This would point to the massive expansion needs of the Secondary Education infrastructure during the Ninth Elan.
The Ninth Plan should also take into account the additional inputs that may have to be invested to make the secondary education related schemes initiated during the eighth plan fully functional. These include vocationalisation, improvement of science education. computer literacy, educational technology, special interventions for girls integrated education of disabled children, teaching of yoga. etc. Planning for applications of available communication technology to promote school education at all levels and in all areas should figure prominently in the Ninth Plan. The need for additional resources for infrastructural and man power requirements of the secondary and higher secondary sector to enable the beneficiaries of the universalisation of elementary education schemes to continue their further education. particularly in the deficient areas has to be emphasised as substantial inter-regional and inter-state disparity in infrastructure exists. In this connection open learning systems (Distance Education) using, modern communication technologies will have to be developed vocational education. distance education and community education (specially to create a climate to enable the local community to `own' the responsibility for participation in school education and its monitoring,) should also be duly reflected in the agenda of the Ninth Five Year Plan. The role of Non-Governmental Organisation. (NGOs) especially for implementing vocational education programmes will have to be encouraged.
Besides substantial step-up in investment. which is inevitable for expansion. provision of private (including foreign) investment, use of shifts in existing schools and networking among institutions should be emphasised.
Common Educational Structure 4. During the 8th Plan a common educational structure of school education, that is, 10 (5-3+2)+2 was to be established throughout the country. Some States/UTs which have not yet
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switched over to this pattern as an integral part of the school system will be used to intensify their efforts in this regard. Difficulties and problems identified in switching over to the common structure should be sorted out in consultation with the States/Uts. Modernization of Madrasas to bring them into mainstream education should also receive due attention.
Qualitative Improvement 5. The key issues in secondary education. apart from access are quality modernization and diversification. The norms developed by the NCERT for standards of minimum facilities that should be available in secondary and senior secondary schools during the 8th Plan will required serious implementation, wherever required. The concept of Minimum Levels of Learning (MLLs) should be extended to the secondary stage as well. Action taken on other related aspects of the Programme of Action of the NPE 1986. updated 1992. is reported in Annexure- I The introduction of pre-vocational courses at the secondary stage as well design of bridge courses may provide the required answer towards effective implementation vocationalization of education at the higher secondary stage.
Improving the quality of secondary education is central to creating a competent middle level manpower providing a strong foundation for improving the quality of tertiary education and for realizing and sustaining a vastly expanding System of elementary education of quality. Certain aspects of quality are related to the expansion itself as envisaged in some of the formulations of the National Policy on Education 1986/1992, such as increased access to secondary education of women, SCs, STs and other disadvantaged sections particularly in areas of science, technology, vocational education, commerce etc. This means not only increased enrolment but also creation of facilities in curricular areas where they have been grossly lacking. Another aspect of quality proclaimed ten years ago in the policy as education for equality, was not only increased access but at the same time providing conditions for success which means better (comparable to those in better schools) facilities for teaching-learning.
The role of the teacher is pivotal to the success of all quality improvement programmes. Therefore, a well conceived and properly co- ordinated teacher education programme on a nation wide scale is crucial for upgradation of competence, knowledge and skills of teachers. Both
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institutional and non-institutional modes of teacher orientation need to be devised and implemented.
Revised National Curriculum Framework 6. Based on the subject wise status studies conducted during the 8th Plan on the status of Implementation of the National Curriculum Framework for Elementary and Secondary Education. including the Core Curricular Areas, and the need to reflect various newly emerging concerns such as Human Rights. Adolescence Education (including AIDS Education), etc. and to lay the necessary emphasis on programmes in Value Education and Population Education the NCERT will undertake consolidation of the revisions that have already been made for these modernization. A revised National Curriculum Framework both for secondary and higher secondary education will be developed.
Modernization of Curriculum 7. The improvement in quality also requires modernisation of curriculum and its continuous renewal, including greater diversification and flexibility of the higher secondary curriculum (with a focus on semesterization). changes in the processes of teaching-learning (which also means qualitative improvement in the system of teacher preparation, better educational materials and a variety of them capacity building in the school so that the school itself is given the basic responsibility for assessing the students (thus diminishing and gradually eliminating the dominance exercised by public examinations which have to some extent distorted teaching- learning process), etc. This would imply among other things formulating new frameworks of curriculum and their country-wide implementation through revised/new courses new educational materials. etc. By the time the Ninth plan period starts, all the existing materials would have become a decade or more old. The new materials would take three to four years to prepare. This would necessitate reviving in one form or the other, the centrally sponsored scheme on the Reorientation of Content and Process of Education which had been introduced after the 1986 Policy was adopted Funds for the purpose could be made available to the NCERT for getting the work done through SCERTs. The NCERT could continue to play a nodal role in evaluation of textbooks from the standpoint of national integration and Incorporation of core elements outlined in the National Policy of Education.
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Support to Curriculum Development and R & D 8. Can basic educational materials be left at the mercy of the free market mechanisms? Or should the State continue to accept responsibility, and its obligation in this area? If the State increasingly sheds its responsibility in this and other connected areas, one inevitable result will be even greater inequalities in the educational system. The question of State support to organization concerned with R & D is becoming increasingly important in this context Equally important will be establishment of linkages between National and State level institutions to become mutually supportive in the R&D tasks related to curriculum development
Examination Reform 9 The Scheme of National Testing Service (NTS) may be operationalised in the Ninth plan. The NTS can design tools for assessment of vocational competencies discipline based academic competencies and conduct regularly national level rests for relative ranking of student performances by giving percentile scores.
10. The recommendations of the Task Force on the Role and Status of Boards of School Education, set up during the 8th Plan, will require serious implementation, after due examination.
11. A nodal agency on the lines of the Council of Boards of Secondary Education (COBSE) should be established which should have the authority to coordinate and in some way control the Boards of Secondary Education in the country. This Board should also decide on the equivalence of secondary level certificates issued by Foreign Boards on the lines of Association of India Universities (AIU) functioning in respect of Universities.
12. The examining Board must adopt modern evaluation technologies to improve the quality of examinations, frequency of examinations offered leading to on-demand or on-line examinations and to bring in more transparency and authenticity. Appropriate ways and means of curbing use of unfair means in the Examinations should be explored. Academic and administrative measures should be further taken in this regard.
Teacher Education and Orientation 13. In pursuance of the directives of the National, Policy of Education (1986), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Restructuring and Re-organisation of Teacher Education was taken up in 1987-88 which inter-alia provided for establishment of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) for providing training, and resource support to elementary education, upgradation of selected Secondary Teacher Education Institutions (STEIs) into Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) and Institutes of Advance Study in Education (IASEs) to provide similar training and resource support to secondary education and elementary teacher education. strengthening of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTS), establishment and strengthening of University Departments of Education, block level resource centres/cluster level teacher centres. etc. Under this scheme. 424 DIETs have so far been sanctioned, 73 STEIs have been upgraded into CTEs and 34 into IASEs Sanctions have also been issued for strengthening of 18 SCERTs.
Thus, under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, 107 Secondary Teacher Education Institutions (73 CTEs +34 IASEs) have so far been provided necessary capability to look after the training and resource requirements of secondary education and secondary, school system. Even if the target of 250 IASEs/CTEs is achieved, there would be more than 300 colleges most of which may need support. A number of Secondary Teacher Education institutions are still required to be up- graded to enable them to provide quality pre-service and in-service training to secondary school teachers in their catchment areas. The Programme of Action (1992) also inter-alia states that efforts will also be made to provide programme support to other STEIs and also to develop training institutions not covered under the DIETs/CTEs/IASEs schemes.
The facilities for in-service training of Secondary Teachers are still inadequate despite up-gradation of 107 Secondary Teacher Education Institutions into CTEs/IASEs. In view of this it is essential on the one hand to continue the existing scheme of upgradation of STEIs into CTEs/IASEs to Achieve the target of 250 such institutions in the country and on the other to have a new central sector scheme under which other Government/non-Government Teacher Training Colleges could be provided some non-recurring assistance to upgrade their existing infrastructure like Laboratory, Library, etc.
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Training of In-service Teachers Through Distance Mode There are more than 14 lakh teachers in the secondary and senior secondary schools in the country of which over 10% are un-trained Many of these teachers will also require special upgradation and pedagogical re-orientation on a recurrent basis. The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has decided to make sure that every teacher is provided with systematic training inputs atleast once in five years. Some efforts were made in this direction through the Institutes of Advanced Study in Education (IASE) Scheme. This has not been very effective Considering the large number to be covered and the variety of training needs to be catered to it is imperative that the training inputs are provided through non formal means such as through distance education.
In the last decade especially after the establishment of national institutions such as IGNOU and NOS and the extensive development of tele-communication technologies in the country there is enough capacity and expertise available for organizing training programmes through distance mode for the in-service teachers. It is proposed that a centrally sponsored scheme may be initiated in the 9th Five Year Plan period for training teachers at the secondary and senior secondary levels through distance mode. The scheme can involve institutions such as NCERT, IGNOU and NOS at the national level mainly for developing the required training materials and also organising interactive experiences through teleconferencing. Agencies such as IASEs, SCERTs and SOUs (State Open Universities and other teacher training institutions may be identified at state level to organise face to face experience at each region. These face to face experiences will be suitably linked with the training materials developed and interactive sessions organised by the national and State agencies. The regional institutions identified can also act as the learning ends in the proposed teleconference programmes.
The on going scheme of IASEs can be suitably dove-tailed to efforts made under the new centrally sponsored scheme enabling these institutions to involve more effectively in the training programmes through distance mode. It is also proposed that the NCTE may come out with suitably accreditation procedures for giving credits to teachers who undergo the training experiences. This will facilitate accumulation of credits leading to suitable certification by IGNOU.
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Considering that very less efforts are made at present for developing audio video programmes for teacher training at secondary and senior secondary levels. the proposed Centrally Sponsored Scheme should also provide funding to agencies like, CIET/NCERT,EMPC, IGNOU,SIETs and AVRCs for producing appropriate audio and video programmes for training of teachers. These programmes can be used personaly for in-service teacher training colleges in the country. It is also necessary to develop capacity among teacher educators at the state level for developing audio-video scripts for the purpose thereby facilitating production of programmes at the state level which are more relevant to the needs of teachers in each state.
Vocational Education 14. Major impetus was given in the 7th Plan to vocationalisation of higher secondary education. The expansion continued in the 8th Plan with coverage extending to 6,476 schools by the end of 1995-96. creating capacity for diversion of 9.35 lakh students (i.e. 11.5% of enrolment at the +2 stage). A programme for imparting pre-vocational education at the secondary stage was also started in 1993-94 with a modest target. The thrust on vocational education should continue in the Ninth Plan as developing skilled personnel in related occupations/vocations has become essential in the context of changing economic environment with globalisation and consequent induction of new and emerging technologies. However, since major weaknesses have been identified in implementation of the programme by the Ninth Plan. also given the complexities and magnitude of the task, no single strategy may be successful Hence a multipronged strategy will need to be adopted with multiple entry and exist options to vocational students.
Almost 35% of children who enter class I drop out before reaching class V and over 50% before reaching class VIII Finally. only about 6% reach the degree level. Hence intervention at each stage in the form of vocational education would be necessary to equip the potential drop outs with some skills. The existing pre-vocational education programme would thus need to be strengthened and expanded. The possibility of introducing vocational courses at the eighth plus level, giving option to the children of taking one or more such courses in place of normal academic courses also needs to be explored.
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At the +2 level, the Ninth Plan will need to focus on qualitative improvement and consolidation of the vocational education Programme Micro level attention to alleviate major weaknesses like inadequate management structure lack of school- industry linkages non- availability of trained teachers absence of adequate student support system in terms of apprenticeship training recognition of courses, placement and vertical mobility will be necessary Creation of a separate cadre of vocational teachers also needs to be considered. The R&D facilities already created in the form of the Central Institute of Vocational Education (CIVE) will need further expansion to prepare curricula of vocational courses and for training of vocational stream teachers.
It will be essential to restrict further expansion of the programme at the +2 level only to schools where courses are sought to be introduced on the basis of need assessment through district surveys and where Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is signed with the industry for continuous collaboration.
In addition, a beginning may be made to introduce generic vocational courses at the +2 level with a view to impart basic skill/key competencies
Since only 6 per cent of the student population is enrolled at the degree level a large programme of Vocational Training and Education needs to be evolved after the +2 level to focus on those who are not entering the formal degree courses.
Possibility of setting up separate residential vocational schools or vocational training centres for all on the lines of Navodaya Vidyalayas in collaboration with industry may be explored.
To ensure relevance of courses, participation of industry is essential Efforts needs to be made to encourage industry to establish and expand vocational training facilities.
Vocational education programme for school drop outs and special groups particularly women and disabled would need special attention. Development of distance education strategies to promote vocational education at each level also needs to be explored.
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Using Educational and Communication Technology Including Media 15. There has been a substantial development in the area of educational and communication technology in the country with the advent of satellite and other modern communication technologies in the recent past. In the Ninth Plan systematic efforts to strengthen and extend the use of these technologies for improving instructional quality at the Higher Secondary Stage would need to be made. A separate Educational Channel on TV is likely to be operationalised soon. This would entail production of programmes in the concerned subject areas/languages. Interactive training programmes using satellite will have to be undertaken in a big way. An MIS system could be evolved by using Computer Networks by 2002.