Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 1 November 2017
School Education
DISTRESSING, NEEDS REFORM
By Dr Oishee Mukherjee
The recently released
UNESCO report monitoring education has pointed out that 2.8 million children
are out of school, 11 million out of lower secondary school and 47 million out
of upper secondary school. Moreover, the fact that a quarter of the nation’s
children not completing lower secondary education and 266 million adults and 33
million young people unable to read and write is indeed distressing for a large
country like India with reasonably high economic growth.
Obviously, what has
been reiterated again and again is the relatively low spend on education – around
3.8 per cent of GDP – contributing to the current state of affairs. Added to
this is the lack of commitment and sincerity of teachers as also lack of
monitoring of welfare schemes relating to education. In fact, education
infrastructure in most rural areas is quite deplorable. The lack of single sex
toilets, water, healthy classrooms, etc. may be attributed as the major reasons
for children unwilling to go to schools.
In the urban sector,
recent reports of shabby treatment of children in elite private schools have
necessitated the need to re-examine the state of school education in the
country which, by all accounts, has been quite poor. School education is, no
doubt, a crucial issue and the problems are being highlighted in the media from
time to time. The issues involved include standards of teaching, discipline in
schools, relevance of curriculum and the treatment meted out to children. As is
revealed from various surveys, while standards have deteriorated, primarily due
to the negligence of teachers, new laws deter teachers from physically beating
their wards to discipline them.
The primary point
that is of concern is the quality of teachers and their sincerity in teaching. The
report States that in India, estimates differed among studies. “A representative
panel of 1,297 villages found almost 24% of rural teachers were absent during
unannounced school visits in 2010. Another study of 619 schools in six States
found 18.5% of teachers absent: 9% on leave, 7% on official duties and 2.5% on
unauthorised absence.”.
It has to be admitted
that teaching standards are quite poor in most government schools across the
country though the performance of the southern States is a little better. The
reason for this is not far to seek. The report notes: Effective policy
responses are complicated by the many factors influencing teacher absenteeism,
e.g. distance to school, pupil/teacher ratio and poor working conditions.”
The report provides
and insight into private tuition, which is on the rise. This “can increase
students’ academic burden and stress....while remedial or individualised help
may benefit students, the time and money allocated to tutoring can undermine
student well-being and strain household budgets,” cautions the report.
The craze for private
tuitions has been increasing with every passing year. Even parents think that
without private tuition, his child will not be able to do well in examinations.
For a few years we have been seeing that students studying in Class II or III
need private tutors.
The second reason for
deterioration in standards is the lack of discipline in schools. While teachers
are afraid of taking disciplinary action against their students, the latter do
not take care about preparing their homework. Moreover, with some States having
decided to stop the pass-fail system up to Class VIII, most students take
little interest in studies.
The urgency of
passing out with good marks is present among a small section of students. The
entry of politics in schools has further deteriorated the climate. Discipline
is missing in schools and specially among male students studying in upper
classes. One is reminded of the saying – “spare the rod and spoil the child” –
but this is not implemented now due to legal stipulations.
There is a debate
among educationists whether sparing the rod is required while others believe
that strictness is necessary to ensure that students study, do their homework
and are attentive to teachers. On the other hand, the lack of love and
affection for children has made them defiant and disrespectful towards
teachers, specially those who do not take interest in teaching. Communicating
is an art and unless teachers are aware of this, they would not be able to
enter the children’s mind and obviously would not be effective.
The third factor is
the curriculum, specially those of the State boards. This is outdated and not
revised reflecting the issues and concerns of the day. Those at the State level
do not think it necessary to revise the syllabus. In some States, environmental
studies was earlier being taught as a subject but for the last three years or
so, this has been done away with.
Apart from the above
factors, there is lack of sincerity towards school education. Whether there is
lack of focus on developing and maintaining proper infrastructure in schools,
curriculum development is too not revised periodically. The budgetary allotment
towards this end is not sufficient enough as a result of which the
infrastructure in rural areas is quite poor.
One may mention here
reports that have surfaced in the media regarding non-functional toilets or
girls’ toilets not having water. Also water logging in front of schools make it
inconvenient for students, specially younger ones, to enter schools during the
rainy season. It is understood that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a pet project of
the Prime Minister, may resolve this issue of setting up toilets in all
schools.
The problems
affecting school education are varied and it is indeed quite difficult to
resolve these in the immediate future. But some action can definitely be taken
to improve the quality and standards of education. The foremost thing that is
necessary is strict monitoring of teachers in all government schools that is
normally done in missionary institutions.
For this, the
government may induct retired government officers to strictly monitor the
performance of teachers and their attitude towards children – whether they are
at the primary level or those studying from Class IX to Class XII. A very small
honorarium may be given for this work and these officials should report, say
quarterly, directly to the District Magistrate
They could also point
out the problems being faced by the schools in the block and take measures to
ensure that at least some of these are addressed, if not immediately but in the
near future. Since they are retired people, they could also create some
pressure to ensure that the demands of the schools are addressed.
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 school 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 democracy. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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