Sibal

New Delhi, Sept. 29: The Centre is planning a model school management code that it will request states to adopt, focusing for the first time on administration standards in government-run institutes to meet its promise of quality schooling for all.

The human resource development ministry has formed an expert panel to pencil a draft code laying down administrative norms and responsibilities schools will be expected to fulfil, senior government sources told The Telegraph.

The move was proposed by HRD minister Kapil Sibal who, since taking charge of India’s education in June, has on several occasions expressed dissatisfaction with the standards of schooling under state government boards.

“We have focused on the body of school education all along. We also need to look at the mind running that body,” a source said.

Sibal made the proposal at a “round table discussion” on school education reforms with experts last week, the source said. Others in the discussion endorsed the proposal and a committee of experts has been formed to draw up the model code, the source said.

HRD ministry sources said they are aware that the move is potentially controversial as it could be seen as an attempt by the Centre — and especially Sibal — to impose his governance model on states.

Education is a concurrent subject under the control of states and the Centre. Sibal, in his short stint as HRD minister, has already faced allegations of trying to impose his views on states.

But the sources said the code would not be mandatory for states to adopt and would lay down suggested norms that would be “in the interest of the states themselves”.

The move represents the first attempt by the HRD ministry to focus specifically on the way schools are run in its bid to identify why certain institutions succeed and others fail in providing quality education.

The centrally run Kendriya Vidyalayas and the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas regularly outperform private schools in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examinations.

Some state government-run schools also perform well in public examinations, but the pass rate of students in most state board schools is poorer than under the central boards.

Traditionally, the government has focused on standards in infrastructure, teaching and curricula in trying to improve schooling standards.

This includes hiring more qualified teachers, increasing the number of schools, classrooms, and other school facilities.

HRD ministry officials said that while all these were “essential” components of any plan to improve schooling standards, a keen look at the management of institutions had till now been neglected.

Sibal has stated that he wants India to evolve towards a uniform school leaving examination system and common curricula in the sciences and mathematics.

The HRD minister has also criticised current standards of state education boards, which he has said must be helped improve before a uniform school leaving testing service can be introduced.

Sibal has faced criticism from several states, including some run by the Congress, for suggesting that in the long run, multiple school boards may not be necessary.