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The right to education is a basic fundamental right and providing universal primary education remains one of the greatest challenges and a great opportunity the world over.

In India, although enrollment rates are gradually increasing in rural areas, the quality of education has been suffering and children have been dropping out of school. Even though 77.2 percent of children enroll each year, only around 59 percent complete their school education. The main reasons for the dropout rate are poverty and caste discrimination The latest census confirms that the literacy rate is 75.9 percent for males and 54.2 percent for females.

Despite the many serious challenges it faced when it gained its independence, 58 years ago, India has taken large strides on the road to development. It now has the second-fastest-growing economy in the world. It is at the vanguard of the technologies that drive the knowledge economy of today. Its large and expanding middle class not only provides the skilled manpower for a wide range of scientific, technological, and managerial requirements but also constitutes a huge consumer market. This economic resurgence, coupled with its independent foreign policy, has given India a standing and recognition that enables it to play an active and positive role on the world stage.

There are major gains to be made by globalization, but if a country globalizes at the highest-possible speed and pays no attention to literacy, the lack of social opportunity, and the lack of health care, it is creating problems for itself. In that case, the blame lies not with globalization but with concomitant policies. Globalization needs to be put in a broader context of social and economic policies.

CII works very closely with the government, industry, and the community and has a National Committee on Primary Education and Literacy. To promote primary education in the country, CII has launched an education campaign targeted at underprivileged, motivated children who are restricted by the lack of means for formal education.

a. CII's work in the elementary and secondary education sector, including current activities and future events

Among the initiatives undertaken by CII in the area of primary and secondary education are :

Basti Shiksha Pariyojan is a project that provides non-formal education, remedial education and rehabilitation of children in the mainstream system, adult education, vocational training, health awareness and checkups, training of self-help groups, and awareness of HIV/AIDS. The project is being jointly implemented by the CII, Coca Cola India, and Honda Siel Ltd.

Training of Teachers in 151 Gali Schools in the Yamuna Pushta Slum Area is improving the quality of education for more than 4,000 children. The project is being jointly implemented by the CII, Bank of America, DIVA India and Navjyoti Police Foundation. It has already completed the training of 120 teachers in Gali Schools in the Yamuna Pushta Slum Area and research is on to monitor the impact of the training.

CII-Facilitated Linkages between State Government and Member Company for IT-Enabled Education. CII has facilitated a connection between Microsoft and the Municipal Corporate of Delhi (MCD) that has resulted in an memorandum of understanding between Microsoft and MCD for training teachers at 1,000 MCD schools in Delhi. The idea is to empower the teachers to use IT as a tool for classroom teaching.

CII regularly organizes workshops, roundtables, and seminars on various topics such as corporate-sector participation in elementary education, children and young people in the changing media landscape, and consultations with corporations on the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2005.

Publications: Compendium of Corporate Case Studies in Education

CII has released the Compendium of Corporate Case Studies in Education, an interesting collection of 45 case studies contributed by CII member companies. The cases highlight companies' innovative intervention in the area of education, the challenges and constraints faced during implementation, lessons learned and messages for the business fraternity. The compendium is a platform for exchange of success stories and will be a source of encouragement for other corporations. It will also provide a road map for those eager to support education initiatives.

Advocacy with the Government

Advocacy on policy issues has been an important focus area for CII. Maintaining the quality of education in government schools, curriculum reforms, examination reforms, system-level reforms; encouraging and providing skills-based training from Class VIII simultaneously with studies; introducing in-service teacher training; changing assessment systems; integrating information communications technology (ICT)into education; utilizing additional resources efficiently; encouraging holistic character-building education; presenting the corporate perspective on 25 percent reservation for students belonging to the socio-economically weaker sections; making education more investment-friendly; and introducing objective, transparent parameters for accountability that need to be enforced in private as well as government schools are among the issues that CII has taken up with the government.

NEW CII INITIATIVE LAUNCHED / Future Events

CII/UNESCO/State Government Partnership for Quality Education Launched in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi

To augment government initiatives for improving the quality of school education , CII in partnership with UNESCO and State Governments is supporting the long-term phased initiative for Quality Education in selected schools of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

The pilot project aims at a long-term strategy to significantly reduce the number of out-of-school children as well as to improve the overall levels of retention and achievement. The project entails a multipronged approach, involving strategies for the facilitation of across-the-board improvements in the entire curriculum. This includesteaching/learning materials, classroom transactions, teacher training, quality-assessment tools and examinations, regular evaluation of teaching/learning practices by trained supervisors while simultaneously building community/school linkages. Innovative use of technology for strengthening quality school education will be an integral part of the project.

The project will focus on stimulating the innate curiosity of children through active, participatory learning; developing life skills and vocational skills; and creating a child-friendly, hygienic and pleasing environment so that going to school will be a motivating and rewarding experience for all children. The project will ensure convergence of this initiative with other ongoing programs so that there is no duplication of time and effort.

Specific aims of the project include :

• To improve the quality of classroom transactions
• To ensure a clean, hygienic, attractive environment in school so that children are encouraged to come to school and learn.
• To enable & empower teachers to use innovative pedagogical tools for a creative, burden free & joyful teaching learning process.
• To strengthen the PTA's, SMC's. To work in close co-ordination with the local DIET’s to build the capacity of teachers.
• To invite, motivate & encourage stakeholders’ participation, contribution and ownership in the project.
• To promote gender parity & equality in the select project schools.
• To improve the quality of the school health programmes.
• To strengthen linkages between the neighbourhood communities & the school
• To improve the quality of regular assessment.
• To have trained supervisors regularly evaluate teaching/learning practices, with a view to constantly monitoring quality

To improve school administration processes

• To improve principals' management and leadership ability and skills through training
• To provide children's opportunities for all-round personality development by integrating modules on life skills, value education, and vocational skills into the school curriculum and encouraging many students to participate in the co-curricular activities organized by schools

Innovative Use of ICT in the Quality Education Project:

An online electronic resource center to be created for quality education will cater to the needs of teachers and students and will also provide an online opportunity for stakeholders to contribute in different ways to this project.

Scope of the e-Resource Centre:
For Teachers:

• Online teachers training resource for planning lessons using innovative teaching methods and aids (such as a catalog of worksheets, games, lesson plans, activities, links); learner-led (as opposed to instructor-led), creating innovative pedagogical tools and contexts for shifting the “locus of control of pace, time, and content of learning” to learners
• Tailored (and informed) instruction delivery, enabling processes, skills, and disposition
• Tools for self-learning and capacity building
• Life skills content and trainer resources
• Tools for assessing gaps in the learning processes of children
• Platform for sharing best practices & exchange programs
• Platform for teacher honors, teacher mentors and tutoring support to teachers

For Students:

• Diagnostic-linked visuals
• Platform for remedial & diagnostic learning
• Diagnostic assessment: A pedagogical tool to help students self-assess learning and ‘directional support’.
• Competitive Quotient: Innovative low cost pedagogical support through benchmarking, self-assessments and focused tutoring.
• Counseling/tutoring space for individual or focused group of students.
• Life skills: Extensive self-assessments, reading material, , legal literacy, leadership, grooming, gender-related sensitivities, vocational education, value education
• Exchange platform for students
• Tailored real-time administrative and learning-quality information to be used for benchmarking performance/progress of students, teachers, and schools

Industry:
Links to “Opportunities for Public/Private Partnership” and “Opportunity for Contributing Resources for the Project” will appear on the Web site of the state governments.

Project Tenure: The tenure of the project will be five years.

The detailed plan for intervention, along with the budget outline, will be developed, discussed, approved, and finalized by the key partners in the project after crucial gaps have been assessed and outlined in the Needs Assessment Report.

Current Status: A needs-assessment study has been launched in Delhi schools and will soon be launched in 20 Uttar Pradesh schools. A report will be published by the last week of December 2005. The necessary quality-education interventions will be undertaken from 2006.

Future Projects /Events

CII - UNESCO State Government Partnership for Pilot Project

The Quality Life Skills Education project in Srinagar aims to reinforce quality life skills education in select government schools of Srinagar, by motivating, enabling, and empowering principals as well as teachers to integrate life skills education into the existing curriculum. This is being done to providing a full range of information, support, and services to adolescents and enabling them to cope with diverse challenges and risks in their environment, especially empowering them to make informed decisions and choices to lead a dignified, healthy, and secure life.

The strategies for implementation will include a needs-assessment study, preparation of modules for grades V to XII, training of principals and teachers, preparation of a facilitator's handbook for different levels and guest lectures. In addition, there will be residential camps for boys and girls on life skills education, provision of a counselor's services to the schools on a rotation basis, and regular monitoring and evaluation by trained supervisors.

India Education Summit

his will be held on the theme, The Paradigm Shift in Indian Education: Challenges & Opportunities in December 2005. (A date from the HRD Minister is awaited.)
The objectives of the education summit are :

• To jointly review the many challenges in the Indian education system at the elementary, secondary, higher secondary, vocational, and higher-education levels
• To understand the kind of reform that is required in Indian education to enable India to take advantage of the new global order
• To involve stakeholders in the process of reinventing, restructuring, and reforming the educational system

• The fact that 35 percent of school-age children are still out of school
  
• Lack of minimum necessities in schools
  
• Inferior quality of education
  
• Concern over the dropout rate (55 percent at the elementary school level)
  
• Low achievement of learners
  
• Lack of an adequate number of motivated teachers
  
• High direct and indirect costs of education
  
• Scarce resources for dealing with underprivileged children
  
• Lack of gender sensitivity
  
• Reaching the unreached—children from marginalized sectors of society such as scheduled casts and tribes and children who are differently abled

The challenges in elementary and secondary education can be summarized as follows:Universal Access

• Universal access
  
• Equity
  
• Universal enrollment
  
• Universal retention
  
• Universal achievement
  
• Quality of education
  

Training and education are by far the biggest area for collaboration with Indian Americans. The success saga of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the brilliant students they produce is well known. The IITs are, as Bill Gates famously said, “a treasure-house of human capital.” After conquering the world, IITians are now in payback mode—particularly the IIT Kharagpur alumni, who have a long tradition of giving back to their alma mater.

Indian Americans can opt for giving lectures, setting up training institutes, contributing to their alma mater, or training an identified group of people. The Council has recently launched a University Networking Program to enable Indian Americans to provide their expertise to students and universities in various parts of India.

Some specific areas of education where foreign collaboration will help include:

• Sharing best practices in school education
  
• Sharing strategies on delivering life skills education
  
• Sharing innovative methods of teaching
  
• Sharing expertise on preparation of low-cost teaching/learning material
  
• Sharing technical know-how and software for improving school management and administration
  
• Investment in government schools to improve the quality of education
  
• Assistance in designing and compiling teachers' handbooks
  
• Assistance to government-school children, such as provision of stationery, uniforms, sports equipment, library books, science lab equipment, used computers, floor mats, benches, cupboards, blackboards, erasers, and chalk
  
• Designing orientation sessions and motivational workshops for principals and teachers
  
• Sharing tools for monitoring and evaluating teachers
  
• Sharing innovative ideas on linking up schools with communities
  
• Facilitating cultural exchange programs between government schools in India and America
  
• Sharing success stories on the vocational skills education and training programs in schools
  
• Designing and printing of school resource materials for students and teachers
  
• Extending quality resource materials for the CII e-resource center for government schools
  
• Assisting industry, through education support, in providing teaching/learning materials, globes, charts, crayons, color pencils, pens, erasers, and the like