Improving Standard of Education through Citizens Engagement

Context

With a population of 103.3 million in 2010), Bihar is the third most populous state in India. In all the socio- economic parameters it ranks a bottom of development index. But the state has done some good intervention in the area of primary and elementary education in last few years. Number of schools per 1 lakh (Hundred Thousand) population had increased from 60.2 in 2005-06 to 114.3 in 2008-09. Along with the expansion of schools, the state government had also recruited 1.50 lakh additional teachers in elementary schools. Inspite of the increased government intervention, the condition of school in Bihar has not improved much. Though the enrollment rates of children have increased, rate of children leaving school after class V or VI is also increased. One of the fundamental reasons for high rate of attrition is poverty and distance to be covered by children while going to school. But the most important factors above all are the poor quality of education being imparted in schools. Parent’s paid high fees opted for private schools mushroomed in every nook and corner of the villages and town.

 Key Players- The citizen group, the local elected representative, block development officer, other government officials, and civil society organization        

Initiatives –

Implementation of education requires involvement of diverse parties in both public and private sectors, including the national and local governments, schools, guardians of children, citizens of local communities, companies, social and educational organizations, private educational enterprises,  media, etc. For improving quality of education citizen can participate in following ways

Development of local education mechanism- Civil society organizations (CSOs) and citizens are expected to participate in local education governance formed at the provincial, city, and municipal levels. The local education governance committee can discussed

• Planning and budgeting – Through local education governance, the budget deliberation for schools can be discussed and debated containing the development strategy for schools.
• Implementation – Citizen engagement can  also  be in implementing education programs/projects/activities as sponsors or implementing partners;
• Accountability – By being part of school management committee civil society organization or citizen groups can take the role of a monitoring initiative, serving as observers in procurement or by participating in the Project Monitoring Committee (PMC).

Involvement of Citizen  in Teacher recruitment process – The citizen engagement would be vital in appointing quality teachers for imparting education. It is found that more than 30% of primary teachers engaged in government schools have not well versed in several teaching methods and still being driven by traditional mode of teaching.    

Regulations to bring uniformity to school syllabus- The teaching syllabus at schools vary from district to district. It also varies between government and private schools. The citizen engagement can play a substantial role in developing and recommending uniform syllabus to department of education.           

Performance matrix of teachers- The local education governance mechanism would also evaluate the performance matrix of teachers. Feedback student peers and school principal and government education officer can be taken to determine the parameter of performances.           

School Management Committee- The active citizen group can be part of school management committee, to oversee the overall development of schools    

Avoidance of private tuition- Because most of the government school teachers are engaged in offering private tuition due poor salary structure. it is essential  that citizen engaged should urge the local education governance to take steps to discourage the private tuition.     

Decision Support System-The decision support system would act an interface between the citizens and government representative and informed about all the important decision being taken into that region by the government. The system would also deliberate upon the types of funds available for development works, how citizen can approach them, etc. Primarily based on inputs from diverse pool of society helped to take decisions on important issues pertaining to improvement of quality of education. For ex decision support system can entails the local education governance about the funds available for school development and how it can utilized. It would also act as transparency and accountability tools for education system as whole. Connected with central server of Department of Education, it will connect with other government schools and draw a lesson for further improvement.                        

Outcome- Establish a new integrated mechanism that combines school education with social education or schools with local communities. Such mechanism will make it possible to provide people with sufficient learning opportunities responding to diverse needs in the society and also further improve the quality of education thanks to combined effects.