human Resource Development at the 60th Meeting of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) held on 
8th November, 2012 at New Delhi 

“I have immense pleasure in welcoming you all to the 60th Meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). Let me also introduce my colleague in the Ministry and Vice Chairperson of the Committee Dr. Shashi Tharoor. I also take this opportunity to thank my predecessor Chairman Shri Kapil Sibal ji and also Vice Chairpersons E. Ahamed and Dr. D. Purandeswari. I thank the Hon’ble Ministers and distinguished members of CABE for coming to the meeting at such a short notice.

As you are aware, the meeting was earlier scheduled on 1st November, which had to be postponed due to unavoidable reasons. I thought that prolonged postponement of CABE may not be proper and have therefore called this meeting before the winter session of Parliament.

2. In a country as diverse and as large as ours, the task of developing national policies while at the same time respecting and incorporating regional aspirations and an inclusive agenda of growth is indeed really challenging. It is in this context that I have always emphasized on a participatory approach in which all of us, be it Central Government of State Governments, academics, autonomous institutions, private sector and all other stakeholders, work together towards a common goal which is empowering the children and youth of India through education and knowledge.

3. As all of us are aware, CABE is the highest advisory body to advise Central Government and State Governments in the field of Education. I would like to continue the tradition of having regular meetings of CABE which has served as a forum of wide ranging consultations and has helped in developing consensus on various issues within all the sub-sectors of education ranging from elementary, adult, secondary, higher, technical, vocational and open and distance education. I would also like to mention that Planning Commission in its Approach Paper to the XII Five Year Plan has recognised Education as the single most important instrument for social and economic transformation. The Approach Paper mentions that a well educated population, adequately equipped with knowledge and skill is not only essential to support economic growth, but is also a precondition for growth to be inclusive since it is the educated and skilled person who can stand to benefit most from the employment opportunities which growth will provide. Thus, collectively we have to decide policies and programmes for realizing India’s human resource potential to its fullest in the education sector, with equity and excellence.

6. I am also glad to inform that the Committees which we were formed during the 58th Meeting of CABE have submitted their reports which are before us for consideration. The Report of the CABE Committee on curbing unfair practices in school education sector along with draft legislation is before us today. The proposed legislation defines the various practices in the school education sector which will be treated as ‘unfair’ including charging excessive fee, lack of transparency in conducting the admission test for the standard XI, recruiting teachers without qualification, giving teachers and other administrative staff lesser salary than shown in the school records, recruiting teachers with low salary, exploitation of teachers through various means, not admitting special children, and discrimination of students, especially those belonging to SC/ST/OBC and weaker sections of society. The draft provides for mechanism of redress of complaints while prescribing the quantum of punishments for acts that violate the provisions of the proposed legislation.

7. Another CABE Committee on University Reforms has also submitted its report which emphasizes on the launch of a Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan which would have a special focus on incentivising state governments and state institutions.

8. The Committee on “Extension of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 to Pre-school Education and Secondary Education” has also submitted its status report. The major issues that were identified by the Committee for further discussion are: (1) the entry age for pre-school under the extended framework; (2) qualifications and capacity building of teachers for preschool; (3) ensuring focus on child-centered pedagogy, play-way method and holistic development as critical elements of pre-school education: and (4) need for effective coordination with ICDS. As regards extending RtE to secondary levels, assessment of existing infrastructure, (i) age of children in the secondary education (15-16 or 15-18 years) and duration of secondary education (IX-X or IX-XII). (ii) appointment of additional teachers as per new PTR norm which would be fixed if RTE is extended,
(iii) consultation with all partners like state governments (on various issues like the norms of opening school, school infrastructure, teacher recruitment etc.), NCERT on curriculum and NCTE for qualification of teacher appointment, Teacher eligibility test, Teacher training institute, role and regulatory mechanism of the private sector (iv) sharing of financial responsibility between the Center and the states, are some of the key issues. As you would all appreciate, these issues need to be discussed comprehensively before we decide to extend RtE to pre-school and secondary level.

9. Since the coming into effect of Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, all States/UTs have notified RTE Rules and 24 States/UTs have constituted SCPCR/REPA. However, we need to take a number of measures for filling up the vacancies of teachers as also provision of infrastructure. In this context, some of the State Education Ministers have also been requesting extending the time period prescribed for implementation of the Act. We would consider the same along with review of the progress of RtE.

10. As regards Teachers’ Education, Justice J. S. Verma Committee has given its report which was sent to all the State Governments. We will be having a detailed presentation on the measures to be taken by Central and State Governments in this regard. 

11. Skill Development and vocational education has been a key intervention in the education sector. In this context, we would be discussing reform measures in polytechnic sector. There are four strands of reform that have been identified in the process of consultations relating to:

Content and curriculum reform.
Faculty development and enrichment.
Reforms in assessment and certification methods.
Reforms in regulatory measures and institutional incentives.

12. As regards higher education, I feel the Consolidation of the Initiatives undertaken during XI Plan period, strengthening of the State Institutions, Faculty Development, Strengthening Research and Innovation in Basic Sciences and Social Sciences, Skill Building, Vocational Education and strengthening academia – industry linkages should be the critical focus areas.

13. Before I conclude, I would also like to mention that education should lead to building of an inclusive, just and fair society and it is in this context that I have been emphasizing on value education. Education in my view should lead to character building of our youth and also inspire them to work towards the task of nation building in addition to their work for employment or self-employment.

14. I would like meaningful exchange of views on all the agenda items and each one of you must contribute to making this a fruitful deliberation. I would request each one of you to express your views and pro-actively engage in the deliberations. These issues concern the future of the children and youth of our country and we should work together to improve access to education with equity and quality. With these words, I wish the proceedings all success and eagerly look forward to having a very engaging discussion.’’



Source : http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=88935

RTE / NCTE / TET : Union HRD Minister Reviews Implementation of RTE


RTE / NCTE / TET : Union HRD Minister Reviews Implementation of RTE

Teacher Eligibility Test News  / Information 

Union HRD Minister Reviews Implementation of RTE

Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development reviewed the implementation of the RTE Act, 2009 at a meeting with State Education Secretaries here today. Also present in the meeting were Dr. D Purendeswari, MoS for HRD, Smt. Anshu Vaish, Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy and other senior officials. During the meeting among the matters discussed was the need for a grievance redressal mechanism for the RTE. It was pointed out that the RTE Act makes local authorities the grievance redressal agencies and the SCPCRs the appellate bodies at the State level. In this context it is necessary to establish the modalities through which child rights under the RTE Act are protected and violations can be dealt with. 

On the subject of Rationalizing Teacher Deployment, it was stated that a computerized software has been developed to facilitate states to undertake redeployment of teachers. The software uses the DISE database and can be customized to specific needs of the States. It has the potential to: 

Generate a list of under-served and over-served schools.
Create a vacancy database. 
Generate a list of vacancies subjects-wise. 
Be sensitive to the needs of physically handicapped teachers, women teachers and other categories as prioritized by the State. 
Correct existing imbalances in teacher deployment. 

Some of the other issues that were addressed during the meeting include a review of the status of notification of State rules under RTE Act, 2009 . A Review of status of constitution of SCPCR/REPA for protection of rights of children under the RTE Act was also done. The subject of Community Mobilisation and awareness creation of RTE was also underlined. Teacher related issues, including, Teacher Vacancies in State sector and SSA, Additional teachers to fulfill RTE Mandate, Teacher Qualifications and Revision of Recruitments Rules, Relaxation of Teacher Qualifications, Teacher Eligibility Test, Training of Untrained Teachers came up for discussion during the review. Also discussed was reimbursement for admission of 25 per cent children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in unaided schools 


Source : http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=71794