E-Paper
That education pill
The Annual Status of Education Report was conceived by an educational NGO as a citizen?s audit when it embarked on its survey of 9,252 rural schools in 28 states, with villages chosen at random.
The Annual Status of Education Report was conceived by an educational NGO as a citizen’s audit when it embarked on its survey of 9,252 rural schools in 28 states, with villages chosen at random. The purpose was to understand how rural populations viewed existing facilities and infrastructure and whether these were being efficiently used. The results that have been reported should make more than just officials at the state level sit up. The figures that have emerged paint a dreary picture.
The states that are considered to have fairly good school infrastructure, like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat are inculcating poor learning abilities in their children, while the states of Bihar and Chhattisgarh which lack in basic school facilities, have turned out brighter students with better cognitive abilities.
This turns on its head the popular perception, and the government’s chosen perspective, that brick-and-mortar edifices reflect the standard of education. But if one revisits the purpose of education at the primary level, the results should not surprise. Perhaps it is the desperation to leave behind the morass of despair that Bihar is, that drives the will to learn in the state’s villages — irrespective of availability of a school building, textbooks or ‘trained’ teachers. Education here still remains the means to freedom — this is also reflected in the high numbers of IIT aspirants in Patna who eventually make it to the premier institute. Yet, it is a shame that the will to learn can’t be galvanised into a powerful force, for the sheer lack of textbooks and educational facilities. It is these states which also account for the highest number of dropouts. At the other end of the spectrum, the IT hubs apparently do not support a strong school system in the states’ rural belt, with very poor primary school levels of maths ability. Are teachers lulled into a state of complacency when it comes to the better-off states? Does schooling in these states get reduced to the consumption of education as a dietary pill? Is it because quotas and reservations, rather than merit, play a greater role in securing jobs and seats?
The authorities will undoubtedly question the value and motives of the study. They would, however, do well to use it to best means. The states with the better-off infrastructure need to apply the necessary correctives and impetus to enhance the quality of education. States where children do well despite the infrastructure should be shamed into providing the framework for sustained learning.
