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Cover Story

RTE Act, 2009. Para-teachers are em-
ployed by several state governments
and budget private schools and paid
20-25 percent salaries mandated for
government school teachers as per
Pay Commission prescribed scales.
This may well be the cause of large
numbers of children dropping out of
the school system. Finally and criti-
cally, UDISE is completely silent on
the learning outcomes of children in
India’s 1.47 million schools. In the
circumstances, one wonders whether
the fundamental right conferred upon
all children in the age group 6-14 by
the RTE Act, 2009 is a right to learn-
ing or schooling,” comments Dr. A.S. Seetharamu: para teachers lacuna Govinda: "fragile education system"
Seetharamu, the erudite former pro-
fessor of education at the Institute for ducing its annual preschool rankings “For a start, the school infrastruc-
Social and Economic Change (ISEC), the same year) prompted NEP 2020 to ture norms prescribed by s.19 and
Bengaluru and education advisor to restructure the vintage 10+2 schooling the Schedule of the RTE Act are bare
the Karnataka state government. system into the new 5+3+3+4 system minimum by global standards. De-
P ROF. SEETHARAMU’S ob- tory formal ECCE to the school educa- behind in meeting these minimum
by tagging on three years of manda-
spite this some large states are way
servations on the lacunae
tion system.
standards. The plain truth is that we
of UDISE+ 2023-24 de-
In the circumstances, it’s a major
serve careful consideration lacuna of UDISE+ 2023-24 that it fails have a very fragile education system
in 21st century India, with at best only
by the Union education ministry and to provide critical ECCE data. More- 1 lakh schools out of 1.47 million com-
educationists countrywide. Undoubt- over although the report provides data parable internationally. Moreover, the
edly, UDISE freely and frankly pro- on the number of digitalised libraries, dropout data in UDISE reports is mis-
vides a wealth of reassuring informa- functional electricity, and functional leading as it only indicates the number
tion relating to school infrastructure lavatories, alarming anecdotal sto- of school dropouts in one year. It is
and GER in primary-secondary educa- ries of children countrywide being not the compounded dropouts rate
tion. Yet the report’s failure to include deprived of these essential facilities which, according to the NSS (Na-
data relating to critically important generates doubts about the inspec- tional Sample Survey) is over 25 per-
pre-primary early childhood care and tion system and data credibility, par- cent. UDISE+ 2023-224 itself reports
education (ECCE) under the plea that ticularly in light of the high numbers that thousands of schools in most
the country’s 1.6 million “Anganwadi of children dropping out of primary, states of the country don’t have func-
Centres and standalone pre-primary secondary and higher secondary edu- tional computers, internet connectiv-
education centres run by different kin- cation (see chart II p.40). ity, functional separate toilets for girl
dergartens” fall within the administra- Dr. R. Govinda, currently J.P. children and ramps and hand rails for
tive purview of the Union ministry of Naik National Fellow for Studies in special needs children. Unfortunately,
women and child welfare, is a major Education and Culture at the Indian very few educationists believe the data
deficiency. Council for Social Development, Del- published in UDISE reports and the
As acknowledged by NEP 2020, hi, former Vice Chancellor at the Na- self-congratulatory tone of UDISE and
ECCE is vitally important to prepare tional University of Educational Plan- other government reports is unwar-
children for formal schooling as chil- ning and Administration (NUEPA), ranted. The reality is that government
dren’s cognitive capabilities are 80 Delhi and former visiting professor at spending on education in real terms is
percent developed by the time they the Institute of Education, University declining year-by-year and the learn-
attain age eight. This belated aware- of London, and International Institute ing outcomes gap between the West
ness of the education establishment of Educational Planning, Unesco, Par- and even Bhutan, let alone China,
(despite EducationWorld convening is, is also unimpressed by the upbeat and India is widening year-by-year.
an international ECCE seminar in tone and data provided by UDISE+ We have to substantially increase our
2010 and staging national seminars 2023-24, and reported progress in expenditure on education, especially
annually thereafter, and also intro- primary-secondary education. foundational and primary education,”

38 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2025