Engaging with Elementary Education in India

The following note was written for a voluntary organisation which was looking to develop their strategy for working in the area of elementary education. This paper was to be one input for their decision. The paper primarily draws on what I learnt while working with Social Initiatives Group (SIG) of ICICI Bank. I am thankful to my colleagues at SIG and members of SIG's partner organisation for whatever I have learnt about elementary education in India. Of course, if these sound stupid, blame it on me. Not on SIG or its partner organisations.

A BRIEF NOTE ON SCHOOL EDUCATION IN INDIA

ROUGH SKETCH OF HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN INDIA

The idea of education has been close to the heart of many who sought to define and contribute to the development of a good society. Be it Socrates description of education for the philosopher king in The Republic or the more recent pronouncements of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan on the necessity of education and its purposes, they all stand testimony to the importance that philosophers and social reformers have given to education as a necessary instrument of shaping the good society. The premise for this belief is the definition of childhood and its importance as a preparatory phase for the adult life where individuals have to contribute towards a good society. It is a truism, but worthy of being stated, that often the kind of education proposed is founded upon the ideal of the society proposed. History and study of education systems do reveal a strong connection between the nature of society as it exists and how education happens in such a society. Therefore, it is only to be expected that proponents of reform will seek to achieve those reforms by impacting the system of education in that society.

Specific to India, education systems of varying kinds have been in existence over the centuries. This includes the gurukul system, the universities established by Buddhists, the madrassas of the Islamic establishment, community schools and home based schooling amongst others. Within these, often the gurukul system and the universities established by the Buddhists are generally represented as the prime examples of achievements in the area of education by Indian society. However, both of these were losing their relevance towards the 18^th century. The gurukul system had reached a decline and was slowly dying out by the 18^th century. The universities established by Buddhists had died down much earlier. The more common and widespread form of education was the village schools. This consisted of a teacher, normally from the community who taught a few children in the village. Many of these were established along communal lines (linguistic and religious) in that the support for these schools came from certain communities. However, it generally had children from other communities as students. They received patronage from the parents, wealthy people in the community and at times from the rulers. While the earlier gurukul system focused on preparing the students for future life as priests and rulers, the community schools were more about learning to read, write and do basic arithmetics. Hence, it attracted not just Brahmins or Kshatriyas but those belonging to farming and trading communities as well. Even through these community schools, the education of lower castes was a rareity if not non existent. Female participation in these schools was also minimal. The curriculum or decisions on what is worth teaching in these schools and the mediation of access to these schools closely reflected the prevalent political, economic and social characteristics of the time. Another aspect of the education system that requires mention is that of the acquisition of occupational skills. The training in these skills were primarily through a system of apprenticeship often within the household or with a skilled practioner of the craft. It is also of value to note that teaching children at home either by the parent or a hired teacher was also not an uncommon practice.

What is of value to note is that education was delivered through a diverse set of arrangements and the system for education was diffused within the 'school', household and the community. This evolved system that existed in India gave way to the modern public school system under the British rule. Many of the diversity and strengths of the earlier system was lost as a uniform system of schooling was sought to be established. At the same time, some of the rigidities of the earlier system in terms of caste and gender could also be challenged in the new system established by the British as it was premised on the belief of universal education.

The British implemented public school system was characterised by government funding, a common curriculum and a centrally administered schooling system. The government funding meant that the teachers were regularly paid and people without sufficient means could also access a school. (The social barriers still kept many communities out of schools.) It also affected the linkage between the teacher and the community in that the teacher became more an agent of the government unlike the teachers of a community run school. Again the uniform curriculum also meant that the caste based dissemination of knowledge was challenged in theory. However, it also meant that many of the trades did not find a place in the curriculum. The emphasis of the curriculum was on learning to read, write and do basic arithmetic. Economically productive skills were seldom taught in school. In the emerging society, ability to read, write and do arithmetic became critical skills which enabled one to acquire influential positions within the government. The social barriers to schooling ensured that people from lower castes were denied this opportunity. The central administration of schooling led to the establishment of administrative processes like recruitment of teachers, inspection systems, training and certification systems, central curriculum and syllabus formation etc. The public schools began to compete with the earlier models of schooling and ensured the death of the latter.

In looking at the history of Indian education system under the British rule, it is important to note the contributions of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore to the cause of education. Mahatma Gandhi through his Basic Education programme and Rabindranath Tagore through his Santiniketan experiment of 'education aligned with nature' were two of the most influential 'educationists' who had an agenda for social reform through the process of education. In the Basic Education Programme, Gandhi tried to challenge the hierarchy of labour and question the hierarchy of castes, emphasised the necessity of a holistic approach to education with emphasis on overall development and tried to bring back the idea of oneness of the mind and body. The Santiniketan experiment's contribution came in the form of its emphasis on learning in an environment of free and non authoritative environment, emphasis on aesthetic development of senses along with intellectual development, nurturing empathy and sympathy, achoring education in the natural and cultural environment of the child and a global outlook. While listing the contributions of Gandhi and Tagore, one must not lose sight of the contributions of many others like Jyotirao Phule towards women's education and education of lower castes.

EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDEPENDENT INDIA

Independent India began its tryst with education by making Universalisation of Elementary Education one of the Directive Principles of the Constitution of India. The leaders of the newly independent India viewed education as an important ingredient of the efforts at developing into a society envisioned in the Preamble of the Constitution. It began with a series of attempts over the decades. This has resulted in the school education system that India has now. It is described in brief below.

As per the then Constitution of India, education was a state subject with the provision for a few central institutions of higher learning. It was the responsibility of the respective state governments to finance education, develop curriculum and curricular material, recruit, train and deploy teachers and run the education system. The central government was only expected to play a supportive and at times advisory role. However it became evident that due to economic distress in many states and specific socio economic histories of different states, the development of the education system was uneven across the country. In order to address this, education was moved to the Concurrent list of the Constitution in 1976. This meant that the Central Government also played an influential role in school education and was able to provide resources for resource poor states, albeit limited.

All states have the following institutions with different responsibilities at the state, district, block and cluster levels. It is through this system that the government runs its school system.

State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) or its equivalent: The SCERT is expected to provide the academic leadership to education in a state. It is a body responsible for developing the curriculum, syllabus and textbooks for classes 1 to 8, facilitate training of teachers and develop the curriculum, syllabus and reading material for the teacher education programme, Diploma in Education (D.Ed)

Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) or its equivalent: The DPI is responsible for the administration of the education system in the state. Their responsibilities include creation of school infrastructure, recruitment of teachers and non teaching staff, deployment and general administration of the school education.

District Institute of Education and Training (DIET): The DIETs were established under a central programme which was initiated in 1987 by the Central Government called the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Restructuring and Reorganisation of Teacher Education. This was in the wake of the National Policy on Education, 1986 brought out by the Central Government. The aim of the DIETs is to provide academic leadership to the schools at the district level. It is expected to run the D.Ed programme, regular inservice teacher education programme and do educational research. The DIETs are generally financed by the Central Government but administered through the SCERT which is a state level body.

District Education Office (DEO): This can be treated as the equivalent of the DPI at the district level. Similarly at the Block level, there is a Block Education Office.

Apart from these, there is also the structure of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. Each state has a State Project Office at the state level, a District Project Office a the district level, a Block Resource Centre at the Block level and Cluster Resource Centre at a cluster level. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is an attempt to by the government of India to Universalise elementary education (classes 1 to 8, age group of 6 to 14) in a time bound manner. Started in 2001, the programme had the objective of achieving unversalisation by the end of the decade. It focused on varied aspects like girls education, infrastructure for schooling, teacher training, creating academic support structures for teachers and education for the marginalised.

While the above is a rough sketch of the state level institutions, at the national level, there are bodies which play an advisory role. It is important to note that many of them have only an advisory role and their recommendations are not binding on the state institutions.

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT): The NCERT is expected to play the role of a thought leader in the area of school education at the national level. It comes out with its own versions of curriculum frameworks, curriculum, syllabus and textbooks for classes 1 to 12. These are primarily used by the Central Government administered Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country. There are many schools and state governments who have adopted this as well. They also organise many training programmes for the government education functionaries across the country.

National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA): The NUEPA is expected to develop knowledge in the area of Education Planning and Administration. This is a particulary complex task given the diversity across the country. They also conduct training programmes for the government education functionaries in India.

Ministries: At the state level, there is usually a Ministry of Education and at the national level, school education comes under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). While the Ministry of Education in the states are responsible for the functioning of SCERT, DIETs, DEOs and schools in the state, MHRD regulates the NCERT, NUEPA and Kendriya Vidyalayas. In the case of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Ministries at the state and national level work together as it is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with administration responsibilities for the respective states.

Private System of Education

The above description focuses on the government system of education. While it can be safely assumed that for the majority in India are covered through this system, there also exists a strong private education system in the country. Historically, India has seen many educational attempts emerging from the non governmental space. This includes religious organisations, caste based groups and philanthropists. A characteristic of these schools was that they were generally premised on a social reform agenda. A more recent tradition has been the practice of setting up schools to meet the demand of quality education from parents. This demand is often premised on a widely held belief that the private schools tend to offer better quality education as these schools are in a competitive environment on account of existence of choice for parents. However, there is very little evidence to support this belief.

Right to Education Act

Today, with the passing of the Right to Education Bill in the Parliament in April, 2011, it is a fundamental right of every child in the age group of 6 to 14 to be educated in a school. This represents a major change in the status of education in India. From making its first appearance as a directive principle of the state policy, elementary education has now become a fundamental right of every child. This entails that the government shall be liable to provide for quality education to all children in that age group. It is a justiciable right. By stipulating conditions on what should be the nature of a school, defining training and certification as an imperative for a teacher, it can be seen as an attempt at strengthening the school education system. Also, by prescribing a child centred pedagogy, it creates a window of opportunity for many to remove some of the ills of the present day schools.

Having said that, it is also important to note that the capabilities to fulfill the promises of the Act are not present in all the state governments. Understaffed DIETs and SCERTs, untrained teachers in large numbers, inadequate number of teachers are some of the challenges. Apart from this, deeply held cultural views in the society regarding education can also be a deterrent at a deeper level in ensuring the fulfillment of the commitment, not least among them being the educability of children from certain sections of society.

PRESENT STATUS OF EDUCATION IN INDIA

The present education system in India is diverse and large. The diversity is in terms of the nature of provider (public or private), curriculum and pedagogy, facilities available in the school and many others. With approximately 1.2 million schools and about 220 million children in the age group of 6

to 14, the Indian education system is possibly one of the largest in the world. This comes with its own set of challenges in ensuring good quality education for all. There have been many initiatives from the government and non government space. As we stand at the beginning of a new decade in 21^st century and complete our 64^th year of independence, it is of value to assess the situation of elementary education in India. To begin with, it is important to get a sense of some basic numbers that tell their own story.

No of children in the age group of 6 to 14 : 220,000,000 (approximate)

No of schools imparting Elementary Education : 1,303,812

Percentage of Schools in Public Sector : 80.37

Percentage of Schools in Public Sector : 19.44

Proportion of children in Public Schools : 69.51

Proportion of children in Private Schools : 30.42

No of children enrolled in schools : 187,872,996

Proportion of children enrolled in Public Schools : 69.51

Proportion of children enrolled in Private Schools : 30.42

Pupil to Teacher Ratio : 33

Literacy in India : 75.06 % (Wikipedia)

Women Literacy : 65.46 % (Wikipedia)

The above set of numbers are national averages. There is a lot of disparity across the states. For example, in Bihar the PTR would be 57 whereas in Kerala it would be 24 with the national average being at 32.

While there has been great achievement in ensuring enrolment at the primary levels (classes 1 to 5), there is a need to be seriously concerned about the quality of education that happens in schools. The Annual Status on Education Report brought out by Pratham for the year 2010 states that based on their study only about half the children (53 percent) in Class 5 could read Class 2 text. Many other studies of learning achievements point to a similar state of affairs. (A word of caution regarding the learning achievement tests. Generally, the learning achievements survey are based on a very small set of indicators that are comparativey easier to measure accurately. For example, ability to read, arithmetic abilities, ability to answer multiple choice questions etc. It seldom tests higher cognitive abilities, value orientation of children, ability to perform tasks like scientific experimentation, ability to articulate etc.) Understanding this failure indicated by learning achievement tests require us to explore the issue of education and schooling in India at a deeper level. It requires us to open the black box of school to examine closely what happens inside a school and what is supposed to happen.

For us to move in this direction, it is important that we first articulate our position on the aims of education and how we see the educational methods lead to these aims.

Aims and Methods of Education

The ideals aspired for by independent India found its expression in Preamble of the Constitution. The Preamble underlines our commitment to a society where its citizens have political, social and economic justice. The prerequisite for such a society is individuals who have a love of truth, a sense of compassion, a commitment to justice and ability for independent thought and action. The ability to reflect on oneself, appreciate knowledge in its diverse forms, an empathy and a sense of connect with people in society, an ability to engage with diverse cultures stem from these qualities. These are vital in a country like India with its rich history and diversity. (National Curriculum Framework 2005)

Education, primarily through formal schooling, is an important preparatory process for children to develop into such individuals. The school is a space within a society where children spent a large part of their growing up years. The boundaries of the school mark an artificial space where the child can learn and develop unfettered by the constraints of life outside. This is important for the child's full development into an adult that understands the self, has an orientation to learn and appreciates democratic values.

The schools, therefore, have a formidable challenge as it has to develop these qualities in children and at the same time protect children from the infuences that are contrary to these values and deter the development of these abilities. The school must draw upon the scholastic disciplines like sciences, social sciences, mathematics, languages and non scholastic activities like sports and crafts for the education of its children. Apart from these aids, the context of the school is itself to be an educative experience for children. Interactions with teachers and peers, natural environment of the school, the events that are celebrated in schools, the evaluation systems etc are some of the key aspects of the context of the school. The experience of the child of these aspects is going to be an extremely critical determinant of his or her educational outcomes.

The curriculum, syllabus, the teaching material and the education system itself is to be geared around these aims of education. To state the obvious, this is the essential challenge that India faces in education.

ENGAGING WITH SCHOOL EDUCATION IN INDIA

While the earlier sections dealt with the status of education and then went on to briefly describe what could be education in India, the following sections would focus on how to get there. As some of the data above indicate, all is not well with the Indian School Education system. As mentioned earlier, the reasons for problems that affect the education system are found in the political, economic and social systems of India. The visible manifestations of these problems are consistent inadequacy of public financing of education in India (expenditure less than 4 percent of GDP as against the prescribed 6 percent of GDP on education), administrative inefficiencies (average of 25 percent of teacher absenteeism in schools in India), unwarranted political manipulation in education (rewriting of history textbooks to advance narrow political agendas), poor training of teachers, caste and class based discrimination in schooling etc. This is not to discount some of the major advances that have been made in the area of education in the past few decades. Some of them have been mentioned earlier. However, a detailed analysis of these reasons is beyond the scope of this note. Having said that, it must be mentioned that an understanding of these aspects is the premise for some of these suggestions.

An attempt at engaging with school education in India must be premised on a clear vision of the educational experience of children. An attempt had been made earlier to describe such an experience earlier. A set of simple, but non negotiable requirements for the same are

• Children of the relevant age group must have access to schools
• The curriculum for their education must be appropriate to the aims of education
• The schools must be adequately staffed with teachers who are well trained and are oriented towards the aims of education

While they can be easily stated, the challenges in putting in place these requirements are the ones that all organisations dedicated to education in India are grappling with. However, these challenges do not lend themselves to a 'neat' problematisation and prioritisation. However, one can briefly described the contours of the major challenges at a very broad level. Organisations that are looking to engage with school education in India can choose to tackle any of these challenges.

Public Funding for Education in India

The government financing of school education in India has consistently been on the lower side since Independence. The Kothari Committee report of 1964 recommended an allocation of 6 percent of GDP for education and later it was asserted by the Majumdar Committee report in late 1990s. However, we have never had an investment of more than 4 percent of GDP since independence. In fact, the average would be close to 3 percent of GDP. This history of consistent under funding of education, specifically, school education has resulted in the sorry state of schooling infrastructure and weak academic and administrative support networks (DIETs, SCERTs, DEOs, BEOs, DPIs etc.). Additionally, in some of the states, this has also resulted in the inability of governments to attract qualified people to teaching profession.

School infrastructure in India is an area that requires tremendous inputs. This inspite of the significant progress that has been made by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the last decade. Poorly constructed school buildings, absence of boundary walls and playgrounds, lack of drinking water, absence of separate toilets for girls, absence of libraries and books, absence of desks and benches, inadequate and at times inappropriate teaching and learning material etc are some of the major problems on the infrastructural front. Some of these also result in problems of access. For example, the absence of separate toilets for girls result in drop out by many girls from schools. The overall poverty of large sections of Indian population puts additional demands on schools like providing at least one nutritious meal a day. The National Mid-day Meal Programme is an attempt in this direction. However, the quality of the meals could be improved in terms of nutrition content and taste.

The inadequate public funding has also resulted in weak institutional structures for academic and administrative support. At present, by various estimates, over 90 percent of expenditure on school education is spent on teacher salary with very little of investment in education research and professional development of education functionaries. This is visible in the poor functioning of DIETs and SCERTs in many states. Absence of good quality research, weak systems for training needs assessments, poor D.Ed curriculum and implementation etc are some of the very visible manifestations of the problem.

While on the one side there is lack of sufficient public funding, there is also the problem in efficient management of existing funds also. This is reflected in the under utilisation of budgeted amounts in education, especially in the Central Government budget.

Governance and Management System for Schooling

The current system of governance and management can be assessed at multiple levels. In terms of provider of education, there are two kinds of providers – public and private. While public provisioning accounts for atleast 70 percent of education, private education accounts for about 30 percent or less. There is a desirability of having a robust universal public provisioning system for school education in the country from the point of view of affordability, social integration, equality, perpetuation of democratic values etc. But, an initiative aimed at contributing to development in India has strong reasons to consider engaging with the public school system and not focus on the private school system. The coverage is one major reason. Also, the more secular and inclusive character of public schooling makes it a desirable option in the long run. This is not to suggest a strategy to roll back private schooling. Private schooling has spread wide in India and a roll back would be undesirable in the near term. A suitable approach would be look at regulation of private schooling in India and strengthening of public school system. The Right to Education Act provides a framework for this. It would be a good opportunity for organisations in education area to work towards developing a regulatory framework for ensuring good quality education for all.

Expertise in Education

Education has received the attention of many social reformers over the years in India. However, most of these have resulted in what one could call as 'islands of excellence' with a few set of experimental schools being set up. Shantiniketan, Rishi Valley, Gandhian Schools and many such are good examples. But it has remained a challenge to achieve educational transformation at a large scale. As J P Naik, a renowned educationist, put it, the challenge of Indian school education is best described as an elusive triangle of equality, quality and quantity. A key shortcoming that has been observed over the past many years is the absence of adequate number of people with expertise in education. Education is interdisciplinary in character and expertise in education requires one to undergo professional training in such a manner. Apart from the specific subject knowledge, a teacher is expected to have an understanding of child psychology, philosophy and sociology. When one is able to bring all these different domains together, one has the potential to be a good teacher who is sensitive to the child and the context and is able to teach. The current B. Ed and D. Ed programmes across the country attempt to do this. However, the curriculum is outdated and the training institutions are unable to provide a good quality educational experience for aspiring teachers. There has been severe dilution of standards in teacher training institutions with many colleges not have the mandated infrastructure and faculty and still continuing to operate.

This is further compounded by the distance between centres of higher education like colleges and universities from these teacher training institutions. Since, the teacher training institutions are separate from the universities, often the essential confluence of disciplinary experts to share the developments of disciplines amongst others fails to happen. Therefore, curriculum formation processes and actual training process do not have the vibrancy that is required.

Another issue, is the absence of expertise in people working in the area of education. There are numerous organisations that work in the area of education. However, the lack of proper training and proper orientation to the cause of education is often seen in their work. Primarily through adoption of improper training methods for teachers, lack of depth and quality in teaching learning processes, insensitive handling of concerns of children and parents from cross section of society etc. Some of the recent attempts in the Indian Education scenario are attempts to address this issue. Prominent amongst them being the Bachelors Level courses in Elementary Education started in select colleges in Delhi University, Masters Level course in Education initiated by the Azim Premji Foundation and Masters Level course in Elementary Education by Tata Institute of Social Sciences in partnership with Sir Ratan Tata Trust and ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth. However, these are very small compared to the requirement.

The above are some of the key challenges that school education in India faces at the moment. These challenges have a social, political and economic background. On the face of it, many of these appear insurmountable given the scale and scope of issues. However, theses challenges must be taken on and solutions must be built brick by brick.