Back to school

• The goal of providing facilities according to the norms of the Common School System, for senior secondary level education to 70 per cent of the children completing secondary level education, will be reached by 2016-17

IN addition, the following features of the CSS should attract a progressively larger number of children to schools leading up to the universalisation of elementary and secondary education during the next 5-8 years.

• At the pre-elementary and elementary level: provision of education free of any fee or charge; free supply of textbooks, exercise books and school uniforms

• Universalisation of mid-day meals up to the upper primary level

• Involvement of ‘mothers’ in the preparation and serving of mid-day meals

• Introduction of the concept of Poshak Kshetra whereby every school will be obliged to admit all the children residing in the designated Poshak Kshetra

• Enhanced involvement of parents in the management of schools

• Provision of facilities like well-equipped labs, library etc.

• Improvement in the quality of education to be brought about by ensuring that every teacher is trained, she gets adequate salary and has job security, she gets regular in-service training, quality of institutions imparting training to teachers is upgraded, teachers are provided opportunities and facilities like sabbatical leave for undertaking research and study, and the Sankul Shikshak Manch for self-improvement and innovation, teaching is organically linked to research and experimentation, curriculum is modernised, full scope is given for pedagogic innovation and improvement,

and teachers are duly rewarded for any special contribution to teaching and child development.

BASED on the norms and standards recommended by the Commission, the additional resources required to be mobilised for the Common School System over the 9-year implementation period will be Rs 1,54,993.9 crore, which means an average annual of Rs 17,221.5 crore. The expenditure for the year 2008-09 is 10,699.6 crore. This figure is 32.2 per cent of the total public expenditure and Rs 4,144.3 crore or approximately 61 per cent more than the expenditure on school education that year. This figure may appear daunting but it is by no

means surprising.

EDUCATION being in the Concurrent List, both the central and the state governments bear the responsibility of mobilising the additional resources. We have already suggested that the state government should reprioritise and allocate 20 per cent of the total budget outlay for school education. At the same time, the state government should approach the concerned departments of the central government, financial institutions and the rural and urban community in Bihar, for raising resources to translate the Common School System into reality.

THE Commission recommends that the chief minister of Bihar should go on a special mission to the prime minister of India and the Union minister for Human Resource Development and seek the central government’s assistance for meeting at least 50 per cent of the additional cost for the CSS. It should be impressed upon the Centre that what is at stake is the

future of India as one nation and its place in the comity

of nations.

Edited extracts from the Report of the Common School System Commission, Bihar, chaired by Muchkund Dubey, submitted to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on June 8