Improving Teacher Motivation is Key for the Indian Education System...!!!

There are many issues in education system in India, and one of the big ones is the lack of focus on the quality of education. India has been focused on what we call the inputs to the education system – student enrollment rates, building schools, books/meals, providing teachers etc). Although all these inputs are important, India’s focus has to change from inputs, to outputs of its education system – student outcomes, quality of education.

Although the student enrollment rates have signficantly increased in the India in the past decade, the drop out rates, and repetition rates are also very high. Enrollment doesn’t mean attendance, and attendance does not mean that the students are actually learning in school.

Why is Teacher Motivation Low in India: One of the main reasons for the poor quality of education in India is low teacher motivation. There are a few reasons for this:

Low accountability in the system: The education system in India is very centralized, with very poor monitoring ability. The people who have the power are sitting in their office in urban, while the local community in the rural areas who know what the issues are, and have the monitoring capability, have no power or voice. As a result, issues like teacher absenteeism (rates in India are highest in the world) go unnoticed, or unaddressed. In some instances, the teachers have one or two additional jobs on the side, that they attend to while being absent from school.

Poor incentives / salary structure: The teacher unions are powerful in India. Due to the centralized nature of the education system, and because of the power of the teacher unions, the salary structure is such that neither does a teacher get a raise for a good performance, nor does he/she gets fired for poor performance or for being absent in school. The teacher salaries are based on seniority, years of service. Hence, there is no motivation for the teacher for performing better.

Other: Sometimes, poor school infrastructure make the working conditions difficult for teacher to teach under. Also, the teachers are not being paid on time, and lack of student interest/attendance, only add to the lack of motivation for the teachers in India.
What Needs to be Done:
Incentives for Teachers: The teacher salary structure needs to be changed from a seniority-based to performance based. One idea would be given a base salary to teachers, and a bonus based on their performance which can be measured by either their attendance rates, student achievement levels, or both. Also, it is critical that the teachers are paid well and on time.

Better Environment to Work In: It would be for the benefit of both the teachers and the students that government spend money on improving the school infrastructures, books/materials etc. It is important that the school environment is such that the teachers and the students would want to go to school everyday.

Decentralization of the Indian Education System: The local community needs to be empowered with administrative powers, for a better monitoring system. This will need some legislative changes, but it is required. This is the only way to get rid of corrupt government education inspectors, and add some accountability in the education system.
Conclusion: Improving teacher motivation in India will need a mix of the “carrot approach” (incentives) and “stick approach” (accountability). While teachers take a lot of the flak in India and rightfully so (due to high absenteeism rates, and lack of moral accountability), it is important to learn what the real issues are, and tackle the root cause of those issues. Teachers are key to improving the quality of education. And it is vital that while addressing teacher issues in India or elsewhere, we make them a part of the solution and not the problem.
Pritamkabe

Education System in India: ICTs Cannot Work Their Magic Alone...!!!

What is the Problem with the Public Education System in India?

The challenges facing the Indian education system are immense, and the need for reform is immediate. The Services sector (mainly Informational Technology) led economic boom in India has really masked the issues in its educational system. Here are some mind-boggling statistics that will give some perspective on the seriousness of this issue:
1. India has 22% of the World’s population and 46% of the global illiterates. Female illiteracy rates in India are higher than even sub-Saharan Africa.
2. Teacher absenteeism rates in India are the highest in the world – 13 percentage points higher than the next highest country.
3. India has a very young demography – 54% of the population is under the age of 25. With 10 million people expected to enter the Indian workforce every year for the next few decades, if the education system is not fixed, there will be huge disgruntled uneducated population in India, and the demographic blessing will soon turn into a curse and a disaster for India.

What are the Main Reasons for the Educational Issues in India?

Poor Quality of Education: Since the 1970s, the Indian government has been focused on quantity, and has ignored the quality of education. Although the student enrollment rates have significantly improved in India in recent years, enrollment does not mean attendance, and attendance does not mean that the students are learning in schools. The repetition and drop-out rates for students is high, due to the lack of trust in the education system, and its poor quality.

Low accountability in the system: One of the biggest reasons for the poor quality of education in India is the lack of accountability. The monitoring of the education system is weak due to the extreme centralization, bureaucracy and corruption. The local community has no power and hence the cannot contribute towards helping the monitoring process. Due to this, the teacher accountability is very low, which has led to high teacher absenteeism rates in India.

Social/Cultural issues: The Indian culture is very rich in its ethnic diversity, and the caste system is still prevalent. One of the drawbacks of this is the lack of interaction between the teachers and parents, due to the difference in their social and economic background. The lack of opportunities of girls and the people belonging to the lower-caste groups in India also has a deep-rooted cultural reasonings behind it.
What Needs to be done?
Need Political Will: Although this sounds obvious, the will of the Indian government is the first and the most important step needed for making any educational reform. The government needs to realize the gravity of the situation and think long-term in terms of sustained equal economic growth and social stability. The Right To Education Act slogan should be changed to the Right to Right Education. Support for equity in education for the females and the disadvantaged groups in India will also be crucial.

Need to Focus on Quality of Education: Although the inputs to the education system (building schools, providing teachers, books etc) are important, India needs to start focusing on the outputs – student outcomes. The first step in this process is to improve accountability in the system. This will require decentralization of the education system by making legislative changes to give more administrative power to the local community, for them to assist in monitoring the local school system. There also needs to be a serious focus on improving teacher accountability, at the same time, improving the motivation for the teachers in India. Currently, the teachers don’t get salary raises if they do a good job, nor do they get fired for doing a bad job in school. Hence, there is no motivation for them to do well in their profession. We can help motivate the teachers by improving the teacher monitoring techniques, and by giving them incentives in the form of bonus salary payments. Studies have shown positive impact that incentives and monitoring can make on not only reducing teacher absenteeism, but on the student achievements. It is also critical to reform the current seniority-based teacher salary structure, and make it a performance-based salary structure.

Need to Monitor, Measure and Assess the Quality of Education: Measuring the quality and the impact of education is always a difficult thing. But it is nevertheless a crucial step. India needs a relentless focus on student outcome results, and to retool its educational strategies based on those results. This needs improving its monitoring and measuring systems. As mentioned in the sections above, technology can play a big role in improving the monitoring capabilities. Internationally comparable tests like the PISA is also a good first step in regard to measuring the student achievement levels. School rating systems can also be very useful in this process and is required in India. Schools can be rated based on not just the inputs to the schools, but also the outputs like student outcomes. This not only helps in creating competition among schools, but it also gives the parents information and helps them in their choice of picking the right school for their children. Having a better monitoring and measurement system in place in the education sector, is also beneficial for justifying the public and/or donor investment in education, for improving the country’s economic performance, and most importantly, for providing a better quality of life for the students in India.
How can ICTs help?
When used in the right context, ICTs can play in important role in supplementing the other structural changes (political, social, economic) required in the Indian education system. Traditionally, ICTs have been used in education by their direct access. But I think there is an untapped potential of the power of indirect access to ICTs that we need to harness, for empowering the administrative side of education system, and local community by getting them more involved. Mobile phone technology will make teacher monitoring, and the concepts such as conditional cash transfer programs, crowdsourcing and crowdvoicing easy to implement. The combination of mobile and radio technologies can be used in implementing Interactive Radio Instructions in school, to improve the student achievement levels. Thus technology will definitely assist in improving the efficiency, and the accountability in the Indian education system, if used the right way.
Conclusion:
The educational issues in India are very complex, and varies from state to state based on the cultural, social and political system of that particular state. But it is not impossible to fix the public education system in India. It will need the political will and a serious civic society involvement for implementing the reforms. Education is a make or break issue for India. And although Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are not the silver bullet in solving the educational problems, if all the political, social, and economic structures mentioned above are in place, the diffusion of technology will serve as a catalyst for improving transparency and accountability in the system, and providing an improved quality of education to the millions of kids in India.
Pritamkabe