Date:18/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/18/stories/2008031859391300.htm

National

All-party meet sought on school education

Special Correspondent

Lok Sabha members want it less stressful

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha members on Monday asked the government to call an all-party meeting to review the school education system to make education less stressful, student-friendly and more relevant.

Sensing the mood at the end of a calling attention motion on the need to overhaul the education system to reduce the burden on children and give them a healthy environment in schools, Mohan Singh — who was in the Chair — directed the government to convene an all-party meeting and asked the members to discuss the matter at length.

Cutting across party-lines, members expressed concern over the present system of education that often drove children to taking anti-depressants, drugs and even suicides, particularly when they wrote the Class X and XII exams.

They disagreed with the government that the schools did not give any homework to children between Class 1 and V and encouraged them to go to their classes without books, as mentioned in the statement of Minister of State for Human Resource Development M.A.A. Fatmi.

Mr. Fatmi said that based on the National Curriculum Framework-2005, the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) prepared the curriculum, syllabi and new textbooks that were aimed at reducing the burden while making learning child-friendly.

He said the Central Board of Secondary Examination had redrawn the examination system to test more of conceptual knowledge and understanding, than rote memory, and continuous and comprehensive evaluation was introduced with marks assigned for internal assessment.

According to Mr. Fatmi, all the States and examination boards were expected to take similar action based on the recommendations of the National Curriculum Framework, 2005.

The Minister sought to partly blame society and parents for increasing the pressure on students to perform well. “It needs to be recognised that societal, parental and peer pressure are also responsible for increase of stress among the schoolchildren, particularly as they have to compete for the few places available in premium academic institutions.”

Moving the calling attention, Sandeep Dikshit and Priya Dutt of the Congress cited incidents of suicides by students and surveys of increasing suicidal tendencies. They said people wanted to create a stress-free education system where children could unleash their creativity and pursue their dreams.