Learning levels stagnating at govt schools

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Do smarter-looking, better-functioning schools mean improved learning outcomes in the classroom? The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) underscores the fact that the two are not going hand in hand.

Among the more positive findings of the largely depressing report, based on an assessment in late 2014 of about 570,000 children in the age group three-16, and visits to about 15,000 government schools, is that, nationally, more schools are meeting norms set by the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and other standards. In four years, compliance with pupil-teacher ratio norms has gone up by more than 10 percentage points, and there are more playgrounds, boundary wall fences, drinking water facilities, useable toilets, separate - and useable - girls' toilets, libraries, computers, and kitchen sheds for serving midday meals. In short, Indian government schools are looking more like modern schools are supposed to be.

Yet, reading levels are stagnating, nationwide, at low levels, and maths levels have declined over the past five to eight years in most states. More than half of Class-V students cannot read a Class-II text. Only 44.1 per cent of Class-VIII students can do division, a fall from last year. 

Looking at the performance of individual states, Kerala   has done well on infrastructure and its learning outcomes soar over national averages, but that is a rare feat on this list. Chhattisgarh, by comparison, has seen some impressive improvements in compliance with school norms over four years, but in the same period, its learning outcomes have declined. The figure for Class-III government schoolchildren who can read a class 1 text has fallen from 41.9 to 29.5 per cent. Maharashtra, too, has seen some improvements in standards but reading and maths levels for Class-III and Class-V government school children have fallen sharply in four years.  

A curious case is that of Gujarat, and merits elaboration. Classrooms in the state do not appear to be "vibrant", to use the adjective of the moment, despite impressive infrastructure and resources (for example, Gujarat is second only to Kerala in the percentage of schools with computers), and a zealous drive over five years, backed by political will, to improve  academic and other standards in government primary schools,

The website for the state's Gunotsav or "celebrating quality" programme, initiated in 2009, says the goal is for Gujarat to be among the top three states in the country in terms of student learning outcomes. The 2014 ASER report indicates that this goal is some distance away. For example, with only 41.7 per cent of Class-V children being able to subtract, Gujarat does worse than all but four states (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra) and falls below the national average of 50.5 per cent. With only 9.8 per cent of Class-V children being able to read English sentences, Gujarat does worse than all but Madhya Pradesh and falls below the national average of 24 per cent.

The above figures relate to children in all schools, government and private. Looking specifically at government schools, while 44.6 per cent of Class-V Gujarat children can read a Class-II level text, compared to a national average of  42.2 per cent, only 13.9 per cent can do division, compared to a national average of 20.7 per cent. 

These figures are perplexing given the energy with which Gunotsav is carried out. In its first stage, 34,000 primary schools self-evaluate. In its second, an army of 3000 senior government officials fans out across the state to some 9,000 schools, after receiving a personal briefing by the chief minister also transmitted by satellite at the district level.

Over three days, each officer, with a small team, spends an entire day each in three schools, carrying out academic and non-academic assessments. These are then fed into a sophisticated, IT-enabled data collection process. According to the Gunotsav website, over 5.2 million children of Class-II to VIII in Gujarat have been given unique ID numbers as part of a new system of Child Tracking For Learning Outcomes.

Renu Seth, an Ahmedabad-based executive team member of Pratham (which coordinates ASER), says political engagement with Gunotsav, and other state-led drives in education, has been "inspirational", and led to a slew of improvements in schools, from infrastructure to attendance rates. "After it began, you quickly saw new boundary walls, greater cleanliness, medicinal plants being grown, and even labelled," she recalls. Gujarat, she points out, is an exception to the trend of growing private school enrolment (only 13.3 per cent here, compared to 30.8 per cent nationally), reflecting the populace's faith in its well-functioning government schools.

So, why are learning levels still low? Seth says Gunotsav assessments, though sincerely done, have not been sharp enough to show teachers exactly how children need to improve, and goal-setting and follow-up with those previously assessed have not been rigorous enough. More generally, she says, the idea that you need to worry less about finishing the syllabus and more about tackling serious gaps in early learning hasn't quite taken root.

Rukmini Banerji, who leads  ASER, says an underlying problem is the assumption, in Gujarat as elsewhere, "that if everything that a school needs is in place, learning levels will be good". She points out this approach usually fails to address a fundamental structural issue - "that our kids are not learning the basics on time and therefore do not understand what is being taught in class." Where basics are taught on a war footing, Tamil Nadu being a recent example, there have been results.