A quick and random critique of the Indian Education System!!!
Structure: Indian education system, just like the executive system is hierarchical in nature. The basic characteristic of education system in India goes in this order: Union Cabinet Level, State Cabinet Level, State Ministerial Level, Secretariat Level, Directorate level, District Level, Block Level, with each level having their’ own sub-level.
SSA emphasized on bottom-up planning using habitation as the base of planning and encourages PRIs and Community to take ownership of school and the educational process -but what is ignored is that the structure of Indian education system is hierarchical and that executive system is never decentralized.
This has two implication, both innovations and critical voices from the community that can meaningfully feed into existing approaches, programmes, and plans are IGNORED IN BLUEPRINT because the implementation aspect is, and has always been, top-down. Secondly, decision making is delayed as it has to go through many decentralized levels. Simple example is, the community can plan the expansion of school, but without approval from the TOP, it will never be implemented!
The RTE and SSA included decentralized system as in integral part of achieving it goals, emphasizing the role of the PRIs, VECs, SMCs, etc. but as mention earlier, the hierarchical nature of the structure mean that no matter what, the voice of the Central Ministry will always over-power the State Ministry’s, and the State ministry will always have a bigger say that the District level functionaries. And most often, it is the small functionaries within the structures that do all the works, and with the addition of new programmes, the works of the functionaries increased.
Besides, the hierarchical nature also makes consultative process very cumbersome, often resulting in ignoring of certain level, and also in delay. Finally, the PRIs got certain responsibility related to the monitoring of the schools in the name of decentralization, but it doesn't got the executive power to take actions, e.g. in dismissing or transferring a teacher who frequently misses school.
Role Confusion under hierarchy: Who is supposed to do what, and what is being supposed to be done by whom?
As per SSA requirement, certain aspect of the Education system has been decentralized forming a new structure like the SPO, DPO, BRC/CRC, etc. to realize specific programme objectives however the roles and functions, on certain aspect are not defined. For example, the BRC/CRC has done, and is most appropriate for administrative work rather than academic mentoring as required by the SSA, and regarding the confusing aspect, there are multiple reporting structures like the Block Resource Person is required to report to the Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI)-Administration, the DIET Principal, The Deputy Project Coordinator of SSA, and the Block Education Officer for different aspects of his work. This resulted in failure to fulfill academic/mentoring responsibilities as they are mostly engaged in administrative responsibilities.
Personnel Policies: Transfer of teachers, allocation of teachers, etc. Who decides and how to decide on which teacher serves on which school?
The absence of proper personnel policies regarding posting and transfer, and the politicization of existing norms like using political forces to put pressure for transfer or to get a posting in a better location, etc. demands for the creation of a statutory committees to authorize and administer such process, besides the committees can also create a public database to monitor transfers after taking into account the kind of teachers the community wanted, and the kind of community the teachers wanted to work in.
There are also certain specifics requirement under the SSA about the kind of teacher to be posted in certain school, community and area like a tribal teacher who speak the local tribal language, etc, as such having a database monitoring system will make the whole thing, if not smoother, but also much more transparent.
Strengthening Academic Cadre: How academic actually is the structure and personnel policy of our educational institutions?
Firstly, there is a continuous tendency to move into administrative positions from academic positions based on the assumed greater power/authority associated with administrative posts. Secondly, within the education system itself, two people who are in the same grade level, one who is in teaching and the other in administrative have different level of work load with the teacher getting a raw deal –a teaching that demand lots of time and work. Thirdly, Personnel recruited or deputed to SCERT/DIET are not always from academic or teaching background so they have no real experience and understanding of the teaching profession or academic requirements to be able to fully comprehend the sensitivity and intricacies involved in their work like curriculum, module development, assessment methods, etc.
Appraisal Policies of Personnel: When a head teacher got a promotion, what did he become? Or, how and from where should the SCERT and DIET and other educational institutions must recruit new employee?
Since seniority is the mainstay of career progress in the department, there is little opportunity for recognition of performance or individual contributions which result in lace of initiative and innovation. Confidential reports need to be done in consultative process. And the statutory committee proposed above for monitoring personnel policies like transfers and postings, must also do appraisal and reviews based on the confidential reports to make decisions on career advancement.
