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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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Britain’s
worst teacher banned for life Campus
Notes
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Haryana needs better schools THE Haryana Education Department is, no doubt, striving hard to improve and raise the sagging image of education in the state, but it has not been able to achieve a breakthrough in bringing about qualitative change in the school system. There has been an expansion of educational facilities by way of opening and upgrading schools, but it has left behind the qualitative aspect, resulting in deterioration in academic standards. A number of incentive schemes have been launched to attract, enrol and retain boys and girls, particularly those belonging to scheduled castes and other weaker sections of society. Huge funds are also being provided under the centrally sponsored schemes of the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). While such incentives may help in enrolment and retention of children, these cannot ensure imparting of good quality education. This year, the pass percentages of middle, matric and plus two board examinations, which had to be raised higher with CCE and grace marks, do not depict the ground realities. These are not indicative of any reform in the school system. Realising that the existing formula is doing more harm than good, the board has now changed it from this academic year, making mandatory for students to obtain 33 per cent marks separately in external examination to secure a “pass”. This change would mean that both the teachers and the taught would have to work hard to show better performance. Also, there has been a complete neglect of what goes on in the classroom, with no institutional check on the non-performing teachers. The school-based management/administration is not effective in enforcing discipline and work culture in the system. There is an imperative need to strengthen the inspection and supervision of schools to effectively deal with the problem of absenteeism and dereliction of duty. There is need to empower the school heads and make them accountable for their performance. Well thought-out annual inspections, supported by follow-up visits and surprise checks, could help improve the situation to a great extent. Surprise visits by education directors, recently planned under directions from the Secretary, School Education, speak of anxiety of the Education Department to rejuvenate the system. There may be a separate “school inspection branch” under one of the joint directors to deal with the work relating to inspection reports and action taken reports. The directorate may also hold monthly meetings of DEOs, DEEOs and BEOs to review the work done by the field officers. It would be in the interest of education, if the Haryana government could constitute State Advisory Board of Education (SABE) on the pattern of the Central Advisory Board of Education. In the absence of the SABE, which is considered as apex body in the field of education at the state level, there is very possibility of losing the benefit of collective wisdom required in taking policy decisions on educational issues of prime importance. This body can also play an important and meaningful role in overseeing, monitoring and reviewing implementation of various schemes and programmes. Due to the liberal policy of the NCTE, unplanned proliferation of B.Ed and D.Ed institutions in Haryana, without caring for the principle of “demand and supply”, has not only created the problem of unemployment but also adversely affected the quality of teacher education. It is no longer a secret that quite a number of teachers are deficient in the knowledge of their subject(s). They are also not abreat of the latest techniques and developments concerning their curricular areas. Needless to say, they need content enrichment courses to update and upgrade their professional skills. The SCERT and DIETs, responsible for imparting in-serving education, can take up this gigantic task only when these are strengthened with experienced persons having academic excellence. It should be ensured that the training being planned and organised under the SSA and the RMSA has a significant impact on the teaching-learning environment, leading to better classroom performance of both the teachers and the taught. There should be a state-level coordination-cum-advisory committee with Education Secretary as its chairperson to coordinate and oversee the pre-service and in-service education programmes with the main objective of bringing about qualitative change in teacher education. The government may consider the setting up of teachers’ centre at each district headquarters to provide ample opportunities to teachers for their professional growth. The training faculty could consist of subject experts, already available in DEO’s office and master trainers from the SCERT. The centre may be provided with a good stock of books concerning all curricular areas. To make the school system work, there is an urgent need to introduce accountability, so conspicuously absent at present. The idea is to make not only the teachers but also all those associated with the education process, accountable for their performance. There is also need to understand that the functioning of the Education Department is different from the other departments of the state. One cannot expect quick results in education. Those at the helm should realise that frequent transfer of education directors plays havoc with the working of the school system, giving a severe jolt to continuity and accountability. Unfortunately, no government has given this problem a serious thought. Strangely enough, they are shifted before they get to understand the department. If the government really wants to revamp school education, the most urgent thing to do would be to ensure that the directors in the school system must have at least three years’ stay, to be accountable for their performance. Only those interested in education should head this department. What has been lacking so far is the will to change the system of administration, particularly at the top level. All efforts to bring about reforms in school education will go waste, if not supported by a strong political will. The writer is a former Director, Primary Education, Haryana
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Britain’s worst teacher banned for life A
teacher who constantly left his pupils’ books at home or in his car has become the first to be banned from the classroom for life because of incompetence. A tribunal ruled that Nisar Ahmed, a business studies teacher at John O’Gaunt Community Technology College in Hungerford, Berkshire,was “incapable” of raising his performance to meet a satisfactory standard. A total of 13 teachers have been barred from the profession for a variety of fixed periods since the General Teaching Council (GTC) was set up 10 years ago, but Mr Ahmed is the first to be told he can never return to a state school. Mr Ahmed, who had been a teacher for 13 years but had only been at the school for 18 months, faced disciplinary action over his teaching standards after a visit by Ofsted inspectors in 2008. The GTC tribunal hearing in Birmingham was told that his organisation was “persistently poor”. He failed to complete attendance registers regularly and left pupils’ work folders in his car or at home when they were needed in the classroom. “Marking of students’ work was persistently not done or was done very late,” said Rosalind Burford, who chaired the disciplinary panel. “You regularly failed to undertake proper lesson plans. This resulted in a lack of pace and challenge in your lessons, a lack of clear learning objectives and an excessive focus on ‘doing’ rather than learning.” The school’s former executive headteacher, Michael Wheale, added that he was below standard in lesson management, organisation, monitoring and lesson planning. Mrs Burford added: “Your actions fall seriously short of the levels of competence expected of you ... and amount to serious professional incompetence. “The failings in your performance were fundamental and adversely affected your students to a significant degree. We felt that you pose a significant risk of repeating your actions and that pupils might be seriously disadvantaged as a consequence. “In our view, Mr Ahmed does not possess the capability ever to achieve the requisite standards and no useful purpose would be served by specifying a period of time (for the ban).” Mr Ahmed, who resigned from the school as soon as competency procedures began, has worked for supply teaching agencies before and after his period with John O’Gaunt. The agencies said his work was of an “acceptable standard”. — The Independent
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Campus Notes A
three-day conference of entomologists concluded on the university campus recently. In his inaugural address, Vice-Chancellor K. S. Khokhar underlined the need for encouraging the use of bio-pesticides for pest control. He said indiscriminate use of pesticides over the past 40 years had created innumerable problems, including killing of wild life, pollution, toxic residues in food, development of pest resistance and health hazards. He said indiscriminate use of pesticides was also responsible for eliminating natural enemies from many crop ecosystems since less than one per cent of pesticides applied to crop reached the target pest while 99 per cent reached the non-target sectors. He urged bio-pesticide experts to evolve eco-friendly alternatives for control of insects and pests. Advocating implementation of integrated pest management (IPM), with emphasis on bio-pesticides and non-chemical methods of pest management, the Vice-Chancellor emphasised that the time, quantity and methodology of the use of pesticides be regulated and funding doubled by all nations. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research Deputy Director-General (Education), Dr Arvind Kumar, said though chemical pesticides had helped increase foodgrains production in a big way, yet we were unable to get rid of the insect-pests that were causing losses to crops. Pointing out that indiscriminate and excessive use of chemical pesticides had led to several environmental and health-related problems, he said insect-pest alone caused a loss of nearly $15 billion dollars every year to the country. Nearly 200 entomologists from across the country and abroad attended the conference, which was organised by the Society of Biopesticide Sciences, India, and the Department of Entomology of HAU. World Food Day celebrated
The university celebrated World Food Day at a function organised by the College of Basic Sciences. Speaking on the occasion, Vice-Chancellor K. S. Khokhar said to meet the future requirements of foodgrains, crop productivity in rainfed areas must be enhanced substantially. He said production of crops in irrigated areas had already reached a plateau and further increase in foodgrains production to usher in the Second Green Revolution could not be achieved without increasing agriculture production of rainfed areas, which accounted for 65 to 70 per cent of the geographical area of the country. He pointed out that by 2050, the country would require an additional 55 million tonnes of foodgrains to meet the demand of the population. He said this could be achieved only if there was an increase of five per cent in production every year. The whole world was facing problems of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, Khokhar said, adding that the situation of hunger was so grim that over 800 million people slept hungry. He said since poverty, hunger and malnutrition were interlinked, so apart from physical access the economic access was equally important for the starving populace. Dr Raj Bala Grewal, head, Centre of Food Science and Technology, highlighted objectives of the World Food Day. The programme was organised by the Cultural Forum, College of Basic Sciences and Centre of Food Science and Technology. — Contributed by Raman Mohan
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