Parliament panel for 'peer system' to improve school education

Updated on: Monday, May 07, 2012

Taking note of various studies and surveys showing poor learning capacity of students especially at the elementary level, a Parliamentary panel has suggested introduction of "peer education system" as an option to address the issue.
 
"Under this concept, a higher grade student can adopt a low grade student and start teaching him. This would help the teaching student make his base strong. As an incentive, a provision of stipend could also be made available for him," the panel said.
 
In its report tabled in Parliament, the panel said the concept would go a long way in enhancing learning capacity of children and asked the HRD Ministry "to take note of this".
 
Various reports, including the recently released Annual Status of Education Report, has said proportion of children in Class V who are able to read standard II level text books has dropped from 53.07 per cent in 2010 to 48.2 per cent in 2011.
 
The HRD Ministry blames this to text books designed with unrealistic expectations from students. It has asked the states to revise the course curriculum.
 
The Panel, which examined the progress of Right to Education, asked the Ministry to take up the issue of inadequacy of infrastructure facilities in schools with the states "on an urgent basis".
 
It underlined this while taking note of the fact that one year remains for the states to comply with RTE norms. "The committee is not hopeful of the parameter being complied with," it said.
 
The Panel on HRD Ministry also recommended "immediate steps" to be taken for filling up of all sanctioned teaching posts.
 
Taking note of the issue of wide gap between the demand of the Ministry and allocation of funds, the panel apprehended that "insufficiency" of funds would compel the department to cut down or withdraw schemes, besides leading to hindrance in implementation of SSA-RTE programme which entail specific time frame.
 
It also took note of the grim picture of the high dropout rate of students hailing from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and asked the Ministry to identify specific problems that contribute to such high dropout rate.
 
The Committee observed that there are several challenges that lay ahead before the Ministry in the 12th Plan, the "major one being fund constraint".
 
It said while coordinating with states and creating awareness about various schemes, the Ministry would require a "monitoring mechanism" especially while creating awareness about RTE.

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