What is The Women's Charter?

Charter Schools in India - Are they needed? What are their pros & cons?

• "Started in the US in 1991, charter schools simply mean leasing the administration and management of government schools to private education providers and NGOs while the funding is done by the state. The only responsibility of private education providers is the promise of better results which is made part of the charter. In case of India, it would mean handing over 1.3 million government-run primary and secondary schools to NGOs and private sector. The argument for charter schools is based on poor performance of government schools and the growing tendency even in small towns and villages to put children in private schools." Do we need KIPP-like schools in India? Would a charter school system work here? This is a follow-up question to - More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Is_Power_Program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_india Recommended Reading: http://www.amazon.com/Work-Hard-Be-Nice-Promising/dp/1565125169 Wishing for a healthy discussion among TFI/TFA alumni, educators and teachers working in India and the US, KIPP members and everyone else like me who's interested in this area.

• Answer:

  Thanks for A2A. I have been a teacher for 2 years and that is actually a very small amount of time. The problem of education inequity happens to be huge. Nonetheless, I would share whatever I know about the charter school system. Last year I got an opportunity to visit schools in Bay Area, as the part of Synergies Conference involving Teach Fors from India, China, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. During the school visits we visited some 4-5 charter school in Bay Area. Frankly I was impressed with the visits. We got involved in the discussion with the School Leader there and also with the teachers later on. Logically it seems like an excellant model to bank on. The results showed a good growth as the school administration was held accountable under charter school act. We also had a chance to meet a TFA Alum who was now on District School System looking at Charter School. She gave us a lot of insights. One of the good ones was that there were many school which did not perform or did not delivered on the promise, in those cases either the contract was cancelled or other NGO's were placed. KIPP school model is an excellant model, no doubt about that. It definitely gives a lot of hope but again it doesn't at all guarantee the success of the model on huge scale. Presently, there is one Akansha Foundation run Charter School in Pune. KCT Vidya Niketan and there is entrance exam for the school in second grade. It is a really good school and in a year or 2 the first crop of college goers will emerge from this school. The results in the competitive environment are yet to be seen but the school admin, the quality of education is really good. There is another school started by a TFI Alum, Gaurav Singh in Mumbai. It is called "3,2,1 School" and it started this year. The teachers there are either TFI Alums or Fellows and so the quality is again guaranteed. Gaurav has a really ambitious and inspirational vision to spread 3,2,1 to cater kids from low income community. Personally I really feel that this model is really good. There are lot of things which should be thought of when talking about the implementation in India. Moreover I would like that someone who has already worked in a Charter School system to elaborate on the cons because I will write based on my judgements and predictions. Still for all the reader there are some good pages to go to @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school @http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_American_School/Charter_vs._Public_Schools#Pros_and_Cons_of_Charter_School @http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/educ/charter-schools-pros-and-cons.aspx  Thanks again. , it would be great if you can also put your views here.