Notwithstanding tall claims to the contrary by the Congress-led UPA-II government which is now in the final year of its five-year term in office at the Centre, primary education in India is in a tailspin. This is confirmed yet again by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012 — a nationwide survey which measures the learning outcomes in (government and private) rural primaries (classes I-VIII) annually. Conceptualised and brilliantly executed by the highly-respected Mumbai-based education NGO Pratham (estb. 1994), its latest annual report/survey is the outcome of 30,000 volunteers (mainly college students) fanning out to 16,000 villages in 567 of India’s total 640 districts, and actually testing the (vernacular) language and maths skills of 600,000 sample children. Damningly, ASER 2012 reveals that in most of the 29 states and five territories of the Indian Union, the learning outcomes of primary school children are three years behind the expected level. In 2010, 46.3 percent of class V students in the country couldn’t read and comprehend class II textbooks. Two years on, 53.2 percent can’t. Likewise, the percentage of class III students who can’t grasp class I textbooks has increased from 54.4 percent in 2010 to 61.3 percent. In numeracy as well, learning outcomes of primary children are plunging. In 2010, of all class V children, 29.1 percent couldn’t solve a two-digit subtraction problem. This has leapfrogged to 46.5 percent in 2012. According to Madhav Chavan, the promoter-chief executive of Pratham, the decline in primary learning outcomes has been steeper since 2010, when the RTE Act came into effect. “There’s general agreement that the RTE Act has led to relaxation of classroom teaching since all exams and assessments are scrapped, and every child is automatically promoted until class VIII,’’ says Chavan. This analysis which can’t be faulted, proves yet again that government intervention driven by populist motives does more harm than good. Moreover, it’s not just deteriorating learning outcomes which question the efficacy of the RTE Act in improving standards of elementary education in the country. The report also confirms there is a swelling exodus of children to private schools. According to ASER 2012, 29.1 percent of rural primary children (classes I-V), and 28 percent of upper primary children (classes VII-VIII) are in private schools against 23 and 25 percent respectively in 2010. “Private school enrolment in rural India is increasing at about 10 percent every three years or about 3 percentage points per year. In the election year of 2014, 41 percent of all of India’s primary age children will be in private schools, and by the time elections come around in 2019, the private sector will be the major formal education provider in India,” comment the authors of ASER 2012. Maharashtra has emerged as one of the states experiencing the steepest decline in reading-skill levels of children. More shockingly even in private schools in Maharashtra (40 percent of primary students are enroled in private schools), there’s been a decline in reading and mathematics learning outcomes across all age groups.…
