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Standard-setting and Accreditation for School Education

 

8.1. The goal of the school education regulatory system must be to continually improve educational
outcomes; it must not overly restrict schools, prevent innovation, or demoralize teachers, principals,
and students. All in all, regulation must aim to empower schools and teachers with trust, enabling
them to strive for excellence and perform at their very best, while ensuring the integrity of the system
through the enforcement of complete transparency and full public disclosure of all finances,
procedures, and educational outcomes.

8.2. At present, all main functions of governance and regulation of the school education system -
namely, the provision of public education, the regulation of education institutions, and policymaking
- are handled by a single body, i.e., the Department of School Education or its arms. This leads to
conflict of interests and excessive centralized concentration of power; it also leads to ineffective
management of the school system, as efforts towards quality educational provision are often diluted
by the focus on the other roles, particularly regulation, that the Departments of School Education also
perform.

8.3. The current regulatory regime also has not been able to curb the commercialization and economic
exploitation of parents by many for-profit private schools, yet at the same time it has all too often
inadvertently discouraged public-spirited private/philanthropic schools. There has been far too much
asymmetry between the regulatory approaches to public and private schools, even though the goals of
both types of schools should be the same: to provide quality education.

 

 

 

8.4. The public education system is the foundation of a vibrant democratic society, and the way it is

run must be transformed and invigorated in order to achieve the highest levels of educational

outcomes for the nation. At the same time, the private/philanthropic school sector must also be

encouraged and enabled to play a significant and beneficial role.. Read More