NEW DELHI (12/12/2022): FICCI ARISE organized an annual conference in Delhi for school education on ‘Reboot-Re-imagine-Rebuild’ on Dec 9-10 where Educators, promoters from different countries and principals from different schools of India were present.
Sir John from America also give guidence in this event about what should be the standard of teaching and learning practices.
During the gathering of key stalwarts from the field of academics, Ten News also spoke to them and gathered their views on whether India Should Adopt a Ranking Framework for Schools on the pattern of NIRF for Universities / Educational Institutions .
Sharing his views on the issue, Sanjay Kumar (Secretary, School Education, Government of India) said,”We have been releasing the Performance Rating Index till now, earlier we used to do it state-wise, now ten days ago it has been done district-wise for the first time and we are considering the point at the ministry level that we can also do it school-wise so that schools can compete to become better.”
Speaking about ranking system for schools, Dr Vinod R Rao(Secretary, Education, Government of Gujrat) said, “NEP ( National Education Policy ) has provided for schools accreditation, now the process of accreditation should not just involve the Government schools but also private schools there should be a very scientific objective of way of a framework to be prepared for academics and sports. Once this accreditation process becomes a reality, ranking is an automatic outcome of this accreditation so we don’t need multiple agency doing multiple service which can only sort of duplicate the information about credibility of the schools. Also, an autonomous body with-in the education department should carry this exercise of accreditation, not just of government school but for private schools too. This will help rational wide if not ranking in numerical numbers.”
Batting for a robust rating system, Shishir Jaipuria (Chairman FICCI Arise School Education Conference) said, “I suggest that there should be a system of rating of schools rather than ranking of schools. Because you should not get down and become a ranking 1,2,3,4 then at times it becomes a rat race it is better to have a rating framework and that will be the best reform.”
Terming it an important issue and sharing their initiatives in the direction, Anirudh Khaitan( Co Chair FICCI ARISE), said, “We have actually launched today the school quality framework this is the suggestion for the government to use this framework or add to it to rate schools across the country. Because if you can rate schools effectively the parents will get benefit they can just open the page and know which school is good at what and they can take decisions according to the needs of their child. So I think a quality framework is very important, a rating framework will come once you have a very good quality framework in place and that’s what we have done.”
Mihir Gupta (Co Founder and CEO of Teachmint) also believed that self assessment of schools is important, this is what the need of the arc is defining the school qualities. “I think schools themselves want to do better if there is a ranking system,” he asserted.
Nelinderjeet Kaur Sandhu (SD Vidya School ,Ambala Cantt) also felt that ranking was important because this motivates to bring out the best and whatever the best practice comes out every school adopts it. “And like this our Indian schools will improve their standard, so this will be a very good platform,” Sandhu said.
Academician Manju from DPS Bangalore ,North, however opined that need of a ranking system for schools wasn’t there. ” think school education is already very competitive and we believe that every child should learn, every child is unique, every child is excellent and if that is it there can be no awards there can be just celebrating excellence and education. So I personally think schools should not be ranked because in their capacity, in the diversity in the largeness of this country each school every teacher is trying to do her or his best and so as every child, so I think there should be no ranking,” she said.
Surjeet Khanna ( Delhi Public School, Greater Faridabad ) though agreed that it sounded very gratifying you know the prospect of being listed by the government of India at a certain rank but also presented other side of the story. “I think it is very difficult to affix all the time attract and gather comprehensive liable evidence to say that this school stands to score above some other. Because I think all schools deserve to be encouraged more than rank they all deserve to be appreciated more than placed 1 hour of the other,” he said, adding, “But if a ranking of school is done I personally think it has to be thought through very very comprehensively so that there is justice and there is a good solid appreciation or good work happening this should not become platform for breaking hearts like some of the current platform have become you look at your rank and you don’t feel connected with the rank or you look at your rank you feel mighty happy , But in another survey somebody else put you absolutely somewhere else. So it will be very great to have a steady encouragement from the Government of India and I am not very sure about ranking, I think this should be well thought through.”
Dr Dilip Kumar Panda (The Sanskaar Valley School) opined that all the schools are always trying to engage themselves in teaching learning. So I don’t know why ranking is required and on what basis we will look for the ranking of schools ,because you know determinantly when trying to educate the children we are not educating them by keeping any other thing but enriching themselves . So I seriously think that endeavour to enrich the process of learning should be more than ranking schools on any kind of scale. There should be no Matrix to measure how much learning has taken place, or which school is done what ? So, I am slightly against any kind of ranking.
Mrs Charu (Principal, DAV School,Gurugram) thinks that If the national rankings are done in a proper manner, there has to be a systematic collection of data, the work done etc is there, like it was done for FICCI Arise awards. There was no cost attached with the awards . So many of times there is award with some cost attached, so they are not genuine one but this one comes as a genuine award. The awards / ranking just add a spice as motivation but the good work keep going on.
Ten News Team is hopeful that Central and State Govt takes note of these views and start working towards ranking of schools nationally State and district wise and also various categories wise .
All the senior educators are requested to send their views at news@tennews.in we will incorporate it in the next story on the Ranking of schools.
FICCI ARISE School Education Conference 2022 New Delhi | Photo Highlights
