In 1996-1967, a Public Report on Basic Education (PROBE) team surveyed primary schools in about 200 villages in then undivided Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. In 2006, we revisited the same villages to ascertain whether teaching-learning standards had improved. We found some signs of positive change.
First, primary school enrolment percentages have risen sharply, from 80 to 95 percent in the six-12 age group. For the first time, the goal of universal school enrolment is within reach.
Secondly, we discovered that social disparities in school enrolment have considerably narrowed. For instance, the enrolment gap between boys and girls has virtually disappeared in primary education. Moreover enrolment percentages of scheduled caste and Muslim children are very close to the sample average — 95 percent in each case. However the enrolment percentages of scheduled tribe children is lower at 89 percent.
Third, schooling infrastructure has improved. For instance, the proportion of schools with at least two pucca rooms rose from 26 to 84 percent between 1996 and 2006. Moreover nearly three-fourths of all primary schools now have drinking water facilities, and toilets have been constructed in over 60 percent of all schools.
Fourth positive trend, incentives are reaching many more schools. To illustrate, free uniforms were provided in barely 10 percent of primary schools in 1996, but now they are distributed to more than half the students. Similarly, the proportion of schools in which free textbooks were distributed was less than half in 1996, but close to 100 percent in 2006.
Finally, cooked mid-day meals have been introduced in a big way in primary schools — in 84 percent of the sample schools. The only dark spot was Bihar, where mid-day meals were still in the process of being introduced at the time of the second survey.
Many factors including economic growth, rising adult literacy, expanding rural infrastructure and connectivity, public initiatives such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Supreme Court orders on mid-day meals, and active campaigns for the right to education, have contributed to this new momentum for the universalisation of elementary education.
Yet having said this, we found that the quality of education remains abysmally low for a majority of children. To start with, regular attendance was lower than school enrolment; and actual attendance was lower than marked in school musters.
Furthermore, classroom activity levels are very low. Teacher shortages are one reason. Despite an increase in the appointment of teachers, teacher-pupil ratios in the survey areas have shown little improvement over the years. The proportion of schools with only one teacher has remained much the same — about 12 percent. In 2006, an additional 21 percent of schools were functioning as single teacher schools on the day of the survey, due to teacher absenteeism. Aggravating the situation is the fact that teachers often come late and leave early, and even when present they are not necessarily teaching. In half the sample schools there was no teaching activity at all when investigators arrived — in 1996 as well as in 2006.
Some quick fixes have been tried, but with limited results. One of them is the appointment of ‘contract teachers’, often regarded by state governments as a means of expanding the teacher population at relatively low cost. In government primary schools surveyed, contract teachers account for nearly 40 percent of all teachers. These contract teachers were expected to be more accountable than regular teachers as they are local residents selected by the Gram Panchayat, and don’t have ‘permanent’ jobs. But this has not happened. The inadequate training and low salaries of contract teachers adversely affects the quality of their work.
Another quick fix is greater reliance on private schools which is often seen as a solution. Evidence, how-ever, does not support these expecta-tions. Despite the recent mushroom-ing of private schools, about 80 percent of school-going children were enroled in government schools in 2006 — the same as in 1996. This situation is likely to continue in the foreseeable future. It is therefore imperative to do something about classroom teaching-learning levels in government schools, instead of giving up on them.
Moreover the quality of private schools varies a great deal, with the ‘cheaper’ ones (accessible to poor families) not much different from government schools. Their success in attracting children is not always a reflection of better teaching standards; some of them take advantage of the ignorance of parents, for example with misleading claims of offering ‘English medium education’. Moreover, a privatised schooling system is inherently inequitable, as admission depends on one’s ability to pay.
‘Change is Possible’ was the title of the last chapter of the PROBE Report, published in 1999. In many ways, this assertion has come true. Much has indeed changed — for the better — in the schooling system during the past decade. There is a need to consolidate the momentum of positive changes and extend them to new areas — particularly of classroom activity and quality education. But the first step is to stop tolerating the gross injustice that is being done to Indian children today. Wasting their time day after day in idle classrooms is nothing short of a crime.
(A. De, J. Drèze, M. Samson, and A.K. Shiva Kumar are members of the PROBE team)