Primary education
Inkblots on the strategy

A recent countrywide survey of 15,000 villages shows that policymakers should do a rethink: the fact that there is a shift towards private schools and the high rural dropout rate shows that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and other campaigns designed to upscale literacy, especially in the rural areas, are working only on paper.

By Seema Anand

Despite the ever-growing numbers that highlight the “roaring success” of various initiatives in primary education in India, there are hard facts that are often cloaked amidst the plethora of success stories highlighted in government and non-governmental agencies. A recent exhaustive countrywide survey, the Annual Status of Education Report-ASER 2006, conducted in more than 15,000 villages by Pratham, a civil society organisation, has brought out several startling facts that ought to make policymakers rethink their Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan strategy and other campaigns designed to upscale literacy, particularly in rural India.

According to the survey, while overall enrolment has remained unchanged since the past year, there has been a perceptible shift towards private schools, particularly in Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka.

While 10 states have 15-30 per cent children in non- government-run schools, eight states have more than 30 per cent children in non- government-run schools, whether primary (I-V) or upper primary (VI-VIII). Manipur has 56.7 per cent, Nagaland 46.1 per cent, Kerala 45.2 per cent, Meghalaya 44.6 per cent, Goa 44.65 per cent, Haryana 40.35 per cent, Punjab 37.25 per cent, and Uttar Pradesh 30.25 per cent. The states differ significantly in the ratio of aided: unaided schools.

ASER 2006 records an increase of more than five percentage points of shifts to private schools in Punjab (16+), Goa (15.35+), Haryana (9.8+), and Karnataka (6.1+). The shift has been at the expense of enrolment in government schools.

Overall, more boys (20.4 per cent) are in private schools than girls (16.8 per cent). In the 7-10 age group, the largest differences are in Punjab (50 per cent boys and 43 per cent girls) and Haryana (51 per cent boys and 39 per cent girls).

Enrolments in schools have remained nearly steady—at the national level in rural India, nearly 93.2 per cent of children in the 6-14 year age group attend school, as compared to 93.4 per cent reported by ASER 2005. While the numbers here represent a rosy picture, there are several worrying trends.

According to ASER 2006, as many as 46.6 per cent of five-years-olds are enrolled in primary schools, with a broad variance among the states: while only 6.2 per cent and 5.4 per cent five-years-olds are in school in Goa and Maharashtra, the percentage goes up to 74.0 in Orissa and 70.8 in Rajasthan.

The survey underlines the need to sit up and plan for preschool education. It also asks why so many five-years-olds enrol in primary school. Many of the children who are in school do not actually belong there— far too many are younger than they should be, and far too many have not completed school at the right time. The findings of the survey about the learning levels of students in
primary classes in the rural areas compels one to ask whether the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme does little other than feed children, with its preschool component remaining weak.

As many as 21 per cent of children are no longer in school by the time they are 15, while those who are may actually be trying to complete the lower grades. Furthermore, notwithstanding the great efforts that have been made in recent years, the process of retaining the child once s/he comes to school has not improved significantly. According to the survey, the process of entry to school actually begins before the official school-going age of six years (with nearly 85 per cent of the five-years-olds enrolled in balwadis, anganwadis, or government or private schools).

It is hard to believe that public interest in sending children to school has not been stimulated adequately; and the reasons why children do not stay in school should be engaging our attention now. It is time to pay greater attention to those factors—such as inadequate infrastructure, insensitive teachers, and uninteresting or irrelevant curricula—that shove children out of the classroom.

UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children Report 2007, released recently, highlighted the correlation between educated mothers and their children. ASER 2006 confirms this correlation, with its findings indicating that children of mothers who have not been to school are five times more likely to be out of school than the children of educated mothers.

The findings clearly indicate that many more children of mothers with no schooling are not enrolled or have dropped out, and, more importantly, the gender gap in families where the mothers never went to school is wider than earlier thought.

Equally significant: intensive reading/learning support to children in school helps narrow the gap between children with literate and non-literate mothers. A well-functioning school, regular teaching, availability of libraries, and intensive and timebound reading programmes make a big difference, says the survey. Panchayats, local youth groups and other civil society organisations have a big role to play by creating a learning environment through libraries, local education fairs/melas, and learning-to-read programmes.

What this implies is that greater emphasis must be placed on increasing the coverage and quality of adult literacy programmes instead of closing them down. Instead of shutting them down, as certain quarters vociferously suggest, adult literacy programmes need to target women, particularly young mothers.

The survey shows that in view of the large numbers of children who cannot either read or comprehend simple passages, or complete simple divisions at the upper end of the primary cycle, it is time to plan to reach out to these children. It may be time to consider second chances for them— perhaps with an accelerated learning programme that allows them to complete the elementary cycle in four years instead of the usual eight, with an emphasis on reading, comprehension and simple arithmetic.

Another alternative would be to go in for a short two-year programme that enables the acquisition of upper primary competencies for children in the12-16 year age group. “Whatever the strategy, planning for these children is imperative before it becomes too late,” says ASER 2006.

The survey says that it is clear that to break the apathy that has enveloped institutions of education and learning, it is important to energise people and get them to start taking greater interest in the education of children.

Even simple efforts like encouraging parents to ask their children what they have learnt in school every day, whether they have any homework or tests, and to check on what the children have done would be a great help.

The survey has also come out with interesting findings on the learning levels of rural children. At an all-India level, a gain has been recorded in the proportion of children who can read alphabets or more by 4.3 percentage points—up to 74.5 per cent in 2006 from 70.3 per cent in 2005.
More than five percentage points improvement have been recorded in Madhya Pradesh (+31.9), Punjab (+13.9), Orissa (+13.5), Haryana (+10.2), Andhra Pradesh (+9.6), and Maharashtra (+6.5). In most other states, there has been a small—or no discernible—change in the percentage of children in Std I and II who can read alphabets or more. The low reading levels in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are a cause for concern. The above findings need to be read in conjunction with the 61st round of the National Sample Survey, which reveals that about 50 per cent of households in rural areas have no literate female, and 26 per cent do not have any literate member aged 15 and above; 70 per cent rural households in Rajasthan have no literate female adult, and 33 per cent no literate adult; 66 per cent in Jharkhand have no literate female, 36 per cent no literate adult; in Bihar, 65 per cent households have no literate female adult, 38 per cent no literate adult.

The implications of these findings are serious. Children from households with no literate parent are in the greatest need of preschool education. Simple preschool education material in the hands of a dedicated teacher would make a big difference to retention and learning. Equally, focused reading programmes, libraries and other activities that energise the learning environment would greatly impact on first-generation schoolers and may well change the overalleducational environment in a village.