Events & Issues

New Delhi, 23 April 2012

Primary Education

TACKLE STANDARDS TOO

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

Recent reports on the state of primary education in the country have been a subject of much debate, following the Right to Education Act, 2009, being upheld by the Supreme Court. While 25 per cent of seats in Government and private unaided schools would now have to be reserved for the poor uniformly across the country, this measure alone will not help our literacy rate. Equally important is the need to focus on the standard of education itself. Notwithstanding, the Government’s efforts to universalize elementary education through the ambitious project Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the RTE Act, the teaching standards in the country leave much to be desired.  

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a survey of Government and private schools in rural areas, conducted by a Non-Government Organisation, Pratham, shows a decline in “school children’s learning outcome levels” compared with the previous year. The main problem is in the Hindi heartland, where quality is going down. For example, 56 per cent Class V students at Government school were unable to read Class III text but the figure in private schools was a little better at 38 per cent. Interestingly, the decline in standards is more pronounced in the northern States.

Mathematical abilities are more disappointing and the decline is seen across all States. The proportion of children able to solve a two-digit subtraction problem dropped from 36.3 per cent in 2010 to 29.9 per cent in 2011. Among Class V children, the ability to do similar subtraction dropped from 70.9 per cent in 2010 to 61 per cent in 2011. 

But this is not news any more. For the past six years, ASER has been reporting similar findings. What is new is the hint that the already low levels may be witnessing a further decline. This year’s findings indicate that learning levels are lower as compared to last year, especially in Government schools in the Hindi belt.  

Though enrolment has risen from 96.5 per cent in 2010 to 96.7 per cent in 2011, the findings mock the Centre’s claim about education receiving greater attention during the 11^th Plan. It may be mentioned that 19 per cent of the allocation (Rs 2.5 lakh crores) went to education against 7.7 per cent in the 10^th Plan. The report rightly points out: “Today more children are going to school but what they are learning is not clear. Can they get jobs in the market if they continue such education? Can industry get the professionals they are looking for? Can India’s growth continue if the quality of education does not improve?”

Just after this report, another comprehensive document prepared by the National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NUEPA) came out. This too commended the high enrolment rates with Delhi and Punjab showing a dramatic increase while Rajasthan and Bengal lagged behind. This report showed that between 2002-03 and 2010-11, 2.05 lakh new schools opened, increasing the density of primary schools per 10 sq.km to 3.45 from 3.35 (2009-10) and upper primary schools to 1.63 from 1.5 (2009-10).

The working of primary and upper primary schools, as per the NUPEA report, found 12.06 primary schools have less than 200 working days while 31.8 per cent upper primary schools have less than 220 working days. Infrastructure in the schools improved with increased government support though, one can easily say, that a lot more needs to be done in this regard.

These reports obviously make one ponder that efforts to make education free and compulsory have not yielded the desired results. Apart from decline in standards, there is the other major problem of drop-outs, which also has not been controlled. As per the NUPEA, in 2009-10 – the latest year for which data is available – 133.4 million children enrolled in Classes I-IV, only 54.5 million made it to Classes VI-VIII. Most of these children who drop out of school are winding up with very little education. In fact, in rural areas around 50 per cent leave school by Class V though the position is a little better in urban sector.

The growing body of empirical evidence shows that the increased expenditures in education are not translating into better outcomes. Yet the Central government remains steadfastly focused on inputs and outputs and does not seem willing to bring issues of children’s learning to the centre stage either in policy or in practice.

Though the emphasis on developing infrastructure, teacher recruitment and training etc. are definitely necessary, there is need to find out the causes of low learning. In the SSA planning document, there are two line items where States and districts can directly plan and implement learning improvement programmes, if they wish to do so. The onus has to be taken by the States through an innovative approach where teachers have to be more friendly with their students and become serious and sincere about their responsibilities. The joy of learning should be inculcated in teaching methods so that the students can understand what is being taught.    

At the primary level, the Montessori method of teaching needs to be implemented. As such, teacher’s training has to be geared in that direction. Another important aspect is that teachers have to be aware of the social and economic environment from where students come. For this, recruitment of teachers from the same milieu would be preferable as this would go a long way in improving teaching standards that is, better communication with and understanding of students’ problems. Constitution of local level committees with eminent persons, civil society representatives may help to improve standards. 

Better education is crucial for narrowing inequality gap as also for the country’s long term growth scenario. The story of the demographic dividend can go completely wrong unless we undertake reforms in primary education on an urgent footing. While resources are no doubt necessary for upgrading primary education, there is need for sincere monitoring at the district and block levels which are unfortunately very poor or non- existent. It is not enough to pass legislation or initiate programmes, there is need to address shortcomings in totality rather than piecemeal. If 100 million children do not learn the basic skills of reading and arithmetic, it is unlikely that India will grow into a mature economy or a mature democracy.  ---INFA  

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