Haryana Education Department Advised to Conduct Remedial Summer Camps

Haryana Education Department has been advised to conduct remedial summer camps for school children before the start of academic session, do regular testing, pay teachers according to performance, and lay stress on providing appropriate education in early school years, to combat the challenge of low level of learning at schools.

These recommendations were made by Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA while making a presentation on Key Learnings for Policy Inputs in respect of Poverty Reduction Strategies and Government Service Delivery Systems. The presentation was made by Professor Esther Duflo, MIT USA, to the Haryana Chief Secretary, Mrs Urvashi Gulati, here, yesterday.

Prof Duflo said that the learning level of children at school continued to be low but with these measures these could be improved considerably. The focus in schools remains on the best performing child to the detriment of others. Parents also invest in the brightest and other children get discouraged. Changing the focus to teach the child at the current level was essential besides regular testing, she recommended.

She said that India had made significant gains in primary school enrolment in recent years. Close to 99 per cent of children aged 6-14 in rural Haryana are now enrolled in schools, but many of them seem to be learning very little. "Performance-based pay to teachers is more cost effective way of improving learning than providing additional school inputs on extra teachers", she said.

Speaking on the occasion, Mrs Urvashi Gulati stressed the need for the children to imbibe life skill education at school. Doing their own chores like washing utensils after the mid-day meal served in the school is one such exercise aimed at making children self-dependent. She said that she was always opposed to the idea of their mother washing utensils for them. Prof Duflo also gave recommendations on the challenges in other social sectors like health, environment, police performance, governance and poverty alleviation.

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a centre in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aims at reducing poverty by ensuring that policy is based on scientific evidence. The Lab had signed an MOU with the Haryana School Education Department for supporting research and evolution activities of the department.

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