(MOST URGENT AND DISTURBING) We got information from a school complex in Harda today that Amita Sharma (Secretary, Elementary Education and Commisioner, State Education Centre) has issued a letter on the 3^rd July, 2002 informing the Collector Hoshangabad of a government decision to close down the HSTP programme in Hoshangabad. The letter was marked for information to the Collectors of Harda and all the 13 districts where the programme is running, the Principal Secretary, Education, MD, MP Textbook Corporation, Secretary to the CM. No copy was marked to Eklavya and we have come to know of the order from the field.

As per our previous update, the high level meeting of the state school education department and Eklavya had ended on a positive note with them asking us for a note on the programme focusing on four specific issues. A comprehensive document charting the development of the programme in the form of a review was prepared and submitted to them on 4^th June 2002.

Following a long silence, on our enquiries a meeting took place with Mr. Gopalakrishnan, Secy. to the CM on July 4, 2002. He in the midst of discussion questioned why Eklavya should work in curriculum and why does it not shift to supplementary material development and teacher training etc. He referred to a quick data collection and analysis they had done of Class 10 examination results of one year (2002), that reflected that Hoshangabad ranked about the 20^th out of 45 districts in % of students getting first divisions in Science & in overall pass percentages. He implied that this meant that there was no positive effect of HSTP in Hoshangabad. We asked for the data and a few tables were given to us. On detailed study of these tables, we sent our response to Mr. Gopalakrishnan on July 8^th, 2002. Appendix I

In continuation, a brief meeting with the CM took place yesterday (July 10) when Eklavya asked for a formal meeting to discuss the following points. ( the substance of the letter we submitted to the CM yesterday, is given below.)

(i) Potential of a State-level Programme to improve levels of Science and Mathematics Education at school level in Madhya Pradesh and processes by which this goal can be achieved.

In this context, we welcome the appointment of the new State Advisory Board of Education. We feel the need to set up a high-powered committee of scientists and educationists under its aegis. This committee could look into the detailed documents submitted by us as an internal review of the Hoshangabad Science Programme and also the review that the State Government has put up. It would also need to scrutinise & review the attempts at improvement of science education including the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Program in a time-bound manner and come out with a set of conclusions & recommendations for State level work in this area.

(ii) The running of the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme: the contribution it can make to the above.

We request that any decision regarding the programme in Hoshangabad should wait till the above process of review is complete and the processes of positive State level change takes off. We feel that any decision preempting an in depth review by independent experts would be a great injustice to the serious and intensive combined efforts of many committed people including hundreds of school teachers and eminent scientists alike, to improve the quality of education in the State. This effort has been nurtured by a large number of State Governments particularly of the Congress. Any hurried decision to close the program would also send negative political signals in secular political and academic quarters.

(iii) Future directions of Eklavya’s partnership with the State Government — What are the possibilities? What are the perceived problems?

Any partnership is fraught with constructive tensions, which need to be resolved through positive facilitation. The Eklavya-State Government partnership is no exception. The strength of this partnership lies in the long association that has prevailed between Eklavya and the State Government, and has been able to resolve the tensions that arise, in a constructive manner. We feel the need once again to mutually understand the underlying issues and take this partnership forward.

(iv) Social Science Teaching Programme — How can it contribute to the process of developing a secular, progressive and academically sound curricular programme for teaching of social sciences in schools.

A Social Science programme has been developed in partnership with Eklavya, on sound secular, academic and pedagogic bases. This program currently runs in only 8 government schools. It awaits a similar review and evaluation, which had been proposed two years back, though eminent experts like Professor R. Govinda and Professor Jean Dreze have done a desk evaluation. The State Advisory Board of Education constituted by the State Government has eminent Social Scientists who could review this program and give their recommendations as to its role in resisting obscurantist tendencies in Social Science Education.

Meanwhile the extension of this program is required in the eight schools where it runs, till it’s larger role is defined. We request you to give instructions in this regard.

(v) Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia’s invitation to Eklavya to develop programmes to improve quality of education in Guna, Shivpuri and Gwalior districts.

Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia has invited us to work in the above areas. We seek your concurrence and suggestions in this regard.

The CM ordered his secretariat to organise a meeting in the following week with senior officials of the Education Department, Minister of School Education, Secretary to CM Shri Gopalakrishnan and Eklavya to take decisions on these matters.

Meanwhile, in an unexpected turn, today we got information from a school complex in Harda district that Amita Sharma (Secretary, Elementary Education and Commisioner, State Education Centre) has issued a letter on the 3^rd July, 2002 informing the Collector Hoshangabad of a government decision to discontinue the use of HSTP books and examination system in Hoshangabad. The letter was marked for information to the Collectors of Harda and the 13 other districts where the programme is running in one school complex each, the Principal Secretary, Education, MD, MP Textbook Corporation, CM’s Secretariat etc. For some unknown reason, the letter had not yet reached the District Education Office or schools in Hoshangabad district while it seemed to have been widely circulated in Harda district.

The CM is going to Hoshangabad and Babai tomorrow. There is a possibility that he may announce something on this account there. It is therefore urgent that as many people as possible get across to the CM and to the members of The State Advisory Board on Education immediately about the regressive nature of this decision and the need to revert it in the interest of quality Science Education.

A translation of the import of the letter follows later.

We have taken the following steps-

1. A letter of protest has been sent to Ms. Amita Sharma asking her to withdraw the letter till a transparent joint review of the programme takes place and a decision is taken on the basis of that, OR till the meeting called by the CM yesterday takes place.
2. A similar letter has been sent to the CM’s office.
3. A press release has been issued informing the sequence of events and expressing Eklavya’s shock and concerns.

In this situation, we need you to urgently do the following —

1. E-mail the CM’s office to protest and ask for a withdrawal of the letter and continuation of the HSTP in Hoshangabad.
2. Ask for the initiation of a just, transparent and joint review of HSTP.
3. Appeal to the nominated members of the newly formed State Advisory Board of Education to denounce this decision and ask for a review. The members are Professor Romila Thapar, Jean Dreze, N. Ram, Professor Gopal Guru, Professor Mushirul Hasan, Shri Prabhash Joshi, Prof. Krishna Kumar.

with regards, Kamal Mahendru, Sushil Joshi, Anjali Noronha, Rajesh Khindri, Tultul Biswas

Translation of Ms. Amita Sharma’s HSTP closure order

To,

Collector

Hoshangabad

Subject : Regarding the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP).

The government has received the resume of the meeting of the District Planning Committee (DPC) of Hoshangabad held on 7.2.2002 through the letter no. 3578, March 2002, from the Collector Hoshangabad. The description of the proceedings mentions that after a detailed discussion on the merits and demerits a unanimous decision was taken by the DPC to recommend the closure of the HSTP being taught in classes 6 to 8 in Hoshangabad district.

On the basis of the recommendation of the DPC of Hoshangabad, the state government has taken a decision to implement the Science curriculum developed by the state in classes 6 to 8 in Hoshangabad district. This decision will be in force with immediate effect. In the year 2002-2003, the evaluation of Science teaching for classes 6 to 8 will be done according to the mainstream evaluation methods specified by the government.

If any school in the Hoshanagabd district wishes to use the present Science curriculum (HSTP) in classes 6 to 8, it can use it as a supplementary curriculum in addition to the Science curriculum of the state government. By the supplementary curriculum of Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme the curriculum accepted by the state is implied.

The Managing Director, M.P. State Textbook Corporation will supply the necessary books to the Hoshangabad district immediately.

Amita Sharma

Secretary (Primary Education)

and

Commisioner, State Education Centre, Bhopal

1) Our response to Gopalkrishnan’s arguments.

2) Our response to Amita Sharma’s letter to the Collector Hoshangabad, asking for a withdrawal of her letter.

3) Letter to the CM on the same.

HSTP - Update 7 (CM's announcement)

Dear Friends,

The CM responded to some journalists' questions yesterday at Hoshangabad saying the decision to close Hoshangabad Science was taken because they wanted to implement the same kind of curriculum all over the state.

A press conference to denounce this academically and procedurally incorrect decision and raise the questions that emerge out of the whole process has been called at 4.00 pm today at Bhopal.

We are sorry that we could not send you the contact details with our update yesterday. Here follows what we have been able to gather right now.

Digvijay Singh

0755 - (O) 551433, 551396, 551581 Fax - 551781

0755 - (R) 540361, 661503, 540500, 540464 Fax - 540501

The SABE memebers can be contacted as follows -

Prof. Gopal Guru's contact no.
of Pune is 020-5660815.

Shri Prabhash Joshi

Prof. Mushirul Hassan,

38, Dakshinapuram

Jawaharlal Nehru University

New Delhi- 110 067

Office: 011-6107045

139, Uttarakhand, Jawaharlal
Nehru University New Delhi 110067,

Office: 011-6107045

Prof. Romila Thapar

Prof. Krishna Kumar

Shri N. Ram

Later in the evening the press statement of Eklavya will also be sent to all of you. Thanks for your phone calls and emails and the other ways you have been helping. The struggle will have to intensified, and so will your support.

Do also send us your suggestions regarding the future course of action for Eklavya.

A meeting of the resource teachers of Hoshangabad and Harda has been organised tomorrow at Hoshangabad at 11.00 am.

Do try to send us a copy of your protest letter at.

Kamal, Mahendroo, Rajesh Khindri, Anjali Noronha, Tultul Biswas and others at

HSTP - Update 8

Dear Friends,

We missed reporting earlier, that the statement given by the CM yesterday appeared significantly in the newspapers today. The Hindustan Times carried it on page 3 of its main newspaper (MP pg) so many of you have probably seen it. The other local dailies carried it in the Hoshangabad regional page and hence is not even available in Bhopal.

The press conference is currently going on.

The last email address is of Jean Dreze

Thanks and more later,

Tultul Biswas

HSTP - Update 9 (Press Release)

The Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) is an educational programme for the improvement of school education and it was started in 1972 by two voluntary organisations. Later, in 1978 it was spread to the entire district of Hoshangabad and during 1983-86 it was seeded in 133 other districts in one school complex each. HSTP has been acclaimed as an implementable programme in various educational and scientific fora.

The decision of the state government to close the programme was issued by the Commissioner, Rajya Shiksha Kendra on July 3, 2002. The letter states that the programme has been closed on the basis of the recommendation of the District Planning Committee (DPC) meeting of February 7, 2002. This reason in itself is illogical in many ways. To begin with, at the DPC meeting on February 7, 2002, when the proposal for closure of the programme was passed, no departmental report on this issue was tabled for the DPC members. Neither does the DPC have any facility for soliciting expert advise. The BJP MLA, Dr. Sitasaran Sharma did not present any substantial reasons while moving the proposal to close the programme either. So, while deliberating upon the DPC recommendation, the state government should have analysed the deliberations, on the basis of which the recommendation was passed. There is no proof of any such analysis. After the meeting, when the DPC members were made aware of the facts, most of the members agreed that this issue definitely needed to be reviewed and wrote letters to this effect to the Chairperson of the DPC. A review of this previous recommendation was done in the DPC meeting held on May 9, 2002 and after a detailed discussion, the decision was left to the Chief Minister.

Hence, the state government’s decision to close the program based on the DPC recommendation of February 7, 2002 has no logical basis. It is to be noted here that the report from the Education Department presented to the DPC on May 9, 2002 had many factual mistakes and falsities in it. These also need to be looked into in-depth. Eklavya had then replied to these issues in detail.

The Chief Minister yesterday expressed views at a press conference in Hoshangabad that the state government has decided to implement the same curriculum all over the state. But the order issued by Ms. Amita Sharma mentions only the Hoshangabad district. There are no clarifications for the curriculum to be followed by the other districts. Although, copies of the above have been marked and sent to District Collectors of all the districts where the programme is running. It seems that it is being indicated to them that they are to follow the same procedure in their districts. This is an attempt to project the DPC as representing the opinions of the residents of a district, whereas in reality it is an extension of the state government. It is essential to point out here that in this way, the state government is shirking from its responsibility and accountability to take decisions.

Another important question that arises in this context is - who will answer the questions that are raised with regard to this decision - the state government or the DPC? And what will be the forum where they address these questions? The state government has not yet clarified what its assessment of the programme is. In fact, the Chief Minister had instructed a detailed review of the entire programme. The results of such a review could have been the basis of decisions regarding the programme. The above review should have been conducted with the help of scientists and educationists and its results should have been made public. But when Secretary to the CM, Shri R. Gopalakrishnan was contacted in this matter, he presented some rough and incomplete data and said that on the basis of these the government had come to a conclusion that the results of the programme had not been good. This is a bureaucratic ridicule of the review process. Shri Gopalakrishnan presented some selected data of the results of class 10th, only for one academic year. He also said that this programme had also adversely affected the overall literacy rate of the district!!! It is evident that the state government has not conducted any proper review or evaluation. The decision of the state government on the basis of insufficient data is an insult to the successful running of the programme for 30 long years.

As far as the logic of implementing one curriculum all over the state, goes, the question arises - where will the ideas for improvement of education come from? And how and where will these ideas be then tested? The state governments own experimentation with the Seekhna Sikhana package shows that experimentation is extremely important in the context of quality improvement in education. Contextually-specific, child-centred education also requires that the shackles of standardisation be loosened.

There is one more important aspect of the process of this decision that needs careful examination. Ms. Amita Sharma did not think it important to take Eklavya into confidence before or while sending the order letter dated July 3, 2002. Neither was a copy marked to Eklavya. HSTP is a pioneering experiment and has - thus far - been considered a successful experiment in governmental and non-governmental partnership. But this kind of a one-sided decision from the government naturally destroys this spirit of partnership. It seems that the government has come full circle and arrived at a decision that it is going to function only in a bureaucratic manner.

It is also to be noted that since 1987 Eklavya has also been implementing an innovative experiment of Social Science Teaching in eight selected schools of Harda, Hoshangabad and Dewas district under the aegis of the SCERT. This programme required a annual extension from the state government. Eklavya has been requesting the government for the past two years, for a high level review of the programme to be followed by its expansion. The process of this review has not been initiated as yet. Meanwhile, Eklavya has undertaken a review of the programme with the help of eminent educationists and social scientists and submitted a copy of the report to the government. By keeping silent on the request of Eklavya to extend the programme for the present academic year, the government has in a way closed this programme too. Isn’t the closing down of a programme - based on innovative pedagogy, current sociological thinking and secular ideals - a regressive step for the government to take?

Eklavya was founded with the goal of taking good quality, relevant and meaningful education, not to the elite sections of society, but to the common people. Innumerable educationists, scientists, subject experts and research scholars are associated with Eklavya’s programmes on a voluntary basis. The most common source of education for the common people are government schools and local private schools. Eklavya will continue to work in this larger education system with the objective of contributing to the improvement of education. We will not only collaborate with teachers, students, parents and school managements closely, but will also continue with our efforts to contribute to the government education system. But along with this, the government should also review and adapt its policy and practices to give capable and committed groups like Eklavya a respectable, workable and democratic space to carry out its educational innovations.

(Kamal Mahendroo)

for Eklavya

Kothi Bazaar, Hoshangabad

HSTP - Update 10 (Govt. review report)

In this context we are attaching the following documents, in this order:

As reported earlier, a press conference was held in Bhopal to denounce the decision of the state government to close down HSTP without even an independant review. The meet was well attended and well reported.

Yesterday, a meeting of resource teachers from Harda and Hoshangabad was held in Hoshangabad. About 25-30 resource teachers were present. Although initially stunned by the undemocratic and illogical move of the government, the teachers were quick enough to suggest quite a few means of registering their protest.

HSTP - Update 11 (Response to the Govt. review)