Page 40 - EW February 2025_Neat

Cover Story

Students retained in schools 2023 (%) either. In NAS 2021, 3.4 million chil-
dren from 1.8 lakh schools country-
wide were tested (objective answers
methodology) by 2 lakh field investi-
gators and 1.24 lakh observers in lan-
guage, math and environment studies.
Class III children averaged 59, class V
students 49, class VIII children 41.9,
and class X 37.8 (against the pass
78.0 63.8 45.6 threshold of 50 percent).
Continuous under-investment
Elementary Secondary Higher Secondary and neglect of K-12 education, espe-
Source: ‘UDISE+ 2023-24 cially of 1 million government schools
constitutionally obliged to provide
acceptable quality education to chil-
hya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar dren from the majority 90 percent of
Pradesh) states have only slightly bet- bottom-of-pyramid households, has
ter school infrastructure. disillusioned informed monitors of
With eager-to-learn children in the education system.
the country’s most populous states “Widespread skepticism within the
deprived of foundational learning on academic community about UDISE
this massive scale, it’s hardly surpris- reports is justified. After 2019, UDISE
ing that productivity in Indian agri- reports have stopped publishing com-
culture, business and governance is parative data stretching back ten years
among the lowest worldwide. In this which would enable meaningful trend
connection, it’s perhaps pertinent to analysis. Nevertheless, there is con-
note that the largest number of IAS, siderable evidence indicating long-
IPS and IRS officers of the Union term monotonic decline of student
government is drawn from BIMARU numbers in government schools and a
states. corresponding rise in private schools.
P ERSISTENT UNDER-in- Kingdon: deep learning crisis lem with UDISE and other official
As a result, there is a credibility prob-
vestment and negligent
reports which tend to give a positive
governance in early child-
ment and private primary/elementary
within India’s school system. This is
hood and primary-second- of class VIII children in rural govern- spin obscuring a deep learning crisis
ary education resulting in crumbling, schools couldn’t read class II textbooks testified year after year by ASER and
shabby infrastructure, is compounded in their native vernacular language periodically by NCERT’s National
by pervasive teacher truancy (an es- when they were tested by Pratham Achievement Survey. The learning
timated 25 percent, i.e, 1.25 million, volunteers (usually college/university outcomes gap between children in In-
government school teachers are ab- students). In 2023, the percentage of dia and developed industrial countries
sent every day). This necessitates class VIII students who could read a is widening. Since 2009 when a batch
multi-grade teaching-learning in class II textbook was static at 29 per- of 15-year-old selected students from
single classrooms. Moreover with cent, and only 45.8 percent of them Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh —
government schools transformed into could solve simple division sums. India’s most advanced states for K-12
high wage islands, there are scandals In-school children’s learning out- education — wrote PISA (Program for
galore in teacher selection and ap- comes measured by NCERT (Nation- International Student Assessment)
pointments countrywide. al Council for Education Research & and were ranked #73 out of 74 coun-
All this translates into poor learn- Training) — an autonomous subsid- tries, the government has opted out of
ing outcomes for the great majority iary of the Union ministry of educa- PISA. Poor curriculums, widespread
of contemporary India’s 248 million tion which conducts an elaborate cheating, corruption and dismal work
in-school children. According to the nationwide National Achievement culture in the overwhelming majority
Annual Status of Education Report Survey (NAS) measuring the learning of India’s schools is certain to cost the
(ASER) 2022, of the highly-respect- outcomes of a representative sample country dearly in the near future,”
ed, independent Pratham Education of children in classes III, V, VIII and X warns Prof. Geeta Gandhi King-
Foundation (estb.1995), 28.9 percent every three years — are not reassuring don, an alumna of Oxford University

40 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2025