18 June : Nearly 60 lakh school teachers in the country are likely to get insurance and housing facilities with state education ministers on Friday welcoming the proposal.
HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who held discussions with state education ministers at the meeting of National Foundation for Teachers Welfare (NFTW) in this regard, said the proposed scheme has got “in principle” approval at the meeting.
“I discussed with state education ministers today on the plan for starting insurance and housing schemes for 60 lakh teachers. In principle approval has been given by them for the schemes,” he said at the State Education Ministers conference in New Delhi on Friday.
HRD Ministry is mooting life insurance and health insurance cover and a group housing cover for the 60 lakh school teachers in the country.
The insurance schemes will require financial contributions from the Centre, the states and the teachers.
The group housing scheme will be administered at the central level but will not require financial contribution from the Centre or the State Governments.
The Health and Life Insurance Schemes are proposed to cost premium wise, far less for teachers as compared to individual schemes or even schemes run at the state level.
The State Education Ministers welcomed the proposal and the immense benefit that will accrue to teachers, but said they would be able to communicate formal approval after discussing it with their Finance Ministers.
The life insurance cover would guarantee a minimum of about Rs five lakh on retirement and Rs two lakh on death during service.
The health cover, limited to hospitalisation of the teacher, spouse, two children and parents, is being worked on two options, either on a maximum cover of Rs 1.25 lakh, which would mean lesser premium and another option of cover of Rs three lakh, which would mean a higher premium.
The group housing scheme is being envisaged to be centrally administered through a portal, with construction to be done by NBCC, land to be bought at institutional rates and group housing societies to be formed by teachers.
“I am happy that Delhi government has identified land for the housing scheme,” Sibal said.
Nat institute to be set up to evaluate school edu
Government announced plans for setting up a National Institute for Assessment which would evaluate curriculum and edu standards at school level in different states and suggest measure to improve them.
Addressing the state education ministers conference in New Delhi on Friday, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said each school board has its own system of examination and there is no mechanism to know the standard of the assessment system of the school boards.
“We need to keep up with the global standards. We are planning to start a National Institute for Assessment which evaluate the curriculum, examination system and education standards,” he said.
He sought the support of education ministers at the conference for this purpose.
At present, there are national agencies like National Accreditation and Assessment Authority and National Board of Assessment which are into assessment of higher and technical educational institutions.
However, there is no national agency for assessment of standards of education at school level.
Sibal said the school boards need to adopt uniform curriculum so that students of all the states get level playing field to compete at national and international levels.
He said the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) had a dialogue with the school boards and has prepared a core curriculum which can be adopted by the states with suitable changes as per the local requirements.
“If you have a core curriculum, it will be easier for all the states to hold exam and evaluate,” he said.
The COBSE has already prepared a core curriculum in Science and Mathematics. It is in the process of preparing a curriculum in Commerce.
He harped on curriculum framework for having value education so that children become responsible citizens of the country.
Sibal also stressed on having mandatory physical education programme at school level.
The Minister said the government is planning to start National Education Funding Corporation which would provide easy credits at concessional rates to students and institutes.
Students with less than Rs 4.5 lakh of family income per annum will get loans at four percent interest and the government will refinance the banks towards the loss incurred by them.
Similarly, institutions can get loans at about eight percent which they can pay back over a period of 20 to 25 years, he said.
Grading experiment at Class-X in CBSE successful, says Sibal
A year after deciding to introduce grading in Class-X CBSE board exam, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has said the experiment has been “successful” and has paid dividends in making the tests stress free and reducing the rate of suicides among students.
The introduction of grading system and Continuous and Comprehensive Exam (CCE) have proved beneficial for students, he said at the state education ministers conference in New Delhi on Friday.
“There was a lot of misgivings on introduction of Continuous and Comprehensive Exam and our decision for abolition of board exam (from 2011). The grading system has made the exam tension free. The experiment has been successful,” Sibal said.
The Class-X results in CBSE this year has been better than last year, he said.
While 89.28 percent students cleared the Class-X test, the pass rate was 88.84 percent last year.
Sibal took a bold step last year by deciding to abolish Class-X board exam from 2011. Besides, he replaced grades by marks in the Class-X exam in CBSE.
He said the rate of suicide of students due to exam stress has also come down this year.
Sibal appealed to education ministers in states to follow the model and make the exam system more student-friendly.
“I hope state boards will take this experiment forward,” he said.
Sibal harped on examination reforms and change in course content at school level. He said the exams should aim at testing raw talents of students.