By Moin Qazi
The building blocks of a nation are the citizens of its tomorrow. The way these seeds will sprout will always depend on the way you choose to water them. Indias education sector is one of the largest sunrise sectors in the economic and social development of the country. With more than 1.5 million schools1.1 million of them run by the governmentand more than 250 million student enrolments, the countrys K-12 school system is among the largest and most complex in the world.
Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the number of private schools increased by 77,063 nationwide, a growth of 35 percent, more than 6 times the growth of government schools (12,297) which is a measly 1 percent. In the same period, enrolment in government schools decreased by 13.1 million whereas it increased by 17.5 million in private schools. The amount the government spends on education increased by just 0.2 percent of GDP since 2010. All this happened despite the introduction of the 2009 Right to Education Act, according to which all those enrolled are retained in school till they complete their elementary education (Grade 8).This is popularly known as No-Detention Policy implying that the students are automatically promoted to the next higher class.
Dealing with the tradeoff between quantity and quality
The skewed priorities of the government in this vital sector manifest in low learning levels. The Sustainable Development Goals include a commitment to provide every child with access to free primary and secondary education by 2030. While we are on the right course, our obsession with universal coverage of education has compromised the quality of learning. It is time that India moves beyond a singular focus on enrollment numbers and grapples with the problem of poor quality.
The usually parroted reasons for the poor standard of education are teacher absenteeism, poor student attendance, bad infrastructure, inadequate teacher preparation programmes, and rote learning practices..The most common refrain is: The ones who understand education are not empowered while the ones empowered have no idea about education. While these issues are valid, they do not fully explain the learning crisis apparent in our classrooms.
A delicate position
The fragile foundation of basic education augurs a dim horizon for Indias future human capital. The students are not able to learn the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic and do not meet even elementary mathematics standards. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2017 study, covering 14-18 years age group, has revealed that over one in two students could not do a simple division, 24 percent could not count currency correctly, 44 percent could not add weights correctly in kilograms, 14 percent could not recognise the map of India and some 36 percent couldnt name the capital of India. While 79 percent could name their native state, 58 percent could not spot it on a map and 46 percent didnt know which city was the capital. More than 40 percent couldnt tell hours and minutes from a clock, nearly one out of two (47 percent) 14-year olds could not read a simple sentence of English; the proportion was two out of five for 18-year olds. It is not just English; 25 percent of the youth could not read basic text fluently even when it was in their own languages.
More Indian children are in school today than ever before, but the quality of public schools has sunk to abysmally low levels, as government schools have become the reserve of children at the very bottom of Indias social ladder. The present-day education reformers believe that market solutions and technology can remedy the situation. They blame the proponents of status quo of failing to leverage the benefits that technology has brought to other sectors such as health, travel, financial services and communications. Many of them advocate disruptive innovations, primarily through online learning. There is a strong belief that real breakthroughs can come only through the transformative power of technology or the invisible hand of the market.
Unsubstitutable role of teachers
However, findings suggest that this strategy has not lived up to its hype and with valid reason. We need certainly to be wary of the idea that technology on its own can revolutionise education. Teachers are and always will remain the most important factor in pupils success. The pupils need to believe that they have a stake in the future, a goal worth struggling for if they are going to make it in school. They need a champion; someone who believes in them and their creative abilities and this is where teachers enter the picture. Education should combine just the right amount of physical adventure and intellectual stimulation. The most effective approaches are those that foster bonds of caring between teachers and their pupils. The process of teaching and learning is an intimate act that neither computers nor markets can replicate.
What is real education?
The bane of the modern examination system is its regressive testing regimen which we stubbornly refuse to reform. Exams are no longer a metric for the test of learning or intelligence. Instead, they have degenerated into an awfully pernicious, hazing ritual designed to produce compliant drones who can regurgitate facts faithfully. What we test is the acquisition of a narrow collection of facts, not whether children have the skills for a fruitful employment or the ingredients for a gainful adulthood. Children are being coaxed into learning merely to pass tests. School doesnt foster a love for learning. Moreover, they do not inculcate the all-round skills they need when they leave the portals of learning to the world of competition outside. Real education is more about wide reading, deep thinking and asking hard questions rather than simply reproducing crammed answers faithfully. Formal teaching needs to be supplemented by in-school pull-out programmes, after-school tutoring, and summer camps supervised by NGOs with emphasis on non-conventional innovative pedagogies.
Alarming state of affairs of public schools
Much of the malaise in the realm of public education has less to do with salaries and more to do with lack of accountability and corruption in recruitments and transfers of teachers. The government schools have not been able to attract good talent or it may be the recruitment process that lacks transparency. The stark reality is that India is not getting even a modest return on its investment in the education sector.
Teacher salaries in government schools are relatively high in India, at three times per capita income compared to China, where it is about the same as per capita income. However, learning outcomes are better in private schools where average teacher salaries and costs per student are less. A break-up of government spending shows that only 0.8 percent goes towards capital expenditure, while 80 percent goes towards teachers salaries, leaving little to be spent on infrastructure creation.
Conclusion
Education needs more champions then even health and environmental advocates because it is one rising tide that can lift all the boats. Since education has more room for innovation than any other development sector, there is a unique opportunity for social entrepreneurs. We need to transform curriculum and teaching practices to focus less on rote learning or straightforward calculation and more on relevant skills, like communication, reasoning ability, problem-solving and reasoning ability, and critical and independent thinking. We are under an illusion that our children are digital savvy but more often their knowledge is only screen-deep. If young people are to be empowered citizens, they will need to understand how technology affects every aspect of our life. Greater tech literacy will be essential to ensure that the human implications of the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution are positive.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is going to be a major test for the education system focused on reciting facts and performing formulaic calculationsprecisely the areas where humans cannot compete with intelligent machines. With all of our technological developments, human ingenuity and creativity remain unmatched. We should capitalise on it, and give our young people the opportunity to use their innate advantages as effectively as possible.