Events & Issues

New Delhi, 26 August 2014

Primary Education

FOCUS ON PYRAMID UPWARDS

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

The Human Resource Development Ministry’s measures to increase spending on higher education to six per cent of the GDP from 3.8 per cent at present, may be well-meaning but would be half-baked. The thrust has to be all-round, wherein attention is most needed at the primary education level. Then only can one aim higher.

Though being among the top five countries with most children out of school, India experienced the largest cut in funds for basic education during the past three years. While globally the decliner was a little over 5 per cent between 2010 and 2012, in our country it was just double at 10 per cent. The increase in funds this Budget has largely been for IITs, IIMs, medical education etc.  

A relook at figures released by UNESCO’s ‘Education for All Global Monitoring Report’ is a pointer to the sad state of affairs. It is quite evident that the target of achieving ‘Education for All’ by the year 2015 cannot, in any way, be achieved as 57 million children and 69 million adolescents are still out of school. 

The recent reports on the state of primary education in the country being in a mess have been a subject of much discussion solely because the standards of education imparted leaves much to be desired. In spite of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Right to Education Act passed, the teaching standards have been very poor. The Annual Survey of Education (ASER) report of survey of government and private schools in rural areas – conducted by NGO 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 the quality is going down. For example, around 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 36-38 per cent in private schools. 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. There is virtually no improvement in the learning levels, specially in Government schools in the Hindi belt.  

Though enrolment has risen from 96.5 per cent in 2010 to around 97 per cent in 2012, the findings mock the Centre’s claim about education receiving greater attention during the 11^th Plan. A report rightly pointed out: “Today more children are going to school but what they are learning is not clear. Can they get job 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?”

A comprehensive document prepared by the National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NUEPA) commended the high enrolment rates with Delhi and Punjab showing dramatic increase, while Rajasthan and Bengal were lagging 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).

However, 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 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 major problem of drop-outs, which also has not been controlled. As per the NUPEA in 2009-10, 133.4 million children enrolled in Classes I-IV, only 54.5 million made it to Classes VI-VIII. Most of these children dropped out of school are winding up with very little education at all. In fact, in rural areas around 50 per cent leave school by Class V though the position is a little better in urban sector.

However, the HRD statistics of 2013-14 claim that the primary school dropout rate has gone down from 9.11 per cent in 2009-10 to 4.67 per cent in 2013-14. But more than mere statistics the Ministry, should consider the fact that education has not received the priority it merited as the end effect has been quite poor. 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. should be the focus of the present government, there is also an imperative 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.

Thus the onus has to be taken by the States through an innovative approach where teachers have to have the confidence of their students and become sincere in 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 their 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. 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 and this is a major challenge before the Modi government. Will the HRD Ministry get its act together? ---INFA   

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)