People Education Assembly Ranchi Declaration 23rd March 2014

The People Education Assembly held at Ranchi from 22th to 23rd March, 2014 has been impressive, in terms of the scale of participation, the diversity of ideas discussed and shared and the degree of consensus that emerged through a process of debate and deliberation. Held against the backdrop of the ongoing major democratic process within the country, the two day education assembly spread across an inaugural session, six thematic sessions and sharing of experiences sessions has witnessed animated, informed and stimulating discussion among more than 600 participants including scholars and activists drawn from within the State and from different parts of the country. The participants have been engaged in the search for a paradigm of democratic and secular education that would lead to inclusive and sustainable development, in an atmosphere of peaceful coexistence. The assembly critically reviewed the four years of implementation of Right to Education, the impact of higher education policies in the neoliberal context, the present status of pre schooling, the prevailing situation of Literacy & continuing education, the basic challenges related to gender, social exclusion of the marginalized and deprived communities and the strategies to overcome those. The challenge is to resist the temptation to permit the monopolization and commercialization of knowledge through knowledge delivering supermarkets which could adversely impact both on equity and quality, by denying opportunities to the poor and by relegating them to low-cost delivery systems. The primary responsibility for imparting education at all levels should rest with the Government in which the role of state government and local government is crucial. The Government should step up its expenditure on education, setting apart at least 6 percent of the GDP for the education sector and take concrete measures to improve the quality of public funded education by updating the curriculum, modernizing infrastructure an d developing human power. The Education Assembly calls upon all participants to carry the positive message that emerged from the deliberations and collective thinking during the two day get together, with a view to transforming its existing relationship of hegemony and exclusion into a new wholesome relationship of harmony and inclusion. The Assembly resolves to strive for building a broad based network for conducting sustained activities based on all issues related to education and rights of children. The assembly also endorses the following recommendations of the thematic sessions: 1. Rights of young children 0 to 6 years to be brought as right to holistic development, keeping in mind the synergistic and integrated intervention of learning, care and nutrition, hence convergence of implementation agencies keeping in mind multiple locations. 2. Preschool component of restructured ICDS should be implemented as a part of SSA linked with crèches in convergence with other ministries. 3. Implementation of the RTE norms by the central and state governments with an active role played by NCPCR needs to be ensured. 4. Institutions for quality teacher education both pre service and in service must be set up. 5. As part of the RTE mandate the medium of teaching learning should be the first language of the child and the state has to make provisions for teacher development, teacher learning materials etc.

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6. Tribal children are suffering due to the languages used for educating them, which are not their mother tongues. Residential schools are to be set up to address the educational needs of the tribes. 7. Socio cultural reorientation of teachers to address the inclusive concerns of dalits, adivasies, Muslims, girls and CWSN should be address through teacher training mechanisms, both pre service and in-service. 8. The state must set up residential schools on the mobility routes of nomadic tribes. 9. Proper attention should be given to the reported cases of exclusion practised in schools with regard to midday meals, class participation, involvement in school functions, opportunities to take up leadership etc. 10. Upper Primary schools should be increasingly set up closer to residential habitations in order to facilitate girls to pursue education after primary classes and prevent their drop out. More female teachers should be appointed in rural schools. 11. Patriarchal practices affecting girl children such as sex selective abortions, child marriage of girls etc should be strongly addressed by the state. 12. Facilities and personnel for offering education to children with special needs in regular schools should be created. Educational administrators and teachers should be sensitised on the issues regarding CWSN. 13. Democratisation of class rooms which should also include treating every child with sensitivity, giving due care, nurture self esteem of students and treating them humanely. Democratic relations between teachers and parents and their involvement in the functioning of the schools are to be ensured. 14. Promotion of scientific, rational and critical thinking must be ensured through education under the constitutional norms. A textbook council should be set up to monitor and regulate teaching learning materials used in education at all levels. 15. Education as a conscientisation process for achieving transformative goals, including social justice – transformation from being “subjects” to citizens needs to be ensured. Promote collective action through broader networking to reach out to all sections of people with larger global concerns. 16. With the privatization of education many educational resources are created outside of the government ambit which at times contains ideas inimical to the constitutional concerns such as scientific temper and secularism. This has to be checked. 17. Quality public institutions at the secondary and senior secondary levels need to be set up where the curriculum is creatively integrated to include work and practical experience within academic engagement. Vocational education should not be offered as a low status option for the poor at lower levels of education. 18. The Govt has to withdraw all policies regarding higher education in which transfer of public resources to market forces is involved. 19. Holistic approach to the issues of expansion, equity and excellence in higher education is needed. The opportunity to pursue higher education should be increasingly available to all sections of society, particularly the disadvantaged. 20. The illiteracy still exists in the country should be addressed with priority. And should evolve a new mechanism for citizen education including lifelong education. 21. A mechanism for social auditing should be evolved to ensure proper implementation of programmes at all levels. 22. Right to education should be expanded to include age group of 0 to 6 and 15 to 18 by suitable amendment and/or new legislations

Participants of the Peoples Education Assembly Ranchi

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