Quality Education To all - a myth or reality?

The world was taken a back when it read Goldman Sachs report, in 2001 that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries would dominate the global economy pushing aside the developed countries like USA, Japan, Germany, UK etc. and that China would emerge as the World No.1 Super economic power and India securing the 3rd position by 2050. The report also had rudely shaken the developed the countries like USA, Japan, Russia and China, that they would suffer for want of Quality human resources for 56 million jobs by 2019 and the void will be filled up by the quality skilled human resources from India. It also added, India's population would be its major source of strength and no more its weakness, with vast number of youngsters with exemplary knowledge and employability skills.

India Shining:

The present scenario is that despite the global oil price crossing $120 per barrel and Indian inflation rate at 7 plus, Indian economy growth is expected to be phenominal 8.5%, as against the US present GDP growth of 0.6%. While the sub-prime negative impact is sweeping all over the world, its impact on India is very minimal. While the world is witnessing a silent tsunami of food crisis, India is expected to have a bumber crop with a huge pile of buffer stock of grains. The present global GDP is estimated at $47 trillion. India has secured the distinction of joining the trillion dollar economy club securing the 12th position in the World.

The Flip Side:

These figures are really astounding and may make people to think that India is making all round progress in economy, education, human resources development etc. But, let us have a look at the darker side of the picture.

With about 4.5 lacs engineers, 45 lacs graduates coming out of colleges every year and about 93% of children of the age group 6-14 in schools and achieving 67% literacy rate, things appear to be rosy. But, only 25% of the engineering graduates and 10% of other graduates are employable. Even if a person takes two hours to write and read his name, he is considered as literate, as per norms. Unemployability is much more serious than Un-employment problem. While the unemployment of youth is just 8%, more than 50% of employed youth lack employability skills viz., communication skills, analytical problem solving abilities and domain expertise. Industries have to spend 1% to 2% of their turn over for skills development and many youth after colleges have to necessarily develop skills through "Finishing Schools". 90% of the students have only "bookish knowledge" as per a labour report by a staffing company TEAM - LEASE. With less than 3% of the students prefering science subjects, Indian research contributed a mere 2.16% of the world's science & technology publications between 1993-2004.

Whither Right to Education?

Six decades after Indian constitution promised free, compulsory, quality education to all children upto 14 years and 6 years after the constitution amendment to Right to Education as fundamental right, the Government is yet to pass legal enactment to give effect to this and make Quality Education to all such children. The 11th five year plan agenda paper admits that quality education has eluded most children. The UNESCO's global monitoring report 2005 ranks Finland, Canada, Cuba and Korea as countries having delivered high quality education. The UN Human resources report ranks India at an abysmally low level of 128. It is sad, right from school level, academic competency does not include cultural competency and most remain as "Frogs in the well", without knowing what is happening globally. This is going to be a major challenge according to Daniel J Curran, President of University of Dayton, US.

According to NCERT survey, Tamilnadu showed a decrease of 8.61% in learning achievement from the National Baseline Survey 2001-2002. Right to Education upto 14 years is expected to cost Rs.2.25 lacs of crores, according to Kapil Sibil Committee and the Government is wondering as to how to raise this fund. We are very much focussed on More Of The Same (MOTS) on syllabus, examination pattern, instead of correct method of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), regrets Ashok Gangully, Chairman, CBSE. The global teacher shortage is 35 million and India's privation in this regard is 10 million.

High Dropout Rates:

School drop out rate is 36% at elementary level, 31.4% never pursue studies beyond 8th standard, high and higher secondary school drop out is 52.8%. The enrollment after schooling for higher education is shockingly 7% to 8%, as against the global average of over 25%. According to National University of Education, Planning and Administration (NUEPA) report on elementary education for 2005-2006, 32,000 schools do not have a single student, 69,353 schools have less than 25 students, and 1,70,888 schools have between 26 and 50 students. More than 38% of dropped out students feel "education is boring due to lack of quality".

Hansa Media Research Users Council data, says 20% of 2.5 crores of boys in the age group of 18 and 25 studied upto 12 classes have willingly joined naxal groups as they feel that education does not make them "value right". Nearly 200 out of 600 districts in India are under the control of naxalities- a serious threat to National security.


Trailing Behind:

Now, the father of BRIC report, Jim O'Neil says, "India trails far behind Russia, China and Brazil, in Education ranking on par with average developing countries".

With the scrapping of Common Entrance Test in Tamilnadu, the failure in the first year engineering course is more than 30%, which speaks poor quality of students from schools joining profesional courses. But the CBSE students perform well in the All India Entrance Examination.

An Urgent Need for Change:

With the bureaucratic set-up not willing to lose virtual control over education,innovative methods like semester, assignments, projects, continous assessment are never implemented. Research reveals that modern method of education calls for more frequent evaluation and not the "Garbage In Garbage Out" exam system - a yearly ritual.

As regards the proposed uniform syllabus in Tamilnadu, NCERT Chairman, Krishna Kumar himself expresses doubts about its success, unless a thorough and detailed research is made. Sam Pitroda, Chairman of NKC, says, "Our country is too large, too complex, and too diverse, for one-size-fits-all-solutions".

Different dimensional definitions are emerging for quality education. Skills development is short-term and is about training. It does not serve long-term needs. But education is involved in imparting correct method of managment, to perform different skills from what they learnt. Thus, education teaches people to solve problems on long term basis and skills development does not do that. "English learning is not to be seen as a part of any colonial baggage but it is an effective tool which allows people to access to professional skills or quality education and cultural opportunities. India is incredible as world's highest English speaking country, bigger than USA and UK put together", according to Rod Pryde, Director, British Council India. "There is a need for all stake holders to come together to ensure that India continues to position itself as knowledge capital of the world", says Ramalinga Raju, founder, Sathyam computers.

Thus, it is very clear Quality Education for All is a Myth, but, the honest rulers with pragmatic approach can make it as a Reality.

Do we see the writing on the wall?

This article has been published in THE HINDU, on Saturday, the 24th May 2008, in a special Educational issue, SCHOLAR.

Comment by: THE HINDU:

“Is quality education available in India? How employable are our graduates? Do we need more innovative teaching methods? Dr N Ramasubramanyan, an expert in the field of education, debunks the quality education theory.”

Testing Times for Matric Schools.

Tamilnadu has a unique educational scenario with different kinds of syllabus being followed, namely, Nursery, State board, Matriculation, Anglo-Indian and Oriental, apart from all India syllabus of CBSE and ICSE.

Recently, certain announcements and actions plans made by Central and Tamilnadu Government on “Education For All”, are certainly to be appreciated. Since school education is very vital and also very complex, I have been advocating for sometime that there should be a separate Minister for school education. Though at the Centre, the Minister for Human Resources takes care of Education portfolio also, it is certainly salutary decision that the Tamilnadu Government has a separate minister for school education.

The present Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu, highly qualified and experienced, is also very dynamic to introduce novel ideas for achieving 100% literacy and also to impart quality education.

The commendable suggestion by the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, for admitting Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes children into high class residential schools for free education has received over-whelming response from the Management of residential schools.

Though more than 90% of school education is imparted by the Governments globally, private sector also plays a vital role in this regard. Infact, many Government schools are left to private management for efficient and effective functioning. In USA, many Government schools have been handed over to Bill Gates. Likewise, in developed countries like UK and Japan also many Government educational institutions are left to private management, so also, in Gulf countries.

Recently, the Central Government has made an announcement that it plans to hand over many Government schools to Private sector for efficient management.

As per the data furnished by Ministry of Human Resources Development, there are 1.38 lac high and higher secondary schools in India, out of which 58% are private schools, half of them do not get any assistance from the Government. Thus, it is very clear, private sector plays a very major role in the field of School Education.

As far as Tamilnadu is concerned, apart from CBSE and ICSE, total number of matriculation schools (high and higher secondary) is 3474 and that the total number of high schools and higher secondary schools including Matric schools is 9448. If self-financing Matric schools are clubbed with Anglo and Oriental schools which number 394, the total number of schools in private sector is 41%, according to Dr Muthukumuran Committee report on Uniform Syllabus.

There is always an accusation against Private schools, particularly Matric schools that they are totally commercial, opposing the proposed uniform syllabus plan because if these schools are on par with state board, they would lose their sheen.

Recently, a shocking news for the Matric schools is the judgment of a division bench of Madras High Court, to the effect that Matric schools should also pay the same salary both for the teaching and non-teaching staff on the principle same work same pay, because, they have committed in writing to abide by the recognition rules agreeing to pay the same salary as that of Government schools. We don’t want to comment on the judgment but the fact remains that Chitti Babu Committee report recommended some pay scales for Matric school teachers, as private matric schools are surviving on the fees collected from students and the same would not be sufficient to pay the same salary to teachers on par with Government school teachers. There is one more point to be stressed here that in the case of T A PAI, the Supreme Court has very clearly mentioned that in the case of self-financing educational institutions no directive can be given in respect of salary, and it is totally left to the discretion of such institutions.

Another peculiar feature in the case of the Government schools is that the teachers appointed by the Parents – Teachers association are paid very poor salary and in no way comparable to the salary of the Government school teachers. Does it mean that law to Government schools is different from that of Self – finance private Matric school?

It is a well-known fact Government is the most successful commercial entity in respect of education viz., granting recognition / affiliation to private educational institutions. With a total firm grip on every activity of private educational institutions, right from issuance of application form, granting permission to start an institution, inspection fees, Government recognition fees, non-refundable fees payable on the basis on students strength (this ranges from Rs.10,000 to Rs.1 lac for Matric schools), the Government is always the winner.

The Government does not have any botheration whether private school/institution becomes viable or otherwise. Only the promoter of the private school/institution will have to bear all the risks for starting and running the institution. It is really peculiar that the Government has only income and no expenditure. It is reported that with huge fees flowing, the Matriculation Board has become a huge profit-centre.

After the Kumbakonam fire tragedy in a private-aided school, rules regarding recognition have been tightened significantly. For compliance like sanitation, size of class room, play ground area, laboratories, fire-fighting equipments, building stability certificate etc., the difficulties faced by Matric schools are very well known to the officials of the Education Department. Of course, one cannot be raising the accusing finger against the Government for all these safety requirements.

But whereas, there is no such rigorous requirement for the Government schools. Such schools can be run even under tree, in cattle or pig farm. During day-time the school may function and the same place may turn out to be den for anti-social elements in the evening. In the school complex itself, other Government Department can be run and there can be question raised on these issues.

Why such discrimination against private matric schools?

Though, Tamilnadu tops on admission of children into schools on all India basis, quality of education is low by 8.61% on an all India average basis. The NCERT Chairman, Krishna Kumar, in his recent interview to a leading English daily, has expressed his sorrow over this state of affairs. The national level student-teacher ratio is 39:1, whereas, in Tamilnadu schools, it is 51:1. 45.2% Government schools do not have toilet facilities, 65% of the students who have completed 5th standard, could not read Tamil, 55% of the students could not do simple arithmetic, only 10.8% students could read English, as per the recent report by PRATAM and Kalvi Alliance. It is disturbing to note that 25% of the Government school teachers do not come to school at all.

But look at the success rate in Matric schools, which is pretty high, though the teachers are paid low salary and many teachers do not have the training and necessary qualification like B.Ed. It is the commitment and accountability of such teachers which produces good results.

For creating the necessary infrastructure as per the norms of the Government, many private school managements have fallen into huge debt-trap. They cannot ask for donations from outside people because they may think that such donations would go into the coffers of the management and not for school development. But many city and town schools with reputation get huge donations from the parents which is not possible for rural schools.

Despite the generous support from the Government, funds from the MPs and MLAs, many social organizations, NGOs and big Corporates, maintenance and functioning of most of the Government schools leave much to be desired.

According to Dr Muthu Kumuran Report on Uniform Syllabus, the medium of instruction should be Tamil. Tamil can be the language for students to learn compulsorily. But, it is absolutely unjustified to thrust Tamil upon the schools and students community, as the medium of instruction. Even in many Government schools, English is the medium of instruction in some sections. People in France who are fanatic about French have voted overwhelmingly (96%) for English as the medium of instruction in a recent referendum. In China, mother teaches English to the child in her womb. Most of the countries in the world give priority to English as the medium of instruction for employment opportunities. Tamil was the medium of instruction about 40 years back and this was given a go-by. Now once again, talking about Tamil as medium of instruction under a much changed global scenario, it is apprehended, as a ploy to eliminate Matric schools totally from Tamilnadu.

I was the only Matric school owner to have welcomed the Uniform syllabus whole-heartedly. But now I have to review my stand on the basis of issues like Tamil as the medium of instruction, not doing enough study on the feasibility and working arrangements for uniform syllabus, as suggested by the Committee itself and by the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu.

As regards the proposed Uniform syllabus in Tamilnadu, NCERT Chairman, Krishna Kumar himself expresses his doubts about its success, unless a thorough detailed research is made. Sam Pitroda, Chairman of NKC says, “Our Country is too large, too complex and too diverse for one-size-fits-all-solutions!”. I have highlighted about this in my earlier article “Quality of Education for all – a Myth or Reality”

It is sad that many people do not understand the ground reality that English is now a tool for employability and is no more considered as the language.

Instead of the proposed uniform syllabus in Tamilnadu, it would be better to introduce Uniform syllabus throughout the country as per the provisions in the Right to Education Bill. If the idea of Uniform Syllabus in Tamilnadu is to eliminate Matric schools, it would be totally detrimental to the interest of Tamilnadu.

It is understood that permissions are not granted to Matric schools to convert into CBSE schools.

Under such circumstances, it would be right thing for the Government of the Tamilnadu to take over all the Matric schools in Tamilnadu and pay appropriate compensation to the Management of such schools. If it happens, the Matric schools owners would be relieved of their physical and mental tension and would live peacefully atleast during their rest of their lives.