Facts of Primary Education

Our Indian Education system has become complex, challenging and competitive at global level. It is necessary to devise innovative techniques to investigate and find solutions to the real world problems. In olden days teaching was a synthesis of economic, social, spiritual and moral values. It was meant to develop both the child and society to higher level of happiness and cultural coherence. But today, as a result of focusing primarily on commercial objectives, teaching has lost the purpose of education. In the present time, the focus of education should be to address the key challenges of poverty, hunger, inequality conflict and emerging issues of intolerance and climate change for humanity with harmony to build a civic society and develop responsible citizens. It is a fact that the character/personality of a person is developed on the basis of education and his upbringing by the family, school and society, so the early childhood education becomes vital and important to be monitored and guided carefully under a big umbrella.

Effects

CEE have identified that in India we have different boards (State Board, CBSE, ICSE)to assess the performance of the student at secondary and senior secondary level, but there is no prescribed benchmark to assess the children at primary level. The government has provided free and compulsory basic education to the children in rural India. According to the Annual Status of Education report of 2018, over 96% of kids in rural India are attending the school. But, only about 8% of class III students can do basic subtraction and more than 60% can’t read words. By the end of class II, children are expected to be able to read a simple text fluently and do basic maths operations. 72.8% students of class VIII are able to read class II level texts and maths learning is very poor. The above data shows that the level of learning skills are not upto the mark. The net enrolment ratio (NER) at the elementary level in most states and Union territories is declining, revealing a serious challenge for the Centre and states according to the Niti Aayog’s school education quality index. Thus, CEE seriously thought of forming a council to assess the students and the performance of the teachers to raise the standard of primary schools.

What is the need of an Hour

Earlier the key attention was given on 3 areas for the growth of child’s learning by the educators :-
- Understanding to get knowledge of the world
- Literacy and Numerals
- Modern Technology

The priority was given to 3R, i.e, Reading, writing and numericals. In modern times these aspects have less practical implications. Due to change in social, political, cultural, economical and spiritual the teaching- learning skills are outdated. It will not help the children to get success in life now as well as in future.

Today, it is the prime duty and responsibility of educators to focus on those skills which can make learning interesting and creative for the students. The teaching learning should be based on:-
-Collaboration and Team Work
-Creativity
-Positive Self-Image
-Problem Solving and Reasoning
-Independent thinking to develop the quality of leadership, self-expression, talent management etc.

Now a days the parents are so busy in their life that it becomes difficult for them to spend quality time with their children. They are substituting their responsibilities by providing the latest gadgets and tools, all luxuries and comforts to their children in lieu of integrating moral values and good behaviour. The parents expect that the school/ teachers to perform the role of parents and mentors. Parents’ attitude towards education does not motivate their children to study.

If there is a healthy relationship between the parents and teachers, the schools can rely on them in the cognitive and socio emotional education of their students, which is missing in our country. An ample time is spent by the students in the school, so it is necessary to understand whether children are happy and satisfied with different aspects of their life and the aspirations they have for their future. Thus to reduce the excessive pressure of studies, to set the strategies for encouraging goal-setting , enhancing motivation to learn, CEE has framed and launched “Council of Elementary Education” to standardise the teaching –learning practices at elementary and primary level. The council will ensure the standard mode of teaching and training pedagogies along with the structural module of teaching syllabus in line with the standard/university accepted boards like CBSE/ IGCSE/IB

Objectives of the Council

-To frame appropriate curriculum for primary classes.
-To define right approaches of academic activities which are stress-free, child-centred and holistic education to all the children.
-To frame certain norms for implementation of various academic activities.
-To monitor the quality of academic activities through the feedbacks from different stakeholders.
-To adopt innovative techniques to achieve academic excellence with psychological, pedagogical social principles.
-To prescribe books for different classes according to the intellectual levels of students.
-To emphasize civic education and moral values through activities, short stories or dramatization.
-Introduce Yoga and Meditation for physical and mental development of the children.
-To organize various programmes to update the professional competency of teachers.
-To conduct in-service training programmes, workshops for the teachers.
-To encourage school to have the record of the progress to the students.
-To prescribe and update the pattern of examination.
-To judge the progress of the school by conducting auditing.

Benefits of the Council

-The council will support the structured curriculum blended with international research experience and technological based pedagogies to the school management and principal for the best possible educational outcomes for students.
-The council will bring communities and schools closer together in a spirit of cooperation to solve difficult primary education problems.
-It will help to improve academic achievement.
-It will provide support for teachers into the decision-making process. --Suggestions for time tables and organizing homework.
-Designing new and interesting modules to make the teaching-learning useful and beneficial
-Keep updating the changes in the curriculum by the board.
-Support to upgrade the standard of schools to obtain high rank in school rating. -Collaboration with international schools.
-Tie-ups with reputed schools to get admission after completing the primary school.

Why Council is Needed

Education is a shared responsibility of Government schools, parents, teachers, students, etc., play an important role in improving education. A credible education plan is the basis for accountability. It should have clear targets and lines of responsibility and allocation of resources. Transparent and relevant data on the strength and weakness of education system is not available especially of primary education. Such data is required to improve teaching and learning. Government need to ensure that teachers or evaluators have the appropriate training to recognize good teaching and provide constructive feedback. A child’s success in the classroom depends on the teacher. The teaching profession in our society has low status. It is sad that being a universal access to primary education in our country, the children who attend the school do not learn much while in school. The decent salary for primary school teachers has not helped to attract committed, compassionate and caring teacher to these schools. They have lost the purpose in life. The society must respect the noble profession of teaching.In village schools the teachers from far city or town, very often they arrive late for the classes, easily get tired and try to leave school before the scheduled time. Some teachers hire ’substitutes‘ to take classes when they don’t show up . These practices exist due to lack of accountability wherever teachers and community around them have better ties – the schools are maintained better. There more number of students are present, parents are willing to collaborate and cooperate – thereby making the process of learning more effective. After independence we had still not achieved the goal of universal free primary primary education. It is the lack of accountability among the teachers in primary schools, absence of innovation in the curriculum, failure to match education to the changing needs of a fast growing economy and lack of awareness of the desperate need for excellence in a world where economic barriers are crumbling and competition between nations is becoming fiercer by the day. (Education World January 14 ) The shortage of school teachers is made more acute by chronic absenteeism, lack of teaching aids , wastage of resources, less coordination of curriculum , teaching standards and fees. These areas need the most attention at every level of education.