Pitching for better integration of children from disadvantaged groups in private schools, the NAC favoured widening the definition of "disadvantaged" to include groups such as migrant and street children, children in conflict regions and children of manual scavengers.
At the NAC meeting today, member Anu Aga, convenor of the Working Group on Right to Education, made a presentation on its recommendations to improve RTE.
"It is government's responsibility to timely reimburse the private schools to cover incidental expenses such as the costs of remedial work, counselling, text books, uniforms," it said.
The advisory panel also suggested increase in financial allocations and improving efficiency to promote learning outcomes and inclusiveness.
Favouring establishment of well-defined learning outcome goals, the NAC said "it is essential to define grade-wise standards of learning and align curriculum and text books to these standards."
The NAC wanted strengthening of monitoring and evaluation systems through student learning outcomes, teacher performance appraisal and school performance review process as a whole.
It pitched for enlarging the pool of competent teachers and setting of professional standards at a national-level for teachers, teacher educators and teacher training institutes.
"All teacher education institutes need to be reviewed periodically," it said. (More)
