Improving the educat

ional standards of primary education in India

Submitted by :Nitin BighaneSeema Devi

An Social Innovation Challenge

Executive summary Primary education in India started showing good signs with governments effort to

increase the Gross Enrollment ratio in schools .On one hand number of students enrolled in schools are rising, infrastructure is getting improved ,government schools are getting recognized but on the other hand the overall quality of primary education haven’t improved a lot.

Although government had realized this and had taken many steps like Right to Education Bill and Sarv Shiksha Ahbhiyan, Aakansha, Make a Difference but due to high developmental and economical diversity, a single model can’t be implemented in all states. In our solution we have categorized the urban and rural areas into different tiers and had developed customized solution for each tier.

We have done primary and secondary research to identify the possible reasons for the poor quality education and then provided remedial actions to eliminate those issues

Best practices throughout the world are noted and feasible one were put in suggestions

A roadmap is developed to solve the issues related to infrastructure, quality teaching, student motivation and course content in primary schools.

It was found during Primary research that some of the rules like necessary passing has downgraded the quality of students

Current state of Primary Education in India(Positive side)

Proportion of government primary schools with enrollment of 60 or fewer students has increased over time, from 26.1% in 2009 to 32.1% in 2012

Pupil teacher ratio (PTR) has risen from 38.9% to 42.8%

2012, 73% of all schools had drinking water available proportion of schools with useable toilets has increased from 47.2% in 2010 to 56.5% in 2012

Midday meal was observed being served in 87.1% schools that were visited

Enrollment in primary government schools in India

Current state of Primary Education in India(Negative side) S

tud

en

t

Ranked 63 out of 64 in the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studyThe 2011 ASER stated that only 48.2% of students in the fifth grade can read at the second grade levelAbout 50 percent of the Std 3 kids cannot even correctly recognize digits up to 100, where as they are supposed to learn two digit subtractionDropout rates increase alarmingly in class III to V - its 50% for boys, 58% for girls

Teach

ers

In 2002-2003, 25% of primary-school teachers in rural India were absent on any given daynational average is about 1 teacher to every 34 studentsabout 1 in 5 primary school teachers do not have the requisite minimum academic qualification to ensure children’s right to quality learning

Infr

ast

ruct

ure

On average, only one in nine schools in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur have separate toilets and one in four schools in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand and Orissahalf the schools in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya do not have drinking water facilities

0%40%80%

92%52%

12%

Gross Enrol-ment in India

(%)

Kera

la

Tam

il Nad

uBih

ar

Jhar

khan

d0%

40%

80%

92%

44%22%

4%

Primary School Enrollment Variation

Para-teachers are whollyunprepared and poorlycompensated for what they work by any standard

Ref: Primary Education in India: Current status and Future Challenges by Amit Kaushik, Parth J Shah, 2009

Best PracticesFi

nla

nd • Rank 3

• No tuition fees• Fully subsidised meals• Equality and excellence in education

• Publically funded• Without selecting, tracking or streaming students during common basic education

• Spread the schools to remotest areas

• Continuous grading, no high stake tests

Sin

gap

ore

• Rank 2• Managed by Ministry of Education, advises private schools

• Criminal offence if parents fail to enrol students

• Kindergartens for basics• Subject Based Branding, getting subjects based on their scores in a field

• Primary School Leaving Exams (PSLE) to get score choose secondary schools S

wit

zerl

an

d • Rank 1• Delegates authority of school systems to Cantens

• Primary School obligatory to every child

• Kindergarten not compulsory

• Get to choose apprenticeship after primary education

Key Take Away

Finland: No tuition fees, without selection, equality, continuous grading

Singapore: Kindergartens, criminal offence to not teach

Switzerland: Obligatory primary schoolingSource: Wikipedia

Reason for the poor education standards

Inadequate Teacher Qualification and Support

Low Teacher Motivation and High Absenteeism

Low remuneration

Multiple Job Responsibilities

Less Family support

Child Marriage

Child Labor

Flawed Teaching Methodology

Low remuneration to teachers

Highly bureaucratic administrative system

Child Labor

Less motivation

Home Conditions

Lack of student motivation ( no failing)

Rural Area Urban Area

Primary research

Paspoli Village BMC School, Powai MumbaiPersonal InterviewNo of students:172No of Teachers:8Main cause of low attendance:- Low inspiration towards education- Home conditions- Child Labour- Language problems- Child marriage

BMC Urdu School, Adi Shankaracharya Marg Powai MumbaiPersonal InterviewNo. of Student: 198No. of teachers: 15Main cause of low attendance- Child labour- Child marriage- Home conditions- Necessary passing degraded student quality

Gk G H S S P Village School Khaparkheda NagpurPhone InterviewNo. Of students: 124No of Teachers: 8Main Cause of low attendance:- Low inspiration- Home environment- Low education preference to female child- Kids contributing in work- Low teacher attendence

• Forced to work

• Earn for living

Ch

ild L

ab

ou

r

• No study environment

• Prevailing drinking and abuse at home H

om

e

Con

dit

ion

s

• Old learning techniques

• Low interest by teachers

• Compulsory passing

Insp

irati

on

• Society conditions

• Prevailing perceptions

• Law enforcement not proper

Child

Marr

iage

• Check on attendance not kept

• Teachers forced on other duties

Teach

er

Att

en

dance

• Perception that education not important for female child

Fem

ale

child

neglig

ence

Solution for Improving Primary Education

The solution to this problem is the improvement in:

Better Educatio

n

Increasing student

motivation

Infrastructure

Teacher training

Improved teaching methods

We can’t have one standardized model for all government schools ,so we need to divide the schools in three categories :

Now we need different model for all these categories

Tier 1

• Government schools in Metropolitan cities(Mumbai,Chennai,Delhi,Banglore)

Tier 2• Government schools in of rest of

the cities

Tier 3• Government schools in rural India

(Village Schools)

Tier 1(%) Tier 2(%) Tier 3(%)

Infrastructure 10 20 20

Teacher training 20 30 30

Improved teaching methods

50 40 10

Increasing student motivation

10 10 40

Relative percentage of improvement needed for a factors in a

particular tier*Based on primary

research

Actions to be taken for all these categories

Developing Baal Vikas school replacing the exsisting Anganwadi system(3-5 yrs)• Transforming the Anganwadi system with better Infrastructure and new

teaching styles • Teaching kids through plays, Developing child interest towards learning in

the early age• Evaluating the output and then replicating the modelImproved teaching methods by collaborating with private schools to give training to government school teachersGiving incentives to private school teachers to guide teachers in rural areas in terms of better teaching methods

Giving incentives to teachers on the combined score of group and individual performance in teaching Government should promote group teaching incentive schemes in addition to the individual incentives ,so that teachers will focus on combined improvement in the student learning as well

Creating innovation centre at national level to develop new curricular which is more interactive and application oriented Then implementing it in all schools through video conferencing or pool teacher training

Motivating corporates to spend some percentage of CSR fund in developing the school infrastructure

Government should try toDevelop all primarySchool up to the same level of standard and has to develop competitionBetween these schools.Example : Centrally sponsored Kendriya Vidyalaya’s are know for their competitiveness and Quality education

Government schoolsShould also be madeAccountable to theParents as happensIn private schoolsRef: Primary Education in India: Current status and Future Challenges b Amit Kaushik, Parth J Shah, 2009

Solution for Tier 1 Category

Government Intervention• Better salary structure• Incentive based pay structure

• More autonomy should be given to the school administration to implement improved teaching methods

• Provide Facilities and support to special educators and NGOs in primary education*

Government Partnership• Improved teaching methods by collaborating with private schools to train government school teachers

• Leadership lectures by achievers and motivators to increase enthusiasm

• Special need children must be given special attention for Inclusive education*

Private Organizations• Involving private players like coaching institutes in developing analytical skills in the students by providing teaching material and video lectures

• Direct recruitment of female candidates for some posts so that parents are motivated to let their children attend schools**

Features of these categories

• This category includes Metropolitan cities (Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore)

• Infrastructure facilities are sufficient in these schools like drinking water, Toilets etc.

• Teacher issues like absentees, less number of teachers is also not there

• Better teaching methods and more student motivation can bring better results

*Ref: Usage of selected resources for Inclusive education in Mainstream Primary Schools by Buehere and Oheieng Pamela, Vol8 – Problems of Management in 21 st Century 2013**Ref: Priorities for primary education policy in India’s 12th Five-year plan, Karthik Muralidharan, NCAER-Brookings India Policy Forum, Apr 2013

Solution for Tier 2 CategoryG

overn

men

t In

terv

en

tion

Improvement in Infrastructure facilities

Routine inspection to check if the school administration is adhering to the rules or not

Teachers should be motivated to give more emphasis on application oriented learning rather than marks oriented learning

Govern

men

t Pa

rtn

ers

hip

Guide children towards the development of social and interactive skills by collaborating with private schools to give these students opportunity to interact with private school students and learn from them

Government should open leadership programs to develop leaders who can take sole responsibility of these government schools and can deliver the desired results

Pri

vate

O

rgan

izati

on

s

Private companies should organize events such as sports days, celebration of national days, drawing competitions and crafts sessions to enhance motivation in government school children

Build partnership to deliver quality health and physical education for overall development*

Motivate higher secondary students of private schools to teach students of primary government school

Features of these categories

• All cities in India are included in this category except from the Tier 1 cities

• Basic infrastructure facilities are available here but the rules and regulations are not followed properly

• Better administration is required to implement the rules and regulation

*Ref: Community collaboration through sport: Bringing schools together by Lynch, Timothy Monash University Australian and International Journal of Rural Education Vol 23 Apr 2013

Solution for Tier 3 Category

Governmen

t Interventio

n

• Improvements in school governance• system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation• Involving Childs in creative works and then paying

them for the work they do like painting etc.• Using better teaching methods like games to make

school a fun place to motivate children

Governmen

t Partnershi

p

• Leadership development of head of the primary schools through leadership programs

• Better Infrastructure• Cash prizes based on attendance• Providing financial assistance to entrepreneurs to come

up with new start up in education sector specially in rural area

Private

Organizations

• Student rotation program: merit base student transfer to the private schools

• Compulsory Guest Lectures by private school teachers • Rebates to Private players to open schools in rural

areas• Build partnership to deliver quality health and physical

education for overall development*

Features of this category

• All the rural areas of India are included in this category

• There are many issues with this category like less interest among teachers to teach, poor Infrastructure, low pay scale, child labor, livelihood issue

• The main issue is of livelihood • Parents don’t send there children to

school for the sake of earnings from them

• Need to develop programs that captures their creativity and pay them accordingly

• So that they don't become forced child labor

*Ref: Community collaboration through sport: Bringing schools together by Lynch, Timothy Monash University Australian and International Journal of Rural Education Vol 23 Apr 2013

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