Project Report An Evaluation of the Impact of Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in Kerala Dr. C S Venkiteswaran & Dr. V Sivadasan Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Submitted to Kerala State Planning Board Pattom Palace Trivandrum- 695 004 An Evaluation of the Impact of Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in Kerala: Project Report 1 Executive Summary The Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign (Pothu Vidhyabhyasa Samrakshana Yajnjam) or Public Education Rejuvenation Mission is an action-oriented programme launched by the Government of Kerala in 2016. It is an integral part of the Nava Kerala Karma Padhathi (Mission for a New Kerala). The Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign aims to bring a comprehensive revival of the public education system in the State. It suggests the phased up-gradation of the physical and academic infrastructure and the revision of the prevailing curriculum and pedagogy. With this, the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign intends to bring international standards to the State’s education system by transforming public educational institutions into future centres of academic excellence. The people-centric character is the hallmark of the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign. Unlike other policy formulations that worked for the resuscitation of the public education system, the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign is trying to make a direct link with the society, people, and the functionaries of the schools by taking recourse to the robust Local Self-Government Institutions in the State. In that sense, the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign strives to propose a Kerala Model of Education through a collective effort. Besides, the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign carries a genuine social commitment within itself; that is, everyone ought to get equal opportunity to avail of better quality education as long as education remains a Fundamental Right. The spirit and rationale of the An Evaluation of the Impact of Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in Kerala: Project Report 3 Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign rest in the history of social renaissance and democratic spirit of Kerala, for it upholds the principles of freedom, social justice, equal opportunity, participatory governance, and decentralised planning. That is to say, for the government, the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign is a catalyst for the creation of a ‘just society’ by transforming human beings through education. On the one side, the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign views education as the vehicle of social change, and on the other side, it extols the ‘public mindedness’ of education. The Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign is an ongoing programme, and the present study intends to evaluate its impact so far on the ground. The primary objectives of the study are: • To analyse the impact of the Rejuvenation Campaign with regard to the improvements in physical infrastructural facilities in the State’s public educational institutions over the last three years. • To enquire about the impacts of the Rejuvenation Campaign with regard to improvements in the academic infrastructure in the State’s public educational institutions over the last three years • To assess the impacts of the Rejuvenation Campaign with regard to the curriculum, pedagogy, and the learning process in the State’s public educational institutions over the last three years. • To identify the limitations of the Rejuvenation Campaign and draw some suggestions for its improvement. An Evaluation of the Impact of Public Education 4 Rejuvenation Campaign in Kerala: Project Report Structure of the Study The present study is divided into seven chapters: Chapter I: Introduction This chapter presents the background, objectives, methodology, and data collection strategies of the present study. Chapter II: Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign: Conceptual Framework and Organisational Structure Chapter II focuses on the novel idea proposed by the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign and the decentralised character of its organisational structures functioning at the ground level. Chapter III: Impact of the Rejuvenation Campaign on General/Physical Infrastructure This chapter tries to identify the impacts created by the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in the improvement of the general/physical infrastructural facilities of the public educational institutions in the State. Based on the fieldwork data, it traces the kind of improvements that have taken place in the domain of the general/physical infrastructure of the public educational institutions and explores the role of the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in it. Chapter IV: Improvement in Academic Infrastructure This chapter examines the role of the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in improving the academic infrastructure of the public educational institutions in the State. An attempt is also made to draw a connection between the academic infrastructure and the ongoing curriculum revision proposed by the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign based on the directives of the Kerala Curriculum Framework, 2007. The chapter explores the effort of the Public Education An Evaluation of the Impact of Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in Kerala: Project Report 5 Rejuvenation Campaign in bringing the issue of the academic infrastructure to the centre stage of our discussion on public education system. Chapter V: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and the Learning Process under Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign This chapter is an exploratory one, covering a range of issues pertaining to the prevailing public education system in the State. It focuses on the changes brought by the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in the fields of curriculum and pedagogy and in the learning process. Efforts are also made to identify numerous issues falling in the areas of teaching and learning, and to evaluate the idea of education envisioned by the Rejuvenation Campaign from a critical point of view. Chapter VI: The Impact of Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign Among Students in Public Educational Institutions This chapter presents the response of the student community regarding the changes brought about by Rejuvenation Campaign in public educational institutions in the State. It discusses the changes brought by the Rejuvenation Campaign in certain domains such as learning environment, ICT-enabled education, confidence building, extra-curricular activities, environmental awareness, leadership skills, student-teacher relationship and so on. Chapter VII: Conclusion This is the last chapter of study that tries to map the pros and cons of the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign at the ground-level, and puts forward some recommendations for improving the implementation of the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in the future. An Evaluation of the Impact of Public Education 6 Rejuvenation Campaign in Kerala: Project Report Acknowledgement This research would not have been completed without great help and support of people who had contributed their time in different ways. First and foremost, we are deeply grateful to a number of personalities namely, Dr V K Ramachandran, (Vice- Chairman, Kerala State Planning Board), Dr B Ekbal (Member of the Kerala State Planning Board and Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Kerala), Dr K J Joseph, (Director, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation), Dr Joy Elamon (Director, KILA), Anil Kumar S, (Registrar Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation), Kiranlal P S, (Former Registrar, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation) and Dr N Ramalingam (Associate Professor at Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation) for extending their constant encouragement and support. We are also thankful to Dr J Prasad (Director, SCERT), Dr A P Kuttikrishnan (Director, SSK), Dr C Ramakrishnan (Educational Expert), Dr K A Maniram, (Special Secretary to the Education Minister), KC Harikrishnan (Member, Curriculum Committee, SCERT), Dr Ratheesh Kaliyadan (Education Expert), Dr Lakshmi Priya (Associate Professor, MG College, Thiruvananthapuram), Dr Abhilash Babu (Associate Professor MG University, Kottayam), Dr Abhilash G Nath (Assistant Professor, MG University, Kottayam), Manu MR (Assistant Professor, Govt. College Kattapana), Dr Shefeeque Vadakan (Research Officer, Kerala State Higher Education Council), Dr TP Harshan (Secretary to VC, State Planning Board), Dr Vasumathi T (Assistant Professor, University of Calicut), and G Pramod (Photographer) for their valuable assistance in different phases of the work. We would also like to express our thanks to Dr Sandheep G, Libina K Sebastian, Nimisha Narayanan, Sajeesh OG, Shahna Valsan, Rizwan KJ, Dr Rennymon KC, Dikesh PK, Akhildas V, Rakesh Blathur and Ajmal A. The teachers of various institutions gave us enormous support and cooperation during the course of our study. Besides, the elected representatives of people, PTA presidents, heads of various schools and institutions, students and their organisations, and alumni associations also extended constant support in this regard. Similarly, the assistance and support of the faculty and staff in GIFT and KILA were crucial to the completion of the work. We express our gratitude to all of them. An Evaluation of the Impact of Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign in Kerala: Project Report 7 List of Graphs Graph 1.1 Schools in Kerala: Different Types Graph 1.2 Percentage of Students in Schools in Kerala: Different Types (2016-2020) Graph 1.3 Students’ Strength in the