• Defining Priorities for Quality Education by Geeta Gandhi Kingdon [~ 1.1 MB]
• Vocationalization in secondary education : Skilling India’s Demographic Dividend by Jaikant Singh [~ 1.2 MB]
• DIETs in the Doldrums! - Making a case for privatising teacher education institutes by Maya Menon [~ 7.6 MB]
• Driving Quality through School Management Committees by Michael Latham [~ 1.8 MB]
• Budget Private Schools: How they aid access? by Sem Haokip [~ 5.8 MB]
• Self organised learning environments: Experiments and evidence by Sugata Mitra [~ 4.2 MB]
• Anytime/Anywhere computing & connectivity : Implications for blended learning by Suneet Singh Tuli [~ 164 KB]

School Choice Campaign (SCC), a policy reform initiative of Centre for Civil Society (CCS) organised the third annual School Choice National Conference titled Catalysing Education for All: Intention, Innovation and Implementation on 21 December 2011 at the India Habitat Centre. The participation of several top-level academicians, policy makers, government officials, education specialists and the media helped make the conference a grand success.

Professor Geeta Gandhi Kingdon’s key note speech on ‘Defining priorities for Quality Education’ set the tone for the day. This was followed by the opening address by Dilip Modi. The conference saw four powerful sessions with celebrated panelists, each leaders in their field and sector.

The first panel discussion looked at Implementation of RTE: One year after with specific emphasis on making State rules more effective, the role of budget private schools in aiding access and how School Management Committees could drive quality. This was followed by a session on Public Private Partnerships: Building sustainable model. This session focused on not only on programs like Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna for Education, and District Institute of Educational Training (DIET) but also on experiments with vouchers in Andra Pradesh. The third panel was centered on Secondary Education specifically on how the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan is addressing issues of access and on how vocationalisation is reinforcing goals for secondary education. In addition, the session also touched on how assessments help define quality. The day ended with a session on Disruptive Innovation in Education: Looking to technology which, examined solutions through the lens of technology and innovation, at self organised learning environments and blended learning.

Key Note: Defining Priorities for Quality Education, Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, Professor and Chair of Economics of Education and International Development, Institute of Education, University of London

Opening Address: Dilip Modi, Managing Director, Spice Mobility

Session I: Implementation of RTE: One year after
Chair: James Tooley, Professor of Education Policy, University of Newcastle

• Making effective State rules: Best practices across India, Sudhir Mankad, former Chief Secretary to Government of Gujarat
• Budget Private Schools: How they aid access? Sem Haokip, CEO, Society for Promotion of Tribal Welfare and Development (SPTWD)
• Driving quality through School Management Committees, Michael Latham, Regional Director South Asia, Centre for British Teachers (CfBT)

Session II: Public Private Partnerships: Building sustainable models
Chair: Amit Kaushik, Chief Operating Officer & MD Designate, Educomp Infrastructure and School Management Ltd.

• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna for Education, Anand Sudarshan, MD and CEO, Manipal Education.
• Experiments with vouchers: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh, Karthik Muralidharan, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego
• Privatising District Institute of Educational Training (DIET), Maya Menon, Founder Director, The Teacher Foundation

Session III: Secondary Education: Renewed objectives
Chair: Toby Linden, Lead Education Specialist, South Asia Education, World Bank

• Defining quality through assessments, R Sridhar, Managing Director, Educational Initiatives
• Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan: Addressing issues of Access, Shabnam Sinha,Senior Education Specialist, World Bank
• Vocationalisation: Reinforcing goals for secondary education, Jaikant Singh, Head-MIS and Monitoring, National Skill Development Corporation

Session IV: Disruptive Innovation in Education: Looking to technology
Chair: Ashish Dhawan, Senior Managing Director, ChrysCapital

• Self organised learning environments: Experiments and evidence, Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, UK
• Aakash: A new model for blended learning? Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, Datawind

Discourses around universalisation of access to education over the past years have been dominated by elementary education and most recently around the passage and implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act. The Conference provided a much needed focus on secondary education coupled with concerted efforts of the government and the private sector are needed to meet goals of access, quality and equity.

As a prelude to the third annual School Choice National Conference, 16 delegates visited two schools in Seelampur, North Delhi on 20 December 2011 to interact with principals, parents and students. Read the report here.

• Overview
• Opening Address
• Keynote Address
• Distruptive Innovations in Education
• Public Private Partnerships: Building sustainable models
• Implementation of RTE One Year After
• Secondary Education: Renewed objectives

• NGOs, experts seek dialogue with government on RTE Act - Deccan Herald, 22 December 2011
• RTE headache for budget schools in slums - Deccan Herald, 23 December 2011