|
|||||
| Issue 07 | February 06 | ||||
|
On 26th December Priyanka, Padma and I, the undersigned (!) organised Parth's talk on " Education Policy: Choice & Competition" at the Faculty of Education & Psychology, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Parth exposed the lacuna of the existing school education system in India. He advocated the adoption of the voucher/coupon system as a viable proposition to ensure coverage and quality education for all. Simply put, a voucher's like a bank cheque ! How? The bearer/student would be able to enroll in any school of his/her choice. The voucher would pay for almost 90% ( 10% to be borne by the parents) of the educational expenses. Parth pointed out examples of countries where this system has been a success. For e.g. UK, USA, Chile and Bangladesh where this voucher system was for a specific taget group i.e. girls. If this system were implemented here , it would mean schools having autonomy in framing the curricula. The much dreaded 'Board Exam' could be scrapped and in place an exam on the lines of SAT ( An exam students in US take after passing out of high schools in order to secure admission in colleges/universities) could be introduced in India.
Parth's lecture led to an
interesting interaction among the audience regarding issues like the
amount of the voucher, commercialisation of education, schools deciding
the syallabus etc. His views on all the issues according to me induced
the audience to stare in their minds and think 'out of the box'! |
|
Centre
for Civil Society |
|
To unsubscribe, send an email to unsubscribe@ccsindia.org |