A Planning Commission working group for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) has suggested widening the vocational education system, giving a greater role to Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and Navodaya schools and evolving a common school system.
The group, comprising eminent educationists, principals and heads of state education departments, which recently gave its report. It also recommended more vocational training study centres in Islamic madarsas and maktabs. And, favours establishing health and wellness clubs in all schools and involving parents through a system of parents’ advocates in reforming the functioning of schools and also state education boards.
If the recommendations are adopted, the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, which aims at universalisation of secondary education, will witness a major revamp with the inclusion of all government-aided schools within the ambit of the programme.
On KVs and Navodaya schools, the panel said its teachers should be shared with other schools in the neighbourhood. “The KVs should also move towards creating an arts department in each school which should include both visual and performing arts,” it said.
A voluntary system of grading and accreditation of schools on the basis of their quality, to be called as the schools quality assessment and accreditation (SQAA), as formulated by the Central Board of Secondary Education, has been supported by the panel. “SQAA is a commitment to provide global parameters of attainment of standards in schools and will be a professional review by peers of an institution’s entire profile,” the report said.
The working group also favoured raising the enrolment in the National Institute of Open Schooling from the current 250,000 to 2.5 million by 2017.
To ensure infrastructure to meet the targeted enrollment, the panel recommended Open School study centres in all KVs, Navodaya schools, CBSE schools and government schools.
It also feels more languages should be offered to students as subjects for secondary education through open schools from the existing 17.
The ‘hunar’ project, a community-based skill development programme for Muslim girls, will be extended to all states in a phased manner and in all socio-economic regions of the country. At present, the programme is run only in Delhi and Bihar.
For secondary education, the panel favoured informal networking of all state boards through the CBSE.
