Twelve-year-old Vikas (name changed), a class IV student at the government-run CM Rise School in Bhopal’s Barkhedi area, is asked to write his name in English. This is not surprising – first-generation learners are one of the millions of children who have spent the last two years at home due to the Covid-induced lockdown. In addition, government schools have long suffered from low-quality teaching and lack of infrastructure, which has led to learning deficits. Vikas is promoted every year without assessing his studies.
The Madhya Pradesh government’s latest, but not the first, intervention in school education aims to address this. Students of Barkhedi Government School after two years find luxurious classrooms on the campus with electronic teaching aids, new furniture, air-conditioned library, a counseling room, a therapy room, a music class with instruments, even an AI lab. returned for. Like many of his classmates from modest backgrounds, Vikas says he doesn’t want to go back home.
The institution is one of a series of schools established across the state by the Government of Madhya Pradesh to specifically address low-quality pedagogy, address learning gaps, and provide services typically identified with private schools. For. A total of 380 CM RISE (an acronym for Respect Integrity Strength and Excellence) schools in both urban and rural areas have been started with this express objective, and became functional in the last fortnight. This will be increased to 9,200 in the next 10 years.
The government schools of Madhya Pradesh are in dire straits due to poor quality. The Annual Education Report (ASER) of Pratham, an NGO working in the field of education, confirms this. The report on learning trends in MP between 2012-2018 (pre-Covid) found that there was a marginal improvement in the percentage of Class II students who could read specified text (story level) from 2.7 per cent in 2012 to four per cent. Were. There was a decline in reading ability in 2018. While in 2012, 64.6 percent of students in Class VIII could read text for Class II students, this fell to 57.9 percent in 2018.
The public education sector in MP is plagued by a legacy of politics, recruitment scams, low quality teachers and the government’s reluctance to take corrective steps. But now with quality education on the political agenda, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan took the CM Rise concept forward in March 2020 after returning for a fourth term.
The school education department started the process of implementing CM RISE school project by integrating primary, secondary and secondary schools into one campus as it prevents drop out of students. A national design competition was held and 31 architects were selected to design the schools. The government used data analytics, along with variables such as land and infrastructure availability and enrollment, to decide the locations of schools, eventually shortlisting 15,000 places, which has been reduced to 9,200.
Pre-primary classes have been started in the state through CM RISE schools (most states do not have government schools). Also a booklet has been given for teachers and principals to follow. “Learning has been made quantitative, as teachers have to plan lessons and know whether students have learned what has been taught. Even disciplinary rules have been created, making it clear That’s what to do in case of violations,” says principal secretary, school education, Rashmi Arun Shami. Applications were called for selection of teachers and exams were conducted. “The idea is to get teachers with high skill sets and commitment levels. IIM Indore is training principals and teachers. Schools have smart classrooms, laboratories, halls for extra-curricular activities like art, music and dance, and space for physical training and sports.
How is CM Rise School different from similar efforts to build quality schools in MP in the past? A decade ago, the government established the School of Excellence, which took in students of a certain level of ability and above. However, CM RISE Schools are inclusive and aim to provide quality education irrespective of the child’s potential. Before the schools of excellence were the model schools established in the 1950s and 60s, which had a similar purpose. “In CM RISE schools, the child is the center of learning, which we have never done before. The emphasis is not on academics alone, but on holistic development through promoting the concepts of RISE- Respect Integrity Strength and Excellence,” said Kamleshwar Dayal Srivastava, Government School, Barkhedi, which is now a CM RISE school , says the principal. Srivastava claims that the attendance of 52 out of 400 high school students was on the first day of the school opening, which has now increased to 200.
However, not everyone is a supporter of the concept of CM RISE schools. “Any policy intervention should be within the framework of the Constitution. No country has been able to achieve universalisation of elementary education without providing equal access to all schools,” says noted educationist Anil Sadgopal, essentially suggesting that 9,200 schools out of 1,00,000 are too few. “By creating schools that have more than others, the government will deprive the remaining schools of better education, which is constitutionally unjust,” he says. “More specifically, CM RISE has not been able to protect school teachers from election and other government duties affecting teaching.” Sadgopal, who was part of the drafting committee for the Right to Education Act, says that MP has had several policy interventions in the past, including the “disastrous” Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS), which led to low quality recruitment . Staff. “Many state governments try to address the quality issues, but often financial aid is withdrawn and schools die a natural death,” he says.
Interestingly, though the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its allies are often accused of trying to ‘saffron’ the education sector, CM Rise School has not been embroiled in a political controversy. In fact, opposition Congress MLAs want more schools in their constituencies. “The schools will follow the syllabus of NEP 2020 approved by the central government,” says an official. Indeed, adherence to NEP 2020 appears to be one reason the union has no problem with CM Rise Schools, except demanding the implementation of yoga.
CM RISE schools face immediate and long-term challenges. For one, building infrastructure is taking time. Second, finding committed teachers is a major challenge. “Managing expectations is a challenge as these schools set out to achieve what has not been done elsewhere,” says Shiladitya Ghosh of People India, a voluntary agency working on the CM RISE project.
The task is enormous, but if successful, CM RISE Schools will accomplish the almost impossible – providing quality education to those who cannot afford it.