February 2009 Edition

News and Policy Analyses from India and the Subcontinent

Educational Progress in Rural India
Primary Enrolment reaches 97%. Over 80% Complete 10 years of School.

Notwithstanding India's remarkable economic growth in the last decade, international (and even some domestic) media reports concerning India have reflected an almost pornographic obsession with India's seemingly "unending" poverty. Supposedly "objective" journalists have cited "UN data" to repeatedly assert that only half of India's population can read and write, that half of all Indian children are seriously malnourished, or that only half of all school-age children are actually attending school.

Not only have such "Pundits" given short shrift to Indian census and other data, they have studiously ignored any data that might counter such patently false assertions.

While it would hardly behoove concerned Indians to ignore the many genuine problems that plague modern India (and most other developing nations), hype and sensationalism do little to generate an informed debate on real issues and contribute even less to efficacious solutions.  Unfortunately, even some very well-meaning Indians have fallen prey to the morbid fascination with exaggerating Indian "backwardness" and demeaning tangible gains. Not only has this contributed to a needless sense of pessimism or cynicism, it has also led to perfectly intelligent Indians falling for the misguided recipes of political charlatans.

Yet, more than a few recent news reports provide more than ample evidence to contradict all the shrill voices bemoaning India's "extreme" poverty.

Consider first the Dec. 2008 estimate of active Indian phone connections at 385 million. Compare this with 230 million Indian households. Even a fairly conservative projection of how these connections are distributed within the population suggests that 78-82% of all Indian households must now have a phone connection, and over 60% must have more than 2 connections in their houshold.
(In December, India added almost 11 million new cell phone users. If this trend continues, then it very likely that by the summer of 2009, 90% of all Indian households will have a phone connection.)

The second item of interest was a 2008 educational assessment survey by ASER/PRATHAM(an NGO launched with UNICEF assistance in 1994) that has been carrying out educational assessment surveys in rural India since 2005. Its most recent survey sampled households in 564 out of 583 districts to evaluate school enrollment and abilities in maths, reading, and other basic capabilities such as telling time and handling currencies.

The survey suggests that attendance has crossed 97% in primary school and 93% in middle school. Furthermore, over 80% of all children are completing 10 years of school (6-15). Although sampling errors might lead to some doubts about these numbers, data from state educational boards relating to eligibilty and attendance in senior secondary and higher secondary board examinations in Haryana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh seem to corroborate these findings. (See India's Demographic Transformation

This also suggests that in terms of basic Human Development, India has substantially closed the gap with China and other ASEAN nations, and India's lower calorie intake may have more to do with diet and vegetarian eating habits than with absolute poverty levels.

Nevertheless, the survey also identifies some real concerns as to the quality of education that India's rural children are receiving (especially in government schools).

What the data shows is that students are taking a long time in learning to read texts, confirming the fear of critics that class size in rural schools was too large, that there was inadequate classroom infrastructure, and that there were too few trained teachers. Critics had also raised concerns about teachers not being motivated enough or sensitive towards the plight of children who were slower learners.

The data also showed weaknesses in Math education:

While 95% of young teens could handle basic currency tasks, one third were still unable to divide.

A state by state breakdown of the data, also revealed some very unexpected surprises. While small states like Goa took the lead, Tamil Nadu, a state with relatively high enrolment did quite poorly in terms of reading and math:

When it came to quality of learning, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh did far better than the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Another unexpected surprise was how the state of Bihar also handsomely outdid the two southern states.

Even as MP, AP and Jharkhand demonstrated a broad trend towards higher enrolment, Bihar's figures showed the most dramatic improvement since 2005. Its 15-16 yr enrolment numbers came in better than the national average and beat Left-Front led West Bengal at 74%. Although Orissa trailed at 67%, its secondary enrolment figures had improved by 5%.

The gender divide was greatest in Rajasthan where enrolment of girls (aged 15-16) lagged at 68% versus 80% for boys. (However, this gap has actually narrowed by 7% since 2005).

The survey also revealed that enrolment in more industrialized Gujarat stood at 75% (below the national average). However, it is unclear if this was simply due to much higher enrolment in vocational training schemes (that did not come under the purview of this survey). In Gujarat, 14 year olds may enrol in various craftsmen and apprentice training schemes, and for many years, Gujarat has led (often by very wide margins) all other states in this respect.

But the poor performance of the two southern states in basic reading and math skills is the most shocking, and should give some pause to investors who have traditionally favored these southern states at the expense of the Hindi belt.

ASER's assessment results tend to explain why failure rates in 10th and 12th board exams are so high in these more illustrious southern states. Although, both states have above average per capita incomes and a very high density of engineering colleges that has made them very attractive from the point of view of the IT industry, it is quite evident that an obsession with quantity and the aggressive politics of caste-quotas has diverted attention from a far more immediate and pressing problem which is the unacceptably low performance standards that prevail in most schools.

As we have consistently argued, caste-based quotas at the tertiary level cannot make up for what is missing at the childhood level. ASER/PRATHAM's survey demonstrates in very stark terms the pitfalls of focussing exclusively on quotas at the expense of developing merit.

Sadly, these quota-obsessed southern states have forfeited their  lead in basic education not only to rivals such as Goa, Maharashtra, HP, Punjab and Haryana, but even to the once BIMARU states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Bihar.

While much of the country needs to work hard to improve quality of childhood education (now that enrolment numbers are inching up), Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will need to work extra hard at it.

Notes:

Related Essays:

Quotas Versus Merit

The Colonial Legacy and India's Knowledge Infrastructure

Vote Bank Politics

Back for other selections from South Asian Voice for other articles on issues confronting India and the region.

Also see South Asian History or Topics in Indian History for relevant essays that shed some light on the history of the subcontinent.

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