Passage

Directions for the following 4 (four) items : Read the following passage and answer the four items that follow. Your answers to these items should be based on the passage only. Passage It is no longer enough for us to talk about providing for universal access to education. Making available schooling facilities is an essential prerequisite, but is insufficient to ensure that all children attend school and participate in the learning process. The school may be there, but children may not attend or they may drop out after a few months. Through school and social mapping, we must address the entire gamut of social, economic, cultural and indeed linguistic and pedagogic issues, factors that prevent children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, as also girls, from regularly attending and complementing elementary education. The focus must be on the poorest and most vulnerable since these groups are the most disempowered and at the greatest risk of violation or denial of their right to education. The right to education goes beyond free and compulsory education to include quality education for all. Quality is an integral part of the right to education. If the education process lacks quality, children are being denied their right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act lays down that the curriculum should provide for learning through activities, exploration and discovery. This places an obligation on us to change our perception of children as passive receivers of knowledge, and to move beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis of examinations. The teaching-learning process must become stress-free; and a massive programme for curricular reform should be initiated to provide for a child-friendly learning system, that is more relevant and empowering. Teacher accountability systems and processes must ensure that children are learning, and that their right to learn in a child-friendly environment is not violated. Testing and assessment systems must be reexamined and redesigned to ensure that these do not force children to struggle between school and tuition centres, and bypass childhood.

According to the passage, which one of the following is critical in bringing quality in education?

(a) Ensuring regular attendance of children as well as teachers in school
(b) Giving pecuniary benefits to teachers to motivate them
(c) Understanding the socio-cultural background of children
(d) Inculcating learning through activities and discovery ✓ UPSC's answer

Why the answer is (d)

• The passage says quality is an integral part of the right to education, and that the RTE Act requires the curriculum to provide for learning through activities, exploration and discovery.

• It asks us to stop treating children as passive receivers of knowledge and to move beyond textbook-based examinations.

• So the element it treats as critical for quality is learning through activities and discovery, option (d).

• Attendance, pay incentives and socio-cultural background are discussed, if at all, in relation to access, not quality.

Why the other options are wrong

(a) Ensuring regular attendance of children as well as teachers in school: While the passage mentions that children may not attend or drop out, it does not identify ensuring regular attendance of teachers as the critical factor for bringing quality in education.
(b) Giving pecuniary benefits to teachers to motivate them: The passage does not mention providing pecuniary benefits to teachers as a strategy for improving the quality of education.
(c) Understanding the socio-cultural background of children: Although the passage suggests addressing social, economic, and cultural issues to ensure access, it specifically links the improvement of educational quality to the curriculum's focus on activities and discovery, not just understanding the background.

Asked in the CSAT Paper II of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2018, held on 3 June 2018. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.