Reality of Education in India: UNICEF

The landmark passing of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 marks a historic moment for the children of India.  For the first time in India’s history, children will be guaranteed their right to quality elementary education by the state with the help of families and communities.

Few countries in the world have such a national provision to ensure child-centered, child-friendly education to help all children develop to their fullest potential. There were an estimated eight million six to 14-year-olds in India out-of-school in 2009.

The world cannot reach its goal to have every child complete primary school by 2015 without India.
India’s education system over the past few decades has made significant progress. According to India’s Education For All Mid Decade Assessment, in just five years between 2000 and 2005, India increased primary school enrolment overall by 13.7 per cent and by 19.8 per cent for girls, reaching close to universal enrolment in Grade 1.

Even with these commendable efforts, one in four children left school before reaching Grade 5 and almost half before reaching Grade 8 in 2005. Learning assessments show the children who do remain in school are not learning the basics of literacy and numeracy or the additional skills necessary for their overall development. 
Fast Facts

Out-of-School Children: The number of out-of-school children has declined from 25 million in 2003 to 8.1 million in mid–2009. The most significant improvements have been in Bihar, Jharkhand, Manipur and Chhattisgarh. The percentage of out-of-school children in highly populated states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar remains a cause of concern.
Social Inclusion: Although there have been significant improvements in the proportion of children from socially disadvantaged groups in school, persistence gaps remain. Girls are still less likely to enroll in school than boys; in 2005, for upper primary school (Grades 6-8) girls’ enrolment was still 8.8 points lower than boys, for Scheduled Tribes (ST) the gender gap was 12.6 points and 16 points for Scheduled Castes (SC). 

In addition, ST and SC children are less likely to access their right to 8 years of schooling; the drop-out rate for ST children being 62.9% and 55.2% for SC children compared to a national average of 48.8% leaving school before completing Grade 8. 
Teachers: Children have the right to have at least 1 qualified and trained teacher for every 30 pupils. Currently, the national average is about 1 teacher to every 34 students, but in states such as Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal 1 teacher works with more than 60 students. 

Approximately 1.2 million additional teachers need to be recruited to fill this gap. Currently, about 1 in 5 primary school teachers do not have the requisite minimum academic qualification to ensure children’s right to quality learning.

Sanitation: 84 out of 100 schools have drinking water facilities overall in India. But nearly half the schools in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya do not. Sixty-five out of 100 schools have common toilets in India; however only one out of four schools in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Orissa and Rajasthan have this facility.

Fifty-four out of 100 schools have separate toilets for girls. On average, only one in nine schools in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur have separate toilets and one in four schools in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand and Orissa.
Key Issues
The RTE Act will be in force from 1 April. Draft Model Rules have been shared with states, which are required to formulate their state rules and have them notified as early as possible.

RTE provides a ripe platform to reach the unreached, with specific provisions for disadvantaged groups, such as child labourers, migrant children, children with special needs, or those who have a “disadvantage owing to social, cultural economical, geographical, linguistic, gender or such other factor.”

RTE focuses on the quality of teaching and learning, which requires accelerated efforts and substantial reforms. 
Creative and sustained initiatives are crucial to train more than one million new and untrained teachers within the next five years and to reinforce the skills of existing teachers to ensure child-friendly education.

Bringing eight million out-of-school children into classes at the age appropriate level with the support to stay in school and succeed poses a major challenge. Substantial efforts are essential to eliminate disparities and ensure quality with equity. For example, investing in preschool is a key strategy.
Families and communities also have a large role to play to ensure child-friendly education for each and every one of the estimated 190 million girls and boys in India who should be in elementary school today.

School Management Committees, made up of parents, local authorities, teachers and children themselves, will need support to form School Development Plans and monitoring. The inclusion of 50 per cent women and parents of children from disadvantaged groups in these committees should help overcome past disparities.

Behind the differential reach of primary education...!!!

Among other factors, class-related disadvantage and its correlates call for a variety of remedial measures.

Streamlining and simplifying curricular demands at the primary stage of education would worry some people who see ambitious attempts, even if not successful, as good ways to perform better. We are not against anyone trying to do more than what is required from compulsory school curriculum. If intelligently planned, a reduction of curricular load could still leave open the opportunity for better performing students to try more, particularly at home, perhaps with guidance from teachers. What is argued here is that for normal primary education, “home tasks” should be completely unnecessary (but supplementary study at home would not, of course, be “banned” for those who would want to do more). In particular, the students’ success at examinations and school tests should not have to rely on what they have to do at home, outside the school.

This is the way Europe and America have educated their children in primary schools when they were at the same stage of educational development as India is today, and this is how they still do it across the world right now to make basic school education accessible to all, even though the ability of the families themselves to help young children with home work has grown as the overall population has become more and more literate. Home tasks for schoolchildren begin at various ages across the world, but hardly ever at the very basic stages of early primary education, where the concentration has to be on reading, writing and simple arithmetic. This is where the particular issue of curricular overload in early primary education in India is critically important.

Teachers and Teaching....!!!

Professor P Balram, Director Indian Institute of Science:

“Teachers and mentors are remembered fondly on ‘Teachers Day’, which is observed on 5September. Everybody remembers a favorite or influential teacher, especially as they grow older.Teachers are a diverse community. While primary and secondary school teachers deal with children in their formative years, high school teachers wrestle with the problems of groups of adolescents, in the difficult years when childhood recedes and adulthood beckons. The early undergraduate classes are almost an extension of high school; although college brings with it a sudden loosening of the constraints that sometimes seem so restrictive for teenagers on the verge of a transition. Teachers are to be found all the way up to the level of research degrees. PhD’s are earned under ‘guides’ and‘supervisors’, who must really act as mentors and teachers. By this stage the relationships are more nearly equal,with experienced students transforming into valuable colleagues in research for their supervisors. Teaching is traditionally a term reserved for those who lecture, explain and inform in the confines of a classroom. For teachers,the blackboard and chalk were their traditional instruments; their only other requirement was a sheaf of well-thumbed notes or a prodigious memory, from which facts could be recalled at will. Times have changed in institutions of higher education, where visual aids and computers have invaded classrooms.‘Power-point’ allows instructors to project in rapid fashion reams of information, while the Internet provides an inexhaustible and valuable resource,after class, if used wisely. In the electronic age even teachers may need to change, as they move into a position where they must guide students to learn. In schools little has changed and hundreds of thousands of classrooms across India might well be described in Goldsmith’s vivid verse, penned in the 18th century.............Teaching has never been a financially rewarding profession. In a highly globalized and commercialized world, teaching careers are unattractive and few young and bright college graduates will opt to become teachers. At all levels, from school to the university, there is a growing shortage of trained, committed and enthusiastic teachers. The dramatic expansion of the higher education system, especially in the areas of science and engineering, has suddenly highlighted the great demand for faculty. It has been easy to create IISERs and IITs by decree; it appears harder to recruit faculty who will be both researchers and teachers. As the demand for increasing India’s scientific productivity grows, so too will the demand for scientists in national laboratories where there is no teaching....”
That indeed sets the ball rolling. Very often it is believed, that teaching is either to make illiterate literate only. Or just passing some information in a packaged form, that entitles a person to get a job and earn a livelihood. To become prosperous (successful?) in life. So quite often a teacher follows a curriculum prescribed by the authorities responsible for education. For example Professor Krishna Kumar, a former Director of the apex body for school education in India, NCERT, wrote in a book entitled “What is worth teaching” wrote.
“In our country we do not normally think of curriculum as a 'problem' – in the sense that it involves imperfect choices and decisions made on the basis of defensible, and therefore challenge-able, perceptions. We have an educational culture that is firmly dug into the rock of 'received' knowledge.In such a culture, nobody asks why a certain body of information happens to be equated with education. Under our very different climate and historical circumstance, the influential American curriculum theorist, Tyler, would have been happy to find such a large number of people who are used to accepting the validity of one particular structuring of educational knowledge. Another thing that would have made him happier in India than in this own country is the ease with which dissociation between curriculum and the child's immediate sociocultural and physical milieu is accepted, and the zeal with which 'principles' for curriculum designing, teacher training,and so on, are demanded and applied. My concern is not with 'principles' but rather with the problem of curriculum. Inherent in this declaration is the assumption that there are no principles for developing a curriculum. In the dialogue of education, my agenda is to dispel the notion that there are certain time-honored, proven rules capable of guiding us when we want to prepare a curriculum for Children's education.The position I wish to support is the opposite one – that there is no escape from reflecting on the conditions obtaining in our society and culture if we want to give worthwhile education to our children.The problem of curriculum is related to our perception of what kind of society and people we are,and to our vision of the kind of society we want to be. By taking shelter in the 'received' perspective and the 'principles of curriculum development' that it offers, we merely shun our responsibility and allow ourselves to be governed by choices made long ago or elsewhere under very different circumstances. …...
”I have thought quite a bit about education of science. Very often it is believed, that all that needs Tobe taught in science, is just the age old concepts of physics, chemistry, biology. I do not think so. I wrote:“We have discussed for quite some time about Information. I believe that the education today is highly information centric. Teaching in universities etc. is often construed to be just communicating information to the students by the teachers. But, is that indeed the sole purpose of education?I believe that might have been the case several decades ago, when the channels for information were very limited, the lectures delivered by a teacher and the textbooks. But is that true today?Today, a student gets information through several media besides them, say the electronic media! So,the role of education cannot just be getting/giving information, it must be analyzing and filtering various information that one is exposed to using information one can find otherwise. Education is not just to collect information, rather it is the ability to analyses information intelligently. But somehow the dominant educationalists in our country appears to be of the view that it is enough if students assimilate information, that is included in a course curriculum, passed on to them through the teachers and books, and then evaluating them on this count mainly! I think inclusion of problem solving does not suffice for good education! Problem solving at best encourages one to imbibe the relations between the various components of the curriculum, it does not, most often, encourage out of the box thinking. It does not encourage to seek information from varied other sources. Problem solving, as you have pointed out, has been an important component of science education, hence most text books of science include this component, but then there has been a proliferation of help-books, that give the solutions of those problems as there are websites; students then have the tendency to study their contents and feel satisfied if they can master a particular kind of problems.This becomes very apparent in the tutorial classes for those seeking admission to IIT's or Medical colleges. I remember a conversation with a friend who is a faculty member of IIT-K about the students of IIT, she said the students can answer only such questions that are similar to problems asked in the previous entrance examinations, try asking different kind of questions, you find that most often they are incapable of handling them.....”
Rakesh Mohan Hallen

Thinking About Education = Thinking About Teaching ???

Often it is presumed that education is the ultimate panacea for all social problems, but we seldom ponder about it. All the readers of this small essay would be educated. They would have attended a school, a college or some sort of university. Most of them would believe, that all that was delivered to them is education. But, is that really true?Let me quote some great persons thoughts, that I compiled while I was the coordinator of Vimarsh an e-forum of the students and teachers of University of Delhi, till about an year ago."Who dares to teach must never cease to learn' -- J.C. Dara
“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” Will Durrant “I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” Albert Einstein "By teaching one learns" An old Latin proverb"
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one" -- Malcolm Forbes Teachers open the door; but you must enter by yourself" -- Chinese proverb"
Education is not a preparation for Life; education is life itself" --John Dewey "learning from experience is a faculty almost never practiced"--Mark Twain"
Education is difficult to unlearn" -- Anonymous "Correction does much, but encouragement does more" Goethe “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” W B Yeats“It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.” Alec Bourne “The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction” Michael Faraday“Never stop learning; knowledge doubles every fourteen months.” Anthony J. D'Angelo Now a bit from an article, I read yesterday:“
Education is an amalgamation of life experience, structured study, and critical thinking. From this perspective there are different ways to examine education and the coinciding knowledge that can be obtained. One focal point is the traditional concept of formal education that comes from academic schooling and focused study. The other form of education is based on life experience and informal learning through self-study and personal inquiry. Both formats of learning may provide an equivalent knowledge base, though only one provides the social standard of a conventional degree.On the one hand, formal education provides a focused knowledge base to apply to a specific job,and provides a degree revealing a certain level of formal study and knowledge. One the other hand,formal education has some limitations for real world application and understanding.

It is hard to determine if experience or education is more valuable to prospective employers, or even our own personal competence and wisdom. Regardless, from both we gain knowledge, and as Sir Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power.” When it comes to intelligence, a valuable, but cliché consideration, is the old idea of “book smarts vs. street smarts.” These are two areas of equal importance that provide knowledge and wisdom to initiate growth for future development.So, is one really more valuable than the other?”
So......

What is teaching? Who is a teacher? I have very many times wondered about these questions, while I was engaged withUniversity of Delhi, as the sole coordinator and administrator of an e-forum,Vimarsh, forscience students and teachers of the university. I have also interacted widely with manyschool teachers in various capacities, I in fact my three sisters, all younger to me, teach inschools.But the process develops over time, and today, I feel motivated to write a bit about it.Let me start with the definition of a teacher. I very recently read some thing, that hasimpressed me a lot. It goes as follows:
“The definition of a teacher is to define the indefinable. Almost as wide ranging, yet individualized as asking, what is a parent? A teacher is a guide, a mentor, a confident, afriend, a disciplinarian, an informer, a provider of inspiration and imagination. A teacher issomeone who knows when to intervene, and when to stand back and allow them to try forthemselves.A teacher is more than someone who passes on knowledge. It is the interaction, therelationship, the understanding and encouragement to enable a person or child to reach thefull potential. This should not be merely being able to pass tests or exams but developingfully in all areas as a rounded person who reaches and surpasses their full potential andalso develops a life long love of learning and discovery.Being a great teacher means knowing when to assist, when to stand back and insist onindependence. Doing too much for a learner leads to reliance and lack of perseverance,which will in turn lead to lack of self esteem.
Reaching that goal with encouragement but nophysical help will enable the learner experience the feeling of achievement that inspiresfurther learning.A teacher must therefore, provide the opportunities which allow the leaner to learn forthemselves. Learners do not learn by being told, they learn by finding out for themselves.This may be a toddler playing with water, or a university student doing independent research the principle is the same. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) stated, In order for a child tounderstand something, he must reinvent it. Every time we teach a child something, we keephim from reinventing it himself.' This is not meant to say we must not teach, but we shouldprovide opportunities for children to explore and discover new things themselves. Thisprovides an increased level of understanding than telling them about something.A true teacher teaches as a way of life, they life to teach rather than teach to live. Theynever stop learning themselves as the journey of discovery is ever present. They are not teachers just in school hours, they are constantly looking for ideas to use in the classroomthey often take part in out of school activities, clubs are other ways to support and providefor their learners. They are able to pass this enthusiasm onto their pupils, instilling the joyof discovery.If you enter a classroom of a great teacher you will see learners actively wanting to learn,

interacting with each other and the teacher. You will often see groups workingindependently, on differentiated tasks designed to stretch their individual abilities. You maysee some pupils benefiting from one to one attention from a teaching assistant. They may behaving difficulty in a certain area, or are above the ability of the rest of the class and arecompleting advanced work. It is this
understanding and individual plans of learning that enablelearners to keep on task, never feeling bored or unable to complete work. The balance of beingsupported, yet maintaining independence, is an invaluable skill that separates good teachers fromgreat teachers.We can see then that a teacher is not someone who is knowledgeable they know how to teach.Students taught in an inspiring way want to learn rather than learning for a specific test or reward.They know how to pass on, not just knowledge but love of learning, and most of all the care about the whole person not just exam results. A great teacher is a truly special person and will influencethe lives of their learners for the rest of their lives”
Rakesh Mohan Hallen

Teachers.......LOST.....!!!!

It has been 61 years since independence, but we still have not been able to achieve 100 ( World Average 84 ) per cent literacy, forget about universal literacy! The quality of education provided is bad.. Lack of teachers, especially the lack of quality teachers is one of the reasons why India is still backward in terms of literacy. Teachers seem to have disappeared. There is a shortage of 25 lakh teachers in the country. With population increasing tremendously, teachers seem to be disappearing even more.
Why have people started taking up other professions and delegated the job of teaching to become their last preference? Teaching used to be a highly respected and well paid job once upon a time. My grandfather decided to be a teacher instead of a district collector around 45 years ago. But now, no one would do this and people are likely to wonder what made him take this decision! A child spends most of his time with his teacher and if he/she doesn’t impart adequate knowledge and values to his/her pupils, the entire future of the child gets destroyed. However, these days, teaching is likened to commercial work.
One of the reasons for this is the low salary packages of teachers. Low salaries make people reluctant to take up this profession. There is also a lack of incentive to impart quality education. Teachers should be given proper incentives and should even be awarded for high performance. Seventy per cent of the 8,000 teachers in DU have seen stagnation in salary and position for the past 10 years. It takes a teacher a minimum of 11 years of research and teaching to attain the position of Reader, the highest position in DU. At present, they get Rs.18, 400. If the recommendations of DUTA are approved, then the average income of a Reader in Delhi University can go up to Rs 60,000.
The need of the hour is that the recruitment process should be in accordance with the students’ needs, and teachers who are more student friendly and have proper educational qualifications should be recruited because along with the quantity, quality also matters.
It has often been said that many teachers in India are lazy and do not wish to work. Working conditions need to be made more stringent and it must be ensured that the work is done properly. The environment should be teacher friendly as well. Government must increase the public expenditure on education as education is a solution to many other problems like poverty, unemployment etc. Better salary packages will attract more and better teachers.
There are millions of young brilliant minds in India but the full potential of the country still needs to be discovered. Millions of people need to be educated. India will be a country with great professionals if people are provided with right opportunities. The future of our country is dependent on teachers. They must feel responsible towards their job and help India shine.
Aparna Vya

Corruption in Education system in India – A UNESCO Report...!!!

India’s education system is mired in corruption and a high rate of teacher absenteeism in the country was a key factor for it according to the new global study. The UNESCO’s International Institute of Educational Planning study on corruption in education released recently says that 25% teacher absenteeism in India is among the highest in the world, second only after Uganda that has a higher rate. The global average of teacher absenteeism is about 20%.

Teacher absenteeism does not just affect quality of education; it is also a huge drain on resources resulting in the wastage of 22.5% of education funds in India the study said. Politics in teacher appointments and transfers is a major reason for teacher absenteeism according to a professor at National University for Education Planning and Administration.

The study identifies the absence of well established criteria for teacher recruitment a uniform policy on promotion, remuneration and deployment as some of the main reasons identified for teacher absenteeism. However the report found married teachers to be more regular at job than unmarried teachers.

In Bihar two of every five teachers were reported absent the figure in UP was reported to be one-third of the total teachers. However in states like Gujarat and Kerala the figure was lower than 15% the report based on several small studies.

Teachers also believe highly in private tutoring a practice identified by UNESCO as unethical. It does not complement learning at school and leads to corruption the report said. The practice of ghost teachers and involvement of teachers in mismanagement of schools were other gray areas identified in the Indian education system.

Another indictment of the sorry state of Indian education was the view held by students that cheating in examinations is their traditional right. In India universities cheating is now well-established. The fees for manipulating entrance tests ranges between $ 80 to $ 20,000 for popular programmes such as computer science, medicine and engineering the report said...!!!

CBSE Equivalence to Madrassa Certificates...!!!

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is ready to grant Madrassa certificates; equivalence to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).This recommendation has been made by the Sachar Committee, which was appointed by the HRD Ministry to review the status of minorities. This suggestion also finds mention in the Prime Minister’s 15-point program for minorities. As per the recommendation, students can also approach a Madrassa board in other states to get CBSE equivalence, if a state does not have a Madrassa board.

A committee appointed in 2007 proposed to recognize ‘Aalim’ degrees offered by Madrassas for admissions into the B.A. course. ‘Fazil’ degrees were also proposed to be recognized for admissions to post graduate programmmes.

This move by the government appears to be political one rather than a genuine one. Madrassas are the centers of Islamic learning.Although some Madrassas teach secular subjects like logic, language(Urdu and Persian), Islamic history, Calligraphy, Geography etc,in general Madrassas offer a religious based curriculum,focusing on the Quran and Islamic texts.Often a religious-based curriculum focuses on the Quran and Islamic texts. But, they do not train students in modern science, technology and value system. The major difference between Madrassas and the normal schools is that the education imparted in Madrassas are not enough to qualify the students to get employment in this modern world and survive. Recently,The Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education (UPBME) banned co-education in madarsas across the state, saying it is against the “spirit of Islam”.

The genesis of Madrassa in South Asia is attributable to the Delhi Sultanate. The original purpose of the Madrassa was to equip the youth for the administrative service of the Sultanate. Since the decline and eventual cessation of muslim rule in India, the graduates of Madrassa do not have job opportunities outside the umma. Apart from a handful of ones who continue their studies in departments of Islamics, Arabic, Persian or Urdu in some of the Modern Indian Universities. The more accomplished of these graduates from dual systems of education get absorbed in Universities, the rest remain content with either teaching in the fast mushrooming Madrassa (Government or independent) or becoming leaders (imams) of the equally fast growing mosques.

Two of the famous Islamic institutions are “Darul Uloom Deoband” and “Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama- Lucknow”. Darul Uloom has a comprehensive syllabus. It consists of 4 stages – primary, middle, high and specialization. In the primary syllabus students are taught Urdu, Persian, Hindi, Geography, Arabic Grammar and Composition. Nadwatul Ulama of Lucknow also brought about certain far-reaching changes in the traditional curriculum of the Qaumi Madrassas of India in response to the changed circumstances and needs of the time. The primary five years cover complete primary education as prescribed for general schools besides giving a sound religious base to its students.

But, there are many Madrassas which are not affiliated to them and which give more importance to Islamic subjects, in some cases completely ignoring secular subjects. There is an absence of a centralized agency to exercise control on all Madrassas. Hence some Madrassas follow their own designated syllabus which is a hindrance for smooth functioning and standardising of quality education. There is a lack of modern teaching methodology in about all big and small Madrassas. Madrassa educated people in general, find it difficult to get established and earn money and livelihood. In order to provide appropriate leadership and guidance, Madrassas must give particular stress to the learning of the English language, which at present is absent. In short, there is lack of ability in its alumni, to cope with the challenges of modern world.

Further, some experts also suggest that a small group of radicalized Madrassas, especially the ones located in Border areas promote extremist form of Islam.According to the task force, there are 905 Mosques and 439 Madrassas along Indo-Bangladesh border on the Indian side.A detailed Indian intelligence report issued some years ago claimed that some Madrassas were functioning as training grounds for anti-Indian elements. The report went on to suggest that muftis, maulvis and imams in these schools may have been replaced by what it calls “highly fanatic agents of ISI”, secretly working for the break- up of India. In May 2001, a ministerial group for the “reform of internal security” headed by the then Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani, released a 137-page report that recommended, among other measures, a close scrutiny of Madrassas.

Under such situations, the decision to grant CBSE equivalence to Madrassa certificates is very unwise and appears to be politically motivated step. Few claim that the present step is a welcome one, as it aims to enrich the Islamic heritage of India by mainstreaming Islamic studies. But, why Government has not thought about supporting and encouraging the Hindu studies? Why are there no such steps towards mainstreaming Vedic Patshalas and Sanskrit Patshalas? Why the traditional gurukula system has almost vanished?

Instead of vote-bank politics, government should concentrate on improving the education system of India. Government should make religion as one compulsory subject in Primary and High schools. Students can study any religion they want. By this, Hindu students can learn Hindu religion and culture and Muslim students can learn Islam along with Maths and Science. Curriculum may be designed such that, at primary level one can study one’s own religion and at High school level they can study comparative religions. Apart from that, Religious schools Hindu, Muslim and Christian can be instructed to have curriculum such that, along with detailed religious studies, modern subjects are included. In this direction, Modernization of Madrassas are necessary to bring them on par with secular schools. Only after this, the equivalent status to CBSE should be provided. Further, such a provision should be provided for Vedic and Sanskrit Patshalas too.

  

Nithin Shridhar

Condition of Government Schools in India...!!!

Although India is amongst the ten fastest growing economies in the world, it still has a third of the world’s illiterates. According to global education report of 2004, India’s ranking was 106 out of 127 countries in the education sphere. With 34 per cent of the illiterate population in the world, India has the largest number of illiterates by far – with second placed China at 11 per cent. Sixty years after independence, with 40 per cent of its population under 18 – India is now confronting the perils of its failure to educate its citizens, notably the poor.

India, being a mixed economy, needs government intervention in the area of education because education driven by profit motive cannot benefit the masses. But the condition of government schools in India is pathetic. Except for two or three states, all the Indian states have poor educational statistics. More Indian children are in school than ever before, but the quality of government schools has sunk to spectacularly low levels. The children in these schools come from the poorest of families — those who cannot afford to send away their young to private schools elsewhere, as do most Indian families who have the means.

India has long had a legacy of weak schooling for its young, even as it has promoted high-quality government-financed universities. If in the past, a largely poor and agrarian nation could afford to leave millions of its people illiterate, that is no longer the case. Not only has the high growth ensured that we have a shortage of skilled labor, the nation’s many new roads, phones and television sets have also fueled new ambitions for economic advancement among its people — and new expectations for schools to help them achieve it.

Even though many children attend schools, they remain ill-equipped. A survey in 2007which was conducted across 16,000 villages, found that while many more children were sitting in class, vast numbers of them could not read, write or perform basic arithmetic, to say nothing of those who were not in school at all.

The attitude of the concerned authorities towards the plight of children is callous, indifferent and inhumane and the authorities seem to have lost all sense of responsibility and duty towards the lakhs of children.

There are many reasons for the failure. First of all, there is an acute shortage of teachers. Children often don’t get a support from their parents. Parents seem to be indifferent to their child’s learning and only see them as additional hands for work. There is also longstanding neglect, insufficient public financing and accountability, and a lack of motivation among some teachers to pay special attention to poor children from lower castes. Even basic amenities like water and electricity are not being provided.

There is a need for urgency. Education levels need to be improved. India with the second largest population in the world cannot develop with such a bad indicator. Furthermore, illiteracy leads to other problems such as poverty and unemployment. To start with, we need to learn from Indian states like Himachal Pradesh and Kerela who have almost universal literacy rate. Attitude of people there is very different from those in other regions. People are aware of the massive benefits and the government invests huge amounts to educate people. We personally should contribute by taking a task of teaching atleast one child either through an NGO or at home. Awareness needs to be generated and the state of government schools needs to be improved. Proper incentives should be given to teachers and public expenditure should be increased for education.

Aparna Vyas

Educating the Educators???

Education is what moulds an individual and builds nations. In India today, the state of education is rather a mixed bag with glorious IITs and IIMs on one hand and comparably rather rampant illiteracy on the other. Not only this, primary education suffers from high dropout rates and secondary education lacks the creativity and infrastructure needed for a world-class education system. Looking at the global perspective as well, a lot of countries have problems with their education systems. At times, it is too formal, stifling creativity and at others, the standards are too low for the students to remain globally competitive. It may seem a wise idea to reconsider the role that education plays and why formal education may also be harming students.

Earlier Attempts

In the 19^th century, two British educators, Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, developed a “monitorial system” in light of the shortage of teachers and resources. The idea was to gather a large number of students, 100 perhaps, and then teach a smaller number of monitors that could then cascade the knowledge to their peers. Another quite idealistic theory called “Learning by discovery” was proposed by Rousseau in the 18^th century that called on for letting students explore and learn themselves rather than being taught. Unfortunately both attempts were futile and had to be abandoned.

The Present State

In today’s schools and universities, it seems like the true essence of learning and knowledge is being lost to pragmatism and expediency. Students are no longer interested in learning things, they just want to “mug” up facts and then just regurgitate all out on the exam day. There is little curiosity or creativity and in some cases, very little questioning the teacher or the textbook. This leads to little understanding of underlying ideas and concepts. These practices not only make students dull and mechanic, it hinders innovation and new ideas. Education is increasingly becoming a sort of brainwashing whereby students are made to realize that in order to live well, they need to memories book facts and get good grades so that they can get good jobs in turn. Colleges and schools are being “vocationalised” into being job-training centers and employment agencies rather than institutes of learning. Students are looked at by educational institutes as prospective investments and sometimes even commoditised in a degrading sense. Education and perhaps even society, is rather closing the students instead of opening them up by indoctrinating them with ideas of the practicalities of learning.

Undoubtedly, one needs to earn to survive but is money the only reason one needs to be educated? It is becoming hard to find genuine passion in students these days which should of growing concern to the educators. It has been passion that has changed the way we live. From the greats of Einstein, Van Gogh, Dickens and John Nash, it has been the passion that has driven them to achieve what they did and revolutionize their own fields.

What Needs to be Done

One thing is for sure, that if we want the scientific and technological advancements continue to transform the way we live, the arts to continue to enrich our lives, and the humanities to let us understand ourselves better, the impetus has to be on proper ideals of education. Young students need to be inculcated with a sense of passion and loving what one does. Certainly, society has to play its part as well. Schools need to fundamentally change the way things are taught by including interaction, exploration and creation in the student’s curriculums. Universities have an even bigger onus of producing genuine talent that is ready to challenge the preconceptions in their own fields. Opportunities need to be made available to the deserving ones and meritocracy needs to be encouraged in society.

The development of humanity critically depends on the way our youth is educated. As Agatha Christie rightly said, “I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays, and have things arranged for them, that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas.” The focus has to be shifted and the educators need to learn this fast.

 Sainyam Gautam

Threats to the Succes of Indian Education

The strong Indian market circumstances and the huge salary differences between working in government, in business or a research center makes it difficult for young students to get interested in science.
Government institutes are still setting the tone. The large differences in salary make working for a higher education institute not really attractive, and the shortages for skilled teachers is still growing rapidly. Recently, the Business Line newspaper reported that in 2010 a deficit of around 135 thousand technique teachers may be expected. Moreover, the lack of scientific quality, most institutions (especially private) a scientific job is little challenging.
Businesses and private institutions offer salaries which, even for someone who sees teaching as a vocation, can almost not be refused. For example private hospitals are charging fees that are 50 times higher than those in public hospitals. A university professor told that his graduate students get offers from the private sector which are sometimes ten times higher than his own salary, and then ask him what to do. This is a development which, as in many western countries, makes it increasingly difficult to make young people interested in a scientific career.

Education System of India...!!!

Why India is still a developing country and what is stopping it from being a developed country? This particular question strikes me every time when I read something about India’s education system. I see India’s education system as a stumbling block towards its objectives of achieving inclusive growth.

Let me inform you about certain startling facts. India is going to experience a paradox of nearly 90 million people joining the workforce but most of them will lack requisite skills and the mindset for productive employment according to a report in DNA. India has about 550 million people under the age of 25 years out of which only 11% are enrolled in tertiary institutions compared to the world average of 23%.

I wouldn’t be laying too much emphasis on the drawbacks of India’s public education system because it has been an issue well debated over in the past and the main flaws have already been pointed out before. I will be focusing on how the education system’s failure is leading to another social issue of income inequality and hence, suggest certain policies to improve India’s education system and reduce inequality.

The really critical aspect of Indian public education system is its low quality. The actual quantity of schooling that children experience and the quality of teaching they receive are extremely insufficient in government schools. A common feature in all government schools is the poor quality of education, with weak infrastructure and inadequate pedagogic attention.

What the government is not realising right now is that education which is a source of human capital can create wide income inequalities. It will be surprising to see how income inequalities are created within the same group of educated people.Let me illustrate this with the help of an example:

Let us take P be an individual who has had no primary or higher education. His human capital is zero and hence it bears no returns. Let Q be an individual who completed his MBA from S.P Jain college and let R be an individual who completed his MBA from IIM Ahmadabad. The average rate of return for an MBA student is 7.5% (hypothetical). Q gets a rate of return of 5% and R gets a rate of return of 10% due to the difference in the reputation and quality of the management school. Let the income of P, Q and R be 1.In a period of 10 years, P will be having the same income as he does not possess human capital. For the same time period Q will earn an income of (1+0.05)^10=1.63 and R will earn an income of (1+0.10)^10=2.59. Now lets see what happens when the rate of return on human capital doubles. Earnings of P will not change since he does not have any human capital. Now Q is going to earn (1+0.10)^10=1.63 and R is going to earn (1+0.20)^10=6.19. Flabbergasting! As soon as return on human capital increases proportionately income inequality increases. With return on human capital doubling, Q’S income increases by 59% and R’s income increases by 139%.

Hence, it is imperative for the government to correct the blemishes in India’s education system which will also be a step towards reducing income inequality.

Certain policy measures need to be taken by the government. The basic thrust of government education spending today must surely be to ensure that all children have access to government schools and to raise the quality of education in those schools. One of the ways in which the problem of poor quality of education can be tackled is through common schooling. This essentially means sharing of resources between private and public schools. Shift system is one of the ways through which common schooling can be achieved. The private school can use the resources during the first half of the day and the government school can use it during the second half. It is important to remember that the quality of education is directly linked to the resources available and it is important for the government to improve resource allocation to bring about qualitative changes in the field of education. Common schooling is one of the ways in which government can use limited resources in an efficient way and thus improve resource allocation.

Another reason for poor quality of education is the poor quality of teachers in government schools .Government schools are unable to attract good quality teachers due to inadequate teaching facilities and low salaries. The government currently spends only 3% of its GDP on education which is inadequate and insufficient. To improve the quality of education , the government needs to spend more money from its coffers on education.

Most economists feel that the only panacea to the ills of the public schooling system is the voucher scheme. Under the voucher system, parents are allowed to choose a school for their children and they get full or partial reimbursement for the expenses from the government. But however, the voucher system will further aggravate the problem of poor quality of education in government schools. Such a system will shift resources from government schools to private schools. This will worsen the situation of government schools which are already under-funded. Moreover, if the same amount given as vouchers can be used to build infrastructure in schools then the government can realize economies of scale. For example- The center for civil society is providing vouchers worth Rs 4000 per Annam to 308 girls. This means that the total amount of money given as vouchers is Rs 1232000. If the same amount can be used to construct a school and employ high quality teachers who are paid well then a larger section of the society will enjoy the benefit of education. A school can definitely accommodate a minimum of 1000 students.

I hope government takes certain appropriate policy measures to improve the education system otherwise inequalities are going to be widespread and India’s basic capabilities will remain stunted. Let us strengthen the case for a stronger education system.