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Sen, who released today the ‘Partichi Education Report II’—(Partichi is a trust formed by the economist about a decade ago to look into the areas of primary education and health), said the increased dependence on private tuitions proves that in the allotted school hours, it is becoming difficult to complete the curriculum.
Sen also stressed the need to complete the allotted curriculum in class hours to make home work redundant. According to him, a review of the curriculum should include basic skills or reading and writing and counting for students that would help complete the syllabus in allotted school hours, reduce home work and thus minimise the dependence on private tuitions.
The report says private tuitions have gone up to 64 per cent in 2008-09 from 57 per cent in 2001-02 for primary classes and 58 per cent from 24 per cent over the same period in Sishu Sikhsa Kendras (SSKs).
In his introduction to the report, Sen, who is also the chairman of the trust, has stressed the importance of recognizing and addressing the role of class barriers in educational under-achievement.
Along with Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, additional facilities should also be extended to Muslims in the state who are historically more deprived than their brethren in other parts of the country, Sen said.
The report points out that 13 per cent of SC students in Class III and IV could not read. The figure for Muslim and ST children stood at 25 and 29 per cent, respectively. For the rest, it was 8 per cent.
On the positive side, the report points to improvement student enrolment, which has gone up to 75 per cent in 2008-09 in both schools and SSKs from 58 and 64 per cent in 2001-02. There is also a decrease in the number of absentee teachers. Most interestingly, the parents’ satisfaction with the performance of the teachers has gone up and so has the achievement of students in Class III and Class IV. As per the earlier report, about 30 per cent students in both the classes could not write their names correctly. The number has now gone down to five percent in this report.
The first Pratichi Trust report came in 2003 and was based on the data from 2001-02. In the second report, comparisons between the available figures for 2001-02 and 2008-09 have been made.
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I am glad Dr. Sen has made this comment. Kids go to school to study. Why homework? We professionals have been talking about work-life balance for ourselves. What about study-life balance for school kids? They don't need 3 months of holidays in a year at one end and 12 hours of school work a day at the other. There could be scope to extend the academic year as well to find the additional time to do homework at school. Tuition by itself is not evil and I am sure there are students who need that help- especially when parents are unable to help at home. If tuition centres are doing a better job of teaching, the schools need to learn from them. Supplementary programmes at school for weaker students could go a long way in bridging the disparities in student learning and performance at exams.
these days the teachers posted in govt schools do not take pain to interact with their students as it was 15-20 years back.this is due to lack of training .the other reason the society do not give much respect to the junior teachers as it was 15-20 years back.the source of earning is also limited in this profession in comparison to the other profession in same grade.
Now the latest from Dr. Amartya Sen's Trust says that there are schools in West Bengal where students cannot read and write. This is happening in West Bengal to which Dr Sen belongs. This report also mentions absence of teachers and percentage of muslims who cannot read and write in West Bengal schools' This is extremely painful. However, this may be disclosure for Dr. Amartya Sen but it is known in rest ofthe country that such problems also exist in different states. Instead of publishing reports or conducting surveys, why not Dr.Sen personally look after the interest of students in West Bengal? He should visit each and every school or atleast 10 schools in each District of West Bengal. He will find more and more interesting points which he has not even visualised. He can write a book containing his experiences in West Bengal.
Unfortunately private tution has constituted a parallel education system.It rangaes from KG to PG level.Regrettably,Govt too after much deliberation to ban private tuition has at last recognised the importance of private tuition at least at upper classes for 'better understanding of a subject'.Hoewever, Dr.Sen's suggestion to do away with home task at primary level would help eliminate the evil practice of private tuition at least at this level.