EducationManifesto

People’s Alliance for fundamental raight to education – PAFRE Demands in your education manifesto – a national campaign

All India Peoples Science Net work (AIPSN) & Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS) Peoples Manifesto on School Education and Literacy

Dear Madam/Sir, We, the members of PEOPLE’S ALLIANCE FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO EDUCATION –PAFRE, as a part of our national campaign to make care, including health, nutrition , early opportunities for young children to stimulate sensory development and sustainable education of an equitable quality for all children until the age of 18 years as a prime political agenda in the forthcoming parliamentary elections 2019. This national campaign is led by the Alliance for Early Child Development, Right to Education Forum and Campaign Against Child Labour. We demand the following as non-negotiable commitments to be included in your party manifesto. We also demand a political commitment to fulfil the same post-elections. OUR DEMANDS IN YOUR MANIFESTO Our party is committed to spend 6% of GDP for education as recommended by the Education Commission, and also compensate the inadequate investment in Education in the past . Our party is committed to take all measures to provide care including health, nutrition, early opportunities for young children for sensory development and equitable quality education in their respective mother tongue / regional language to all children, until 18 years in a neighbourhood school. Our party is committed to make necessary amendments to the RTE Act to include Early Child Development, pre-school and higher secondary education as legal entitlements, in line with international legal instruments and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our party is committed to strengthen public education and take measures to stop mass closure/merger of state funded government schools Our party is committed to curb privatization and commercialization of education and promises to enact a comprehensive regulatory framework to enforce accountability of private schools. It includes regulation of fees, minimum norms and standards for quality and institutional structure for parents’ participation. We urge you to include the above in your manifesto as people’s agenda… (Read more)

1. As per the 2011 census data 27 % are non-iterate, which covers more than 30 crores of our population. The literacy rate for women is only 65% that means 35% of women are still non-literate. There is a low rate of literacy among Dalits, Adivasis, fishworkers in coastal areas and people belonging to Other Backward Communities. How can we justify the present state of affairs especially the existence of more than 30 crores of non-literate brothers and sisters in our country even after 71 years of independence. 2. The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2013-2014 (GMR) released worldwide by the UNESCO acknowledges that India has by far the largest population of illiterate adults at 287 million, amounting to 37 percent of the global total. The report vividly underlines the fact that people in the most marginalized groups have continued to be denied opportunities for education over the decade. The report further said that the richest young women in India have already achieved universal literacy but the poorest are projected only to do so around 2080, noticing that huge disparities within India point to a failure to target support adequately towards those who need it the most. 3. The Indian Education system is among the largest in the world, with about 260million children enrolled in classes 1 to 12, located in 36 states and union territories, 683 districts covering more than 15 lakh schools as per UDISE data for 2014-15; Government owns and manages nearly 75% of elementary, 43% of secondary and 40% of higher secondary schools, the remaining are in the private sector, owned and managed by private agencies. Out of 260 million children enrolled in school education, Elementary education includes 192 million children, Secondary education has 38 million children and Higher Secondary education includes 24 million children as per U-DISE data 2014-15. This number does not include the enrolment in Higher Education Institutions, which cover more than 30 million students. Public education is the only system that has direct contact with large majority of households of the country... (Read more)|}