In the public eye

Nine-year-old Seetha has shiny brown wings and a creamy white body, and counts nearly 750 children and about 50 adults among her fans. The elegant eagle shares a home with three silver pheasants, four varieties of parrots and pigeons, hundreds of other small birds, geese and different schools of fish. The 1.5 acres that these creatures call home is also where the Government Lower Primary School (GLPS) Kodaly, winner of many awards including the 2013 Kerala State award for the best parent-teacher association (PTA), stands. Surrounded by hillocks and abundant greenery, on the Kodakara-Vellikulangara road in Thrissur district, the school sees a beeline of parents during admission season (May-June). The impressive academic track record and facilities — a ‘smart’ class, neat garden, reading hut, playground and idyllic setting — have helped the school bag several other honours.

“We now get more requests for admissions than we can handle. But we have to cap it somewhere, considering our humble means,” says Jose Mathew, headmaster, GLPS Kodaly, sitting inside the school’s nondescript but eventful staff room. Heavy rains had lashed the village two days prior to the BL ink visit, snapping power lines. The teachers and other staff members, with the help of some parents, were clearing the debris and, more importantly, pumping water manually from the well inside the compound. “Children should not suffer because of the power cut,” says Siva Kumar CM, president of the PTA and a worker at the nearby Harrison Malayalam Plantation, as he moves towards the toilets to check if they are clean.

Strength in numbers: In the June 2017-March 2018 academic year, there was an increase of more than 1.86 lakh students (from Std I-IX) in government schools in Kerala

For those who are familiar with government schools and their PTAs in India, GLPS Kodaly would spring a surprise. “This is not just a school,” headmaster Mathew tells BL ink . “It is a school-plus experience. We believe in becoming an extension of the community around us, while imparting knowledge.” And that shows. Parents are vigilant when it comes to monitoring the quality of education and infrastructure.

And the teachers, over 30, including those sponsored by the PTA for pre-primary sections and other ad hoc instructors, “enthusiastically offer their support to all the efforts in raising the bar (of education)”, as Siva Kumar puts it. The results are there for everyone to see. Every year, children from GLPS Kodaly score high in the State’s lower secondary scholarship (LSS) exams, giving tough competition to students from upscale schools. “Just last year, a third of the LSS winners in Chalakudy subdivision were from GLPS Kodaly,” says Mathew. The school is now on a renovation mode, thanks to the aid recently sanctioned by the State government. Mathew and team are pinning their hopes on better infrastructure, which may translate to higher standards of teaching. Banking on this school are the aspirations of hundreds of parents in nearby villages, all waiting to send their children to GLPS Kodaly.

Return of the public

GLPS Kodaly is not an exception. It is in fact one of the many government-run schools in Kerala that have made a comeback thanks to years of concerted government programmes, public awareness campaigns, civil society efforts and active support from parents who have understood the importance of public education system. There has been impressive progress, especially in the past few years. “For the first time in 25 years, there is a dramatic increase in the number of students enrolling at government schools,” says C Raveendranath, Kerala’s education minister and a former professor at St Thomas College in Thrissur. Raveendranath represents Puthukkad Assembly constituency, which includes Kodaly. In the June 2017-March 2018 academic year, there was an increase of more than 1.86 lakh students (from Std I-IX) in government schools in Kerala. Government-run schools saw a rise of 6.3 per cent (70,644) while government-aided and management-run schools registered an increase of 5.4 per cent (1,15,327) in admissions. This brought up the total number of students in government and government-aided schools in Kerala to over 33 lakh.

The turnaround is quite telling, considering the infamy that surrounded Kerala’s government-run schools in the past few decades. “Just a few years ago, any parent would think twice before sending their child to a government-run school,” says a parent in Kondotty, Malappuram, whose children studied in private schools run by a community organisation. “Many considered, rightly in several instances, such schools as places where teachers taught nothing and children learned zilch. The infrastructure was pathetic to boot.” There were exceptions of course — such as the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Cotton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram or the hi-tech Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for Girls at Nadakkavu near Kozhikode, and several government-aided schools managed by local management and community organisations. But the ‘norm’ was of incompetency, inertia and infrastructure woes, and the poor performance at board exams inspired little or no confidence.

In Kerala, the importance given to public education has a long history. It goes back to the days of the princely States, which encouraged the growth and spread of public sector education. Post Independence, successive governments tried to reform education in myriad ways. “When K Karunakaran of the Congress was chief minister, he took measures to make school education up to pre-degree (plus-two level) free, in a first in the country,” says VT Balram, a Congress MLA from Thrithala in Palakkad district. But the quality of education in government schools visibly plummeted 1980s onwards, according to education experts. The inflow of students to private, unaided schools started soaring, jeopardising the future of nearly 14,000 government schools (including aided ones) in Kerala.

The basic issue, many say, was the seesaw politics the State has seen since its inception (the State alternates between Left- and Congress-led governments) in November 1956, which didn’t quite allow for the continuity of programmes aimed at improving education. Critics say the education sector in general and government schools in particular, fell prey to coalition compromises. As a result, the portfolio was generally passed on to an ally, hampering resource allocation and implementation of reforms that required ‘expensive’ measures.

Raveendranath claims that Left governments of the recent past (2006-11, 2016-present) have managed to reverse the pattern. The incumbent Left Democratic Front government has been executing a Public Education Rejuvenation Mission, aiming to bring Kerala’s government schools (primary to higher secondary) on par with international education institutions. “We focussed on three core areas: infrastructure, quality of education and quality of teaching,” says Raveendranath. “In the past two years itself, the government has earmarked ₹2,000 crore for improving infrastructure facilities at public schools.” This is in addition to the funds that came from local bodies, MLAs, MPs and benefactors. Thanks to this money, many schools now have better buildings, compounds and other facilities.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan releasing the logo of KITE IT clubs for students in January 2018

Going hi-tech

According to A Shajahan, secretary of general education department, attracting students and parents who are moving to private schools has been a big task. “Parents generally look at three things when they send a child to school — safety, school environment and quality of teaching,” he says. Most private schools generally make tall claims about these and people are likely to believe them considering the uninspiring conditions in government schools, he adds. So the government focussed on improving the essentials.

It wasn’t an easy task. There was the obvious issue of pooling in funds. But the Left government had one edge: The education minister belonged to the biggest party in the ruling alliance. So his demands met with little resistance. The next move was to make classrooms hi-tech. “Our target is to make 45,000 classes ‘smart’ and we are nearing the mark,” says K Anwar Sadat, director of Kerala’s IT@SCHOOL programme. The ₹500-crore Hi-Tech School programme, funded by Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), is run by the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education, popularly known as the KITE initiative. Under the programme, explains Sadat, each classroom gets a laptop, multimedia projector, whiteboard and a sound system. “Each IT lab would feature multifunction printers, LCD TV, webcam and an HD camera,” he adds.

Nearly 74,000 schoolteachers from Std VIII-XII were given Specific ICT Training during the vacation (March-April) last year. The launch of Samagra portal and app is another key step. “It is different from conventional educational portals. For one, it helps teachers ensure that their learning objectives are transacted properly by using lesson plans as envisaged in the curriculum,” says Sadat. The portal has over 10,000 unit plans and 15,000 macro-level plans. Samagra also features digital textbooks, question banks and other e-resources. “It contains over 19,000 digital resources in the form of videos, audios, pictures, and interactive simulations, which can be sorted class and subject wise,” says Sadat.

Net worth: Nearly 74,000 schoolteachers were given ICT training in March-April last year

The Little KITEs (part of the KITE initiative) programme, which has over a lakh students as members, offers training in animation, cyber safety, Malayalam computing, hardware, electronics, WebTV and mobile app development. “Little KITEs is set to become the largest student IT network in the country. Around 2,000 schools have these clubs already,” says Sadat.

High-speed fibre broadband internet would also be made available in all classrooms. “Now, 39,000 classrooms out of the targeted 45,000 (87 per cent) have broadband connections. Out of the total 4,751 government-sector schools, 3,500 have 100 per cent smart coverage, and another 500 or more schools have turned more than 50 per cent of their classrooms smart,” says Sadat. “The remaining (over 6,000) have issues with regard to providing the ideal space, and strategies for these cases will be decided soon.”

“Teachers have been trained (by government agencies) to get used to this environment,” says Raveendranath. Teachers were also tutored on teaching methodologies. Interestingly, the teaching community, which had earned flak earlier for its apathy towards education reforms — especially the World Bank-sponsored District Primary Education Project (DPEP) — was more receptive this time around. “We have been campaigning for protecting and enhancing public education in Kerala,” says N Sreekumar, general secretary, All-Kerala School Teachers Union (AKSTU).

Mind the basics: The Kerala government provides free books and uniforms for children up to Std VIII in its schools

Arguably in a first in India, Kerala’s government schools now prepare an academic master plan. “Based on infrastructure capabilities, academic parameters and other faculties, every school makes a plan where they set an academic target and work towards achieving it. Already over 4,000 government and government-aided schools are at it and based on their plans, the teachers get sufficient training to meet their target,” says Raveendranath. The government also holds awareness camps for parents and teachers. “There is healthy communication between teachers and parents now,” says TR Reshma, whose son is studying at the Government Upper Primary School Vadakkumkara in Thrissur. “The government’s awareness camps and such programmes are very helpful.”

More than 40 lakh parents were covered under this programme. “We are now following a child-centric education system, not a teacher-centric one of the past,” says Shajahan. This required a change in psyche and, in Shajahan’s words, the awareness programmes helped parents prepare their children for the new system and undertake follow-up activities — such as supervising homework and revisions.

This year, uniforms and textbooks reached schools early. The Kerala government provides free textbooks and uniforms for children up to Std VIII in its schools. Also, this year, the board exam (SSLC) results were released much before the CBSE results, allowing students enough time to decide their plans.

One common grouse about government schools is that of the abysmally low grades in English exams and functional use of the language. “We are changing that with the Hello English programme, which aims at improving functional English skills of teachers and students,” says Raveendranath.

“There are visible signs of improvement. This is a paradigm shift,” says Venu Punchapadam, a retired schoolteacher and former district education officer, Mannarkkad, Palakkad. “Education is a holistic process and the current reforms have succeeded in addressing many facets of it,” he says.

Challenges ahead

The measures have also earned the praise of the government’s fiercest critics. “The LDF government’s programmes to improve infrastructure in schools should be appreciated,” says Balram. He is, however, quick to add that “the fillip the State now enjoys in terms of public response to government sector education is a result of years of efforts taken by the UDF governments as well.” He says the asset development fund programme implemented by the UDF government in its previous term — under which each MLA was eligible for a development kitty of ₹5 crore — has helped the legislators spend more money towards improving schools in their geographies.

Balram, father of two children who are enrolled in government schools, says sustaining the success is important. “The focus given to English education needs enhancement for myriad reasons (poor performance in national-level talent exams, for example),” says Jayaram Janardhanan, a higher secondary teacher of a government school and thinker. He feels that the current comeback can also be attributed to the campaigns run by organisations such as the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), and similar efforts should be encouraged. (KSSP’s public education preservation mission included case studies, awareness camps and outreach programmes.)

The bureaucracy should also be more flexible, feels Punchapadam. “Teachers should be able to teach freely and should not be worried about administrative delays or other bottlenecks,” he adds.

Shajahan assures it is being fixed. Three levels of integrations are currently under work, he explains. First, a single administrative unit is being formed to bring all types of schools under one umbrella. Various schemes of education are now channelised and have been integrated into a single structure, under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, which is supported by the Centre (60 per cent) and the State (40 per cent). The government is bringing all exams under one board to avoid duplication,” he says.

Still, the government is not giving enough focus on the pre-primary segment, which is where private sector institutions make a big impact, feels Sreekumar of AKSTU. Currently, many schools have ad hoc arrangements to train pre-primary students, but that’s not enough, he feels. “We are moving in that direction with our ‘Minus Two to Plus Two’ vision,” says Shajahan. Such changes, of course, will take time, and the officials and teachers hope that once the current wave of reforms start paying dividends, Kerala will set up an example that other States could emulate. “This is a new Kerala Model and we are sure to scale new heights,” signs off Mathew of GLPS Kodaly as he watches Seetha take flight.

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