Krishan Kumar Committee Report
Freeship Quota for Children from
Socio-Economically Weaker Sections
Report
Confidential
1. Preamble
This committee was
appointed in the wake of a matter on which the Government of Delhi had already
taken a decision, following the order given by the Hon'ble Delhi High Court.
Apparently, the matter had proved more complex than envisaged, and compliance
with the Government's order required further clarity. This is reflected in the
brief indication that the notification of the appointment of this committee
gives of its mandate. The notification (dated March 2, 2006) says that the
committee will 'look into the manner and modalities of admission of children of
economically weaker sections of society under the freeship quota, including
looking into aspects of financial support to students being admitted under
freeship quota by the government by way of the textbooks, uniform, etc.' This
statement constitutes the 'terms of reference' of the committee and makes it
clear that the committee was expected to deliberate only on the 'manner and
modalities', and not on any conceptual aspects of the policy under reference.
The time allotted to the committee, i.e. six weeks, also indicates that the
government did not anticipate that the committee's work would require a more
substantial time frame.
However, at the first meeting itself it became clear that the committee was
dealing with a matter on which sharp divergence of views existed within it. It
was also evident that the divergence had to do not merely with the 'manner and
modalities' of execution of an earlier decision but with the decision itself
even though the decision is no more open to debate. The divergence remained in
the second meeting though a number of aspects that had to do with the 'manner
and modalities' did receive attention. It was felt that in order to achieve a
consensus on 'manner and modalities' it is necessary to acknowledge the
divergence. This feeling deserves to be admitted and its implication explained.
The implication is that the report will need to touch upon the conceptual
issues involved in the Government's decision and the Hon'ble Delhi High Court's
order (dated 20th January 2004). Both resonate a sustained policy, articulated
explicitly in the report of Education Commission (1964-66) and nearly all major
policy documents prepared in the last 40 years, including the latest National
Curriculum Framework, 2005 (NCF). The idea that schooling should act as a means
of social cohesion is so common that it seems pointless to debate it. In
reality, schooling has become an increasingly divisive process over the
decades, the goal of social cohesion receiving little public attention. Of
course, schooling cannot be isolated from other social processes. Divisiveness
has been the trend in housing, health, transport and many other basic aspects
of civic life. However, divisiveness has a special implication when it occurs
in schooling, because education is a shaping force. It reconstructs society,
and therefore it would be correct to argue that divisive schooling reinforces
existing hierarchies and promotes in the educated sections of society an
indifference towards the plight of the poor.
The Hon'ble High Court's order signifies a resolve to intervene in a process
which places children in different streams of socialization by means of
schooling and deepens the differentiation entrenched in the distribution of
educational opportunities. The occasion for the order, and for the subsequent
decision taken by the government (No PS/DE/2004/10496-11595 dated 27th April
2004), was rather specific, in the sense that both acquired their rationale
from the expectation that private schools to whom the state gave land at
concessional rates should respond by sharing the state's social responsibility.
However, this is not the same rationale which underlies the educational policy
of promoting 'common' or neighbourhood schools. The latest policy document, the
NCF, explains the educational logic of including children from different
socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. The logic is that a heterogeneous
school population provides an enriched learning environment, apart from
promoting social cohesion. The currently used term 'inclusive' education
implies, as did earlier terms like 'common' and 'neighbourhood' schools, that
children from different backgrounds and with varying interests and ability will
achieve their highest potential if they study in a shared classroom
environment. The idea of inclusive schooling is also consistent with
Constitutional values and ideals, especially with the ideals of fraternity and
social justice and the importance of equality of opportunity and social
justice.
The present school system is a far cry from the above ideal. In the
circumstances that prevail, children grow up segregated, not merely because
urban development and housing are sharply segregated but also because
privately-run schools and those run by the government or local bodies largely
cater to differentiated economic strata. The segregation starts as early as the
nursery stage and by the time children are nine or ten years old, they are
already deeply socialized into economically disparate universes. On the
surface, it looks as if the main divider is English as a medium of teaching,
but the real division is in the hearts and minds, arising from socialization in
separate settings.
We must remember that this is nobody's intention or design, but a social
process. It is widely believed that privately schooled children attain a higher
standard of learning. However, it is false to understand learning purely
academic terms, since the aims of education also include the inculcation of
values and attitudes consistent with the Constitution's egalitarian framework.
Current day psychological scholarship has established that a heterogeneous
classroom ethos enhances learning and development, while segregation
impoverishes the classroom environment of all schools, private or government.
If education is to be judged not merely by examination marks but also by values
and sensitivity, then it is not difficult to see that segregation compromises
the aims of education for all. It is in this context that the order given by
the Hon'ble Delhi High Court carries a valuable remedy for a distorted
situation.
2. Perceived Difficulties
When children from different socio-economic backgrounds are admitted to the
same school and taught together, the teacher's role becomes extremely
important. A teacher working in a mixed classroom must have substantial
understanding of child psychology, especially of the effect of home and social
environment on the growing child. The teacher of an inclusive classroom must
also be free of bias or stereotypes. Above all, such a teacher must know that
language is only a means of communication, not a signifier of knowledge or the
quality of a child's mind. This last point implies that the teacher must
respect the child's home language and not aim at linguistic homogeneity or
standardization from the beginning. The teacher's appreciation of the aims of
education, her ability to mediate and persuade, and her capacity to listen to
children with a desire to build on what the child already knows, are of utmost
significance.
Needless to say, our system has rather few teachers of this type, and the
reasons for this are well known. Over the years, the dignity associated with
teaching has got eroded and especially so the teacher of young children who has
become a 'nobody' in terms of social status. This erosion has made teaching an
unattractive profession. The training available for teaching as a professional
activity has also remained unreformed, especially in the case of the primary
years. For these and several other reasons well documented in
the 1983-85 Chattopadhyaya Commission Report, teachers are seldom able
to devote their energies to nurturing a creative classroom environment.
Instead, they focus on examination skills, and since the examination system has
remained largely unreformed, the teacher's efforts seldom go beyond ensuring
that children can reproduce what they have learnt from the textbooks.
Understanding and application of what has been taught receives scant time and
attention, and so do values such as tolerance of differences and positive
attitudes towards the deprived. This situation has been complicated further by
the poverty of curricular reforms, resulting in the phenomenon that the Yashpal
report of 1993 called the burden of incomprehension. Syllabi and textbooks got
so fat and dull that children ended up at the doors of coaching institutions
and private tutors from an early age. This distorted situation was further
compounded by the proliferation of commercialized coaching institutions, and
the practice of drilling for admission to private schools beginning right from
the nursery stage and continuing on to engineering and medical colleges.
In this scenario, it is not surprising that many private schools feel reluctant
to follow a policy of integrating children from the socio-economically weaker
sections of society with those from the better-off strata. The authorities and
teachers of these schools feel that children who get admission under the
freeship quota will not be able to cope with the amount of work required to
survive in the competitive environment of their schools. They feel so
especially in the context of the use of English as a medium of instruction.
Another reason for their reluctance is financial. The expenditure to be
incurred for keeping a child at a private school has become so high that a
child whose education is not financially supported will become a burden on the
school, they feel. This feeling among private schools runs counter to the
popular perception that many private schools charge exorbitant fee. Research on
the financing of private schools is scant, but it needs to be acknowledged that
there is a very wide variety of private schools in cities like
Finally, the question of fulfilling social responsibility in return for land
received at concessional rates elicits a variety of arguments, including the
one which leaves a school free to fulfil its social obligation in a manner it
thinks fit. For instance, there are schools running an afternoon shift of the
poor, or those running a separate school or an
non-formal centre for vulnerable children. Among fee-paying parents too, there
is a feeling that they are being asked to carry an additional burden. Among
certain principals and teachers of private schools, there is also an
apprehension that children from sharply varying socio-economically classes will
find it hard to mix, that the freeship quota children might end up becoming a
sub-group alienated from the larger group of better-off children. These fears
cannot be dismissed and need to be taken into account as we draw up a
sustainable strategy of implementation of the judicial order.
3. The New Context
The NCF, which was approved by the Central Advisory Board of Education last
September, responds to the first set of problems mentioned in the last section.
It presents significant steps to be taken to reduce curricular load in order to
make learning at school joyful. It also suggests ways in which inclusive
schooling can become a reality. NCERT has already drafted a new syllabus for
all stages in accordance with NCF. In the first phase, textbooks for Classes I,
III, VI, IX and XI, which reflect the new syllabus have already been published.
Both the syllabi and the new textbooks were approved by the National Monitoring
Committee which was appointed by Ministry of Human Resource Development in
accordance with CABE's decision to ensure that the new syllabi and textbooks
reduce curricular load, make learning more meaningful, and rigorously follow
other recommendations of the NCF. The new textbooks have received a widespread
welcome. In a related development, the Central Board of Secondary Education has
initiated a series of examination reforms which are consistent with the
recommendations of NCF. These reform initiatives are sufficiently significant to
warrant the hope that the fears and doubts expressed by private schools in the
wake of the Hon'ble Delhi High Court's order will be adequately addressed and,
as the reforms unfold and gradually move towards maturation, allayed.
These positive developments require us to ponder deeply on the 'manner and
modalities' issue afresh, rather than merely in the light of the April 27, 2004
order issued by the Delhi Government. This order required all private schools
to allot 20 per cent of their seats to children from economically weaker
sections of society. If we were to interpret this order literally, then seats
should have already been allotted in all schools in all classes. Apparently,
this has not happened although some schools have made a beginning in their own
way. The recommended strategies given below suggest an alternative which might
be more sustainable as it would provide a time-frame for the policy to fully
unfold while giving the system time to prepare itself for a major shift. There
is simply no doubt that the Delhi Government has an obligation to execute the
court's order; also, there is no doubt that the move is in the right direction,
both in terms of educational reform and social priority. It is important that
the first steps taken in the new direction prove sustainable and also prove
resistant to misuse or distortion.
4. Recommendations
1. Coverage
Although specific in nature, the step is consistent
with the long-term goals of educational policy and takes the system forward
becoming a common school system. In view of the conceptual soundness of
inclusive schooling, it is recommended that the policy to provide a freeship
quota be applied uniformly to all private schools, and not merely those which
received concessional land. The step needs to be viewed as a long-overdue
systemic reform, rather than merely as a step to establish a means whereby
beneficiaries of a land-grant policy can fulfill their social responsibility.
1. Proportion
For children of socio-economically weaker backgrounds
to feel at home in private schools, it is necessary that they form a
substantial proportion or ‘critical mass’ in the class they join. The relevant
universe in which the proportion needs to be considered is the class, and where
a class has several sections, then it is the section.
This implies that the beneficiaries of the freeship quota cannot be pooled
together in a separate section or afternoon shift. Any arrangement which
segregates, or treats these children in a differentiated manner vis-à-vis the
fee-paying children, must not be allowed. They should constitute the desired
proportion of each section of a class. As the Hon’ble Delhi High Court’s order
stipulates, one fourth or 25 per cent would constitute a feasible proportion.
Schools which want to cover a higher proportion-and there already are such
schools in Delhi, although they are very few-should be encouraged to admit more
than one fourth, but the proportion should not be less than this ‘critical
mass’. Any lower proportion would jeopardize the long-term goal of the policy
which is to strengthen social cohesion and bring out the best human resource
potential inherent in our society as a whole. A smaller proportion might serve
a token purpose but it will run the serious risk of creating the feeling of alienation
among the beneficiaries. Their participation in classroom interaction will be
neither strong nor sufficiently manifest to enrich the overall experiential
learning taking place in any given subject area. Only a critical mass can play
such a role.
2. Pace of Implementation
The new policy must not be seen in terms of a mechanical insertion of a certain
proportion of the poor into private school classrooms. The meaning
implementation of this policy must be appreciated the human terms, and the
planning to make the policy a successful reform must take into account its
human dimensions. Teachers who are used to a selective, homogeneous classroom
environment cannot be expected to develop the required positive attitude and
professional skills to deal with a diversified class overnight. The same
applies to children. On the other hand, children who have grown up to an age of
eight or nine in a homogeneous or segregated environment have been socialized
into a structure of norms and behaviour. They cannot be transformed on demand.
Also, the overall school ethos cannot be expected to respond to a new policy in
a positive manner all of a sudden. No educational policy can be seen purely as
quick-fix social engineering. The provision of a freeship quota in private schools
is a major and radical step forward towards fulfilling a policy objective which
has been ignored for decades. Such a long backlog of implementation cannot be
meaningfully overcome in a day, nor should such a move be attempted in a hasty
manner.
In view of the fact that children take time to socialize and teachers take time
to develop new attitudes and pedagogic skills, it is recommended that the
freeship quota system should begin at the entrance level, covering
nursery/kindergarten and Class I in the first year of the operation of the new
policy. With the children moving up, and a new cohort of beneficiaries entering
nursery/kindergarten and Class I in each successive year, the school will
gradually have freeship quota spread across all classes. Progression at this
pace may appear to be slow, but it will allow children the opportunity to grow
up together and the school to develop the professional capacity to respond to
the intellectual and emotional needs of children from diverse backgrounds.
Children who are younger than eight years of age are yet to develop a stable
social identity. Their values are still forming, and their motivation to derive
meaning from experience, both concrete and social is very strong. Therefore, it
is a valid argument that the policy of mixing children from different
socio-economic strata has the best chance of succeeding if it starts from the
formative years of nursery/kindergarten and Class I. Such a beginning will also
permit the school authorities to develop appropriate measures and mechanisms to
equip their institutions for long-term effective implementation of the new
policy.
3. Beneficiaries and Admission Process
Precisely which children from among the socio-economically weaker sections of
society should be the beneficiaries of the new policy is a moot question, and
there is no easy answer to it. It needs to be recognised that there is a vast
number of children in
The government shall set up a District Admission Centre (DAC) in each district
of Delhi to regulate the admissions process under the freeship policy. Private
schools shall have the first opportunity to fill up the freeship quota seats up
to a specified date by notifying the number of seats available. A copy of the
application from received from parents whose wards have been admitted will be
submitted by schools to the DAC for the purpose of verification. Following
this, in case there are seats remaining which the schools have been unable to
fill up on their own, the DAC will provide names of children whose applications
have been received directly, in order to allow the schools to choose from
amongst these applicants.
Since the new policy is based on the premise that integrating children from
diverse background is educationally sound, there is no alternative to a lottery
system for filling up the freeship quota wherever the number of children
available for admission under the freeship quota exceeds the number of
available seats in school. The tendency to treat children in terms of
stereotyped notions of brightness of intelligence is extremely common. It is reflected
in the widespread practice of selecting children for admission on the basis of
an interview or test. Recently, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court has banned the
interviews routinely conducted by private schools for admission to nursery. The
goals of the new policy of providing for a freeship quota in private schools
will be seriously compromised if the quota is filled up by private schools by
selectively choosing candidates for admission under the freeship policy. As a
result, it is imperative that a lottery system of selection be employed
wherever the number of applicants exceeds the number of available seats under
the freeship policy. Distance from school should be used as a criterion to
decide which DAC a parent can apply to, as a result of which the eligibility to
participate in specific lotteries would be determined.
It will be highly appropriate to ensure that at least half the children who are
admitted to private schools under the freeship quota are girls. The gender gap
prevailing in education has been highlighted by several studies, including the
recent report approved by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).
Allotting 50 per cent of the freeship seats to girls will reflect the
government’s commitment to the Constitution which guarantees gender equality in
all spheres of life.
4. Finance
The new policy calls for a significant role to be
played by the government. Children from the socio-economically weaker sections
of society, including those who are presently outside the formal school system
would have to be served not merely with the provision of an opportunity to be
educated, but also with the provision of their basic needs, such as food,
clothing and health. Financial support for a nutritious morning and mid-day
meal, health check-up, and medicines whenever needed would form the first
obvious set of needs. School-related expenditure covering essential
requirements such as textbooks, notebooks and stationery, geometry box and art
material, uniform and shoes, and other sundry needs would have to be met by the
government. Similarly, the cost of daily transport to school as well as the
cost involved in excursion activities would also have to be covered. There is a
widespread feeling, based on reasonable amounts of experience, that in matters of disbursal of funds and reimbursement, the
entrenched procedure are extremely slow and inefficient. If these procedures
are not urgently improved, the capacity of private schools to serve the needs
of the children admitted under the freeship quota will suffer as a result of
which, not only will the policy itself get undermined, but the ultimate
beneficiaries-i.e. Children admitted under the freeship quota-will consequently
suffer loss. Indeed, in order to build confidence in private schools regarding the
viability of the new policy, the government must ensure that expenditure made
on school-related needs of the beneficiaries (on items such as transportation,
food, school uniforms, textbooks etc.) is either provided in advance or
reimbursed expeditiously.
Private schooling has increasingly become an expensive proposition even though
patterns of expenditure vary greatly. Certain schools may find the new policy
an affordable financial burden, whereas others may have to generate additional
support from philanthropic sources. Under no circumstances should the new
policy be allowed to be used as a basic for hiking tuition fees. The government
should look into the possibility of creating incentives for encouraging
philanthropy in the field of children’s education, not only for the success the
new scheme under reference, but also for the wider cause of educational
reforms. The new policy will cover both kinds of private schools as recommended
above, namely the beneficiaries of a land grant on concessional rates, as well
as those which acquired their land otherwise. Schools in the latter category
must receive additional support from the government for their teaching staff
requirements. In the context of the relevant classes, wherever required, up to
a maximum of ten per cent of the schools’ teaching staff salary must be
supported through government finance, even as selection of additional staff, will be carried out by the school with a government
representative involved in the selection process. Financial implications for
successive years on account of this recommendation must be worked out by the
government.
5. Training
The effective implementation of the new policy will
necessitate the immediate launch of an orientation programme for teachers in
charge on nursery/kindergarten and Class I in all private schools. Such an
orientation programme should focus on familiarising teachers with the rationale
of the policy and on creating a positive attitude towards it. Other aspects of
the orientation programme should constitute the development of pedagogic
techniques and skills necessary to teach in a heterogeneous classroom. Special
importance should be attached to cultivating the skill to nurture a
multilingual ethos in the classroom as the NCF recommends. Teachers must be
familiarized with the values and ideals of Constitution, especially equality,
social justice, liberty and fraternity. Emphasis on the cultivation of
professional values relevant to teaching, such as patience, fairness,
non-violence, respect for differences and commitment to one’s role as a
teacher, should also form the core curriculum of the orientation programme.
The SCERT of Delhi should be given the responsibility to conduct the
orientation programme for teachers of private schools as well as parents of
applicants. In order to design and execute the programme, the SCERT can draw
upon the expertise available from NCERT, NIPCCD and the four universities
located in
6. Monitoring
The policy comprising the introduction of a freeship
quota in private schools marks an important beginning towards approved policy
goals. The Government of Delhi can truly take pride in making a move in this
direction. The implementation of this policy will undoubtedly bring new,
unforeseen experiences which will need to be analyzed and interpreted, so that
the process of implementation can gain smoothness over the years. Also, the
policy will require systematic review so that new circumstances arising out of
social and demographic change are taken into account. As the children admitted
under the freeship quota grow older and enter higher classes, their
school-related needs will multiply, and the government’s provision for these
needs will require review and updating. A major concern of the Government will
be to ensure that children admitted under the freeship quota maintain regular
attendance and do not drop out of the school to which they have been admitted
over the course of their entire schooling. To strengthen this role, the
government should consider providing an adequate number of counselors and
mobile counseling facility. This will constitute a significant challenge, in
meeting which several Non-Government Organizations which have experience of
working with the community and parents’ counseling, can play a valuable role.
On its part, the government should appoint a monitoring office with sufficient
staff under the authority of a retired judicial officer to closely monitor
cases of dropouts-both individual cases as well as schools where significant
dropout is observed. This monitoring office should also provide grievance
redressal to all those affected by the freeship policy, including parents,
schools and children themselves.
The 1986 National Policy on Education had envisaged the appointment of State
Advisory Board of Education (SABE). The constitution of such a body would
assume increased importance in light of the various issues which policies such
as the freeship quota will throw up in subsequent years. The SABE would provide
a much-needed forum where government, autonomous institutions such as
universities, and civil society organizations will be able to discuss, shape
and direct educational reforms in a fast-growing metropolis such as Delhi. SABE
should appoint an independent committee comprising eminent educationists,
representatives of civil society (such as retired judges, lawyers, doctors,
media personalities and artists etc.) with powers to visit schools and report
to the government from time to time the progress of the freeship quota policy.
This committee should guide future decisions and suggest corrective action for
the effective implementation of the new policy.
Sd/- Sd/ -Sd/- Prof. Krishna Kumar Prof. Furqan Qamar Mr. Ashok Agarwal
Chairman Member Member Sd/- Sd/ -Sd/- Sh. S. L. Jain Sh. B. L. Yadav Sh. V. K.
Sharma Member Member Member Sd/- Sd/- Prof. Nargis Panchapakesan Dr. Y.
Sreekanth Special Invitee Special Invitee