Monday, February 3, 2014

6 February 2014: The Crisis in Elementary Education: How Governance Matters Findings from a Community Monitoring Pilot in 10 Indian states

Kiran Bhatty
Centre for Policy Research

Abstract:
Based on a pilot on ‘community monitoring’, conducted in 10 states over a period of almost 3 years, the presentation will highlight different aspects of governance that impact the delivery of elementary education, especially in its current form as a fundamental right guaranteed under the Right to Education Act. It attempts to go behind the “outcomes” story to highlight elements in the governance structure that contribute to the poor state of public school education in India. The pilot while aimed at experimenting with a set of tools and methodology for community monitoring of RTE revealed more than simple non-compliance with the provisions of the Act. It brought to the fore numerous aspects of the education system that do not receive adequate att ention in discussions on education: from the huge gaps and discrepancies in the official data collection system [DISE], to the highly problematic structure of financing education including norms, allocations and fund flows; from the inadequacies of the bureaucratic structures especially at lower levels, to making a mockery of the idea of decentralized planning; from the non-existent systems of accountability, to the mal-functioning of monitoring institutions, and to even a lack of understanding of the rights-based approach despite the passage of the RTE Act, -the problems besetting the education system are of crisis proportions.

In a season of re-thinking systems and structures the presentation hopes to open the pandora’s box of education governance in a bid to widen the debate beyond outcomes and nudge the analysis towards finding solutions to some of the entrenched problems of governance in this crucial sector.

Date: February 6, 2014
Time: 11:00 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Room
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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