In school, but hardly learning
Rukmini Banerji 
 
Enrollments in schools are on the rise but students’ performance remains dismal.
 
Universal primary education is one of the “Millennium Development Goals”. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) document of the Government of India declares that by 2003 all six- to 14-year-olds must be in school; all children complete five years of education by 2007 and eight years of education by 2010.
 
Another stated goal of the SSA is to ensure “focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life”.
 
Estimates of out of school children and data on school infrastructure and availability of teachers is usually available. What is not available to ordinary people is information on school functioning and children’s learning.
 
Between June and August 2004, a set of simple, rapid assessments was carried out in rural areas in 18 states across the country. Led by Pratham, other participants included non-governmental organisations like Swayam Krishi Sangam in Andhra Pradesh, Jana Sanskriti and Shanirbhar in West Bengal, Aid India and Vidyarambham in Tamil Nadu, university students in Cuttack, Kerala and Jaipur, volunteers from McKinsey in Haryana, angwanwadi workers in Punjab and the education department staff in Assam.
 
The “dipstick” style survey included basic indicators about the “status of schooling” (that is, whether children are in school or not) and “status of learning” (that is, can children perform simple reading, writing and arithmetic tasks).
 
In all states, at least one district was selected. In each district, two blocks were randomly selected. Within each block, five villages were randomly chosen.
 
In each village, approximately 50 children between the ages of seven and 14 were surveyed and tested. Close to 13,500 children across the country participated in this exercise.
 
The rapid assessment exercise showed that as a country we are moving towards universal enrollment at least for the seven- to 10-year-olds and for boys in the older age group (11 to 14).
 
In the younger age group, on average, 9 per cent of girls and 6 per cent of boys are out of school. Only in a few states like Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, this number for girls (seven to 10) is above 10 per cent.
 
While the average percentage of boys (11 to 14) out of school is around 8 per cent, for girls of the same age it is about 18 per cent. In Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the numbers are between 25 and 30 per cent.
 
Children participating in the exercise were given simple reading, writing and arithmetic tasks. For reading, children were asked to read simple paragraphs, words and alphabets.
 
For writing, an easy sentence was dictated, and for arithmetic, children were asked to recognise numbers between 1 and 100, solve a two-digit subtraction problem with borrowing and a division problem in which a three-digit number is divided by a one-digit number. Most of these tasks are expected of children in standard two or three. Each child was individually tested one-on-one.
 
While there are significant differences between children attending government schools and private schools, in both cases the situation is far from satisfactory. Close to half of all school-going children in the age group seven to 10 cannot read a simple sentence fluently or correctly write an easy sentence dictated to them.
 
About two-third of the children in this age group could not solve a simple subtraction problem. Among the older children who were still attending school, one out of 10 could not read a sentence, close to 20 per cent could not write an easy, dictated sentence and a third could not still solve subtraction problems.
 
Interestingly, when we look at learning levels, districts that have done well in terms of enrollment, have good school infrastructure and reasonable student-teacher ratios do not look different from districts that have a poorer performance on enrollment.
 
For instance, in Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu where the enrollment figures are relatively high and no girls between seven and 14 are out of school, 69 per cent of children between nine and 10 were not able to read sentences fluently or solve simple subtraction problems.
 
In Gurgaon in Haryana, where the enrollment rate is lower and 25 per cent of the girls between 11 and 14 were out of school, 53 per cent of the nine- to 10-year-olds could not do simple subtraction or read fluently.
 
The data here suggests that while some states and districts may be making good progress towards universalising enrollment and completion of the elementary stage of education, much greater attention needs to be paid to children’s learning.
 
Even in Kerala, where the enrollment rate one of the highest, basic skills in writing and arithmetic need considerable improvements.
 
A child completing primary schooling must at least be guaranteed durable literacy and numeracy skills. Schools must generate this and citizens must hold schools accountable for achieving this basic goal.
 
(The writer is Director, Research and Assessment, Pratham Resource Center)

@ Copyright, Business Standard, Mumbai.