An overview of education policy research on right to education (an IIM-A project)

Winter Practicum, RTE Resource Centre, IIM-A

Submitted by Prafull Kumar Sharma

Practicum Report

Winter School on “Public Policy and Social Change”

Submitted By:

Prafull Kumar Sharma

(http://www.prafullph1130861.blogspot.in)

2nd year undergraduate student (Engineering Physics)

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

http://www.prafullph1130861.blogspot.in/



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

I have always wondered why India is still one of poorest country while government is trying so hard to

improve the conditions. Before coming to the winter school, my belief was that only reason may be

because of lack of awareness. Because of which I started writing Blogs bout social issues. During the

sessions when I used to write my blog I started getting interests in our public Policy. That’s how I got

motivation for applying in this winter school.

During my stay at IIM-A, I got to learn several things which changed my perception about several things.

I got to know about the difficulties in implementing and complexities of public policies. The Reports that

I am going to submit will be just a piece of work which will showcase my work. Also it will be too early to

say that I have learned something. I experienced several things which changed my mind and my

understanding has changed definitely. Actually my further focus is to avail tuition at low cost. I

experienced that children from village have very good focus and practical knowledge. But in the region

due to wrong teaching, they are forced to mug up the things. Till now whatever I have done is presented

to you in this report.

Credits:

I want to thank my friend Abhay Singh for his input and suggestions in this project. Also all the

recordings of interview were done by him. For which I am extremely thankful to him.

mailto:[email protected]



PART-1

I tried to contact several Educationists. Some of them avoided due to some work, some

did give the interview. I have gotten information about some prominent educationists too. Here

are some important details about some of them.

Dr. Sanjayan Tripathi (Managing Director and Founder of Naval’s National Academy)

Naval’s Educational Society is a very active society contributing to better education in

Gorakhpur, established in 1995. It has established 10 schools since the foundation of this

society. He is a very active person in this field. I tried to contact his office but could not fix a

meeting. Though I have managed to get his FB Account id which is:

https://www.facebook.com/sanjayan.tripathi

Mr. Sanjay Kumar Mishra (Principal, Urmil Unique Central Academy, Bhuj)

Mobile contact: 9451687990

Dated: 29/12/2014

Mr. Mishra runs a private school which has recently been granted from C.B.S.E. for higher secondary education. He is a very active person in this field. He also gives free education to some unprivileged talented students on his own school funds.

Some of the important points from interview were:

He said that Government has made a very good curriculum though they have not made

a proper system for them to training of the teachers according to CCE. Teachers are

finding it difficult to complete and implement the pattern in restricted time.

According to him, “No Failing till class 8th “ is creating problem for teachers. Some of

students are not taking studies seriously. That’s why parents who want degrees just for

their children to get them in to the job.

https://www.facebook.com/sanjayan.tripathi



Nobody ever asked about admission through RTE. He never received any kind of letter

from DEO asking for any admissions for children through RTE.

He said that he was not able to make a proper system to correct the project and

activities related models. He said that students generally copy the models from others

which is making it ineffective in a sense.I suggested him to use MOSS software which is

also a freeware.

Notable Moment: During one of school visit, I met an old teacher active in this field for 40

years, named Janardhan Mishra. He illustrated me the way of teaching and learning of a kid

summarizing it as “Letting the kid from known to unknown” method. His contact no. is:

9532074326.

Journalists

I have managed to get some information of journalists through a person also in journalism.Here

are some of them:

Dr. Harsh Kumar Sinha

Professor (Hindi Department, DDU Gorakhpur), BBC Hindi Correspondent (Gorakhpur region)

He has a lot of experience in this field. Also He is a very active and powerful person in

Gorakhpur having interference in education department in good way. You can contact him for

any kind of BSA interviews. I tried to fix an appointment but could not do as he was not in the

city. His mobile contact is: 9935337776, email id: [email protected]

Mr. Ajay Sinha, Freelance Reporter

Also Useful person to have contacts of important educationists in Gorakhpur.I

have covered some of them because of his help. His mobile no. is: 9935646268

Note: Also Most of NGOs except “Kisaan Vikas Seva Sansthan, Kauriram” are doing work

on paper. “Kisaan Vikas Seva Sansthan, Kauriram” is doing good work. I personally contacted

two registered NGOs; their presumed office was not there. Also when I contacted them through

mailto:[email protected]



mobile they were not responding properly. When asked about their work and office, they

would cut the phone.

Sanjay Kumar Mishra’s Visiting Card

Typical Fee structure of “Abhinav Vidya Peeth” , one of the schools that I visited.

I found a very good environment in the school. When I talked to Principal Mr. Vyas Mani Mishra

, He said that he himself wants to change the situation of school that’s why even after being age



of around 70, he goes to school trying to make the school more better. During Discussions, he

pointed out an interesting point about admission to school without any prior test. He said that

considerably good schools don’t have many complexities in teaching as students are admitted

through admission test that makes the class consisting of students of same level. When it

comes to government primary schools or small school in terms of financial capability, they have

to face the challenge to teach the students of different level from different backgrounds.

When asked about reason behind the communication gap b/w students and teachers, he said

that children are having less moral and cultural knowledge which shapes a person’s

communication skills. He was also agreeing with the fact that private school teachers are not

being paid with adequate amount which also distract teacher from work.

He suggested that we should have cultural fests, sport matches that enhance the team

quality in students. It brings more concentration and focus to children that is essential part of

children’s learning.



Part 2- BIOGRAPHY OF A CHILD

Kartikeya Yadav

I interviewed a family who are migrated from a nearby district living in housing scheme

by State Government. The family of 6 members consists of parents, 2 siblings (brothers).The

only earning member is the father of the child .Kid’s father is a small milk vendor working in

Delhi and the mother has set up a small dairy consisting of one cow .Overall earning of family is

around 10,000(father’s earning 8000 rupees and mother’s 2000 rupees) rupees per month.

Father lives in Delhi for around 10 months. His earning is based on daily wages. His father also

spends around 3000 for his expenses in Delhi. He is able to send only 4000-5000 rupees to his

home.

The middle son Kartikeya studies in 2nd class in National Children’s School at Gorakhpur.

During the interview Kartikeya expressed his desire to become a police officer. When I asked

him about the reason, He told me that he was inspired by an elder person in his neighborhood



that he lovingly calls him as “Nana” (a phrase for grandfather in Hindi). He further added that

he is inspired by the way his Nana manages to control the tension and fight b/w two parties or

people. That’s why he likes the job of Police.

I found Kartikeya’s mathematical and logical ability quite promising. I mean, he could

understand mathematics in practical way in class 2.When I further investigated about his

academics, I found that his English aptitude was not good. Also his subjects were taught by 3

teachers with each of them taking 3 subjects on average. When I asked him about the first book

to bring for asking purpose, he brought Hindi textbook which he was able to answer properly.

He said that Hindi is his best subject. But by activities I found his logical aptitude and

mathematical skills very good.

The younger son in LKG standard and elder son in 3rd standard are studying in the same

school. It costs around 1000 rupees for the family to afford their studies with initial expenses of

around 500 in the first month of admission for books.

When I asked his mother about relevance of his education, she was quite disappointed with

school’s education. When I asked her about Kartikeya’s dream of being a police officer , she

said that she is not very hopeful about that. She said that it would be a great deal for them if his

child manages to get a decent private job.

When I asked her about motivation behind his child’s education, she said that it is a custom to

educate your children. She said that motivation behind his education is that she does not want

him to say that their parents did not give him enough education. What I experienced from this

talk is that first we need to tell them the importance of education. During School visits and

interviews to principle and from my Experiences, one thing was very common that parents do

not support their education with true meaning. I mean I realized treason behind parents not

cooperating schools is that locality and family has not been taught the meaning of education.

I have attached the some clips of the interview taken which will give a more

descriptive idea about the child.



Here is a link to the google drive in which I have uploaded some videos.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bxp2Jkvg-61aVURxYi12Rm9FM2c&usp=sharing



Part 3

(1) Objective of the Study:

The objectives of the study are mentioned as under:

1. To understand the Elementary education from child’s perspective

2. To understand problems in education process in school

(2) Motivation for choosing this topic:

The first one was suggested and emphasized in the winter school. I think that only

changes that anybody can bring in children’s education is a teacher. If we try to understand the

education and change it within the school that would be better because it would help children

get more fun in school with limitations of tuition to those who will really be needy plus school

administration could look after the progress. That’s why I chose the topic.

(3) Initially Intended plan of action:

During the period of winter practicum, I thought that I would focus upon the communication gap

b/w teachers and students. I would also go to village and will ask them about their education ,

plan activities and know more about functioning of primary schools. It was basically to get an

idea about education in a village.

After that I will try to set up an interview with some educationists and region’s DEO,

handing over the draft of that research and discusses the reasons behind the problems.

I will do research in a village named BANKATWA near Gorakhpur district. I will spend

5 days in the village for that then I will end the village related work, then will go to educationists

for discussing the reasons behind the result of my proposed research in village.

Then I intend to go to officers for interviews with my research draft in village and relevant



points after the discussions with educationists and people who gave some insightful points.

Also I was thinking to file a RTI to ask for the legal data of Primary school which I would

compare with real data on ground, and would inform the same to DEO and responsible person.



(4) Experiences and Reflections

Overall it was a great experience though. It was quite an eye opener for us. Those

5 days also taught me the importance of community in our culture. Also Last lecture by Ravi

Gulati also emphasized the priority of systematic thinking over linear thinking. Here are some of

the points regarding the winter school.

I think when I came for winter school; I would never have thought that there could be

several kind of perspective for a policy which previously looked to me very straight. But

during the winter school session, I got to hear and know about several stories and

perspective of my fellow participants.

Ankur sir said that our motivation behind being here should be for society rather than

IIM-A tag. It gave me a very positive impression of professor Ankur. Amit’s lecture

questioned my thinking about school education. I was thinking that on one hand we are

questioning the schooling while on the other hand we are trying every child to get in to

the schools. I think that Amit’ questions were correct because after Vinay Sir’s

emphasized the learning of a villager, I was quite in agreement that if we set a children

free to think and let them decide design of his own school , we could get more better

education in terms of quality.

“KATIYAABAAZ” was the best part of that day. It was great start to discuss about

public policy. Director’s Q&A was also good.

Ankur Sir emphasized the real meaning of how difficult it to design a public policy by

his Cake experiment is. It gave me the idea of how equality can be very complex in a

policy making process.

Ravi Sir did the best thing in the second day. He showed us the role of community by

such a simple but incredible experiment. He also showed us how even after having so



many talks communities don’t figure the solution because of the lack of the ideals of

very famous shloka “Vashudhava Kutumbkam”.

The session by Pavan sir showed me the other view of Naxal Community. His thought

provoked me to think whether we are correct to label the naxal’s as terrorists. He also

made me think about importance of a person’s free space by emphasizing that we should

run away from home at least once.

Binoy Sir showed us the real problem behind our policy making. We always think of

problems theoretically but often it turns out that problem could be solved easily and in a

much cheaper way if we would have gone and asked the people on ground.

Anil Gupta Sir’s lecture was another awesome one. His example of little girls was

amazing and I realized his words that those who have chased their dreams are those who

have not let the child inside them grow, were indeed true. He was probably asking us for

having our own space and freedom that a child possesses. I think Ankur Sir’s

introduction of him that he inspires a new way of thinking, was totally reasonable.

Vinay Sir and Charul Ma’m deserve a really huge round of applause for their work. I

was quite impressed by these people as they had a huge career options. But instead of

that they started doing something that gave them pleasure. Also their depiction of social

issues in songs was really touching. Same applies for Ravi sir who also left his job for

something that gave him happiness, teaching poor kids. I mean both of the examples

teach me that they had kept some space for them that they used for their own interests.

Finally Winter School concluded too early but it also ended with Ankur and Ravi Sir

emphasizing the motto of winter school to create our own space where we could think

what we can possibly do for what we see as a major problem. That was what we

supposed to do in 10 days practicum. Also Ravi sir’s emphasis on the systematic



thinking was really another eye opener. In all the sense, it was a quite satisfying and

learning Experience.

For that I am really thankful to Professor Ankur , Aashish Sir and all RTERC members who

were the key people in organizing this incredible.

(5) Finalized plan of action

Now the plan of action is as follows (subject to change based on what response and

experience we get)

Will start teaching children.

Will go to schools and will try to gain the trust the gain of school so that can organize

and helping them build activity oriented learning.

Will request NGOs to work in the field for teaching the communities importance of

education by their unique activities like Nukkad-Naatak etc.

Will aware and help the children to get admission through RTE.

(6) Results and Conclusions

I think that it was a good start. Now I have started to teach the kids in the locality. Though it’s

not enough but that’s what I could do what was possible in these 10 days.



This was typically what i did in my internship. If I have to count my hours it would be more than 100 hours genuinely excluding the hours that I took to design my practicum work and the other stuffs. I have attached schedule of winter school. I have also attached the authorization letter from IIM certifying my work as a research practicum under their guidance. Here are some images, interviews of my winter school and practicum IIM-A.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5OtUX367LLdZGxVSDNMQUlQdjA&usp=sharing


Also, Here are some of the forms that I made to conduct my research.I have attached them in google drive ,

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bxp2Jkvg-61aMWVLNnppV01tTXM&usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5OtUX367LLdZGxVSDNMQUlQdjA&usp=sharing


https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bxp2Jkvg-61aMWVLNnppV01tTXM&usp=sharing