New Delhi, May 7: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today said that NDA government’s plan to slash syllabus of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books for classes 1 to 12 should not be at the cost of learning. The Party said instead of piecemeal changes in education system, there is need for a comprehensive education policy to make it relevant with present requirement.
The spokesman of the party said here on Monday like other sectors education system is also facing directionless approach, as the two recent surveys- National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 and Annual Education Status Report (AESR)- have painted a grim picture of primary/middle education system in the country. In fact these reports are direct indictment of the central and state governments for their failure in managing state-run schools.
Referring to HRD minister Prakash Javadkar’s announcement about slashing the present NCERT syllabus by half, the spokesman said just dropping of chapters from the books would not yield positive result, as it needed to be augmented by greater rigor in the evaluation process. The spokesman said ASER has amply indicated that comprehension levels of students across the country are below par in rural areas. The spokesman said poor quality of students is also largely because of low standard of educators and positive results could not be achieved without enhancing their quality. The spokesman said lack of interest of NDA government in education sector could be gauged from the fact that 20 lakh teachers who were to be trained in 2015 under Right to Education Act, only five lakh have been trained so far. The spokesman said the education system has also not adequately focused on learning outcomes. The spokesman said in order to improve the situation and bring students of rural areas at par with their counterparts in urban, comprehensive changes are required with provision of proper funding and infrastructure.
The Spokesman said the NAS report has pointed out that inadequate funds, staff crunch and crowded classrooms were major bottlenecks in the improvement in public education system. The spokesman said poor showing is also due to prolonged shortage of teachers and lack of activity based learning in government schools. The spokesman said in UP’s 50,000 schools there is huge shortage of teachers. The spokesman said the systematic failure with rampant corruption in the education has stressed the whole government school system and the government is least bothered about improvement.
