By Naba Kishor Pujari
Partnership in value-free understanding is a very much progressive and associative term. However, the present discourse on partnership in an economic term denotes to a linking with public institutions which is also profit-making in nature. PPP is already being adopted in several infrastructure development sectors, such as the development of airports, railways, roads, health, agriculture, retail sector and so on. But, the responses of the media to these stabs have been very mixed. The acceptance of PPP in education in our country has given birth to one responsive gloom. The paradigm shift of development in India that is being experienced is somewhere missing the universalized approach. The issue of ‘equity’ has been comprehensively neglected in almost all developmental intervention.
Provision of Elementary education by the state to every child is the foremost responsibility of public sector. Whereas RTE Act is already in place, how can the government think of PPP in education and thus transferring risks and responsibility to the private players? The sharing of involvement of private players in the public education system is really a complex issue. Accessibility, efficiency and value for money are the issues which entices the government to go for a PPP mode. But these buzzwords are relative terms which have manifold implications, not preserved only in private sectors.The PPP model proposed in the Eleventh Plan provides for no government or social control over education. Basically the flow of privatization in the name of PPP is a mere institutional arrangement than any kind of partnership in principle.
The Eleventh Plan has proposed the setting up of 6,000 new model schools in secondary education, affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. Of these, 2,500 are to be under the PPP model. The intention is to set up these schools in the backward regions and remote areas where good schooling facilities do not exist, so that quality education is accessible in the backward regions as well. The intention is being paradoxical to a call of National System of Public Education and very much rhetoric to the demand for Common School System.
According to the model finalized by the Planning Commission in consultation with the private sector, these schools will be set up by 2014 and will have the capacity to educate 65 lakh students, of whom 25 lakh will be from the deprived sections. Each school will have about 2,500 students, 1,000 of whom will be from deprived sections and charged a token fee. Fifty per cent of the 1,000 students will be from the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes. They will be required to pay a monthly fee of Rs.25 each. The rest of the children, who will be from other deprived sections — non-income tax paying families — will be required to pay a fee of Rs.50 a month. The remaining costs of these students, estimated to be Rs.1, 000 to Rs.1, 200 a head per month, will be reimbursed by the Union government to the schools. It is estimated that the government will have to pay Rs.10,500 crore until 2017. The amount is likely to go up with escalating prices, in general, and increasing costs of education, in particular.
Over and above this, the schools may get access to relevant funds from the Centre and the State governments under different schemes. The schools will be free to admit anyone to the remaining 1,500 seats and charge any amount of fee.
There was also a hope that the government will allot adequate resources so that demand for effective implementation of RTE Act can be met. The coming plan period will be the deadlines to ensure that basic infrastructure is available in schools (2013) and that all teachers are trained (2015). The next plan is critical since several of the deadlines have so far been missed. The 12th Five Year Plan has not addressed the issues of teachers, revival of Teachers Training Institutes (TTIs) and other components which are linked to bring quality education at public schools.
In order to ensure that right to education of every child is protected and delivered, the Kothari Commission, 1966 had recommended to spend atleast 6 percent of GDP in education. From 1966 to 2012, the Government of India has not been able to allocate and spend the required target. The present Congress led UPA Government had also promised to spend 6 percent of GDP in education but it is still under 5 percent.
On 3 April, 2012 a draft report regarding the status of the implementation of RTE Act was released by the RTE Forum. The report reveals that 95.2 percent of schools are not
compliant with complete set of RTE infrastructure indicators. In 2009-10, only 4.8 percent of government schools had all nine facilities stipulated under the RTE Act. Eight of the nine facilities are present in 11.41 percent schools. Approximately one third of the schools have up to seven facilities and about 30 percent schools do not have even five. One in ten schools lack drinking water facilities. Forty percent schools lack a functional common toilet. Forty percent schools lack a separate toilet for girls.
In conclusion, the approach paper fails to address the ground issues may be due to the influence of a neo-liberal economy. The Ministry of HRD is justifying PPP by citing the sensitive issues like lacunae in performance and productivity i.e. outcome. Evaluation of these two indicators are really apprehensive and orthodoxy without strengthening institutional mechanism. The Government cannot escape with the fact that Government run Navodaya Vidyalayas and Central Schools are running well. So, there is no reason for the government to recite the couplet of PPP. After all, education is less of an issue, more of a need today in our country.
Source: http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Orissa/shownews.asp?newsid=19775
Provision of Elementary education by the state to every child is the foremost responsibility of public sector. Whereas RTE Act is already in place, how can the government think of PPP in education and thus transferring risks and responsibility to the private players? The sharing of involvement of private players in the public education system is really a complex issue. Accessibility, efficiency and value for money are the issues which entices the government to go for a PPP mode. But these buzzwords are relative terms which have manifold implications, not preserved only in private sectors.The PPP model proposed in the Eleventh Plan provides for no government or social control over education. Basically the flow of privatization in the name of PPP is a mere institutional arrangement than any kind of partnership in principle.
The Eleventh Plan has proposed the setting up of 6,000 new model schools in secondary education, affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. Of these, 2,500 are to be under the PPP model. The intention is to set up these schools in the backward regions and remote areas where good schooling facilities do not exist, so that quality education is accessible in the backward regions as well. The intention is being paradoxical to a call of National System of Public Education and very much rhetoric to the demand for Common School System.
According to the model finalized by the Planning Commission in consultation with the private sector, these schools will be set up by 2014 and will have the capacity to educate 65 lakh students, of whom 25 lakh will be from the deprived sections. Each school will have about 2,500 students, 1,000 of whom will be from deprived sections and charged a token fee. Fifty per cent of the 1,000 students will be from the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes. They will be required to pay a monthly fee of Rs.25 each. The rest of the children, who will be from other deprived sections — non-income tax paying families — will be required to pay a fee of Rs.50 a month. The remaining costs of these students, estimated to be Rs.1, 000 to Rs.1, 200 a head per month, will be reimbursed by the Union government to the schools. It is estimated that the government will have to pay Rs.10,500 crore until 2017. The amount is likely to go up with escalating prices, in general, and increasing costs of education, in particular.
Over and above this, the schools may get access to relevant funds from the Centre and the State governments under different schemes. The schools will be free to admit anyone to the remaining 1,500 seats and charge any amount of fee.
There was also a hope that the government will allot adequate resources so that demand for effective implementation of RTE Act can be met. The coming plan period will be the deadlines to ensure that basic infrastructure is available in schools (2013) and that all teachers are trained (2015). The next plan is critical since several of the deadlines have so far been missed. The 12th Five Year Plan has not addressed the issues of teachers, revival of Teachers Training Institutes (TTIs) and other components which are linked to bring quality education at public schools.
In order to ensure that right to education of every child is protected and delivered, the Kothari Commission, 1966 had recommended to spend atleast 6 percent of GDP in education. From 1966 to 2012, the Government of India has not been able to allocate and spend the required target. The present Congress led UPA Government had also promised to spend 6 percent of GDP in education but it is still under 5 percent.
On 3 April, 2012 a draft report regarding the status of the implementation of RTE Act was released by the RTE Forum. The report reveals that 95.2 percent of schools are not
compliant with complete set of RTE infrastructure indicators. In 2009-10, only 4.8 percent of government schools had all nine facilities stipulated under the RTE Act. Eight of the nine facilities are present in 11.41 percent schools. Approximately one third of the schools have up to seven facilities and about 30 percent schools do not have even five. One in ten schools lack drinking water facilities. Forty percent schools lack a functional common toilet. Forty percent schools lack a separate toilet for girls.
In conclusion, the approach paper fails to address the ground issues may be due to the influence of a neo-liberal economy. The Ministry of HRD is justifying PPP by citing the sensitive issues like lacunae in performance and productivity i.e. outcome. Evaluation of these two indicators are really apprehensive and orthodoxy without strengthening institutional mechanism. The Government cannot escape with the fact that Government run Navodaya Vidyalayas and Central Schools are running well. So, there is no reason for the government to recite the couplet of PPP. After all, education is less of an issue, more of a need today in our country.
Source: http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Orissa/shownews.asp?newsid=19775
No comments:
Post a Comment