Sexual harassment in schools on the rise

The alleged rape of a class XI student of Parkwood International School by its director, might have shocked the city. But activists dealing with child and youth issues claim that sexual harassment in schools are alarmingly on the rise.

From posh private schools to dilapidated government ones, children in their early teens are getting molested and even raped while in school, observes child rights activists from the city who are now fighting for children's right to safe education rather than free education. Some of the activists have even asked for implementation of a redressal mechanism for child grievances in all schools in the state to ensure safety of children.

According to activists, the number of students who get molested every year in state schools would be nothing less than a couple of hundred. While the number indicates only the reported cases, most of which come from private schools in urban areas, the government schools in the city and semi-urban localities take the next place in the abuse chart.

When asked about reported cases, the city police officials said that the number of cases reported in the past two years, itself would be an indication to the kind of `abuse traps' the schools have become. "In a recent case, a 10-year-old child was repeatedly molested by her physical education teacher in a private school. While the parents complained at first, they did not want to register a case and hence the teacher could get away with just a dismissal order when he should have been punished for statutory rape," a police official said.

In a more gruesome case, a 14-year-old class IX student who was repeatedly raped by her teacher was forced to deliver a child as the parents were not aware of her pregnancy. The case was reported from a city government school and the only punishment doled out to the accused was a suspension, an activist who dealt with the case said.

"While most students who were molested reported the matter directly to their parents, in many cases the issue was hushed up. There is a great fear among the parents to come out with such cases and the schools punish the teachers by dismissing them. The same teacher would continue in some other school and continue to molest other students," said M Venkat Reddy, director, MV Foundation. Referring to the Parkwood case, he said that even high end schools like international and global ones should be under the government scanner to prevent such instances of harassment.

Due to the rise in cases, an NGO working with child rights, Divya Disha has petitioned the secondary school education department to put in place a redressal mechanism for children where they are allowed to report such cases. "We have asked the state government to introduce a redressal mechanism for students grievances along with the implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTA). We have also requested them to formulate a time-bound framework for starting such redressal mechanisms in schools," said Isidore Phillips, convener, Divya Disha. The NGO has petitioned the principal secretary of school education, Sambashiva Rao on the implementation of sexual harassment combat mechanisms in schools.

Changes to MBA admissions test replace essay with analysis

The Graduate Management Admission Test — the dominant test for MBA entrance, but one that is facing competition — will soon have a new section, designed to test the ability of would-be business students to analyze multiple kinds of information.

The new "integrated reasoning" questions will present test-takers with a spreadsheet, a table, text and other information and then ask either single or multiple questions. While the answers will be multiple choice, there will likely be multiple correct answers, with test-takers asked to list all correct answers. These new questions will replace one of the two GMAT essays and will be reported in a new score, while preserving existing scores for the essay and the verbal-quantitative total. The new section will be added in 2012.

Testing experts see the move as a sign that the Graduate Management Admission Council, an organization of business schools that owns the GMAT, is trying to make the test more focused on MBA entrance and management education, probably as a means to fend off competition from the Educational Testing Service's Graduate Record Examinations. In 2003, ETS lost the contract to manage the GMAT, and in recent years ETS has pushed the GRE as an alternative test that business schools might use, setting up the GMAT-GRE competition as one of the hottest in the world of standardized testing.

The reason that the GMAT was open to a challenge is that it is not a test specific to business schools, but rather features general verbal, quantitative and writing sections. While designed to test someone's ability to succeed in a business program, the test itself doesn't stress economics or accounting or any specific business school skill set — or at least that has been the case until now.

The changes reflected a broad evaluation of the existing test, as well as interviews with business school faculty members. Sarathy said that what the review found was that test-takers generally earned very similar scores on each of the two essays, so having two essays as opposed to one was adding little information. What faculty members wanted was more of a test that resembled the kind of analysis that business school students actually perform, and that new MBAs might do in their jobs.

As an example of the kind of questions that might be on the test, the GMAC said that students might receive a spreadsheet with data on the number of passengers and flights in and out of 21 airports, and then be asked to respond to a series of statements about the data and/or other information with regard to the various airports. Many of the questions may not be factual, but may be about trade-offs raised by certain choices.

The new questions will take 30 minutes and — with the elimination of the essay — will not add to the time of the test (currently 3.5 hours). The changes reflected a "continuous evolution" of the GMAT in an effort to try to better predict which people would succeed in business school.

The relative strength of the GMAT and GRE is the subject of much debate among their partisans. More b-school applicants take the GMAT, but the GRE has made inroads in terms of the number of business schools that will accept the test as an alternative.

Neglect of school education in India

At its simplest level, liberalisation equals the removal of market distortions. Price or supply control by the government can create artificial scarcities and lead to irrational pricing either too high or so low and populist as to be unviable. In the long term, society and consumers inevitably pay the price.

Since the reforms of 1991, India has recognised the logic of liberalisation in business sectors as far apart as telecom and energy. Yet, it is unconscionable that such an approach is deliberately ignored when it comes to a compelling arena: school education. Policy neglect if not policy perversity is leading to a crying paucity of good private schools in India's biggest cities.

Why does school education remain a shaming embodiment of India's shortage economy? There is massive demand; parents have paying capacity; entrepreneurs and service providers are ever willing to fill the gap. However, policy angularities and an over-bureaucratised regulatory system present an overwhelming obstacle. City authorities determine school fees, place ceilings on the size of schools, make it near impossible to change land use to open new schools. All this is happening even in Delhi, India's capital.

As per Delhi Development Authority (DDA) regulations, no new school (nursery-class XII) in the city can extend beyond four acres. That apart, land use norms meant to protect residential areas from encroachment by factories and commercial complexes are being misconstrued. State and city governments routinely use them to prevent the setting up of schools in residential neighbourhoods even if they benefit rather than endanger the local community.

The crux of the issue is the state's encroachment upon the autonomy of private, unaided schools, and its cussed refusal to facilitate remunerative pricing of school education services. The fees issue is the thin end of the wedge. State governments use it to bully and tighten their influence on private schools. These schools are asked to get clearance, and frequently denied clearance, for a fee hike. The matter is painted in vulgar terms: so-called "elite" schools are accused of "profiteering", without any larger "social responsibility".

In its judgement in TMA Pai Foundation vs State of Karnataka (2002), an 11-member bench of the Supreme Court made a perceptive comment: "There is no compulsion on students to attend private schools. The rush for admission is occasioned by the standards maintained in such schools and recognition of the fact that state-run schools do not provide the same standards of education. The state says it has no funds to establish institutions at the same level of excellence as private schools. But by curtailing the income of such private schools, it disables those schools from affording the best facilities because of lack of funds."

How does this happen? Consider an ongoing controversy. Seventy-five per cent of the running expenses of a private school go towards staff salaries, human resource being critical to institutional quality and reputation. In 2008, the Sixth Central Pay Commission submitted its report to the government of India. As a consequence of its acceptance, in 2009 there was a knock-on revision of wages by state governments. As such, government schoolteachers in some states found their salaries going up by 60 per cent.

Obviously private schools were also obliged to increase their salaries. There was both a market and a regulatory principle at work here. As per the Delhi School Education (DSE) Act, 1973, private schools cannot have a lower salary matrix than government schools. The DSE Act is a particularly draconian piece of legislation that requires private schools to seek prior permission for even routine administrative tasks.

Theoretically, the DSE Act is limited to Delhi. Even so, it has become the template being used by a variety of state governments to "fix" private schools. It is increasingly cited by authorities in states such as UP, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Assam.

In 2009, after the Pay Commission award and its cascading impact, private schools sought to raise fees. In Delhi, the state government allowed private schools to charge Rs 4,500 as a one-time fee and raise regular fees by up to Rs 500 a month. When it came to permission for the annual fee hike in April 2010, however, another controversy was triggered. The only school allowed to cross the Rs 500 barrier and take its fees further was Sanskriti School, run by the Central Civil Services Society!

In Mumbai, ministers and bureaucrats ran a media campaign against private schools and then appointed Kumud Bansal, former secretary in the Union human resource development ministry, as head of a committee to the study the "Fee Structure for Un-Aided Schools". In October 2009, the Bansal panel submitted its report. Citing court judgements and case law, it recommended "private unaided schools should have the autonomy to fix the school fees". It also argued that a "reasonable surplus" of "up to 15 per cent of the total revenue" could be retained by the school for future investment, and that this would not amount to profiteering.

Will Maharashtra accept the Bansal report? In nine months, the state government has not made up its mind. Meanwhile, schools and governments in Delhi and other states are waiting for that big decision in Mumbai. It will set a precedent and leave its mark on the future and viability of private schools across India.

USA seeking for incentives for educational investment in India

The US-India Business Council has expressed support for the Foreign Education Bill pending before the Indian parliament, but said certain financial requirements could deter foreign educational institutions from investing in India.

In a letter to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, the trade association representing over 300 leading US firms investing in India said the legislation is a critical step in opening India's higher education system and meeting the goal of 30% Gross Enrollment Ratio in the next ten years.

Importantly, the Bill will help to foster greater knowledge exchange between our two countries, further strengthening the growing Strategic Partnership. Many colleges and universities are ready and willing to invest in India's education system and are eager to partner with Indian schools. It is critical, however, that certain incentives be established to guarantee their participation in such an endeavor.

As the world's largest free-market democracies, the United States and India must be leaders in driving global growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship. To do so, both countries must equip the next generation with the education and skills necessary to compete and win in the 21st Century economy.