Dr. Devendra Kothari
Population and Development
Analyst
Forum for Population Action
The
mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled
Plutarch, a Greek thinker and essayist
Education is both a process and an outcome;
it is the process of acquiring information, knowledge and skills; but it is
also the ability to demonstrate the possession of such information, knowledge
and skills so as to qualify to be referred to as educated individual or human
capital. Therefore, within the term “education” is embedded the concept of
productivity.[1]
There is a general
belief that education leads to efficient work which in turn leads to social and
economic development.
There are roughly 450 million people in India that make up our work force. Of
these, 90 percent have not completed school or higher education. Why? Because,
of the 630,000 villages in India, over 500,000 don’t have schools that can
provide education above Class VII.
Without a doubt, labour
productivity is linked to education. Let us consider what
is happening at the education front especially at the school education.
India does well to keep ninety seven per
cent of children between 6 and 14 years of age enrolled in schools and most of
them are attending the school on a regular basis, but the problem is now of quality, not
quantity. More than half our school students are being classified as
functionally uneducated and unskilled or simply half educated. NGO Pratham’s 10th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014, based
on the survey in 577 districts and 16,497 villages covering 3,41,070 households
and about 5,69,229 children in the age group 3-16 , noted that overall situation with basic
reading and arithmetic continue to be extremely disheartening in India. According to ASER
2014 that: “Half of all children in Std V have not yet learned basic skills
that they should have learned by Std II”; and “Close to half of all children
will finish eight years of schooling but still not have learned basic skills in
arithmetic”. [2]
As a result, the current pool of India’s labour force has
very low employability mainly due to low productivity resulting from the poor
quality of education. If the labour productivity is low, then employers do
not hire workers. And that is happening in India. India graduates
more than five million graduates every year. Engineers comprise a small (but
significant) part of it at around six hundred thousand, whereas the rest take
up a variety of three or four year bachelor degree programs. The National
Employability Report 2013 reveals that a significant proportion of
graduates, nearly 47 per cent were found not employable in any sector, given
their poor English language and cognitive/analytical skills. The report
also indicates that only 17.4 per cent of technical graduates (engineers) in
the country are ready to be employed. What this also means is that the rest,
that is, 82.6 per cent, engineering graduates are unemployable. Again, their lack of English
language knowledge and cognitive skills were identified as the major obstacles
to their suitability in the job market. [3]
As such, various
states have been complaining of a significant decline in learning outcomes. So
they have been making RTE provision as a scapegoat and asking the Centre to
revoke the provisions like no-fail policy. But such exam-obsessed approaches
won’t improve learning outcomes.
There are many
problems faced by India’s education system, as noted in my paper: “Education in India needs intensive care, not a quick fix”.[4] The paper argues that the real solution
lies in improving assessment and accountability systems, which largely
translates into improving teacher recruitment and training.
From more than 90 per
cent of aspirants failing the central Teacher’s Eligibility Test year after
year to teacher absenteeism touching as high as 40 per cent in the poorest
states to the prevalence of English teachers who just can’ not speak English,
all around there are signs that teacher recruitment and training are in
terrible shape in India. TOT Editorial rightly noted that “rather than
obsessing over exams for students let’s focus on setting standards for
teachers, having a system that rewards the good ones, and equipping teachers
with modern pedagogical tools to teach critical thinking rather than rote
lessons." [5]
Only two things will truly de-stress students: good teachers and better
opportunities after they graduate.
The similar
views were expressed by The Economist, most trusted news magazine. In its recent paper entitled: “How to make a good teacher”, the paper
argued that forget smart uniforms and small classes to raise the
standard of school teaching. “The secret
to stellar grades and thriving students is teachers”. The paper further
emphasises that what matters in schools are teachers? Fortunately,
teaching can be taught. [6] In sum, the idea of improving the average teacher could revolutionize the entire
profession. If this is to change, teachers need to learn how to impart
knowledge and prepare young minds to receive and retain it. And in the
education reforms, this should be our priority.
The T.S.R. Subramanian committee,
entrusted with preparing a new education policy for India submitted the report
to the Government of India in May, 2016 suggesting measures that the country
must take to improve the sector that caters to over 300 million students in the
country. Among various measures to make good teachers, the report recommends
that Teacher Entrance Tests (TET) should be made compulsory for recruitment of
all teachers. The Centre and states should jointly lay down norms and standards
for TET. [7]
In addition to
rational curricula and pedagogy as well as teachers’ training and teir selecti,
we must explore how unconventional methods of teaching and learning
could be used in improving the quality of education. Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen in their book -
The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business -
sketch a future dominated by technology.[8]
With vivid examples and brilliant analyses, they show how the internet and
other communication technologies will empower individuals and transform the way
nations and businesses operate. The authors believe that “the most important pillar behind
innovation and opportunity – education- will be tremendous positive change in
the coming decades as rising connectivity reshape traditional routines and
offer new paths for learning” (Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen,2013,21). According
to the writers that in 2012, when the MIT Media Lab tested this digital
technology in Ethiopia by distributing preloaded tablets to primary-age kids
without accompanying teachers, the results were extraordinary: within months
the kids were reciting the entire alphabet and writing complete sentences in
English.
India's government-run
schools are terrible, and education faces a drastic shortage of teachers across
the board. If digital technology were deployed into education, the villages or remote areas with no
access to schools suddenly become accessible. India has a satellite in orbit as
well, which is meant to be used exclusively for education. Any institution can
use it to impart education to children in remote areas.
For children in
countries like India, the digital technology promises new access to educational
tools, although clearly not as in developed world. And we must explore the
implications of the burgeoning digital technology to improve the quality of
education in India, because “physical class rooms will remain dilapidated;
teachers will continue to take paychecks and not show up for class; and books
and supply will be scare. But what’s new
in this equation - connectivity- promises that kids with
access to mobile devices and internet
will be able to experience school physically and virtually, even if the latter
is informal and on their own time”( Eric and Jared, 2013 22).
Father, there is urgent need to
allocate mote funds to the education sector. The new education policy recommends
that the outlay on education should be raised to at least 6 per cent of GDP
without further loss of time.
In sum, poor
governance at school level and muddleheaded policies in higher education has
hurt young people. To foster an environment of job creation, it is critical to
produce employable Indians. This should be India’s motto. If
India is to meet the more ambitious development goals in a challenging external
environment, the post-2016 agenda needs to focus on ensuring a structural
transformation of education system. That will enable labour to shift towards
higher value-added sectors and more knowledge-intensive activities, thereby
improving labour productivity relative to other developing countries. In other words, the government must focus on quality
education, infrastructure rather than attempting to introduce controversial
issues in the education system.
[1] Biao Idowu. 2010.
Education, work and productivity in developing countries. Educational Research,
Vol. 1(11) pp. 548-555.
[2] Refer Pratham’s 10th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2014
[3] For
details, see: The National Employability Report Graduates 2013 at: http://www.aspiringminds.in/docs/national_employability_study_IT_aspiringminds.pdf.
Also see: The National Employability Report
(NER) for Engineers by Aspiring Minds at: http://www.aspiringminds.com/research-articles/exploring-national-employability-report-engineers-2014-part-i .
[4] Kothari, Devendra.
2016. Education in India needs intensive care, not a
quick fix, RAEA Policy Paper No. 6, PP. 1-18.
[5] Refer TOI editorial - Make Good Teachers at: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/make-good-teachers-instead-of-obsessing-over-board-exams-invest-obsessively-in-teacher-training/
[6] Refer article: How to make a good
teacher: What matters in schools are
teachers? Fortunately, teaching can be taught, The Economist, June 11th, 2016.
[7] GoI. 2016. Some
Inputs for Draft National Education Policy 2016, Ministry of Human Resource
Development Government of India.
