WHY focus on Education reforms?
In our pursuit of eradicating poverty, dismantling discrimination, and fostering sustained economic growth, focusing on education, skills, and employment becomes one of the cornerstones of societal transformation. The crux of this transformative journey lies in equipping children with essential tools and quality education to unlock and fulfill their potential. While India has made commendable strides in literacy rates and school enrollments, we must examine the true extent of our educational endeavors.
The question lingers: Have we, as a nation, created a nurturing environment that fully harnesses our potential to empower and uplift every student?
India boasts one of the largest and most intricate education systems globally, nearly achieving universal enrollment for children aged 6-14. Yet, this system faces two significant challenges: diminishing enrollment in public schools despite considerable government investment, and a widespread decline in educational standards across government and private schools. This scenario underscores a high demand for quality education set against the public education system’s inability to meet these expectations. From 2007-08 to 2021-22, for Grades I-VIII, government school enrollment decreased from 13.36 crore to 11.11 crore, while private school enrollment surged from 5.10 crore to 7.18 crore, highlighting a preference for private schooling despite free education and meal programs in public schools. Notably, states like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh spend over Rs. 80,000 to 90,000 annually per student, emphasizing the substantial public investment in education. Despite this, a pervasive perception exists that private schools yield superior results. This drives even families with lower incomes to pay exorbitant sums to enroll their children in private schools. However, surveys indicate that learning outcomes in both sectors remain abysmally low, underscoring the critical need for systemic reform to address these educational shortcomings.
The findings from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) shed light on the state of learning outcomes. For instance, the ASER 2022 survey revealed that only 38.5% of children in Grade V in public schools could read text at a Grade II level. The situation in private schools is no better, with only 56.8% of Grade V children able to read at that level. Additionally, only 41.8% of Grade VIII students in public schools and 44.7% in private schools could perform basic mathematical division. These outcomes point to a systemic failure where, despite years of schooling, a significant number of students lack essential skills, emphasizing the urgent need for educational reform.
HOW can we reform?
The repercussions of substandard school education resonate through the secondary and tertiary stages, magnifying the educational chasm. The current measurement of education ‘success,’ with poorly designed tests promoting mindless rote learning and inflated grades, has wreaked havoc on our education system. Addressing these challenges demands a multifaceted approach that includes redefining ‘success’ and establishing a continuous cycle of monitoring and evaluating learning outcomes, measured honestly and competently. Essential to this reform are:
- Promoting regular, stress-free, and honest evaluation focused on the measurement of basic educational skills, the grasp of concepts, and the application of knowledge, over rote learning.
- Promoting random testing of students to provide an independent assessment of the overall standards of schools and subject-wise outcomes at appropriate grade levels. This could be achieved by establishing independent testing boards at the State level.
- The accreditation and testing of private schools based on predefined standards by the aforementioned body.
- The government reimbursing the student fees in scenarios where parents send their children to accredited schools that charge fees below a defined threshold.
The above measures will give voice to the parents as, once they start sending their children to the school of their choice, these schools will have an altered incentive to focus on outcomes.
WHAT has FDR done so far?
As a part of its consistent advocacy and a clear understanding of the paramount importance of investing in educational outcomes, following are a few of the major interventions by the organization:
Recommendations to the Kasturirangan Panel and National Education Policy
FDR has made notable interventions toward improving school education and submitted a detailed roadmap to the Kasturirangan Panel, set up by the Government of India, in 2016. The subsequent National Education Policy 2020 released by the government carries several elements drawn from the submission made by FDR.
Development of an assessment tool
FDR, under a collaboration, is working to develop an assessment tool aimed at testing students’ grasp of concepts, critical thinking, and application of concepts. This tool is provided to schools free of charge and also includes remediation content to help close learning gaps. This initiative is part of FDR’s ongoing efforts to improve educational outcomes and address systemic challenges in school education.
ASER Survey, 2005-2006
In collaboration with Pratham, FDR surveyed the state of Andhra Pradesh in 2005 and 2006 for the organization’s annual ASER survey, in its first and second edition respectively.