- Programme Schedule (48
KB)
- Brochure
- Poster
- Education for All - International
Perspective
- Education for All in India
- Role of Open schooling
- Objectives
- Sub-Themes
- Expected Outcomes
- Conference Methodology
1. Education for All - International Perspective
"Education for all" declares that everyone has a right
to education. Its aim is to give everyone a chance to learn and
benefit from basic education - not as an accident of circumstance,
or as a privilege, but as a right."
The aspiration of making education available to all is not new.
More than two hundred years ago, Adam Smith argued for universal
education on the grounds of public order and the preservation of
freedom. By the mid-20th century, education was enshrined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has a
right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the
elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be
compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made
generally available and higher education shall be equally
accessible to all on the basis of merit."
As an international initiative, Education for All (EFA) was
first launched in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990 to bring the benefits
of education to "every citizen in every society." In order to
realize this aim, a broad coalition of national governments, civil
society groups, and development agencies such as the World Bank and
UNESCO committed to achieving six specific education goals:
- Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and
education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged
children.
- Ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, those in
difficult circumstances, and those belonging to ethnic minorities,
have access to and complete, free, and compulsory primary education
of good quality.
- Ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults
are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and
life-skills programs.
- Achieve a 50% improvement in adult literacy by 2015, especially
for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education
for all adults.
- Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education
by 2005, and achieve gender equality in education by 2015, with a
focus on ensuring girls' full and equal access to and achievement
in basic education of good quality.
- Improve all aspects of the quality of education and ensure the
excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning
outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and
essential life skills.
After a decade, the international community reaffirmed its
commitment to EFA in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000 and again in
September of that year. In the September meeting, 189 countries and
their partners adopted the two EFA goals that are also Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
There were 40 million more children in schools in 2006 vis-a-vis
in 1999.This success was achieved by focusing international effort
after 2000 on the core goal of Universal Primary Education (UPE).
The Dakar Forum had articulated six goals, covering aspirations
ranging from the expansion of early childhood education to a
drastic reduction in adult literacy. Two of the Dakar goals - UPE
and Gender Equality - were incorporated into the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international
development goals that United Nations member states and
international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year
2015. The goals are:
- eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,
- achieving universal primary education,
- promoting gender equality and empowering women
- reducing child mortality rates,
- improving maternal health,
- combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases,
- ensuring environmental sustainability, and
- developing a global partnership for development.
Achieving the Education for All goals is critical for attaining
all 8 MDGs-in part due to the direct impact of education on child
and reproductive health, as well as the fact that EFA has created a
body of experience in multi-partner collaboration toward the 2015
targets. Simultaneously, achieving the other MDGs, such as improved
health, access to clean drinking water, decreased poverty, and
environmental sustainability, are critical to achieving the
education MDGs.
The movement towards Education for All revitalized educational
reforms all over the world. Major progress has been made in terms
of access to primary education and declining number of out of
school children between 6-11 age groups but a wide vacuum still has
its presence in the effort to achieve the goal of Education for
All. Although there has been steady progress towards achieving many
EFA goals, challenges remain. According to the latest data from the
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), 61 million children of
primary school age were out of school in 2010. It is a matter of
great concern that the number of out-of-school children has
remained at 61 million over the last three years. Much of this
global stagnation is due to trends in sub-Saharan Africa, where the
number of out of school children has actually risen over the past
three years - from 29 million in 2008 to 31 million in 2010. Of the
61 million children who were out of school in 2010, 47% are
expected to never enter school. A further 26% have attended but
left school, and the remaining 27% are expected to enter school in
the future. A more serious challenge is that there are roughly 28
million of the global numbers out of school children who are
expected to never gain access to schooling. Girls are more likely
to be out of school (28%) than boys (25%).
2. Education for All in India
At the time of Independence, India inherited a system of
education which was not only quantitatively small but also
characterized by structural imbalances. Only fourteen per cent of
the population was literate and only one child out of three had
been enrolled in primary school. As education is vitally linked
with the totality of the development process (education being "the
basic tool for the development of consciousness and reconstitution
of society," in the words of Mahatma Gandhi), the reform and
restructuring of the educational system was recognized as an
important area of state intervention.
The need for a literate population and universal education for
all children in the age group of 6-14 was recognised as a crucial
input for nation building and was given due consideration in the
Constitution as well as in successive Five Year Plans. The National
Policy on Education (NPE) 1986, revised in 1992, resolved to
achieve the goal of Universalization of Elementary Education by the
turn of the century, emphasizing three aspects: universal access
and enrolment; universal retention up to 14 years of age, and to
bring about substantial improvement in the quality of education to
enable all children to achieve essential levels of learning.
The Policy set the goal of decentralised planning and management
of elementary education. This thinking led to the 73rd and 74th
constitutional amendments that provide for decentralisation of the
activities and facilitate transfer of power and participation of
the local self-government institutions or the Panchayati Raj
Institutions (PRIs).
In Unnikrishnan Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh (Writ Petition
No.607 of 1992), Supreme Court held that citizens of this country
have the fundamental right to education and the said right flows
from Article 21 of the Constitution. This right is, however, not an
absolute right. Every child/citizen of this country has the right
to free education until he/she completes the age of fourteen years.
Thereafter, his/her right to education is subject to limits of the
economic capacity and development of the State. This movement has
culminated in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009 notified on 27th August, 2009, popularly called
RTE Act. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was launched by the Government
of India for achievement of Universalization of Elementary
Education (UEE) in a time bound manner, as mandated by 86th
amendment to the Constitution of India making free and compulsory
Education to the Children of 6-14 years age group, a Fundamental
Right.
After the success of SSA, pressure has increased on the
secondary education sector. The Govt. of India is now moving
towards universalization of secondary education, for which the RMSA
(Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan) has been launched on the
lines of SSA in a missionary mode. There is a move to extend the
scope of RTE Act to the target group beyond 14 years of age.
3. Role of Open schooling
While the countries have struggled to build schools and train
teachers, both of which are necessary to achieve universal primary
education, the limited primary infrastructures and inadequate
economic resources and lack of quality teaching learning mechanisms
to provide a quality secondary schooling are serious challenges
that are being faced by government policy-makers. Therefore, there
is a need of serious thinking and strategic planning to achieve the
massive tasks ahead. In this backdrop, open and distance learning,
has the paramount importance for achieving the goal of Education
for All with the potential of surpassing traditional barriers that
may result from prior educational, financial, geographic, time or
disability-related constraints.
It is being increasingly realized that the Open and Distance
Learning (ODL) mode of education, especially at the Secondary and
the Senior Secondary school education levels, is the need of the
hour and should be practiced in all countries, along with the
formal system of education. The Open Schooling system, with its
various learner friendly characteristics and inputs like
flexibility in place and pace of learning, self learning material,
media and ICT support, Personal Contact Programme (PCP),
recognizing and accommodating learner's preferred learning
objectives (programmatic or course- or module-specific), his or her
selected means for accomplishing the learning and demonstrating its
attainment, and his or her need for student support services that
will maximize the individual's chances of success, thus has emerged
as a potential alternative system of education. As a result,
massive expansion of Open Schooling Institutions has been found
over the past few years.
Globally, the progress of Open Schooling programme is varied in
nature and scope. Whereas in some countries the Open School
programme has made significant strides, in several countries it is
at the initial stage. Some countries have not started the open
schooling programme, but they essentially need to open up to the
idea of open schooling to achieve the goal of Education for
All.
If EFA has to be achieved by 2015, it is obvious the open
schooling will have to play a more vital role. It is in this
context that an international conference is being visualized for
deliberating upon the role of open schooling in fulfilling this
cherished goal in all developing countries, particularly those that
come under the umbrella of the Commonwealth.
4. Objectives
The objectives of the conference will be to:
- exchange and share existing national and international
experiences/practices for achieving Education for all
- discuss issues and concerns pertaining to education for all at
different levels and types of school education
- suggest strategies and interventions to achieve the goal of
Education for All through open schooling
5. Sub-Themes
The sub-themes of the conference will be:
- Issues of Access & Equity:
- Expansion and meeting of demand; Retention/completion
- Awareness Building and Advocacy for open schooling
- Issues of Quality (materials, curriculum, delivery system,
evaluation)
- relevance (need based); contextualised; goal-oriented
- Learner Support Services and delivery system
- ICT & Multimedia
- Capacity Building
- Research and Development
- Innovation
- Institutional related issues and operational strategies:
- Management of open schooling
- Financing of Open Schooling
- Monitoring and Quality Assurance in Open Schooling
- Networking and Collaboration
- Resource Mobilisation
- Documentation of Success Stories
- Issues pertaining to Skill Development through Open Schooling:
- Levels (elementary, secondary and senior secondary)
- Types (general, vocational)
- Integration of Academic Education and Vocational
Education/Skill Development
6. Expected Outcomes
- Collection and compilations of Status position about the open
schooling programme in different countries.
- Recommendations of the conference mentioning strategies for
- promotion/ up scaling of the open schooling programme in
various countries,
- increasing access with equity,
- ensuring quality of materials and methods, and
- effective programme delivery.
- Networking within the open schooling system and with other
educational development sectors.
- Compilation & dissemination of a document, including
proceedings, conference papers, Group Reports and
Recommendations.
7. Conference Methodology
The conference format would be a mix of thematic and plenary
sessions, panel discussion and presentation of papers. If needed,
parallel session may be organised for presentation of papers. In
the end, recommendations of the conference will be drafted and
deliberated in a plenary session for adoption.
Participants
To achieve the above objectives, the Conference will witness
active participation of experts in the field of education/ODL and
officials involved in policy making at school level. Participants
will include:
- Experts in EFA/ODL from India & abroad
- Educational Planners/Policy makers/Administrators from India
& abroad
- Representatives of Open Schools from India & abroad
Core Advisory/Organizing Committee
- Conference Chairperson: Dr. S.S Jena -
Chairman, NIOS
- Conference Director: Dr. Kuldeep Agarwal -
Director (Academic)
- Conference Convener: Sh. Sukanta Mahapatra -
Academic Officer (Sociology)
Call for Papers
National Institute Open Schooling (NIOS), an autonomous
organization under the Department of School Education and Literacy,
Ministry of HRD, Government of India invites papers from Experts in
EFA/ODL, Educational Planners/Policy makers/Administrators,
Representatives of Open Schools & other interested individuals
from India & abroad on the above mentioned themes.
The paper should be typed in MS-word, font size-12
(Times New Roman) within 4000 words along with an
abstract of 500 words. The contributors are
requested to send the full paper and abstract to The
Academic Officer (Sociology), National Institute Open Schooling
(NIOS), A-24-25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, Noida-201309 (U.P)
India. A soft copy is required to be sent via e-mail to
sukantamahapatra(at)nios[dot]ac[dot]in, with a copy marked to
directoracademic(at)nios[dot]ac[dot]in. The last date of receiving
the full paper with abstract is December 31, 2012.
No paper will be considered after this date. Details
including name, designation, address and contact details with email
id of the presenter should be given along with the
papers.
A limited number of papers will be selected from the papers
received from contributors till the last date by an Expert
Committee constituted by the NIOS. Intimation to the authors of the
selected papers will be communicated separately indicating details
of the Conference. Local hospitality, including boarding
and lodging will be offered to all participants, including those
from other countries. Participants from India will also be
entitled to reimbursement of travel expenses as per norms of NIOS
and as per their entitlement. Air travel, if entitled, will be
admissible only by Air India.
Important Deadlines
- Submission of full Paper with abstracts: 31st December,
2012
- Notification of acceptance of Paper: 20th January, 2013
- Confirmation of participation (With itinerary) by Presenter:
10th February, 2013
Contact Details
Mr. Sukanta Mahapatra, Academic Officer (Sociology)
National Institute Open Schooling (NIOS)
A-24-25, Institutional Area, Sector-62, Noida-201309 (U.P)
India
Email:
directoracademic(at)nios[dot]ac[dot]in/sukantamahapatra(at)nios[dot]ac[dot]in
Mobile:
09716230645