Reforms in Education in Bihar
Bihar must seriously revisit the education policy in the state, particularly at the primary and secondary level. The importance of education in betterment of lives, particularly of poor, can not be overemphasized as it is the only tool through which long term prosperity could be ensured. No matter how many developmental programmes we run, the vicious cycle of poverty could only be broken by education and creation of right skills. The positive externalities of this tool are immense. However, the state must try promoting functional education, rather than putting focus only on memorizing and passing in the final exams. Therefore, there is a need to re-orient our education system in Bihar.
The following changes in the system at the primary and secondary level may be thought of at both macro and micro level:
Meaningful and Utility-Oriented Curriculum and Syllabus: Bihar must have only one Board and even when that is not possible, they must definitely have one uniform curriculum and syllabus for every every school in the state. The curriculum development and syllabus design must be such that the focus is on problem solving in day-to-day life, rather than on memorizing the facts and reproducing them just to top/pass examinations. However, this is not to suggest that facts are not important at all. The endeavor should be to weave the facts into the system in such a way that those facts are tools for coming up with new ideas. The crux here is to encourage creativity among pupils.
Functional Education: There is a strong need for changing the entire education system so that children right from the beginning are encouraged to come up with newer ideas and functional concepts. The emphasis must be on putting premium on innovation among pupils. The entire syllabus must be oriented towards problem-solving, innovation and functional education. The impact of this change in the approach towards education in Bihar will be immense.
Universal but Conditional Education:The focus must be to have universal education. Everyone must be encouraged to send their children to schools. If need be, some kind of incentive system could be built for those families who look at their children as sources of income. Other state welfare programs could be oriented towards putting a condition on the beneficiary's families that they must send their children to schools if they want to avail the benefits of the program. This will make those programs have meaningful implementations and long term 'capabilities' building for poor families. Dovetailing developmental programmes into Bihar's Education system will have many benefits and spin-offs.
Emphasis on English: Bihar has a distinct advantage in its demography. This is the right time to realize that competitive advantage for the state's long-term benefits. In order to capitalize on that demographic dividend, the Bihar Education system must give emphasis on English teaching right from the beginning. The advantage of this would be that later on, these pupils will provide a sizable manpower in the English language, which could be come handy creating back offices in Bihar in sectors such as IT, Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals etc.
Recognition and Rewards:The Education System must have a scholarship schemes based totally on the performance of pupils in coming up with new ideas and innovation. Built in that scholarship must also be recognition by the Chief Minister of those achievements by pupils by awarding/rewarding the outstanding ones at an annual event at the state level. There is no other better motivation than the recognition by the Chief Minister. Once this becomes the regular annual event, the positive externality that such recognition will have on the Education system in Bihar can only be imagined.
The Role of Teachers:The other important factor that the System must focus on the system of teaching and teachers and their salary structure. Once the syllabus changed to the new one, there will be a need to have intensive training for all the teachers so that they are made familiar with the concepts and tools of teaching and promoting innovation among pupils.The remuneration to teachers must be such that they are not encouraged to take up other economic activities for extra income and are scared of losing their jobs if found delinquent. The incentive system must also be built in the remuneration for those teachers who are able to produce more and more bright pupils. And at the school level, if the Board notices that there are many innovators being produced by that school, they must recognize that by providing or recommending both pecuniary and non-financial benefits to that school. Further, the 'innovator" teacher must be provided extra-income to be able to teach other teachers his/her style of teaching. In the end, the endeavor by the state government should be make the teaching profession as the most respectable profession in the state, as it had been during the olden days. That could be done through the means of better remuneration, recognition and respect in the society at large.
Positive Control Based on Incentives: The issue of control for such schools is a vital one. The control, both internal and external, system must be such that these schools are encouraged to follow the system and syllabus on their own. I am of a firm belief that if we build enough incentives in the control mechanism, there will not be any need for controlling them on the basis of fear, as is the practice right now. The current system of fear being generated by the visit by school inspectors and other government functionaries does not encourage good performance, but ensure only the attendance, which is not a sufficient condition for good performance. Good performance can be ensured only when all the stakeholders are encouraged to perform out of the needs.
Feeding the System: There must be encouragement to those pupils who are interested in becoming teachers in the schools in their villages. This will auto-feed the education system in Bihar. There may not be any need for transferring others from somewhere else. Local recruitment is the best way of ensuring the highest level of morale and motivation among the teachers. Normally, it has been seen that people coming from other places have no motivation to better the lives of people at the place where they are posted. The commitment is less and professionalism at the lowest. However, those who are recruited locally give full attention to their jobs since not only they don't have any personal issues at some other place to take care of but also they have constant peer pressure to perform and they take pride in what they are doing as there is instant social recognition. The same can not be said about the people coming from outside.
We can keep the issue of power supply, better roads, water management etc. at back burner right now, but not the education. We must start there since if we do that, this will on its own take care of the problems of power supply, connectivity and water management after 10-15 years. We will be able to create future 'change' agents in our state. But the time to embark on that path is now! In order to initiate action on this, the state must reorganize its Education Department too and start allocating more money (more than any other sector) to Education.
Bihar must seriously revisit the education policy in the state, particularly at the primary and secondary level. The importance of education in betterment of lives, particularly of poor, can not be overemphasized as it is the only tool through which long term prosperity could be ensured. No matter how many developmental programmes we run, the vicious cycle of poverty could only be broken by education and creation of right skills. The positive externalities of this tool are immense. However, the state must try promoting functional education, rather than putting focus only on memorizing and passing in the final exams. Therefore, there is a need to re-orient our education system in Bihar.
The following changes in the system at the primary and secondary level may be thought of at both macro and micro level:
Meaningful and Utility-Oriented Curriculum and Syllabus: Bihar must have only one Board and even when that is not possible, they must definitely have one uniform curriculum and syllabus for every every school in the state. The curriculum development and syllabus design must be such that the focus is on problem solving in day-to-day life, rather than on memorizing the facts and reproducing them just to top/pass examinations. However, this is not to suggest that facts are not important at all. The endeavor should be to weave the facts into the system in such a way that those facts are tools for coming up with new ideas. The crux here is to encourage creativity among pupils.
Functional Education: There is a strong need for changing the entire education system so that children right from the beginning are encouraged to come up with newer ideas and functional concepts. The emphasis must be on putting premium on innovation among pupils. The entire syllabus must be oriented towards problem-solving, innovation and functional education. The impact of this change in the approach towards education in Bihar will be immense.
Universal but Conditional Education:The focus must be to have universal education. Everyone must be encouraged to send their children to schools. If need be, some kind of incentive system could be built for those families who look at their children as sources of income. Other state welfare programs could be oriented towards putting a condition on the beneficiary's families that they must send their children to schools if they want to avail the benefits of the program. This will make those programs have meaningful implementations and long term 'capabilities' building for poor families. Dovetailing developmental programmes into Bihar's Education system will have many benefits and spin-offs.
Emphasis on English: Bihar has a distinct advantage in its demography. This is the right time to realize that competitive advantage for the state's long-term benefits. In order to capitalize on that demographic dividend, the Bihar Education system must give emphasis on English teaching right from the beginning. The advantage of this would be that later on, these pupils will provide a sizable manpower in the English language, which could be come handy creating back offices in Bihar in sectors such as IT, Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals etc.
Recognition and Rewards:The Education System must have a scholarship schemes based totally on the performance of pupils in coming up with new ideas and innovation. Built in that scholarship must also be recognition by the Chief Minister of those achievements by pupils by awarding/rewarding the outstanding ones at an annual event at the state level. There is no other better motivation than the recognition by the Chief Minister. Once this becomes the regular annual event, the positive externality that such recognition will have on the Education system in Bihar can only be imagined.
The Role of Teachers:The other important factor that the System must focus on the system of teaching and teachers and their salary structure. Once the syllabus changed to the new one, there will be a need to have intensive training for all the teachers so that they are made familiar with the concepts and tools of teaching and promoting innovation among pupils.The remuneration to teachers must be such that they are not encouraged to take up other economic activities for extra income and are scared of losing their jobs if found delinquent. The incentive system must also be built in the remuneration for those teachers who are able to produce more and more bright pupils. And at the school level, if the Board notices that there are many innovators being produced by that school, they must recognize that by providing or recommending both pecuniary and non-financial benefits to that school. Further, the 'innovator" teacher must be provided extra-income to be able to teach other teachers his/her style of teaching. In the end, the endeavor by the state government should be make the teaching profession as the most respectable profession in the state, as it had been during the olden days. That could be done through the means of better remuneration, recognition and respect in the society at large.
Positive Control Based on Incentives: The issue of control for such schools is a vital one. The control, both internal and external, system must be such that these schools are encouraged to follow the system and syllabus on their own. I am of a firm belief that if we build enough incentives in the control mechanism, there will not be any need for controlling them on the basis of fear, as is the practice right now. The current system of fear being generated by the visit by school inspectors and other government functionaries does not encourage good performance, but ensure only the attendance, which is not a sufficient condition for good performance. Good performance can be ensured only when all the stakeholders are encouraged to perform out of the needs.
Feeding the System: There must be encouragement to those pupils who are interested in becoming teachers in the schools in their villages. This will auto-feed the education system in Bihar. There may not be any need for transferring others from somewhere else. Local recruitment is the best way of ensuring the highest level of morale and motivation among the teachers. Normally, it has been seen that people coming from other places have no motivation to better the lives of people at the place where they are posted. The commitment is less and professionalism at the lowest. However, those who are recruited locally give full attention to their jobs since not only they don't have any personal issues at some other place to take care of but also they have constant peer pressure to perform and they take pride in what they are doing as there is instant social recognition. The same can not be said about the people coming from outside.
We can keep the issue of power supply, better roads, water management etc. at back burner right now, but not the education. We must start there since if we do that, this will on its own take care of the problems of power supply, connectivity and water management after 10-15 years. We will be able to create future 'change' agents in our state. But the time to embark on that path is now! In order to initiate action on this, the state must reorganize its Education Department too and start allocating more money (more than any other sector) to Education.
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