Lok Sabha Question No. 3127 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-31
Subject: Monitoring of Government Schools
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: OM PRAKASH YADAV

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3127 TO BE ANSWERED ON 31st December, 2018

## Monitoring of Government Schools

## †3127. SHRI OM PRAKASH YADAV:

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  constituted  any  mechanism  for  the  monitoring  of  quality  of education in Government schools;
- (b) if so, the provisions made in this regard; and
- (c) if not, the scheme of the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (DR. SATYA PAL SINGH)

- (a) to (c) Central Government has developed the following mechanism for the monitoring of quality of education in Government schools:
- (i) A web portal called ShaGun(from the words Shaala and Gunvatta) which has two parts i.e., one is a Repository of good practices, photographs, videos, studies, newspaper articles etc on elementary education, State /UT wise has been developed. Its purpose is to showcase success stories and also to provide a platform for all stakeholders to learn from each other, and instill a positive competitive spirit among all the States and UTs.

The  second  part  is  the  online  monitoring  module  of  Shagun  which  measures  state-level performance and progress against key educational indicators which enables the Government of India and the State and UT Departments of education to conduct real-time assessments which normal paper-based monitoring mechanisms did not allow. Through Shagun, the data collection and  reporting  processes  have  been  simplified;  resulting  in  a  totally  transparent  and  efficient system.

In addition, an online Project Monitoring System (PMS) has been developed to monitor physical and  financial  progress  of  implementation  of  various  components  under  Samagra  Shiksha including appraisal of Annual Plans and issuing of sanctions etc.

(ii) In  order  to  increase  focus  on  quality  of  elementary  education,  the  Central  rules  to  the RTE Act, 2009 have been amended on 20 th February, 2017 to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes. The Learning Outcomes for each class in Languages (Hindi, English and Urdu), Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science and Social Science up to the elementary stage have, accordingly, been finalized and shared with all States and UTs.  Learning outcomes  have  been  translated  in  different  languages  and  serve  as  a  benchmark  for  student's capabilities to be achieved in each subject & class.

(iii) Shaala  Siddhi  is  a  School  Standards  and  Evaluation  Framework,  developed  by  the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), which enables the schools to self evaluate based on seven key domains.

(iv) The  NCERT  has  developed  a  framework  for  Performance  Indicators  for  Elementary School Teachers (PINDICS) and shared with the states.  PINDICS is a   framework for assessing teacher performance and providing constructive  feedback for further improvement.

(v) National  Achievement  Surveys  are  carried  out  by  National  Council  for  Educational Research and Training to assess learning achievement of children in Classes - III, V, VIII, and X. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017, was held on 13 th November for assessing the competencies of children at the grade levels III, V and VIII covering 22 lakh students from 1.10 lakh schools in all 36 states and UTs. NAS (2017) was administered with districts as the unit of reporting in  different  subject  areas  such  as  languages,  mathematics,  EVS/Science  and  Social Sciences  in  the  Government  and  Government  aided  schools.  The  competency  based  test  was based on the Learning Outcomes which were recently incorporated in the Central Rules for RTE Act by the Government of India.

The National Achievement Survey for students of Class X was similarly, held on 5th February 2018, with a district level sampling framework covering nearly 15.5 lakh students using multiple test booklets in Mathematics, Modern Indian Languages, English, Sciences and Social Sciences. NAS district report cards have been shared with the States and UTs to help in identifying gaps at the district level. Subsequently, a framework of intervention has been developed and shared with States to improve the quality of learning in the schools.

Further, Central Government has taken the following initiatives for improving quality of education:

(i) Section  23(2)  of  the  RTE  Act  has  been  amended  to  extend  the  period  for  training  of untrained  in-service  elementary  teachers  to  31st  March,  2019.  As  per  above  amendment,  all untrained in-service teachers working in Government, Government aided, and Private un-aided schools should acquire minimum qualification as laid down by an academic authority, authorized by  the  Central  Government,  by  31st  March,  2019.  The  National  Institute  of  Open  Schooling (NIOS)  has  been  entrusted  to  conduct  this  training  through  ODL  (Open  Distance  Learning) mode.  The  online  D.El.Ed.  course  has  started  from  3rd  October,  2017.    More  than  13  Lakh teachers have joined these courses.

(ii) Further,  the  Department  of  School  Education  and  Literacy  has  launched  an  Integrated Scheme for School Education-Samagra Shiksha, subsuming three erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE). With effect from 1st April, 2018. The new integrated scheme envisages school education as a continuum from pre-school to senior secondary level and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels.  The main objectives of the scheme are to provide quality education, enhancing learning outcomes of students, bridging social and gender gaps  in  school  education,  ensuring  requisite  infrastructure  in  schools,  support  to  states  in  the implementation of RTE Act, 2009 and strengthening of teacher education institutions.

The  Samagra  Shiksha  scheme  focuses  on  improvement  of  quality  of  education  by  providing support  for    different  interventions  like;  in-service  training  of  teachers  and  schools  heads, conduct of achievement surveys at National and State level,  provision of textbooks as per  Right of  Children  to  Free  and  Compulsory  Education  (RTE)  Act,  2009,  remedial  teaching  for academically  weaker  students,  ICT  and  digital  initiatives,  vocational  education,  composite school grant to every school for providing a conducive learning environment  has been increased and from this year provisions for library grants and  grants for sports and physical education have also been introduced.

The  Government  has  also  launched  Rashtriya  Aavishkar  Abhiyan  (RAA)  programme  on 09.07.2015,  to  motivate  and  engage  children  of  the  age  group  from  6-18  years  in  Science, Mathematics and Technology through observation, experimentation, inference drawing, model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities.

e  PATHSHALA:  a  single  point  repository  of  e  resources  containing  NCERT  textbooks  and various  other  learning  resources  has  been  developed  for  showcasing  and  disseminating  all educational resources including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals, and a variety of other print and non-print materials.

The  Central Government,  supports  States and UTs  on  early grade reading, writing  & comprehension, and early Mathematics programmes through a sub-programme namely 'Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat' (PBBB) in foundational years of schooling.

(iii) MHRD,  has  launched  a  Massive  Open  Online  Courses  (MOOCs)  platform  popularly known as SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active learning for Young Aspiring Minds) on 9 th July, 2017. The portal is offering various online courses for school education and higher education. NCERT has been developing course modules for Massive Open and Online Course (MOOCs) for  school  education  system  in  12  subject  areas  (Accountancy,  business  studies,  biology, chemistry,  economic,  history,  geography,  mathematics,  physics,  political  science,  psychology and sociology) for classes IX-XII.  Twelve (12) courses and twenty one (21) courses have been completed  in  the  first  cycle  and  second  cycle  (completed  on  30  Nov.  2018)  on  SWAYAM platform  ( https://swayam.gov.in/ )  respectively.  Nearly  22,000  students  and  30,000  students were registered in the first cycle and second cycle respectively.

(iv) CIET-NCERT  has  been  assigned  the  task  of  developing  e-resources  for  Master  of Education (M.Ed.) course jointly with Allahabad University. One course (Educational

Administration,  Management  and  Leadership  in  School  Education)  has  been  completed  first cycle on SWAYAM platform in which 2115 were enrolled.  The second cycle of this course is offered from 2 nd July 2018.

Besides, an online course on action research for teachers is conducted in regular intervals in the MOODLE  platform  (http://ictcurriculum.gov.in/  ).  Post  Graduate  Diploma  in  Guidance  and Counselling for in-service teachers is also offered through the same course portal. Several other online  courses  are  developed  for  inservice  teachers  professional  development  and  delivered through the portal https://itpd.ncert.org.in/.

(v) A programme for utilization of satellite communication technologies for transmission of educational  e-contents  through  32  National  Channels  i.e.  SWAYAM  PRABHA  DTH-TV  has been launched. CIET-NCERT is the national coordinator for one DTH TV channel i.e., Kishore Manch  (#31)  and  has  started  feeding  a  24x7  educational  TV  channel  w.e.f.  09  July,  2018. Everyday four hour fresh slot is telecast and repeated six times in 24 hours to provide learning opportunities  for  the  stake  holders,  as  per  their  convenience.  Besides,  NIOS  is  running  5 channels for teachers, for Secondary and Sr. Secondary levels and for sign language.

(vi) MHRD has launched Diksha Portal for providing digital platform to teachers giving them an  opportunity  to  learn  and  train  themselves  and  connect  with  teacher  community. The  portal envisages to help teachers boost their teaching skills and create their own separate profile with their  skills  and  knowledge,  and  help  in  improving  quality  of  education  with  use  of  latest technologies in education sector.

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