School Choice National Conference 2018
Alternative Education: Philosophy, Practice & Policy
The many woes of our Education system
Why are for-profit schools discouraged in our country? What is the biggest drawback of the RTE Act? Why are public and private schools treated differently?
Anil Swarup (Former Secretary - School Education, MHRD) and Chandra Bhushan Sharma (Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling) give an insightful (and hilarious) explanation of the many woes of the Indian Education System, at the 10th School Choice National Conference.
About School Choice National Conference
School Choice National Conference (SCNC), started in 2009, is the flagship education conference hosted by Centre for Civil Society (CCS) in New Delhi each year.
Reinforcing the Centre's mission to advance choice and accountability, the day long conference aims to bring together educationists, planners, policy experts and government officials to explore, discuss and debate various dimensions of school education in India. In the past nine editions, the conference has seen many important and interesting ideas emerging from the discussions, during the sessions and on the sidelines of it. The conference deliberates choice in education, by bringing together industry stakeholders to discuss the extant policy framework and to advocate for choice within it.
SCNC, now in its 10th year, will delve into modalities of education that challenge conventional models of state prescribed learning. The critics of the 'factory-model' of schooling argue that such conventional models construct hierarchical student-teacher relationships, denigrate the learner's autonomy, focus on mimesis and rote-learning, standardise learning materials, and delegitimize distinct learning abilities of children.
India has a rich tradition on the philosophy of education and vibrant debates on the mode and purpose of learning, the ontology of the 'learner' as a being and as a member of a diverse society, as well as sustained experiments in alternatives to the school-based model. Philosophers, political leaders, and educationists have examined the role of community, state, adults, history, and socio-economic location in crafting the 'learning experience' of children in India. Through the day-long academic conference we aim to appraise these ideas and experiments in the context of a country in rapid transition. As learning outcomes attained in traditional models of schooling continue to falter, the uncritical adoption of standardised curriculum, uniform pedagogy, passive teaching-learning styles and high-stakes examinations is under scrutiny. The fledgling learning levels of children in India have been well-documented through multiple surveys and reports such as the National Achievement Survey, as well as the ASER . The National Achievement Survey 2017 cites/reports identifies Delhi as one of the worst five performing states. Among class 5 children surveyed in Delhi, only 44% could answer a math question and 52% a language questions. In Bihar, 52% class 5 students could answer math questions, and 57% a language questions. Even in Karnataka, only 67% of class 5 children could answer a mathematics question and 71%, a language question.
SPEAKERS
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Dr Sugata Mitra
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Geeta Dharmarajan
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S Gopalan
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Gitanjali JB
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Neeraja Raghavan
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Vidhi Jain
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Ajay Kumar Singh
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Supriya Joshi
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Anju Musafir
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Deepa Avashia
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Santhya Vikram
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Anil Swarup
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Geeta Gandhi Kingdon
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Chandra Bhushan Sharma