Thursday the first day of April 2010 marks a special day for Indian children as the right of children to free and compulsory education (FCE) act 2009 is came into force. The right to education inhabits a central place as education can help to develop the skills, confidence and ability to secure all other rights. Hence, the right to education is also an enabling right to exercise all other rights. The constitutional commitment to free education for all children has existed since 1950 but now it has become a legal obligation enforceable through the courts. However, many challenges are on the path to meet the UNESCO’s goal on universal primary education to all children by 2015. The objectives of this article are to (1) show a landmark accomplishment of the country’s development by the right of children to FCE act 2009 in general and in the field of education in specific; (2) determine challenges to be addressed to achieve the desired quality outcome; and (3) create an awareness for collective commitments to address the known and unknown challenges.
Background
Dr Aradhya and Kashyap mentioned a history on the demand for a law on FCE in India. The history starts with Dadabhai Naoroji and Jyothiba Phule’s demand of state sponsored free education for all children in 1882; the first law on compulsory education introduced by the state of Baroda in 1906; Gopal Krishna Gokhale’s unsuccessful Bill in 1911 to Article 45 Indian constitution 1950 as directive principle in which states required to ensure the provision of FCE to all children till the age of fourteen to be attained in 1960. Several developments were proposed and/or implemented between 1950 and 1992-93 keeping right to education as a directive principle. The rulings by the Supreme Court of India (AIR 1992 SC 1858 and AIR 1993 SC 2178) led need for effective guarantees as they state the right to education up to age fourteen provided by the constitution was a fundamental right. Following that judgments and other action by the groups, fundamental right to education was inserted in the constitution by the eighty sixth constitution amendment act 2002. The right to education act 2009 is a law that enable the implementation of the constitution amendment.
Main Provisions in the Act
A few salient features and provisions extracted from the right of children to FCE act 2009 and its model rules.
• Every child, including disable, of the age six to fourteen have right to FCE in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary, from first to eighth class education. The education is free of cost including school fees, text books, writing materials and uniforms, and if required transportation, residential and other facilities. Compulsory indicates compulsory admission, attendance and completion of the elementary education.
• The out-of-school children allow in an appropriate class based on their age after a special training for the duration of a minimum three months to maximum two years.
• Appropriate government may make necessary arrangement to provide early childhood care and free pre-school education for children of the age three to six with a view to prepare them for the elementary education.
• The schools have to provide minimum facilities, such as school building, adequate teachers according to the numbers of children in each class, library and play material.
• The government schools provide FCE to all and aided schools to proportion, but minimum twenty five percent, of admitted children. The specified category schools like Kendriya, Navodaya and Sainik schools, and private unaided schools admit minimum twenty five percent children of weaker and disadvantaged groups, such as poor, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and the socially and educationally backward class, and provide FCE for which the government would reimburse the expenditure. The same admission provisions are for pre-school.
• Collection of any capitation fees is punishable as well as any screening procedure for admission.
• In absence of a birth certificate, a hospital register record, anganwadi record or an affidavit is enough as a proof of age for the purpose of admission in the schools.
• The central government shall develop a framework of national curriculum, develop and enforce standards for teachers training.
India is a signatory to key international instruments, such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, that guarantee the right to education for all (EFA). However, India was an exception to the global trend towards the establishment of compulsory universal primary education as many countries, such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Libya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with income levels lower than India have done better in this area. Now with this law, India joins over 135 countries that have legal guarantees to provide FCE to children and becomes an actual participant country to these international instruments.
Current Status of Primary Education
Despite of all the commitments made by the governments under international instruments for providing EFA, particularly FCE to children, millions of children still remain deprived of educational opportunities. UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010 presents progress in reducing out-of-school children by about third, a decline of 33 million, to 71 million. Much of the decline took place in India after the 2001 launch of the universal primary education (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) program but out-of-school children are still 10% of the global total, more than 7 million. Furthermore, the facts from household surveys suggest that administrative data may underestimate out-of-school children, by 16 million, more than twice the official figure.
Primary education is a most critical requirement at early age for acquiring basic competencies and life skills. India has achieved a milestone in education field by this ground-breaking act but this essential law alone is insufficient to make effective impact on ignorant parents and to cover the large number of out-of-school children. Some parents may have compelling reasons to keep their children out-of-school, such as the children are more needed in earning for family maintenance, household chores or minding younger and very old kin, as the figure in the UNICEF report indicates the same that 12% children aged five to fourteen were involved in labour activities in 2008. A child is considered to be involved in labour if at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work done by five to eleven year olds during a week and at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of combined economic activity and domestic work done by twelve to fourteen year olds. Some parents may be unaware as it is happening in birth registration that in India less than 50% children are registered at birth. Children are out-of-school may be because they are children of workers who are on frequent move, children of illegal migrants, domestic servants, displaced, street children, etc.
Low levels of parental education and family poverty are two main obstructions regardless other disadvantages, such as age, gender, place of residence, language, ethnicity or caste but the two obstructions combined with any of these disadvantages create multiple obstructions to school entry, attendance and to keep children in school. According to the latest EFA Report, a child in India spends on average over seven years in school, rich urban children more than eleven years, poor rural boys less than six, poor rural girls three and poor girls in the state of Bihar on average two years in school. The study using household survey data found about 60% attendance gap for scheduled caste children aged six to fourteen could be mainly due to poverty and lower parental education. The study of 400 slum-dwelling in Delhi found only half the primary school age children were in school whereas citywide enrolment rate was more than 90%. A study in 2006 shows only 66% enrol in grade one reach the last grade and 13 to 15% students dropped out before completing the first grade.
Child Labour
India has the largest number of child labourers under the age of fourteen including an estimated 12.6 million engaged in hazardous occupations. Despite of regulations child labourers exist as those children have to work for survival and full-time education is a luxury for them than a fundamental right. An enormous continuous effort is required from all the stakeholders to change this luxury into fundamental right. The problem of child labour could be taken care of to some extent by FCE combined with early childhood care and education (ECCE). An alternative income or study allowance could be more effective measure moving child from labour work to education. Meanwhile learn while earn is a necessity for working children. The same approach has taken by the Supreme Court of India mandating a reduction of working hours to maximum six hours a day for child labour coupled with at least two hours of education at the expense of the employer (AIR 1997 SC 699).
Role of Early Childhood Care and Education
Although the right of children to FCE act 2009 mentions ECCE it covers only education from first to eight grades. Children from disadvantaged households have the most to gain from ECCE as early interventions have much higher returns, and the most to lose from being excluded as it could lead to the promotion of child labour and other forms of inequity. When children enter in primary education at the age of six, gap in language and other skills due to poverty and other disadvantages are much apparent that those children can hardly catch up with the children who have participated in ECCE programs from the age of three and have exposure of language-rich environments. Early childhood is a highly sensitive period for most of the developments, such as physical, motor development, cognitive, language, social and emotional. A child receives extremely poor ECCE, as may be in poor households and some orphanages, is likely to suffer from the development deficits that are difficult to rectify later. The results of the study conducted in the United States show the importance of exposing children to language-rich ambience. By age four, child of a professional has heard 50 million words, a working-class family 30 million and child of a welfare recipient has 12 million words. The nature of verbal interaction also differs with socio-economic background as by age three, the child of professional has received 0.7 million encouragements while the child of welfare recipient 60,000. The children from lower socio-economic backgrounds are likely to face more difficulties later in learning and adapting surroundings if difficulties with language development are ignored in early life. A good-quality ECCE can provide a better environment for language development to compensate the disadvantage at home as school entry at the age of six does little to reduce the gap. Good-quality ECCE is good for all children but particularly for those who are from disadvantaged households as ECCE can play an important role to balance disadvantage in the area of social, economic and language, and can cut the transmission cycle of the disadvantage across generations. Several governments, such as United Kingdom, are scaling up early childhood care as part of wider anti-poverty initiatives. The studies in Cape Verde, Egypt, Guinea, Jamaica and Nepal have consistently found most disadvantaged children benefit from ECCE programs regardless poverty, gender, ethnicity, caste or religion. ECCE not only enhance such developments but work as a powerful boost to education, improve primary school enrolment, attendance and performance and can reduce inequalities. These benefits are well discussed and justified with the research studies and empirical examples in the UNESCO and UNICEF reports.
The positive impact of ECCE program participation on education at the primary level and beyond is well documented that ECCE can increase school readiness, enrolment in the first grade, completion of school education and achievement, and can reduce delayed enrolment, dropout and grade repetition. The evaluation of some programs in both developed and developing countries shows participation in good-quality ECCE contributes the quality with achievement at subsequent levels of education. In a disadvantaged district of Nepal, 95% children who attended an ECCE program went on to primary school, had significantly higher marks and repetition rate was one-seventh in the grade one, than 75% who failed to attend. ECCE experience in the United Kingdom shows improved intellectual development, concentration, independence and sociability during the first three years of primary education. An African country achieved the higher completion rate and the lower repetition rate in primary school due to higher ECCE enrolment ratio. Children in Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar had better language skills and results until grade four than who missed ECCE programs. Twelve year olds who had participated in good-quality ECCE in New Zealand performed better in reading and mathematics. Class retention of low-income and immigrant children in primary school increased by 9 to 17% with wider literacy and numeracy benefits due to the French ECCE program. The study on the Turkish Early Enrichment Project, comprising pre-school and parenting skills, in low-income low-education areas of Istanbul shows 86% children are still being in school after seven years, than 67% who fail to take part in the project. ECCE can also an instrument to improve girls’ enrolment in school as when young children attend ECCE programs their female kin are relieved from care responsibilities, which is a barrier to girls’ education. Children who have positive learning experiences in ECCE make a better transition to primary school and beyond, and are more likely to begin and complete it at the appropriate age. ECCE can improve the effectiveness of the FCE and decrease costs for both governments and households by reducing dropout, repetition and the special trainings for delayed entry.
Acknowledging the benefits of good-quality ECCE, most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries provide at least two years of free ECCE. Although the specific effects are a subject of debate, good-quality ECCE has the potential to enhance children’s well-being in formative years; complement the care received at home; compensate disadvantages; provide easier transition to primary education; better completion rates; increase social equality; high economic returns; reduce poverty; and to weaken the influence of parental factors on later education achievement. Instead mere extension of formal school, ECCE programs should be adaptable, developmentally appropriate and responsive to the needs and interests of pre-school children.
Quality of Education
Quality education is an agenda of almost every country to ensure students acquire decent learning, values and life skills including life-long learning skills that help them to play a positive role in their societies. However, quality education and its assessment is a subject of debate as less agreement on a single concept and the concept means in practice. Quality education is a dynamic concept that changes and evolves with time and social, economic and environmental contexts of place. Many quality indicators are identified, such as learners’ cognitive development and role of education in promoting commonly shared values, attitudes of responsible citizen and in creative and emotional development.
India has hardly adopted any international or national level assessments that measure learning achievements. Assessments during primary school years provide an opportunity to identify growth and remedial measures to prevent dropout. In rural India, only 28% grade three students could subtract two-digit numbers and only a third could tell the time in 2008. During 2005, a study is conducted to compare learning achievements of the students from Orissa and Rajasthan states in India and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) participating countries. The results showed ninth grade students ranked alongside students from the poorest performing TIMSS countries and the range in scores was wider than for all countries except South Africa.
Major influencing factors on quality education are learner characteristics, teaching and learning, learning outcomes and contexts of place. Learner characteristics include aptitude, perseverance, school readiness, prior knowledge and barriers to learning. FCE with ECCE and such other measures can improve learners’ characteristics. Teaching and learning comprises teaching methods including assessment, feedback and incentives, learning time, class size, teaching and learning materials, physical infrastructure and facilities, school governance and human resources, such as teachers, inspectors, officials and principals. The dynamics of the teaching and learning process, such as adaptable teaching methods according to the learners’ characteristics and contexts, interaction in the classroom, use of instructional and other materials, and feedback mechanisms for learners’ improvement, play an important role in better learning. Teachers obviously play a key role in the dynamics of the teaching and learning process regardless policies for quality education. Therefore, the teachers related matters are significant, such as rigorous entry and continuing criteria for teachers, balanced workloads suitable to impart quality education, periodic trainings, handsome salary and service conditions. Role of core subjects, pedagogy, language and leadership are also to be considered for better learning. Learning outcomes consider development in many areas including literacy, numeracy, life skills, life-long learning skills, perceptions, behaviours, creative and emotional skills, values, attitudes of responsible citizen along with social benefits from them. India needs a national level continuous assessment system up to higher secondary level to identify students’ growth in the learning outcomes comparable with their own previous assessments. Evaluations of literacy and numeracy are easy than the other learning outcomes. A framework of national curriculum, uniform teachers’ training and related norms are required, and already indicated in the right of children to FCE act 2009, to conduct national level assessments and for easy transition in case of child relocate to another school.
Involving communities in skills development is a key to success as well as continuous teachers training. In India, a 2005 survey in a district of Uttar Pradesh revealed poor reading skills among seven to fourteen year olds as 60% could not read and understand a story intended for first grade students. A randomised evaluation showed information sharing hardly improved reading skills but remedial reading camps, additional two hours reading classes a day over three months, run by volunteer trainers achieved significant improvements in early reading. In a district of Kenya, teachers were trained for five days to teach effective reading skills to grade two students. The result showed reading speeds of grade two students had improved on average 80% after the teachers training. More children centred and resource-rich libraries are needed in and outside schools in India. A provision of continuous reading is needed in the curriculum from pre-school to secondary school so that effective reading becomes a life-long habit.
Significance of Higher Education
Poverty is a strongest factor contributing to out-of-education and the transmission of poverty across generations. Poverty is also a source of vulnerability as when poor people hit by an economic or health problem which affect children’s education and may lead poverty to next generation. Education can be a powerful medium to break poverty transmission mechanisms. However, poverty itself is a strong constraint for education opportunities, stimulating the transmission of the disadvantages across generations. The role of education deserves far greater recognition as part of an anti-poverty strategy as well as for education across generations. Ignoring importance of secondary and higher education for current generation could lead the next generation with low levels of education as in India, children of mothers with secondary or higher education are three times more likely to attend pre-school programs than children of mothers with no education. Maternal education has an impact on the United States pre-school participation as attendance rates of four year olds were 55% for children of mothers who have dropped out of secondary school but 87% for children of mothers with a college education. Although it is a high financial investment for the governments in India, a study allowance or income support (may be as a loan with the help of financial organisations) up to higher education for the students from poor households can break chain of out-of-education and poverty cycle.
Collective Commitments
Many known and unknown sources need to address to achieve the goals of FCE. Combined substantial efforts are essential from every related citizen and organisation to achieve the desired and quality output, to translate this law into reality and to eliminate gap between promise and performance. More responsibilities lie with the governments, schools, teachers, parents/guardians, non-government and charity organisations working in education field and social workers. More acts, policies, laws, procedures, monitoring systems for progress and performance may needed for effective implementation of the right of children to FCE act 2009 and effective output of teaching-learning process. Let us put all the head and hand efforts together and support the children’s own good, greater good of the country and globe.
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References are excluded due to space but major references are UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Reports and publications, UNICEF publications, related papers, the judgments of Supreme Court of India, the constitution amendment act 2002, the right of children to FCE act 2009 and its model rules.
Background
Dr Aradhya and Kashyap mentioned a history on the demand for a law on FCE in India. The history starts with Dadabhai Naoroji and Jyothiba Phule’s demand of state sponsored free education for all children in 1882; the first law on compulsory education introduced by the state of Baroda in 1906; Gopal Krishna Gokhale’s unsuccessful Bill in 1911 to Article 45 Indian constitution 1950 as directive principle in which states required to ensure the provision of FCE to all children till the age of fourteen to be attained in 1960. Several developments were proposed and/or implemented between 1950 and 1992-93 keeping right to education as a directive principle. The rulings by the Supreme Court of India (AIR 1992 SC 1858 and AIR 1993 SC 2178) led need for effective guarantees as they state the right to education up to age fourteen provided by the constitution was a fundamental right. Following that judgments and other action by the groups, fundamental right to education was inserted in the constitution by the eighty sixth constitution amendment act 2002. The right to education act 2009 is a law that enable the implementation of the constitution amendment.
Main Provisions in the Act
A few salient features and provisions extracted from the right of children to FCE act 2009 and its model rules.
• Every child, including disable, of the age six to fourteen have right to FCE in a neighbourhood school till completion of elementary, from first to eighth class education. The education is free of cost including school fees, text books, writing materials and uniforms, and if required transportation, residential and other facilities. Compulsory indicates compulsory admission, attendance and completion of the elementary education.
• The out-of-school children allow in an appropriate class based on their age after a special training for the duration of a minimum three months to maximum two years.
• Appropriate government may make necessary arrangement to provide early childhood care and free pre-school education for children of the age three to six with a view to prepare them for the elementary education.
• The schools have to provide minimum facilities, such as school building, adequate teachers according to the numbers of children in each class, library and play material.
• The government schools provide FCE to all and aided schools to proportion, but minimum twenty five percent, of admitted children. The specified category schools like Kendriya, Navodaya and Sainik schools, and private unaided schools admit minimum twenty five percent children of weaker and disadvantaged groups, such as poor, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and the socially and educationally backward class, and provide FCE for which the government would reimburse the expenditure. The same admission provisions are for pre-school.
• Collection of any capitation fees is punishable as well as any screening procedure for admission.
• In absence of a birth certificate, a hospital register record, anganwadi record or an affidavit is enough as a proof of age for the purpose of admission in the schools.
• The central government shall develop a framework of national curriculum, develop and enforce standards for teachers training.
India is a signatory to key international instruments, such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, that guarantee the right to education for all (EFA). However, India was an exception to the global trend towards the establishment of compulsory universal primary education as many countries, such as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Libya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with income levels lower than India have done better in this area. Now with this law, India joins over 135 countries that have legal guarantees to provide FCE to children and becomes an actual participant country to these international instruments.
Current Status of Primary Education
Despite of all the commitments made by the governments under international instruments for providing EFA, particularly FCE to children, millions of children still remain deprived of educational opportunities. UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010 presents progress in reducing out-of-school children by about third, a decline of 33 million, to 71 million. Much of the decline took place in India after the 2001 launch of the universal primary education (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) program but out-of-school children are still 10% of the global total, more than 7 million. Furthermore, the facts from household surveys suggest that administrative data may underestimate out-of-school children, by 16 million, more than twice the official figure.
Primary education is a most critical requirement at early age for acquiring basic competencies and life skills. India has achieved a milestone in education field by this ground-breaking act but this essential law alone is insufficient to make effective impact on ignorant parents and to cover the large number of out-of-school children. Some parents may have compelling reasons to keep their children out-of-school, such as the children are more needed in earning for family maintenance, household chores or minding younger and very old kin, as the figure in the UNICEF report indicates the same that 12% children aged five to fourteen were involved in labour activities in 2008. A child is considered to be involved in labour if at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work done by five to eleven year olds during a week and at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of combined economic activity and domestic work done by twelve to fourteen year olds. Some parents may be unaware as it is happening in birth registration that in India less than 50% children are registered at birth. Children are out-of-school may be because they are children of workers who are on frequent move, children of illegal migrants, domestic servants, displaced, street children, etc.
Low levels of parental education and family poverty are two main obstructions regardless other disadvantages, such as age, gender, place of residence, language, ethnicity or caste but the two obstructions combined with any of these disadvantages create multiple obstructions to school entry, attendance and to keep children in school. According to the latest EFA Report, a child in India spends on average over seven years in school, rich urban children more than eleven years, poor rural boys less than six, poor rural girls three and poor girls in the state of Bihar on average two years in school. The study using household survey data found about 60% attendance gap for scheduled caste children aged six to fourteen could be mainly due to poverty and lower parental education. The study of 400 slum-dwelling in Delhi found only half the primary school age children were in school whereas citywide enrolment rate was more than 90%. A study in 2006 shows only 66% enrol in grade one reach the last grade and 13 to 15% students dropped out before completing the first grade.
Child Labour
India has the largest number of child labourers under the age of fourteen including an estimated 12.6 million engaged in hazardous occupations. Despite of regulations child labourers exist as those children have to work for survival and full-time education is a luxury for them than a fundamental right. An enormous continuous effort is required from all the stakeholders to change this luxury into fundamental right. The problem of child labour could be taken care of to some extent by FCE combined with early childhood care and education (ECCE). An alternative income or study allowance could be more effective measure moving child from labour work to education. Meanwhile learn while earn is a necessity for working children. The same approach has taken by the Supreme Court of India mandating a reduction of working hours to maximum six hours a day for child labour coupled with at least two hours of education at the expense of the employer (AIR 1997 SC 699).
Role of Early Childhood Care and Education
Although the right of children to FCE act 2009 mentions ECCE it covers only education from first to eight grades. Children from disadvantaged households have the most to gain from ECCE as early interventions have much higher returns, and the most to lose from being excluded as it could lead to the promotion of child labour and other forms of inequity. When children enter in primary education at the age of six, gap in language and other skills due to poverty and other disadvantages are much apparent that those children can hardly catch up with the children who have participated in ECCE programs from the age of three and have exposure of language-rich environments. Early childhood is a highly sensitive period for most of the developments, such as physical, motor development, cognitive, language, social and emotional. A child receives extremely poor ECCE, as may be in poor households and some orphanages, is likely to suffer from the development deficits that are difficult to rectify later. The results of the study conducted in the United States show the importance of exposing children to language-rich ambience. By age four, child of a professional has heard 50 million words, a working-class family 30 million and child of a welfare recipient has 12 million words. The nature of verbal interaction also differs with socio-economic background as by age three, the child of professional has received 0.7 million encouragements while the child of welfare recipient 60,000. The children from lower socio-economic backgrounds are likely to face more difficulties later in learning and adapting surroundings if difficulties with language development are ignored in early life. A good-quality ECCE can provide a better environment for language development to compensate the disadvantage at home as school entry at the age of six does little to reduce the gap. Good-quality ECCE is good for all children but particularly for those who are from disadvantaged households as ECCE can play an important role to balance disadvantage in the area of social, economic and language, and can cut the transmission cycle of the disadvantage across generations. Several governments, such as United Kingdom, are scaling up early childhood care as part of wider anti-poverty initiatives. The studies in Cape Verde, Egypt, Guinea, Jamaica and Nepal have consistently found most disadvantaged children benefit from ECCE programs regardless poverty, gender, ethnicity, caste or religion. ECCE not only enhance such developments but work as a powerful boost to education, improve primary school enrolment, attendance and performance and can reduce inequalities. These benefits are well discussed and justified with the research studies and empirical examples in the UNESCO and UNICEF reports.
The positive impact of ECCE program participation on education at the primary level and beyond is well documented that ECCE can increase school readiness, enrolment in the first grade, completion of school education and achievement, and can reduce delayed enrolment, dropout and grade repetition. The evaluation of some programs in both developed and developing countries shows participation in good-quality ECCE contributes the quality with achievement at subsequent levels of education. In a disadvantaged district of Nepal, 95% children who attended an ECCE program went on to primary school, had significantly higher marks and repetition rate was one-seventh in the grade one, than 75% who failed to attend. ECCE experience in the United Kingdom shows improved intellectual development, concentration, independence and sociability during the first three years of primary education. An African country achieved the higher completion rate and the lower repetition rate in primary school due to higher ECCE enrolment ratio. Children in Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar had better language skills and results until grade four than who missed ECCE programs. Twelve year olds who had participated in good-quality ECCE in New Zealand performed better in reading and mathematics. Class retention of low-income and immigrant children in primary school increased by 9 to 17% with wider literacy and numeracy benefits due to the French ECCE program. The study on the Turkish Early Enrichment Project, comprising pre-school and parenting skills, in low-income low-education areas of Istanbul shows 86% children are still being in school after seven years, than 67% who fail to take part in the project. ECCE can also an instrument to improve girls’ enrolment in school as when young children attend ECCE programs their female kin are relieved from care responsibilities, which is a barrier to girls’ education. Children who have positive learning experiences in ECCE make a better transition to primary school and beyond, and are more likely to begin and complete it at the appropriate age. ECCE can improve the effectiveness of the FCE and decrease costs for both governments and households by reducing dropout, repetition and the special trainings for delayed entry.
Acknowledging the benefits of good-quality ECCE, most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries provide at least two years of free ECCE. Although the specific effects are a subject of debate, good-quality ECCE has the potential to enhance children’s well-being in formative years; complement the care received at home; compensate disadvantages; provide easier transition to primary education; better completion rates; increase social equality; high economic returns; reduce poverty; and to weaken the influence of parental factors on later education achievement. Instead mere extension of formal school, ECCE programs should be adaptable, developmentally appropriate and responsive to the needs and interests of pre-school children.
Quality of Education
Quality education is an agenda of almost every country to ensure students acquire decent learning, values and life skills including life-long learning skills that help them to play a positive role in their societies. However, quality education and its assessment is a subject of debate as less agreement on a single concept and the concept means in practice. Quality education is a dynamic concept that changes and evolves with time and social, economic and environmental contexts of place. Many quality indicators are identified, such as learners’ cognitive development and role of education in promoting commonly shared values, attitudes of responsible citizen and in creative and emotional development.
India has hardly adopted any international or national level assessments that measure learning achievements. Assessments during primary school years provide an opportunity to identify growth and remedial measures to prevent dropout. In rural India, only 28% grade three students could subtract two-digit numbers and only a third could tell the time in 2008. During 2005, a study is conducted to compare learning achievements of the students from Orissa and Rajasthan states in India and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) participating countries. The results showed ninth grade students ranked alongside students from the poorest performing TIMSS countries and the range in scores was wider than for all countries except South Africa.
Major influencing factors on quality education are learner characteristics, teaching and learning, learning outcomes and contexts of place. Learner characteristics include aptitude, perseverance, school readiness, prior knowledge and barriers to learning. FCE with ECCE and such other measures can improve learners’ characteristics. Teaching and learning comprises teaching methods including assessment, feedback and incentives, learning time, class size, teaching and learning materials, physical infrastructure and facilities, school governance and human resources, such as teachers, inspectors, officials and principals. The dynamics of the teaching and learning process, such as adaptable teaching methods according to the learners’ characteristics and contexts, interaction in the classroom, use of instructional and other materials, and feedback mechanisms for learners’ improvement, play an important role in better learning. Teachers obviously play a key role in the dynamics of the teaching and learning process regardless policies for quality education. Therefore, the teachers related matters are significant, such as rigorous entry and continuing criteria for teachers, balanced workloads suitable to impart quality education, periodic trainings, handsome salary and service conditions. Role of core subjects, pedagogy, language and leadership are also to be considered for better learning. Learning outcomes consider development in many areas including literacy, numeracy, life skills, life-long learning skills, perceptions, behaviours, creative and emotional skills, values, attitudes of responsible citizen along with social benefits from them. India needs a national level continuous assessment system up to higher secondary level to identify students’ growth in the learning outcomes comparable with their own previous assessments. Evaluations of literacy and numeracy are easy than the other learning outcomes. A framework of national curriculum, uniform teachers’ training and related norms are required, and already indicated in the right of children to FCE act 2009, to conduct national level assessments and for easy transition in case of child relocate to another school.
Involving communities in skills development is a key to success as well as continuous teachers training. In India, a 2005 survey in a district of Uttar Pradesh revealed poor reading skills among seven to fourteen year olds as 60% could not read and understand a story intended for first grade students. A randomised evaluation showed information sharing hardly improved reading skills but remedial reading camps, additional two hours reading classes a day over three months, run by volunteer trainers achieved significant improvements in early reading. In a district of Kenya, teachers were trained for five days to teach effective reading skills to grade two students. The result showed reading speeds of grade two students had improved on average 80% after the teachers training. More children centred and resource-rich libraries are needed in and outside schools in India. A provision of continuous reading is needed in the curriculum from pre-school to secondary school so that effective reading becomes a life-long habit.
Significance of Higher Education
Poverty is a strongest factor contributing to out-of-education and the transmission of poverty across generations. Poverty is also a source of vulnerability as when poor people hit by an economic or health problem which affect children’s education and may lead poverty to next generation. Education can be a powerful medium to break poverty transmission mechanisms. However, poverty itself is a strong constraint for education opportunities, stimulating the transmission of the disadvantages across generations. The role of education deserves far greater recognition as part of an anti-poverty strategy as well as for education across generations. Ignoring importance of secondary and higher education for current generation could lead the next generation with low levels of education as in India, children of mothers with secondary or higher education are three times more likely to attend pre-school programs than children of mothers with no education. Maternal education has an impact on the United States pre-school participation as attendance rates of four year olds were 55% for children of mothers who have dropped out of secondary school but 87% for children of mothers with a college education. Although it is a high financial investment for the governments in India, a study allowance or income support (may be as a loan with the help of financial organisations) up to higher education for the students from poor households can break chain of out-of-education and poverty cycle.
Collective Commitments
Many known and unknown sources need to address to achieve the goals of FCE. Combined substantial efforts are essential from every related citizen and organisation to achieve the desired and quality output, to translate this law into reality and to eliminate gap between promise and performance. More responsibilities lie with the governments, schools, teachers, parents/guardians, non-government and charity organisations working in education field and social workers. More acts, policies, laws, procedures, monitoring systems for progress and performance may needed for effective implementation of the right of children to FCE act 2009 and effective output of teaching-learning process. Let us put all the head and hand efforts together and support the children’s own good, greater good of the country and globe.
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References are excluded due to space but major references are UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Reports and publications, UNICEF publications, related papers, the judgments of Supreme Court of India, the constitution amendment act 2002, the right of children to FCE act 2009 and its model rules.
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