First, protect children's right to education and promote the fairness of compulsory education.
In 2009, the President of India approved the Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which is a landmark education law in the history of Indian education development, marking that India has since embarked on the track of promoting universal free and compulsory education according to law.
Universal eight-year compulsory education has always been the educational development goal pursued by India since its independence. Providing free and compulsory education for all children under 14 years old is one of the guiding principles of national policy stipulated in the Indian Constitution. Over the years, the development of primary education in India has made great progress, and the number of students and schools has expanded rapidly, but there is still a big gap from the goal of universal primary education. The number of out-of-school children who have not completed primary education, especially those from disadvantaged groups and classes, is still huge, and the quality of students' academic performance has not reached satisfactory results. In 2002, India passed the eighty-sixth amendment to the Constitution, stipulating that receiving free compulsory education should be the basic right of all children aged 6- 14. On July 20th and August 4th, 2009, the Upper House of Indian Parliament and the People's House of India respectively passed the Law on Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education. The purpose of legislation is to make every child have the right to receive high-quality and fair full-time primary education in regular schools that meet basic norms and standards. There are 7 chapters and 38 articles 1 article, and there are many remarkable highlights in the content.
(A) the basic content of children's free compulsory education law
1. Guarantee children's right to education. Protecting children's right to education, maintaining social fairness and justice, and implementing free and compulsory education based on rights embody the fundamental spirit of this legislation. The law stipulates the following rights for children: (1) The right to receive free and compulsory education. Article 3 stipulates: "Every child aged 6-6 has the right to receive free and compulsory education in a nearby school until he finishes primary education. Children shall not be required to pay any form of tuition, miscellaneous fees or fees that may hinder their acceptance and completion of primary education. " (2) the right to receive special teaching guidance. Children who go to school have the right to receive special teaching guidance in order to catch up with others' study. (3) The right to complete compulsory education beyond age. Article 4 stipulates that children who receive primary education have the right to receive free education until they complete compulsory education, even after 14 years old. (4) the right of transfer. Children attending schools that cannot provide complete primary education have the right to transfer to other public schools or subsidized schools to complete primary education; The school where students attend should provide the transfer certificate in time. The law also stipulates that before compulsory education is completed, schools may not repeat grades or expel students; Physical punishment or mental harassment of students is not allowed.
2. stipulate the government's responsibility for running schools. Article 3 stipulates that the central government and the state shall jointly bear the funds for running compulsory education, and the central finance shall prepare the budget for capital construction and recurrent expenditure of compulsory education. In the management system, three levels of running schools are implemented, and the central, state, city and county are responsible for each other. The main responsibilities of the central government are to formulate the national curriculum framework, formulate and implement teacher training standards, and provide technical support and resources. The main duty of state, city and county governments is to provide free and compulsory primary education to every child until he 14 years old; Ensure that every child aged 6-65,438+04 is obliged to attend school, attend classes and complete primary education; Ensure the availability of nearby schools; Ensure that children from low-income groups and vulnerable groups can receive and complete primary education without discrimination; Providing infrastructure, including school buildings, teaching staff and teaching equipment; Monitor the attendance rate, attendance rate and completion of primary education of each child; Ensure that there is a high-quality primary education that meets the school-running standards.
Private schools must provide 25% free places. The law has made rigid provisions on the quota ratio of private schools providing free and compulsory education. Article 13 stipulates that subsidized schools (assisted by private offices) must provide at least 25% free places. Non-subsidized schools (completely private schools) must recruit at least 25% children from low-income families and disadvantaged families in neighboring areas from the first grade, and provide free compulsory education until they complete their studies. The state will bear the corresponding expenses according to the per capita expenditure standard or actual expenditure. Schools have enjoyed preferential policies in land use, school buildings, equipment and facilities, and the state will no longer bear the costs. The rigid proportion of free places helps to expand enrollment.
School fees will be "one charge and ten penalties". In order to ensure the implementation of free compulsory education, it is strictly forbidden for all kinds of schools to collect sponsorship fees in various names to screen children for admission. Article 13 stipulates that when recruiting children, schools or individuals shall not charge any sponsorship fees, and shall not screen or select children or their parents or guardians for admission. If the sponsorship fee is collected, a fine of 10 times shall be imposed; Those who screen and choose their children for school will be fined 25,000 rupees (1 RMB about 5 rupees) for the first offence and 50,000 rupees for the second offence.
5. Establish a school management committee. Every public school and subsidized school should set up a school management committee, which is composed of local government, parents or guardians of children, and teachers' representatives, with parents or guardians accounting for 3/4, ensuring a certain proportion of representatives of parents or guardians of disadvantaged groups and low-income children to participate, and the proportion of members should reach 50%. The functions of the school management committee are: to supervise the work of the school; Formulate school development plans; Supervise the use of school funds; Perform other functions stipulated by laws and regulations.
6. Teachers should meet the qualification standards. Teachers are the foundation of educational development. Article 23 stipulates that all teachers must meet the minimum qualification standards within five years, otherwise they may not take up their posts; Governments at all levels should ensure the ratio of students to teachers in each school; The personnel department should control the number of teacher vacancies within the establishment of 10%; Except for census, emergency rescue and disaster relief and elections, teachers in the establishment shall not be arranged to engage in non-educational activities. Establish a teacher complaint mechanism. Article 28 also stipulates that "teachers shall not engage in tutoring or private teaching activities".
In terms of teacher staffing, the law stipulates in the form of a list that in grades one to five, schools enrolling less than 60 students should have two teachers, six1-90 students have three teachers, and nine1-20 students have four teachers.121-. Recruit students 150 or more, 5 teachers, principals 1 person, more than 200 students, and the student-teacher ratio (excluding principals) shall not exceed 40.
In grades six to eight, there should be at least 65,438+0 teachers in each class, at least 65,438+0 teachers in science and mathematics classes, and at least 65,438+0 teachers in social studies and language classes. Every 35 students must have at least 1 teacher; To recruit more than 100 students, 1 full-time principals and part-time teachers are needed to teach art education, health and physical education, and labor education.
7. Curriculum evaluation should promote students' all-round development. Curriculum development and evaluation should follow the following principles and conform to the values advocated by the Constitution; Promote the all-round development of children; Establish children's knowledge and give play to their potential and talents; Maximize the development of children's physique and intelligence; Learn through activities, discovery and exploration in a student-friendly and student-oriented way; Children's mother tongue should be used as the teaching language; Let students get rid of fear, psychological trauma and anxiety, and help children express their views freely; Comprehensively and continuously evaluate children's understanding of knowledge and their ability to use knowledge.
With regard to teaching time, it is stipulated that the minimum school year for grades one to five is 200 working days, and that for grades six to eight is 220 working days; At least 800 class hours are guaranteed for grades one to five, and 1000 class hours are guaranteed for grades six to eight; Teachers should guarantee working hours of at least 45 hours per week (including lesson preparation time). The list also stipulates the standards for school buildings, teaching equipment, reading rooms and sports facilities.
The law also stipulates that students may not be required to take any examination organized by the examination committee before completing primary education. Students complete primary education and issue diplomas.
At present, India has popularized primary education in areas where 98% of the population lives, and promoted primary education (grades 6 to 8) in areas where 86% of the population lives. Universal primary education project and school free lunch project have become two flagship projects to promote the development of compulsory education. The promulgation and implementation of the Law on Free and Compulsory Education for Children will play a positive and huge role in promoting the early realization of the goal of universal free and compulsory education in India. It is necessary to ensure that children have the opportunity to receive free compulsory education, but also to ensure that children can receive high-quality compulsory education and promote educational equity and social justice.
(B) the main measures to promote the fairness of compulsory education
India has the largest compulsory education in the world, with nearly 200 million students in compulsory education, accounting for 77.4% of the total educated population. India vigorously promotes the balanced development of compulsory education, and educational opportunities continue to extend to vulnerable groups and regions. 98% of the rural population has a primary school within 1 km. The number of compulsory education schools increased from1124,000 in 2006 to149,000 in 2006, the number of students in compulsory education increased from168,000 to197,000, and the number of teachers increased from 4.69 million to 8.07 million.
India believes that achieving universal compulsory education will greatly promote social justice and equity and participatory economic growth. In order to popularize compulsory education, India has fully implemented two flagship projects, namely "Universal Primary Education Project" and "School Free Lunch Program". The 11th Five-Year Development Plan for India's national economy and social undertakings puts forward the concept of equitable growth, so that the fruits of development can benefit all people. The Eleventh Five-Year Education Development Plan takes expanding opportunities, promoting fairness, improving quality and multi-party participation as the guiding ideology of education development. "Opportunity, fairness and quality" have become the key words of Indian education development and reform.
1. Improve the educational opportunities of vulnerable groups. Caste system is a kind of social class or group system that exists among Indian residents and is strictly distinguished from each other. The government has explicitly abolished it. "List Tribes" are scattered in remote inland areas, inaccessible forest areas and mountainous areas, living a primitive life of isolation and slash and burn, and belong to the most backward group in India's economy and education. There are 573 registered tribes in India, accounting for about 8% of the national population. There are 6- 14-year-old children160,000 registered tribes, accounting for 8.3% of the school-age population of this age group in China. Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have the problems of less opportunities for admission and high dropout rate.
To this end, India provides basic primary education facilities in counties where Dalit castes and Dalit tribes are concentrated, implements the "Education Guarantee Plan", and holds schools or teaching points in tribal areas. In order to expand the coverage of educational opportunities, some States have lowered the standards for running schools. In the tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh, 20 school-age children can run a school, in Karnataka, 15 children can run a school, and in the mountainous states in the northeast, 10 children can run a school or teaching point. Provide remedial courses and other appropriate educational programs for immigrant children, dropouts, older students and children who have never attended school; Providing free textbooks to students from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in grades 1 to 8; Provide Rs. Allocate 6,543,800+500,000 pounds to each county where children from scheduled tribes are concentrated, and carry out special innovative activities to support the education of children from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes; Set up special counseling and remedial classes to improve the academic performance of children from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes; Recruit local scheduled tribal teachers; Hire tribal coordinators at the state level and in counties with concentrated tribes to supervise the development of universal compulsory education and help coordinate tribal affairs of relevant central ministries and commissions; Ensure that a certain proportion of tribal representatives participate in village education committees, guidance and supervision committees, school management and development committees and state education committees, and increase the voice of scheduled tribal people in educational decision-making;
2. Pay attention to the backward areas of education. India's revised definition standard for backward areas in education has been implemented since April 1 2008. The literacy rate of women in rural towns is less than 30%, and the literacy rate of women in urban streets is lower than 200 1 the national average of the national census of 53.67%. There are 94 urban areas that are backward in education. During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, priority will be given to opening new multidisciplinary technical schools in districts and counties where ethnic minorities are concentrated.
3. Promote the development of education in areas with backward social and economic development. The social and economic development in Northeast China is backward. 65,438+00% of the total budget supported by the Ministry of Human Resources Development is used for education development in Northeast China, and the gap is automatically made up by the "Central Resource Guarantee Bank" managed by the Ministry of Human Resources Development in Northeast China to support regional basic capacity development projects.
4. Free lunch plan. India has implemented the free lunch program for a long time. As early as 1925, Madras Municipal Committee proposed to provide free lunch for children in need. By the 1980s, three states had implemented the free lunch program, and in the early 1990s, the scope was expanded to 12 states. 1In August, 1995, the free lunch program led by the central government was launched, aiming at improving the enrollment rate, retention rate and attendance rate of students and improving the nutritional status of children. Since April 2008, the lunch program has covered all students in public schools and subsidized schools in the compulsory education stage, ensuring that each student has 700 calories, 20 grams of protein and 65,438+0.50 grams of food for lunch every day. By 2009, the number of students benefiting from compulsory education will reach 654.38+0.2 billion.
India guarantees every child's right to education through legislation, adheres to the public welfare, inclusiveness and balance of education, and strives to promote equal opportunities and continuously improve the quality of education. At present, 98% of students in primary school have the opportunity to go to school, and the proportion of children who are out of school in compulsory education at the age of 6- 14 has dropped to 3-4%.
Second, implement the enrollment quota system to promote the fairness of higher education.
Paying attention to the opportunities for disadvantaged students to receive higher education and promoting social fairness and justice has always been India's educational policy orientation. India has reserved places for vulnerable groups in terms of college enrollment, employment of teachers in colleges and universities, and employment in the public sector, so as to ensure that vulnerable groups have the opportunity to move upward, improve their social and educational status, and make them occupy their due position in the mainstream society in India.
(1) The law stipulates the enrollment quota for vulnerable groups.
India's deep-rooted caste system and unbalanced socio-economic development have created many vulnerable groups. India mainly defines three kinds of vulnerable groups: scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes. Scheduled Castes, originally called Dalits or Dalits, are the lowest social group recognized by the Constitution as backward in economy and education. The first list of the Constitution lists 65,438+0,208 castes in 26 states and 5 federal territories. During the British rule, they were called "the oppressed class". The Constitution also recognizes "scheduled tribes", which refer to ethnic and tribal groups living in remote and poor areas or jungles and mountains. The Constitution lists 744 tribes in 22 states. According to the interpretation of the Constitution, "other backward classes" refer to groups that are backward in society and education. These three groups account for about 16.2%, 8.2% and 29.8% of the total population of China respectively, and the enrollment quota reserved by the government for the disadvantaged groups is generally suitable for their population proportion.
The Indian Constitution regards the protection of the educational and economic interests of the disadvantaged groups as the guiding principle of the country. Article 46 stipulates that the state shall pay special attention to promoting the educational and economic interests of vulnerable groups, especially scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and protecting them from social injustice. 195 1 the first amendment to the constitution authorizes the government to take special measures to promote the educational development of the disadvantaged groups. 1954, the minister of education wrote to the state governments, suggesting that 20% of the places should be reserved for students from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and the admission score should be reduced by 5 points. In 1982, the government clearly stipulated that 15% should be reserved for students from scheduled castes and 7.5% for students from scheduled tribes. In 2005, India's Constitution (93rd Amendment) expanded the coverage of vulnerable groups to include "other backward groups". The Constitution authorizes the Indian Parliament and state legislatures to enact appropriate laws for the educational progress and development of disadvantaged groups, including reserving places for disadvantaged students.
In 2007, India passed the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation of Admission Places) Act, which once again increased the enrollment rate of disadvantaged students. Article 3 stipulates that 65,438+05%, 7.5% and 27% of the annual enrollment quota of each major are reserved for students from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes respectively. In this way, the proportion of reserved places for disadvantaged students has increased from 22.5% to 49.5%.
According to the law, the newly added 27% places reserved for "other backward classes" students are only applicable to universities under the central government. These universities have gathered the best educational resources in India, such as the famous Indian Institute of Technology, Central University, and Indian Institute of Management, which are all under the central government, and are the most competitive universities in India and synonymous with elite education in India. Increasing the enrollment rate of disadvantaged students will help to expand the scope of social groups sharing high-quality educational resources and promote educational equity. In order to ensure the implementation of the reserved admission quota policy and keep the enrollment ratio of ordinary candidates unaffected, India has decided to expand the enrollment scale by 54% on the basis of the enrollment in 2007 from 2008 to realize the inclusive expansion of higher education.
(2) Relevant measures to implement the reserved enrollment quota policy.
The Indian government has always attached great importance to the development and welfare of the disadvantaged groups, and has established two ministries (Ministry of Social Justice and Ministry of Tribal Affairs) and two statutory national committees (National Scheduled Castes Committee and National Scheduled Tribes Committee) to promote the welfare of the three disadvantaged groups. The Ministry of Education and relevant ministries and commissions have taken various effective measures to actively implement the policy of reserving college enrollment quotas.
Set up a special organization to implement the reservation policy. The University Grants Committee has set up special education offices for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes to effectively supervise the implementation of the policy of reserving university places, teaching posts and non-teaching posts, and handle and solve related complaints. The University Grants Committee has also set up a standing committee and relevant subcommittees, which are composed of experts, former university presidents and celebrities in higher education, and are responsible for supervising the implementation of the reservation policy. The University Grants Committee provided one-time grants of Rs. 200,000 to universities and established the Office of Equal Opportunities in Education. At present, more than 100 universities have set up "equal opportunities offices" to safeguard the rights and interests of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minority religious groups and disabled people in education and employment.
Take remedial measures. Relevant schools provide pre-test counseling and post-entry counseling for disadvantaged candidates with poor foundation to improve their learning level, while Indian Institute of Technology allows disadvantaged students with poor foundation to study a one-year preparatory course after entering school.
Build new universities in underdeveloped areas and expand the regional distribution of opportunities. The gross enrollment rate of higher education in 374 educationally backward counties in India is lower than the national average, accounting for 58% of the total number of county-level administrative units in the country, and each educationally backward county has established a model degree college. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, the scope of newly-built demonstration degree colleges, community colleges and multidisciplinary technical colleges will be expanded to Muslim-inhabited counties, and women's colleges will be established in small towns. These construction plans should be incorporated into the development plan of national higher education, so as to meet the learning needs of students in backward areas and counties, increase opportunities, and promote the fairness and inclusiveness of education.
Establish various scholarships to help disadvantaged students complete their studies or continue to engage in scientific research. These scholarships are established by relevant government ministries or professional institutions, mainly for students from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. For example, the rajiv gandhi National Research Scholarship, established by the Ministry of Social Justice and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, has 2,667 places each year, including 2,000 places for scheduled caste students and 667 places for scheduled tribal students to help students complete their doctoral degrees in science, humanities, social sciences and engineering technology. At present, 40,465,438+0 students from scheduled castes and 2,036 students from scheduled tribes have received this scholarship.
(3) There is a long way to go to achieve educational equity.
The government vigorously increases the opportunities for disadvantaged students to receive higher education, and the proportion of disadvantaged students in the number of college students is increasing. For example, the famous Nehru University had 6,665 students in 2065,438+065,438+0 years, among which 40.3% were disadvantaged students (students from scheduled castes 13.7%, students from scheduled tribes/8.4%, and students from other backward classes 18.2%). However, on the whole, the proportion of disadvantaged students is still low. In 20 10, the total number of students in Indian universities reached 20.74 million, of which 1 1.8% came from scheduled castes and 5.2% from scheduled tribes. There is also a big gap between urban and rural areas and between groups in the gross enrollment rate of higher education. In 2007-2008, the gross enrollment rate of higher education in India reached 17.2% nationwide, including 30% in urban areas, 1 1. 1% in rural areas, 32.9% in Hindu groups and 65,438+in other backward classes.
One of the reasons for the low proportion of disadvantaged students is the low enrollment rate, high dropout rate and poor education quality in the basic education stage, which leads to the low overall quality of disadvantaged students. For example, a sample survey conducted by Braham NGO in India shows that half of rural fifth-grade students can't read simple texts in the second grade. Therefore, in the actual enrollment, only a small number of students have used the reserved places, and a large proportion of the reserved places have not been used up. This requires the government to make greater efforts to popularize high-quality compulsory education and ensure the quality of disadvantaged students. There is still a long way to go to realize the "equal opportunity" promised by the Constitution.