DEMAND
FOR COMMON SCHOOL SYLLABUS – POLITY
News: Common school syllabus, board not in
child’s interest, CBSE tells Supreme Court
What's
in the news?
●
The Central Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE) has objected to a plea in the Supreme Court for a uniform board and
school curriculum, saying such a move does not take into account local context,
culture and language, besides the power of individual States to frame their own
syllabus, curriculum and conduct examinations for their schools.
Key
takeaways:
●
The Board said the emphasis should be on
“flexibility for the emphasis of local resources, culture and ethos”.
PIL
in Supreme Court:
●
A Public Interest Litigation, PIL has been
filed in the Supreme Court, SC demanding uniform education for all students in
India.
●
It demands one nation one education from
the court to end the disparity among the schools and students.
●
The PIL suggests a common syllabus and
curriculum for all the students across India aged between 6-14 years.
What
does the Common Syllabus means?
●
The plea propagates Article 21A - free and
compulsory education by implementing a uniform education system inclusive of a
common syllabus and common curriculum.
●
The syllabus needs to be the same for all
the educational institutes be it public, private, government-aided or non
aided.
●
It may so happen that the languages of
teaching may differ but common syllabus can also help to establish a
socio-economic parity in the longer run.
Present
Status:
●
At present every board has its own
syllabus so the prevailing system doesn't provide equal opportunity to all
students.
Need
for Common School System:
1.
Disparity in Present Education System:
●
There have been varying degrees of
standards in educational exposure wherein urban class has gained the distinct
advantages while rural masses (specially the persons from distant hilly areas
and tribals) have not had adequate access to basic education leave aside
quality education.
●
Children of migrant labourers are also
suffering on this count.
2.
Constitutional Right:
●
It is necessary to state that the
purposive and harmonious construction of Articles 14, 15, 16, 21, 21A with
Articles 38, 39, 46 confirms that education is a basic right of every child and
the State cannot discriminate against this most important right.
3.
Quality Education:
●
The rights of a child should not be
restricted only to free education but must be extended to have equal quality
education without discrimination on the ground of the child's social, economic
and cultural background.
4.
Ending Social Menace:
●
The Common School Syllabus end the
canalisation of children into private, government aided and government schools
on the basis of parental ability to pay and social status.
●
It will promote fraternity, unity and
national integration among students of different education boards.
5.
Ending Class Distinctions:
●
The unequal school education system
increases social segregation and perpetuates and widen class distinctions.
●
The common school system will ensure equal
opportunity to all students throughout the territory of India in spirit of
Articles 14-16.
6.
Committee Recommendations:
●
The national policies on education in
1964, 1986 and 1992, all endorse the common school system to provide quality
education to the school children.
●
A common minimum education programme for
children up to 14 years will ensure the code of common culture, removal of
disparity and depletion of discriminatory values in human relations.
7.
Common Entrance Tests:
●
The All India Level Medical and
Engineering Entrance tests were proven to be unequal and created a social gap
between the students of varying systems and syllabus.
8.
Level Playing Field:
●
It will curtail the menace of linguism and
regionalism as well as the feeling of being rich or poor.
●
It will ensure that all the students have
a level playing field in the state of common syllabus and common system.
Challenges
in Common School System:
1.
Concurrent List:
●
The Education is currently in the
concurrent list, where the state government has enough powers to legislate on
their own (except in some extraordinary circumstances).
2.
Federal Issues:
●
The power of individual states to frame
their own syllabus, curriculum and conduct examinations for their schools was
at stake if the common school system was introduced at the national level.
3.
Local Factors at Stake:
●
The common school system does not take
into account local context, culture and language affecting the diversity and
pluralism of India.
4.
Affecting Certain Sections of Student:
●
The common syllabus, especially the one
which is aligned to our futuristic needs, will have certain learning challenges
for those students who are not learning through formal schooling and are not
regular students.
5.
Political Will:
●
The fundamental reason for the national
failure to develop a common school system is the lack of a political
constituency for education.
●
Need of a stronger political will in the
country to introduce and ensure the functioning of this bold reform - Common
School System (CSS).
6.
Monopolize Education:
●
A centralized board, as proposed in the
petition, will only promote corruption and government control which will not be
good for the students.
●
The existing boards are not fully
autonomous and are controlled by the government.
●
One nation, one board will further
monopolize the education system.
WAY
FORWARD:
1.
Kothari Commission Recommendations:
●
Increase the national outlay for
elementary education to build required levels of infrastructure and provide
quality education, thereby transforming government, local-body and aided
schools into genuine neighbourhood schools.
●
Allocation of special funding for
improvement of school systems in backward areas, urban slums, tribal areas,
hilly tracts, desert and marshy areas, drought and flood-prone zones, coastal
belts and islands.
●
Providing free instruction for all in the
mother tongue at the primary level, particularly for linguistic minorities.
●
Active encouragement of teaching in
regional languages at the secondary level.
●
Discontinuance of state aid to schools
imparting education other than in the medium of mother tongue/ regional
language.
●
Phased implementation of the common school
system within a ten year time frame, and essential minimum legislation,
particularly to dispense with early selection processes, tuition fees,
capitation fees etc.
●
Exploring ways of including expensive
private schools into the common school system through combinations of
incentives, disincentives and legislation.
2.
Learning from Best Practices:
●
Most advanced economies including US,
Canada, Britain and several European countries have been built on the
foundation of a fully funded government school system providing education of
equal or near-equal quality to all children.
●
No country in the world has universalised
elementary education without promoting a common school system.
The idea of standardized
and common syllabus along with a single testing model is probably the best for
the country though there are realistic challenges as well for its adoption,
unwillingness of various stakeholders being one of the very many challenges.
The process should not be delayed any further now that the country is in its
75th year of Independence as quality education is the most important
contributing factor towards nation building.