The result is that most school and college administrations are in the dark about the current state of affairs in their respective institutions — whether it be the performance of students, faculty and staff, the adequacy and quality of equipment, etc. Because of such ignorance, institutions are ill-prepared for situations such as the sudden shortage of certain essential lab chemicals or teachers of a class going on medical leave at the same time, and the like.
Some of these situations can snowball into big crises, which can leave the institution gasping for control. Further, manual governance systems are time-consuming, slow of response and difficult to monitor and control.
As it stands today, our education system is chaotic, to say the least. It is characterised by a high dropout rate, teacher absenteeism, student truancy, administrative incompetence, obsolete syllabi, low standard of textbooks, inadequate infrastructure, unemployable graduates and the lot.
The tiny proportion of quality output that emerges is more a case of serendipity and the determination of students belonging to this minority. This is because the present system lacks means of continuous monitoring, meaningful evaluation of the teacher and the taught, and appropriate control and correction mechanisms.
But the question of e-governance in the education system is not addressed even in the Right to Education Bill, enacted by Parliament recently. If the quantity and quality of output from the education system has to be substantially improved, which is what the Act envisages, there is no alternative to e-governance in this sphere.
To be really effective, however, any e-governance system will have to go beyond mere computerisation of records or processes. It has to provide the management of the institution with information about the why of a happening or trend besides the What, When and Where, so that adequate prophylactic action can be taken. It should be able to provide answers to queries like: Why is the performance of a class dropping in a particular subject? Why is a particularly bright student lagging in performance in the last two terms?
The system should be able to create detailed analytical reports on each student collate all available information on the student — remarks by subject teachers, games teacher, house teacher and so on, putting together a composite picture of the child’s personality.
Usually, in the Indian schooling system, the future study course for a student is decided on the basis of the Class X marks. Now that the Class X Board Exam is on its way out under the new education policy, the e-governance system can offer an alternative method. Since the data for all ten years of school life of a student would be available through this system at one shot, as also the personality and aptitudes of the child, a more thought-out decision can be taken regarding his or her future course of study.
The system should bridge the communication gap between different stakeholders in a school, such as students, parents, teachers, principal and education administrators. This can be done through a community portal, which can be accessed via the Internet by the stakeholders. Access to data can be graded on a need-to-know basis for each type of stakeholder. Considering the tightness of finances in our state-aided educational institutions, an e-governance system which is inexpensive to install, simple to use, easy to maintain and can be conveniently expanded, will be much more acceptable.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. As the principal of a Delhi school which has implemented an e-governance expert system called M-Star for the last few years points out : “The entire burden of the school administration — from finance, HR, transport and store supplies to admissions — is managed by the system. Day-to-day running has got a lot easier. At the same time, the system has helped check absenteeism and late arrivals among teachers, which has a direct impact on academic performance. Even if a teacher is absent, the system automatically kicks in, allotting the most suitable substitute teachers so that the lesson can progress as per schedule. All kinds of chores like inputting attendance data, lesson planning, etc, have been reduced to a couple of clicks of the mouse. Earlier, just to add a section in a class or to increase the length of period was a headache. But now, at the click of a few buttons, the system can take charge, creating new sections, new time table, allotting teacher and so on.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): N N Sachitanand
Quelle/Source: Express Buzz, 17.11.2009
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