To understand the perpetual and worsening teacher vacancy problem in the Indian education sector, from primary education – where India has the world’s highest enrolment levels – to higher education where it ranks second in the world for enrolment numbers, one needs to do some basic probing.

Without structural reform, the perpetual problems of unemployable graduates and faculty shortages are something that India will have to live with. This cycle can only be broken by putting more state resources into universal quality secondary education and undertaking structural reform across all sectors.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150129065314123

Even as India boasts of some of the world’s best engineering and business schools that are a challenge to get into, elementary education in the country, especially in the rural hinterlands, continues to languish, a new survey has revealed.

According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) released Monday by the ASER Centre, which is supported by Indian nonprofit Pratham, less than half the children in grade 5 could read a grade 2 textbook, even as 96 percent of children in the 6-14-year age group enrolled in a school.

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In 2014, India increased its education budget by 11 percent to nearly $11 billion, which is 3.3 percent of its Gross Domestic Product.

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The report further notes that though enrollment levels in the 6-14 age group are high, “the proportion of 15 to 16 year olds not enrolled in school is substantial.” In rural areas, 15.9 percent of boys and 17.3 percent of girls in this age group are currently out of school, it notes.

The report also takes aim at the inequities of the government’s approach to solve the country’s education problem.

“Well into the second decade of this century, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) did not really take interest in learning achievements. Its sole focus was on provisions, inputs and infrastructure,” it says. “The thinking seemed implicitly linear; first all infrastructure needs have to be taken care of and then quality issues can be addressed. Unfortunately, in states where infrastructure issues were not severe, there too states followed the MHRD cue and did nothing significant about basic learning levels,” it goes on to say.

In 2009, India passed the Right to Education law, which made education a fundamental right of every Indian citizen and provides for free and compulsory elementary education to every child between six to 14 years of age. However, over 640 million children, or more than a third of all 6-14 year olds, in India continue to pay for their education. Moreover, about 4.7 million children go to schools not recognized by the government.

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“…  the paradox of the last ten years is that while governments spent money on building schools and hiring teachers by the lakhs (hundreds of thousands), and also provided free textbooks, uniforms, and mid-day meals, the net enrollment in government schools went down and enrollment in private schools went up sharply, especially in the primary stage,” the report says.

http://www.ibtimes.com/even-india-pours-billions-education-rural-schools-continue-totter-1783004

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The report on the status of education in 2014 by ASER, an NGO, says basic reading levels in India are disheartening and largely unchanged from five years ago.

Even with math, basic subtractions like 46-29, or 63-39 are proving to be a hurdle for class 4 students. Data from rural schools shows that close to 60 percent still struggle with it. In fact, over the years, there has been a decline in the ability of rural school children to do basic two digit subtraction. In 2010, 57.7 per cent children in class 4 could do subtraction, but 2014 has seen a drop to 40.3 per cent.

It isn’t any better for basic division sums either. Whereas 36.2 per cent students in class 5 could do division in 2010, the number has dropped to 26.1 per cent in 2014. While in class 2, 19.5 per cent children could not recognise numbers up to nine.

Even with English, less than 25 per cent children can read basic sentences like ‘what is the time?’ Or ‘I like to read’, fluently.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/many-of-india-s-children-can-t-add-can-t-read-reveals-report-648019

This could be very useful for those working in Rajasthan.  Would be interesting to see something like this across all states.

I was glad I did not know the boy standing on the high diving board, hesitating to take the leap. As I walked past, I realised it was the perfect analogy for India and her education issues. We still have to take that leap. It is known that the waters will be chill for a while, there will be shock; it will take some courage to take the leap, but it must be done. Standing up on the diving board only exposes oneself to fear and vulnerability; it won’t get us to a place where we can at least join the race, forget about winning it.

The numbers do not need to be reiterated, nor do the problems. The scale is known to all: 12 million people entering the workforce each year, which drives out all other goals and leaves income generation as the primary goal. Get this right and at the very least, taxes from the 12 million will raise India’s standard of living via better public investments. Get this wrong and India could spiral out of control: Young, unemployed and directionless populations are the stuff of civic nightmares. This is not a ‘feel good, let us do better’ kind of exercise anymore. If the youth are not constructive, we would be engulfed with a series of problems.

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The solution to India’s ‘opportunities’ lies in shifting from a constrained resource mindset to feeding unconstrained ambitions. The big leap in education needs different thinking.

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1) Education as investment sounds obvious, but it is not really as straightforward as the most important things that education provides cannot be measured easily. How does one measure the confidence a good school gives or the friends one makes for life? But most things can-the enhanced earnings for each additional year of education, the value of networks, the returns to investors for professional courses directed towards employability, etc. Even the return on investment to a simple government school can be calculated via proxies-and must- so that we start focusing on the gains to students and society. The shift from expenditure as an input into a dark hole to an investment changes the attitudes and expectations from education completely.

2) Education as an essential infrastructure is the next mindshift required. It is not of much use if one gets bullet trains and information superhighways when there aren’t enough good people to create value out of these. Education is soft infrastructure and must receive priority investments and concessions like the rest of the infrastructure sector. Just as one identifies and supports priorities in infrastructure, one needs to identify priorities in education and implement them through a medium-term national education strategy.

3) Education as influence: Not just as part of the national narrative for national pride but also as a means to increase the nation’s circle of influence across the globe. Education has been used by many countries as soft power

4) Education as an industry may not be as controversial a perspective as it is made out to be. While education may be a not-for-profit sector by regulation, it has all the other characteristics of a standard industry. The only, and significant, difference here is that it deals with people and their change process. It is easy to mistakenly say that in education, people are the product, but this is not so-the value addition to people is the task of this industry. Like every other industry, it has supply chain issues, challenges in logistics and constraints in resources. It has similar problems in vendor management, in funding, regulatory compliance and more. While educators have resisted solutions that come from the industrial or corporate world, there is a case for acknowledging that the business of education can learn much from successful toolkits in industry.

5) Education as inspiration. The purpose of education is to raise us to be better human beings who build sustainable societies and civilisations that are respected over a period of time. Education must elevate us in ways we would not even have been able to see before. We need it to create aspirations for us at the very least, and grow us as individuals and people…To merely seek employment as a goal of education is not enough; it is only the first step. If education policy is designed to only meet this basic requirement in schools and colleges, then it must add components of lifelong learning for meeting greater aspirations and ensuring progress for its people throughout their lives.

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/blog/economy-policy/indias-education-policy-needs-a-complete-overhaul/#ixzz3Nrt7I8og