Kerala High Court
Saranya.P.S vs State Of Kerala Represented By on 12 February, 2009
Author: Harun-Ul-Rashid
Bench: Harun-Ul-Rashid
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM
WP(C).No. 7925 of 2007(R)
1. SARANYA.P.S., D/O.SABARINATHAN,
... Petitioner
Vs
1. STATE OF KERALA REPRESENTED BY
... Respondent
2. THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTIONS,
3. THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
For Petitioner :SRI.R.SURENDRAN
For Respondent : No Appearance
The Hon'ble MR. Justice HARUN-UL-RASHID
Dated :12/02/2009
O R D E R
HARUN-UL-RASHID, J. C.R.
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W.P.(C).No.7925 of 2007
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Dated this the 31st day of March, 2009
JUDGMENT
The petitioner is an 8th standard student in the Government V.H.S.S. Desamangalam at the time of filing this writ petition. The Government introduced the subject "Information Techonology" in Standard VIII and IX from the academic year 2003-04 onwards as a compulsory subject in High schools as part of secondary education. Ext.P2 is the order issued by the Government of Kerala introducing the said subject on the recommendation of the State Curriculum Committee.
2. The counsel for the Petitioner Sri.R. Surendran contended that since it is a compulsory subject introduced, it is the duty of the Government to provide necessary infrastructure like setting up of adequate computer laboratories for each school, creation of posts of adequate qualified teachers/ instructors and allotting sufficient time for teaching without disturbing the other subjects which are also part of the curriculum. According to the petitioner, it was not fair on the part of the Government to burden the Parent Teacher's Association to find out the funds necessary for setting up computer laboratories which involves lakhs of rupees for every school and leave the duty to teach the theory of the said subject to the class teachers who do not have the acquaintance with the computer related subjects.
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3. The ever increasing demand for Information Technology professionals of various levels of competence, the emerging trend of e- commerce, e-governance and e-learning establish the dire need and responsibility to make I.T. skills a part of curriculum. The primary objective of introducing information technology as a subject is to improve the quality of education and to impart computer education to school students. In such a backdrop the Government approved project report for implementing the project named I.T @ School vide G.O.(Rt) No. 297/2001/G.Edn dated 29.9.2001 and G.O.(Rt) No. 4518/2001/G.Edn dated 7.12.2001. On a perusal of the project report it is evidently clear that the basic objective of the programme is to use information technology as a powerful tool for improving quality of the teaching and learning and also to include it as a curriculum subject to ensure that basic knowledge and skills are acquired by the students in a formal and systematic manner. It is in this context the D.P.I is directed to submit the proposal to Government to issue orders making I.T a compulsory subject in standards VIII & IX from the academic year 2003 -04 onwards and to prescribe methods of finding out four periods for this purpose. In the above circumstances the subject of information technology was made a compulsory subject for High School students which was and is the need of the hour and Government issued orders in this regard.
4. In the counter-affidavit filed by the Government it is interalia stated that I.T @ school project has already imparted I.T training to 40,000 W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -3- teachers out of 55,000 High School teachers i.e 90% of High School teachers have got Linux and windows training, that they are able to teach I.T. subject in High School classes, that since there were many trained teachers to teach I.T subject, no new posts of teachers should be created. It is also stated in the counter- affidavit that protected teachers should be posted against vacancy of teachers that arose consequent on the posting of regular teachers as Master Trainers, that in the present financial position of the Government and also in view of the fact that efficient trained teachers to teach I.T are available in the schools,there is no necessity to create new posts for teaching Information Technology subject. It is further stated that the scheme of I.T @ school does not however envisage the appointment of separate teachers to teach I.T It has been instructed therein that no new posts will be created for teaching IT and that for teaching the subject existing teachers will be empowered The Government took the view that there is no requirement of appointing separate teachers since the existing teachers can undertake IT enabled education after acquiring necessary skills.
5. It is submitted by the petitioner that the responsibility for conducting classes of Information Technology is vested with the class teacher in charge of the division and that only for the purpose of imparting practical training, technical assistance of the instructors was sought. Thus every class teacher was required to teach Information Technology, theory part in High School classes . The said teacher do not have W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -4- acquaintance with the hardware or the software or do they have sufficient training experience in teaching the subject Information Technology. The teachers were also in the same position as that of the students, it is said that both are ignorant of the subject It is also highlighted that most of the efficient teachers teaching the core subjects were selected as Master Trainers and many of them were transferred as HSSTs in the Higher Secondary Schools and resultantly the quality of the general education of the students in the Government High Schools in the state has become deteriorated only because of the implementation of the new subject namely Information Technology, without any proper vision and planning. When the Government has decided to introduce the subject Information Technology as a compulsory subject it should see that necessary posts are created for teaching the subject in a proper manner. The qualifications are prescribed for the teachers in all other subjects as per the Kerala Education Rules, but in the subject Information Technology the qualification is not prescribed. At the same time 4 periods per week is allotted for the subject.
6. The main grievance urged by the learned counsel Sri.R.Surendran is that no qualified hands are appointed as teachers to teach Information Technology, which is introduced as a compulsory subject in the High Schools. But the State did not appoint qualified teachers to teach Information Technology. The Government entrusted the class teachers to teach the theory part of the said subject who are not W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -5- qualified . Even though I.T was made a compulsory subject in the High Schools from 2004-05, till date the said subject is taught with outdated machines,and are handled by illequipped teachers.
7. In the counter affidavit filed by the respondents it is admitted by the Government that the I.T @ School project is envisaged with minimum expenditure on the part of the State Government, that the Government ordered that no new posts will be created. It is also admitted that the scheme I.T @ School does not envisage appointment of separate teachers to teach I.T and the existing teachers only will be empowered so that they can undertake the I.T enabled education after acquiring necessary skills. The above statements in the counter- affidavit shows that the Government has no idea to depute qualified hands to teach the said subject. The goal of I.T education is to create a new generation of thinkers, professionals, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs who will be able to instantaneously assess and use any relevant information using I.T as a tool. This Court is of the view that the scheme I.T @ School should be revamped and updated, so that the students of Information Technology shall cultivate the necessary skills. If the school students are not properly guided and trained in the subject, the goal of creating new generation of thinkers professionals, scientists, technologists entrepreneurs etc. should be in vain and the same will lead to undesired results. It is known to everybody that Information Technology is an ever increasing phenomenon therefore there is need to W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -6- get access to this subject. It is the requirement of the contemporary society that every individual should possess literacy in Information and Technology.
8. Teachers have to be responsive to the challenges faced by educational system in general and the school education in particular. Teachers have to respond to various changes in its social, political, economic as well as cultural contexts. Developments in science and technology during the last two decades have transformed human life and the world. New technologies related to storage and communication of information have impacted the instructional process, given rise to e- learning and re-defined the concept of library and library service. The country has to fulfill its constitutional commitment of providing universal elementary education to all and achieve the obliteration of illiteracy. Education is a fundamental right. To meet this obligation many programmes have been initiated. For achieving the target, the country needs well qualified and properly trained teachers. The system has to prepare them and also train under-qualified teachers professionally. Increase in the population of school going children, rising aspirations of the people and their greater desire for more useful knowledge, complete with explosion of knowledge and techniques for imparting knowledge have emerged as new challenges to education. . In India need-based selective approach has to be adopted. Blind adaptation of alien experiments may prove counter- productive and wastage of precious resources. The guiding W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -7- principle in this respect shall be the concept of' working with community' and in this age of international competition, our school education should not lag behind. Valuable contributions have already been made by Information and Communication Technology as an aid to teaching and learning within school and outside it. The opportunities for acquiring information and life-long learning have multiplied. A knowledge society is now taking shape in our country. It should however, not remain an urban or metropolitan phenomenon or a privilege of the rich. Information and learning experiences acquired through Information and Communication Technology need to be interconnected and transformed into knowledge If IT is not utilized as an aid to the teacher, it may create alienation between the teacher and the taught and the gaps between the schools managed by the rich for affluent children and the state school where children from poor families and rural areas study can widen. So the implementation of the scheme must aim to empower teachers to become professionally competent, committed, and reflective at different stages of school education and to develop among them the desire and the capacity to improve the programmes and make it realistic, purposive and flexible.
9. Section 10 of the Kerala Education Act imposes a duty on the Government to prescribe the qualifications to be possessed by persons for appointment as teachers in Government and Private Schools. The basic idea implied in the statute is to fix the qualification of teachers in each W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -8- subject who could be authorized to teach the subject and the appointment is only secondary. The prescription of qualification is to be made taking into account the curriculum . When the area of teaching is divided by the Rules, the Government has the legal duty to see that the qualifications of persons to be appointed for teaching I.T also is prescribed. For teaching a subject the first requirement is mastery in the subject. Without mastering the subject of presentation could be made. The teacher should be free from doubts and must be able to clear the doubts of students. The mastering of the said subject is the primary element for engaging in any professional activity. Persons without the necessary qualifications are not entitled to teach any subject. The Government cannot shed its responsibility without prescribing necessary qualifications and not appointing qualified teachers to teach the subject of Information Technology. The Government cannot say that since there is no proposal for appointment is made as per Government order, it is not bound to prescribe the qualifications. The financial constraints have nothing to do with the prescription of qualification and handling classes by qualified hands. Having introduced the said subject in the curriculum and the students are compelled to learn the subject, it is the duty of the Government to prescribe qualification for the said subject and to appoint qualified hand for handling classes irrespective of financial constraints. The Government is bound to do so. There is a corresponding legal right to the students to get quality education. It is the duty of the Government to W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -9- fix the qualifications of teachers who are to be engaged to impart education in the subject information Technology. Going by the KER the Government have fixed the qualifications for those subjects which are not even compulsory. Qualifications are fixed for Music, Drawing, Sewing, Physical Education etc. But it is a paradox , why the Government is not fixing the qualifications of teachers for teaching the compulsory subject 'Information Technology' We cannot ignore the fast developments in hardware and software. The technology is developing day by day. Even the entry-level computers at present are having high capacity. The minimum storage in a hard disc at present is 60 Gigabytes (1GB= 1024 Kilobytes). The minimum Random Access Memory(RAM) is 512 MB. The Processor speed and memory speed also increased considerably. This increase in capacity was necessitated for working several new programmes and software consequent to development in the technology. In feature-wise and technology-wise also the new generation computer is far advanced from old ones. The situation in 2009 is entirely different from 2003. In the next few years things are likely to change further, drastically. The present old computers in the schools cannot be repaired for non- availability of hardware spares. Incompatibility is one of the main problems now being faced. The spare parts of old systems are not available in the market. The spare parts of new generation computer systems are not suitable for the old ones. The present computer installations in the schools are nothing but scraps and will have to be W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -10- replaced with new generation systems, in no time.
10. There has been a worldwide expansion of electronic information during the past decade. The experience of 1984, when introduction of computers in schools in India, is already out of date. Computers today, instead of being used in isolated stand-alone mode, are being increasingly connected with each other through local area net works and global networks. Accessing and dissemination of education material is now available globally for near zero cost to all those who want it. However knowledge of mere existence of information in the World Wide Web will not be enough unless we know how to access it, classify it and process it for solving problems.
11. Another feature of the information technology is that it is rapidly changing. Information processing hardware and software have a turnover of 2 to 3 years. More advanced computers must be emerged on the scene for the students to fully conversant with all the features of the programmes, which purchased as the state-of -art technology .The type of computers which were selected in 1984 with fanfare for the schools are, at best, museum pieces now. But even today the Government continue to meet the recurring cost for operating these machines in about three thousand schools.. So the Government shall take serious note of glaring concerns which need to be tackled by the school system in India in the context of its inadequacies and the overwhelming implications placed on it by an information society.
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12. According to the Government the scheme i.e I.T @ School, formulated and implemented by the Government which does not envisage appointment of new qualified teachers to teach I.T and the existing teachers only will be empowered to teach the said subject. This type of situation begs the question whether laying down of uniform curricula and common public examinations are taking care of the equality of learning opportunity for all children, specially when the parental economic backgrounds and the quality of schools where they study can be poles apart ? Imposition of an unrealistically heavy curricular demand without providing the necessary learning conditions in schools is contributing to a widening gulf between the children who come from homes with parents belonging to the category of haves and those who do not come from homes with parents belonging to the category of havenots. It is to be noted that most of the students in the aided and Government Schools are unable to afford to undertake parallel studies in IT by attending private institutions to complete the curricular studies. The I.T education system now following up by the Government shall be subjected to thorough change. So the Government shall contribute for the modernisation of school education so as to make it contextual and relevant to the changing needs.
13. In the aforesaid facts the stand of the Government to the effect that it is not possible for the Government to recruit qualified teachers and to provide infrastructure facilities due to financial constraints W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -12- cannot be justified Therefore what needs to be done is to restructure the educational process to draw out these talents in every person. So the Government shall provide advanced computers, computer labs, and set up all infrastructure facilities needed, for restructuring the educational process. The Government cannot play with the educational career of the students. The present system is counter-productive and will result in producing half-baked technologists.
14. The nature of work in the information society will divide workers into two categories (i) high-paid knowledge workers, and (ii) low- paid service workers. High -paid knowledge workers will be those who know how to manage information and process it. The Society will give high premium to their skills. In India also the class of high-paid knowledge workers is slowly emerging. It is not uncommon to hear that the corporate sector, foreign banks etc pay annual salary of Rs.10 lakh or more to some of their junior executives irrespective of their academic qualifications. What should worry all of us is that even now India contributes to the global economy by its people carrying out tasks meant for low-paid service workers. In the last century people from India went to many other countries as farm workers. The situation has not much changed over the past hundred and fifty years. Only the destinations have changed. Even now the majority of people who have left our frontiers to work in the Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia etc. do low paid unskilled work. The question therefore is what type of education needs to be given in our W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -13- schools to shift the balance of our work force from low-paid service to high- paid service? Though the I.T @School Project was introduced from the academic year 2003-2004 the Government have not yet taken any measures to upgrade the scheme Therefore urgent and immediate measures are necessary to upgrade the scheme
15. Therefore it has become necessary to issue directions to respondents 1 & 2 to create adequate posts of qualified teachers in the Government aided High Schools in the State as well as in the Government Schools and to prescribe the qualifications for such posts for imparting education and training to the students in the subject Information Technology.
16. In the result, this writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the Director of Public Instructions, Thiruvananthapuram to prepare a revised project report for implementing quality education in information Technology The D.P.I shall submit the project report to the Secretary to Government, General Education Department , for approval The project report shall be submitted within a period of three months from today. The project report shall also contain recommendation to introduce updated computers, re-orientation of curriculum, other teaching aids and infrastructure facilities etc. The Secretary to Government General Education Department shall also take immediate consequent actions in this regard taking note of the poor educational background of the High School students in the subject, Information Technology in the aided and W.P.(C) No. 7925 of 2007 -14- Government Sector. The Secretary to Government, General Education Department shall pass appropriate orders within 2 months from the date of receipt of the project report. There will be a further direction to the Government to prescribe the qualifications to be possessed by persons engaged for teaching information Technology. This shall be done within a period of 3 months thereafter. The registry shall send copies of this judgment to The Chief Secretary to Government, the Secretary to Government, General Education Department and to the Director of Public instruction, Thiruvananthapuram, immediately.
(HARUN-UL-RASHID, JUDGE) es.
HARUN-UL-RASHID, J.
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W.P.(C).No.7925 of 2007
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JUDGMENT 12th February, 2009