THE HRD Ministry is set to launch a programme next month that would probably be the world’s largest student tracking system, sources said. Shala Asmita (All School Monitoring, Individual Tracing Analysis) Yojana (SAY) aims to track the educational journey of close to 25 crore school students from Class I to Class XII across 15 lakh schools in the country. This online database will carry information about student attendance and enrolment, mid-day meal service, learning outcomes and infrastructural facilities, among other things, on one platform for both private and government schools.

Most schools in the country cannot account for books bought since introduction of free education in 2003, a confidential report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has revealed. The report has poked holes in the storage of textbooks in public schools noting that it is hard to establish the number of books purchased by most schools. It notes that despite the government releasing funds to schools to construct book storage facilities, most schools have not done so. According to the report, some schools bought one wooden cupboard which is maintained in the offices of head teachers or their deputies.

Non-governmental organizations (NGO) have stated there are corruption schemes in the Ministry of Education and Science related to budget funds allocated for the needs of schools. According to the leader of NGO Maidan Information the Ministry of Education issued an order, according to which only one firm can supply school equipment. He noted that most equipment in schools have not been updated since the Soviet times, therefore it is unclear what happens with the UAH 200 million in state funds set aside for this purpose.

Many instances were witnessed across the country, where parents arrived at schools to return free uniform material vouchers which were invalid. There were also instances where parents complained of the insufficient value attached to these vouchers, and where parents were unable to purchase quality material for a specified price. Against this backdrop, several teachers and principals’ associations staged a joint media briefing in Colombo, highlighting the fact that teachers, students and parents, have been inconvenienced by the new voucher system.

KOLHAPUR: Like the grading system in higher education through the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the state government will soon introduce the State Assessment and Accreditation Council (SAAC) system for the assessment and accreditation of the primary and secondary schools across the state, a move welcomed by city-based education activists who say it will bring transparency to the education system and will force schools to improve their infrastructure and education quality

The ongoing Government audit of schools across the country has unearthed massive abuse of levies collected from parents and guardians purportedly to fund development of learning infrastructure. From the 1 800 (18 percent) schools audited so far, there are indications of massive doctoring of accounting records by the schools.

Last December, 1,055 high school communities around Mexico – comprising almost 1.3 million students – engaged in a transparency and accountability exercise. This involves each principal of public high schools completing three electronic forms covering more than 100 indicators. These range from income and expenditure, to enrolment and academic performance, to the condition of school equipment and infrastructure.

Members of the National Anti-Corruption Coalition (CNLCC), a satellite of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) – a concertation forum of activities of civil society associations created in 2008 – has carried out a field inspection mission of classroom construction projects found throughout the national territory.

In a rural district of Uganda, almost half of all teachers were absent on a typical school day. The African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) trained a few student leaders in each school to take attendance of everyone, including teachers. As a result, teacher absenteeism has dropped to ten percent in this district.