99% of Indian children are expected to complete their primary education in 2030 and nearly 84% intend to complete upper secondary school, in comparison to 37% completing upper secondary education in 2000. These headlines gave us hope in 2019. Then, there came a shock yet again with the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), released by NGO Pratham in January 2020. Their data revealed that only 16% of children in class 1 in 26 surveyed rural districts could read the text at the prescribed level, while almost 40% could not even recognize letters. Such diametrically opposite realities hit hard when we examine them closely.
Would the benefits be enjoyed only by those who have secured the “privileged” identity? Clearly, the children in the private-schools perform better in reading and writing along with other cognitive tasks, than those children who not only find it difficult to access good education but are forced to drop-out after Class 8th due to never-ending and always burgeoning gap between “haves” and “have-nots“.
In FY 2020–21 Budget Estimates (BEs), GoI allocated ₹38,751 crores for Samagra Shiksha—a 7% increase from FY 2019–20 Revised Estimates (REs). In the meanwhile, only 22% of the total approved budget for Samagra Siksha had been spent by states in 2019–20. Why are the funds not being spent effectively and efficiently? Who is to be held accountable? Is it the agenda around educational growth troubling officials?
The questioning and deeper analysis have become all the more difficult after the culmination of erstwhile education schemes [Sarva Siksha Abhiyan; Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA); and Teacher Education (TE)] under the Samagra Scheme. Though allocation of funds under SSA and RMSA has increased by 11.8% and 7.6% respectively, the allocations under SSA are far below the resource estimates made by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), according to a February 2018 analysis by Accountability Initiative (AI).
Release of funds under Samagra Shiksha has been relatively lower. In FY 2018–19, GoI released 95% of its allocations of ₹30,781 crores. During FY 2019–20, till December 15, 2019, a total of ₹20,868 crores was released, accounting for 58% of revised GoI allocations for the year. In fact, the department of higher education under MHRD had utilised only 25% of ₹608.87 crore allocated for the Total Research and Innovation scheme till December 16, while only ₹80 crore out of the sanctioned ₹400 crore were spent for the World Class Institutions scheme. These alarming rates not only portray the extremely poor state of education in India, but also how disconcerted and apathetic our very own representatives are.
Apart from making the officials more concerned towards such an alarming rate, there is an urgent need to spread awareness among the students, parents, civil societies, pressure groups and interest groups, and among other stakeholders. The Department of School Education and Literacy received a total number of 15355 RTI applications and rejected 165 of them during the year of 2015–16, while the Department of Higher Education received a total number of 50514 applications and rejected 644 applications during the year of 2015–16.
Apart from lack of awareness among the beneficiaries, other complications plaguing the Indian education system are countless—some being: huge drop-out rates, absenteeism, competent teachers, teacher-student ratio, dismal sex-ratio in the class, and curriculum of bygone-age, among others.
The focus of the Centre and State governments should rather be on improving the dilapidated state of education institutions. India has the world’s largest population aged between 15 to 24 years of age (241 million), which is a lot more than that of China (169 million). This population is set to almost double (to almost 500 million) by 2020, according to a report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Funds need to be reshuffled and allocated better on infrastructure, curriculum, basic amenities, administration, teacher-selection, admission process in order to catch up with the global standards.
As of March 2017, 17.64% of sanctioned teaching posts (900,316/5,103,539) in elementary schools and 15.7% (107,689/685,895) posts in secondary schools were vacant. The dearth of qualified teachers has compelled many states to recruit under-qualified and contractual teachers. Bihar has the highest proportion of untrained teachers, both at the elementary and secondary level, followed by West Bengal, as per the report by CRY and Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability.
The mere introduction of schemes aiming to bridge the literacy gap between rural and urban areas would not prove to be successful overnight. The pedagogical interventions through governance would make certain changes in the field of literacy and education.
The role of municipalities can play a significant role in reducing the loopholes in education policies. It is through taking the charge of monitoring and evaluation that municipalities can improve the accountability of schools and teachers. Municipal intervention through “school-based management” (SBM) can empower communities to take charge of their schools and in particular to make teachers more accountable to them.
Provision of merit-based scholarships sponsored by Central and State governments may significantly improve student learning. Availability of internet in the remote areas can bring a digital revolution that may change the reading habits among students, thereby affecting school outcomes.
More detailed rules and a stringent inspection model at the Municipal- and Panchayat-levels may sound underrated but portray an inescapable need of the hour.