Breaking the class barrier in Madhya Pradesh

Twelve year old Vikas (name changed), a student of class IV at the government run CM RISE school in Barkhedi area of Bhopal, is diffident when asked to write his name in English. It’s not surprising—the first generation learner, is just one of millions of children students who spent the past two years at home due to Covid-induced lockdowns. Moreover, government schools have long been afflicted by low-quality teaching and dearth of infrastructure, leading to learning gaps. Vikas has been promoted every year without an assessment of his learning.

Twelve year old Vikas (name changed), a student of class IV at the government run CM RISE school in Barkhedi area of Bhopal, is diffident when asked to write his name in English. It’s not surprising—the first generation learner, is just one of millions of children students who spent the past two years at home due to Covid-induced lockdowns. Moreover, government schools have long been afflicted by low-quality teaching and dearth of infrastructure, leading to learning gaps. Vikas has been promoted every year without an assessment of his learning.

The Madhya Pradesh government’s latest, but not the first, intervention in school education aims to address this. Students at the Barkhedi government school returned to the campus after two years to find swanky classrooms with electronic teaching aids, new furniture, air-conditioned libraries, a counseling room, a medical room, a music class with instruments, even an AI lab. Like many of his classmates from modest backgrounds, Vikas says he doesn’t want to go back home.

The institution is one of a series of schools the MP government has set up across the state, particularly to address low quality pedagogy, bridge learning gaps and provide services usually identified with private schools. A total of 380 CM RISE (an acronym for Respect Integrity Strength and Excellence) schools, both in urban and rural areas, have been started with this express purpose, and have become functional in the last fortnight. It will be scaled up to 9,200 in the next 10 years.

Madhya Pradesh’s government run schools have been blighted by poor quality. The annual status of education report (ASER) by Pratham, an NGO that works in the education sector, corroborates this. The report on learning trends in MP between 2012-2018 (pre-Covid) found that while there was a marginal improvement in the percentage of class II students who could read designated texts (story level) from 2.7 per cent in 2012 to four per cent in 2018, there was a regression in reading ability. While in 2012, 64.6 per cent students in class VIII could read text for class II students, this fell to 57.9 per cent in 2018.

The public education sector in MP is marred by a legacy of politics, recruitment scams, low-quality teachers and the government’s reluctance to take corrective steps. But with quality education now on the political agenda, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave a go ahead to the CM RISE concept in March 2020 after he returned for a fourth term.

The school education department began the process for putting in place the CM RISE schools project by integrating primary, middle and secondary schools in one campus as this prevents students from dropping out. A national design competition was organised and 31 architects chosen to design the schools. The government used data analytics with variables such as land and infrastructure availability and enrolment to decide the schools’ locations, finally shortlisting 15,000 places, which have been scaled down to 9,200.

Pre-primary classes have been introduced in the state (most states don’t have them in government schools) through CM RISE Schools. Also, teachers and principals have been given a handbook to follow. “Learning has been made quantifiable, as teachers have to make lesson plans and know if students have learnt what has been taught. Even disciplinary rules have been made, clarifying what is to be done in case of transgressions,” says principal secretary, school education, Rashmi Arun Shami. For selecting teachers, applications were invited and tests were held. “The idea is to get teachers with a higher skill set and commitment level,” she added. Principals and teachers are being trained at IIM Indore. The schools have smart classrooms, laboratories, halls for extra-curricular activities like arts, music and dance and space for physical training and games.

How are CM RISE schools different from similar attempts at creating quality schools in the past in MP? A decade ago, the government set up Schools of Excellence, in which students with a certain level of ability and above were taken. However, CM RISE Schools are inclusive and aim to provide quality education irrespective of the child’s ability. Before the Schools of Excellence were the Model Schools set up in the 1950s and ’60s, which aimed at something similar. “At CM RISE schools, the child is the centre of learning, something we never did in the past. Academics alone is not stressed upon, but wholesome development through promotion of the concepts of RISE—Respect Integrity Strength and Excellence,” says Kamleshwar Dayal Shrivastava, principal of the Government School, Barkhedi, now a CM RISE school. Shrivastava claims that attendance was 52 out of 400 high school students the first day the school reopened, which has shot up to 200 now.

However, not everyone is a votary of the CM RISE schools concept. “Any policy intervention should be within the framework of the Constitution. No country has been able to achieve universalisation of elementary education without giving equitable education in all schools,” says noted educationist Anil Sadgopal, essentially suggesting that 9,200 schools out of 1,00,000 are too few. “By creating schools that have more than others, the government will deny better education to the remaining schools, which is constitutionally unjust,” he adds. “More specifically, the CM RISE schools have not been able to shield teachers from election and other government duties that impact teaching.” Sadgopal, who was part of the drafting committee for the Right to Education Act, says that MP has had a num­ber of policy interventions in the past, inc­l­uding the “disastrous” Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS), which led to the recr­u­­­itment of low quality staff. “Many state governments tried addressing issues of quality but often financial support is withdrawn and the schools die a natural death,” he says.

Interestingly, though the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates are often accused of trying to ‘saffronise’ the education sector, the CM RISE schools have not run into political controversy. In fact, Oppo­­sition Congress MLAs want more schools in their constituencies. “The schools will follow the curriculum of the NEP 2020 approved by the Union government,” says an official. Indeed, adherence to NEP 2020 seems to be a reason why the Sangh has no issues with CM RISE schools, except a demand to introduce yoga.

The CM RISE schools face immediate and long term challenges. For one, creation of infrastructure is taking time. Secondly, finding committed teachers is a huge challe­nge. “Managing expectations is a challenge as these schools set out to achieve what has not been done elsewhere,” says Shiladitya Ghosh of People India, a volunt­ary agency working on the CM RISE project.

The task is gargantuan, but if successful, the CM RISE schools would accomplish the near impossible­—providing quality education to those who cannot afford it.