Education in India

Poor Quality of Education in Government Schools in India:

India adopted a National Policy for Children in 1974, declaring children to be

the nation’s most precious asset. The population of children in a country

comprise its human resources of the future and the social, economic and

cultural growth development of any society or community hinges upon the

quality of its human resources. Three and a half decades after the adoption of

the National Policy for Children,

allocated the seemingly huge amount of Rs. 34,400 crores exclusively to the

education sector in his Annual Budget last fiscal year i.e. 2007-08. The

much-hyped Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was granted a handsome Rs. 13,100

crore. Yet, according to the UNESCO, India has the lowest public

expenditure on education per student in the world. The prevalent differences

within Indian states in per student expenditure in the year 2005-06 painted a

dismal picture. The highest being Kerala, the State that spearheaded the

Universal literacy movement in the country spends Rs. 1000 per student; as

the figures go from bad to worse with the lowest being Uttar Pradesh

spending a measly Rs 483 per child per year. So can it be said that funding is

the issue with government schools? Clearly not. It is one of utilization of these

funds.

Schools in backward rural and tribal areas are the most neglected, and the

standard of teaching deplorable. Even in other areas, schools to which

children of the underprivileged have access are run by the State or local

authorities. By and large, these have a poor record of performance. The most

glaring of the problems with government-run schools is that of infrastructure.

Poorly maintained buildings, dilapidated classrooms, ill-equipped libraries and

laboratories, lack of sanitation facilities and even drinking water are issues that

the students grapple with everyday. Availability of qualified teachers and the

student-teacher ratio is another tale to tell. The curriculum and teaching

methodologies stand obsolete and outdated, with the emphasis being on

rote-learning and merely developing reading and writing skills instead of

holistic education. Lack of vocational training and non-availability of such

courses renders students with barely any employable skills at the end of their

schooling. These factors, coupled with other social circumstances have lead

to alarmingly high dropout rates in the country. Most schools are miles away

and largely inaccessible to the students. While noting that adequate number of

elementary schools is to be found at a “reasonable distance from habitations”,

the ministry admits in its website that this is not the case with regard to

secondary schools and colleges. The gross enrolment rate for elementary

education in 2003-04 was 85 percent, but for secondary education, the

enrolment figure stood at 39 percent. Figures put out by the Ministry of

Human Resource Development’s Department of School Education and

Literacy indicate that as many as two-thirds of those eligible for secondary

and senior secondary education remain outside the school system

today.These high rates of school dropouts as a result, lead to the

ineffectiveness of the reservation policy in institutes of higher education.

Providing free education to children belonging to this category is a policy

which private schools are in disagreement with. A system in which the schools

are owned by the government but managed and operated by the private

sector is a workable alternative. The government could bear the costs of

running the institution, with suitable incentives to the private players willing to

invest in such a venture (possibly in the form of tax benefits to the private

organisation); while the management and operation of the school would be in

the hands of the private organisation/establishment. While this would ensure

an exponential increase in the quality of education that is accessible to the

masses, but it may drive up the government’s expenditure on education.

 A public-private partnership in education is the most suitable scenario to

check corruption, ensure efficiency and proper utilisation of allocated funds.