State of despair

Education in India is in dire straits, it urgently needs to be rescued

Alok Tiwari

If the sounds of fireworks, drumbeats, blowing of conch shells, and triumphal Jai Shree Ram have subsided, could we turn to more bread-and-butter issues? I refer to the Annual Status of Education Report for 2023 that was released last week. Even though we are years into what we are led to believe is amritkaal, the report conveys the same depressing picture. Basically that of most teenage students in rural areas and in public education system not being able to master basic maths and language skills that they were supposed to master in lower classes itself.

More than half the students in mid and high teens cannot solve three-digit division problem that is taught in primary classes. A quarter of them could not read Class II textbook in their own language (what are local language warriors everywhere doing about it?). And some 42% could not read simple sentences in English. This should surely gladden the hearts of those wanting us to shun English.

It does not stop there. More than half were not up to doing such everyday tasks as calculating the number of hours in between if given start and stop time, or measure length and breadth of objects with a ruler. About a third could not read or understand instructions on an Oral Rehydration Solution packet. These are the people who will enter the job market in a few years. With what skills will they present themselves to potential employers?

We have always made much of our young population and we have been waiting for years for the demographic dividend this young population will give us. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Ram Temple speech, exhorted youths of the country to seize this moment to bring about a developed India. I hope the ASER report was presented to him before the speech and he took the time to at least get the gist of it. If he had he would have known there is not much to base this hope on.

Demographic dividend, like all other dividends, first demands investment. No investment, no dividend is the simple mantra. We as a nation have only invested our time and energies in increasing the population, not in educating and skilling them to any acceptable degree. Our investment in education remains abysmally low. The public investment counts for only about 3% of GDP which is lower than many countries much poorer than us. This has led to virtual emasculation of publicly funded educational system.

Mid-day meals scheme may be keeping kids in civic and Zilla Parishad schools but what exactly are they learning there? Absence of exams and automatic promotions keep pushing them into higher classes without anything to ascertain that skills they are supposed to acquire at each stage are present. And which government in the country is focused on getting this right? The answer, sadly, seems none.

We are having shiny new highways, trains, and railway lines (dare I say, temples) but there is no investment flowing towards getting the schools in decent shape. Rural schools in most places are a joke in terms of infrastructure and this is true not just in Bihar or UP. Often more than one class is held in same room, buildings are rickety, and roads leading to them poor. They would be lucky to have functioning and clean toilets which still results in many girls dropping out.

And it is not just physical infrastructure that is lacking. Appointment of teachers itself is dubious process in which powerful local leaders push their candidates regardless of qualifications or ability. We regularly have videos of even teachers not being able to answer simple general knowledge questions. On top of it, public school teachers still engage in many non-teaching activities like updating voters’ list and gathering census data. Some dedicated and able teachers do exist, but they end up being frustrated with system never letting them do anything.

Surely, most of these are legacy issues but the present rulers, whether at the Centre or in the states, must accept the blame for letting them fester. One reason for it is that this problem cannot be solved just by throwing money at it. You build a better road and automatically vehicles go faster and break down less, giving you instant results. But you cannot have a better school just by improving its building. Good buildings are, of course, the starting point. More important are good intentions and a culture of integrity. It is here we are lacking.

At a time when far bigger institutions are eroding it would be too much to expect someone to build an edifice of education that is functional and accountable. Yet, without that a vast majority of our people face a dark future. As in healthcare, those with means have opted out of the public education system altogether. While private schools may not be ideal, they at least provide the basics on which something could be built. The poor again are left to face the brunt.

Unfortunately, the demographic dividend prime minister hoped for depends upon their condition. They still constitute a majority of people here. The rich may wear their nationalism on their sleeve, but they still send their children outside the country to study and work. They also have the option of moving out themselves anytime or save themselves from the brunt of social upheaval that a mass of poorly educated and unemployable humanity may bring. It will not be much of a developed India if most of our youths are good enough for only shouting slogans and carrying flags at political and religious rallies. The vision of glittering future that expressways and bullet trains raise for us will only be true if it benefits all of us.

This column was published in Lokmat Times on Jan 24, 2024