Alok Ranjan: Better school education is key to faster growth

The abysmal learning achievement levels in India’s primary schools constitute the greatest governance challenge before state governments and education administrators. If India has to reap the demographic dividend, it must provide quality of education to its children. This was the spirit behind the Right to Education Act. It is also a major concern of the draft new education policy. If the current trend of learning levels continues, India’s young boys and girls will not be able to participate in the process of economic growth. Inequalities in society will widen as children of elite urban schools are getting a far better education than their rural counterparts. A developing economy cannot raise itself to the next level of growth without addressing this issue. 

Pratham is a remarkable organisation working to diagnose and remedy this situation. Its ASER Report 2014 and Trends over time: 2006-2014 is revealing. For instance, the report found that at an all-India level, 40.3 per cent of children in standard III could read only a standard I text book. This is down from 48.1 per cent in 2006. For Uttar Pradesh, this figure is 35.1 per cent. Even more significant is the difference between government and private schools. At an all-India level, the figure for government schools is 31.8 per cent in 2014, compared to 45.8 per cent in 2006. The corresponding figure for UP is 23.5 per cent in 2006 and only 13.4 per cent in 2014. In comparison the 2014 score for private schools was 59 per cent nationally and 54.8 per cent in UP. 

The situation is similar in arithmetic. The proportion of standard III children who can do at least subtraction is 25.4 per cent at the national level and 23.3 per cent in UP. The difference between government and private schools is even starker — 17.3 per cent of children in standard III could do subtraction in government schools at the all-India level. This figure was just 6.6 per cent for UP. The score of private school children was 43.4 per cent and 38.5 per cent respectively.

In the 1990s, the shortage of schools was thought to be hindering primary education. This has been considerably addressed by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). We now have schools in almost every village. Apart from buildings, provision has been made for drinking water, toilets and blackboards. To improve enrolment, children are being provided free text books, free uniforms and free midday meals. Universal enrolment has almost been ensured because of this but attendance levels and learning levels remain poor. High budgets have been allocated to elementary education. In UP, for example, the SSA budget for 2016-17 is Rs 19,000 crore. Large amounts are being spent and yet learning outcomes are poor. The problem has yet to get the attention it deserves. This issue has to be tackled if India is to be transformed into a developed economy.

The Right to Education Act says that there shall be no detention till Class VIII. However, this has been wrongly interpreted as meaning no exams or evaluation. Educationists have emphasised the importance of continuous and comprehensive evaluation. However, this has not been implemented properly and there are issues of monitoring involved. But there is no getting away from it. A system that ensures regular continuous evaluation has to be put in place and accountability fixed on teachers and education administrators on the results thrown up by these evaluations.

Exams and evaluations are a means of measuring the performance of both children and teachers. The recommendation of the proposed national education policy document that annual exams be held after class V is worth considering. In UP we started this system of exams from class V onwards this year. We did not detain any child but the exam helped us identify the performance of different schools and enabled us to focus on non-performing teachers. 

Inspection of schools by education administrators is essential but they do not inspect quality. UP came out with a detailed inspections form which focuses entirely on quality. Officers were asked to inspect accordingly and upload their reports. This created an environment where quality was being asked for. In years to come, this should transform the quality of teaching. 

The quality of education is essentially a function of the outcome of the teacher-taught transaction. For children from poor backgrounds, whose parents are not well educated, and there is no learning environment at home, the person who can change everything is the teacher. Policy-makers and education administrators must give teachers an environment that allows them to concentrate on teaching, equips them with the tools of pedagogy, makes them feel proud of their profession, and holds them accountable.

The teacher has to be kept away from political influence and a rational and fair and transparent system of administration ensured. Teachers should realise that they have to deliver quality. Their performance has to be linked to learning outcomes in schools, and promotions should be dependent on performance. If all this is done, the entire focus will be on teaching outcomes and we will be able to put the current state of affairs behind us.

Bringing about the above change in education governance will require strong political will. The political and bureaucratic leadership needs to take up the challenge.  

The writer is chief advisor to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and former chief secretary, UP