Vice President Ansari stresses on "quality agenda" in education

New Delhi, Jan 14 (ANI): Vice President M. Hamid Ansari on Friday said that simple, reliable and scientific methods of sampling and assessment on a nation-wide scale are important for highlighting "quality agenda" in education.

Releasing the "Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)- 2010 here, Ansari said: "Quality indeed lies at the heart of the goal of "Education for All". This is more glaring in the context of our public policy because we neither have an inbuilt evaluation culture nor adequate trained human resources with both technical knowledge and field experience to check and monitor outcomes."

"What happens in classrooms and other learning environments is vitally important to the future of our citizens, and indeed to the future of our republic. Education of acceptable quality must address basic learning needs, enrich the lives of learners and their overall experience of living and well being," he added.

He further said that evidence from around the world demonstrates that "efforts to expand enrolment must be accompanied by attempts to enhance educational quality if children are to be attracted to school, stay there and achieve meaningful learning outcomes.

"Public policy can address this challenge with a sharp focus on two issues - quality improvement in teacher training and curricular materials development," he added.

He further said that education governance and management at the grass roots and institutional level should be participatory and engage with local communities and cultures.

"We have made a positive beginning with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009. It mandates the constitution of School Management Committees consisting of parents, elected representatives of the local authority, teachers and local educationists, and tasked, inter alia, with monitoring the working of the school and maintenance of prescribed norms and standards," he added

He further hoped that this statutory initiative would be utilized for enabling parents and the local community a greater say in the monitoring of educational outcomes. (ANI)