Page 24 - EW August 2023

Education News

comes in the Union min- “Not only are there huge teacher va-
istry of education’s Per- cancies, teachers are entrusted with a
formance Grading Index wide range of administrative duties.
(PGI) 2021-22, released These duties take up teachers’ time
on July 8, which ranks the and affect their ability to teach prop-
state among the bottom 10, erly. This in turn adversely affects stu-
has come as a big shock to dents’ learning outcomes. The learn-
all in this southern state. ing loss students suffer is massive,”
This is a significant drop he says.
from being among the Top The DMK government’s interfer-
5 states at Level II in the ence and exceptionalism in educa-
PGI 2019-20 to Level III in tion hasn’t helped matters. The state
2021-22. government has objected to national
PGI assesses the per- entrance exams such as NEET (Na-
formance of school edu- Government school children in Tamil Nadu tional Eligibility cum Entrance Test)
cation systems in states for medical education and CUET
countrywide. It was revised in 2021- in numeracy skills and had the maxi- (Common University Entrance Test)
22 and renamed PGI 2.0, with the mum number of students unable to for Central universities, as also NEP
new assessment structure including complete basic grade-level tasks. The 2020, and has appointed a committee
73 parameters grouped into two cat- NCERT study also found that many to write its own SEP (State Education
egories: Outcomes and Governance teachers in Tamil Nadu are not ad- Policy). Then there is insistence on
Management. The outcomes category equately trained, and don’t have the teaching all higher education courses
includes access, infrastructure and resources to teach effectively. Another — including engineering — in Tamil,
facilities, equity, and outcomes. The reason for Tamil Nadu’s slip in the to accommodate ‘weak’ rural students.
governance management category in- PGI 2021-22 is shortage of teachers It’s all adding up.
cludes teacher education and training. in government schools. Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai)
n PGI 2021-22, under the head of “Inadequate number of teachers
Ilearning outcomes — “the most in government-run schools is a prime HIMACHAL PRADESH
important and ultimate goal of the cause of the state’s abysmal learn-
index” — Tamil Nadu is awarded a ing outcomes rank. In 28,000 pri- Good show in
score of 41.20 out of 240 — the lowest mary and upper primary government
among all states and Union territories schools statewide, over 50,000 teach- adversity
collated from the National Achieve- ing posts are vacant. There is only
ment Survey 2021. Under the param- one teacher in 3,800 primary schools espite news of flash floods
eter of access, it is ranked among the (upto class V) and only 2.5 teachers triggering landslides, washing
Top 8 with a score of 66.16. Under in- (on average) in the remaining 25,618 Daway roads, bringing down
frastructure and facilities among the primary and middle schools across buildings and flooding Delhi after 45
Top 10 (93.48); equity #2 (229.25); the state,” says S. Gnanasekaran, years because of 72 hours of inces-
governance and processes among Top general-secretary of the Tamil Nadu sant rainfall in northern India’s
13 (77.87); teacher education among Higher Secondary School Headmas- Himachal Pradesh and adjacent
the Top 5. Its overall score aggregates ters Association. regions in July, the 6th edition of
590.4 which places it in Level III. Under provisions of the Right of SNAMUN ’23 was successfully staged
The state’s low Level III ranking Children to Free & Compulsory Edu- at The Lawrence School, Sanawar
has stunned academics — even if not cation (RTE) Act, 2009, there should from July 27-29. Its sub-text is a
politicians — in Tamil Nadu, espe- be one teacher for every 30 students. story of resilience and rising popular-
cially its lowest score under learning Nor is this a problem peculiar to Tamil ity of boarding schools in India, at a
outcomes. According to them, a ma- Nadu — 18 percent of teachers posts time when in the UK — the mother
jor factor that has contributed to the in government primary schools and country of boarding schools — they
state’s poor performance is the qual- 15 percent positions in secondary — seem to be losing their shine (see
ity of teaching. A study conducted by schools are vacant nationwide. educationworld.in/united-kingdom-
the National Council of Educational Prince Gajendra Babu, gener- boarding-schools-losing-shine).
Research and Training (NCERT) last al-secretary of the State Platform for The Model United Nations (MUN)
year found the quality of teaching Common School System, ascribes the programme, a popular co-curricular
in Tamil Nadu below average. The state’s demotion to teachers being activity in schools throughout the
state, at 29 percent, fell behind most burdened with administrative duties. world, is a big draw for schools as

24 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2023