2011: A year of education reforms in Pune

Year 2011 was an action packed year in school education, but widespread protests from parents and NGOs against unregulated fee hikes by private schools in Pune was at its centre. Beginning at Rosary School, protests against fee hikes by schools soon spread like fire to other campuses like Sinhgad Springdale School, Crescent High School, Pimpri’s SNBT School and Aundh DAV School.

What stood out in 2011 was activism by parents who took to streets and came out united against school managements. The protests that started on school campus progressed to district offices, and finally ended at police stations. As parents realised that their problems were similar, they formed MahaParents, Pune’s first-ever parents’ body with representatives from various schools.

Finally, after months of sustained protests all across the state, the state government passed the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act in August 2011. The Act (rules are yet to be notified for implementation) gives specific instructions on fee hikes by private schools and penalty for violations. Most importantly, it has brought all schools, including pre-primary schools, a highly unregulated sector until now, under its purview.

However, NGOs are sceptical if the Act would be implemented anytime soon.

RTE in 2012
While the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, was passed two years ago, the rules were finally notified by the state government in 2011 following which its implementation is expected to begin in 2012.
However, 25% reservation for students from economically weaker sections (EWS) in private schools is a contested subject, with the private schools’ body having approached the Supreme Court to re-consider it.

New syllabus for stds IX, XI
While parents’ activism was at its peak in 2011, the milestone in school education sector was a change in the mindset of school board officials, who decided to move away from rote learning to application-based learning.

Aimed at improving the quality of syllabus and ensuring that students from the state board are not at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with students from other boards in different competitive and qualifying exams, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) introduced a revamped syllabus for standards IX and XI in effect from June 2012.

Heated up over HOTS
Along with syllabus changes, the state education board also introduced reforms in examination pattern including the much-debated HOTS questions (higher order technical skills). According to the new pattern, 20% marks (i.e. 12 marks) in both maths and science papers would be based on HOTS, which calls for practical application of theoretical knowledge. This new formula has led to widespread confusion as parents and students are presuming that HOTS is going to be very tough even though board officials have tried to pacify these apprehensions.

School bus transport
School bus transport remained a hotly debated topic owing to numerous tragic incidents across the state in which school students met with serious, in some cases fatal, accidents. In many cases, students were travelling on school buses and died due to carelessness on part of school or bus authorities.

Some of the tragic incidents include death of a Mumbai schoolboy, Vijay Parmar (9), in November. In March, three-and-a-half-year old Shiven Gupta from Pune was crushed to death under the rear wheels of his school bus.

A student of Pawar Public School was killed when the bus door opened accidentally and the kid standing on the stairs fell down.

In June, Aniket Chanche (13) died after being hit by a speeding private bus. He was cycling back home from school.

Earlier in the year, the state government had notified a government resolution (GR) on school bus transport, specifying norms for school buses and formation of a district and school-level monitoring committee.

It was to be implemented from June 2011 i.e. the new academic year; however, it turned out to be just on paper with no implementation and accidents kept getting reported.

In December, the school education and sports department notified another GR on the same issue, this time making principals responsible for any accidents on schools buses, whether they are owned by the schools or not.

The norms were stricter, and they prompted a strike by school bus owners, who called the regulations ‘unfair’. In 2012, it would be interesting to know how the norms will be implemented, as transport owners have threatened to strike in January, if ‘unreasonable’ rules are re-considered.