By IANS,
New Delhi : Voicing concern at the “poor levels of student learning”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said focus needed to be shifted from enrolment and access to education to “what goes on in the classroom and the school”.
Addressing award-winning teachers on the eve of Teachers Day, the prime minister stressed on assessing the benefit children were getting from education. He also thanked teachers for contributing to the process of nation building.
“However, the poor levels of student learning remain a major concern. Therefore, as we move ahead, we need a clear shift in our strategy from a focus on inputs, access and enrolment to what goes on in the classroom and the school. We need to set up transparent and reliable systems for tracking attendance of children in a truly meaningful way,” he said.
“At the same time, we need to put in place a system of continuous assessment of the benefit our children are getting from their education. Participation of the community and parents would be essential in this process, so that they can be satisfied with the quality of teaching.”
The prime minister said that teachers “have to be an integral part of policy-making, governance and management, as also of day-to-day instructional strategies and decision making”.
The empowerment of teachers that includes real opportunity for them to share policy perspectives and decision-making will have to be the key component of the educational reform process, he said.
The government, Manmohan Singh pointed out, has “substantially increased public spending on education since 2004-05”.
“Education expenditure as a percentage of our GDP has increased from 3.3 percent in 2004-05 to 4 percent in 2011-12. Per capita public expenditure on education has increased from Rs.888 in 2004-05 to Rs.2,985 in 2011-12.
“The enhanced outlays have helped in a massive expansion of the educational infrastructure and sanction of additional posts of teachers on a large scale,” the prime minister said.
Teachers Day is celebrated Sep 5, the birthday of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India’s second president and an eminent educationist.