Tamil Nadu: Tale of two reports

Like the four annual reports that have preceded it, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2008, published by the highly respected Mumbai-based NGO Pratham, projects a dismal picture of learning outcomes in government primary schools in rural India. Excepting Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, which the report says have recorded some progress. According to ASER 2008, although the gross enrolment ratio (GER) of children between ages six-14 is an unprecedented 95.7 percent, there isnt much learning happening in rural primaries.In particular, the latest ASER 2008 has sent shock waves through Tamil Nadu (pop. 62 million) — a state which prides itself on its high literacy and relatively superior education infrastructure. According to the report, while the states 34,342 primary schools with an aggregate enrolment of 6.2 million children are way ahead of primaries in other states in terms of infrastructure and access, they rank 20 percent below the national average in reading and mathematical abilities of students.
The survey further indicates that only 54.7 percent of children in classes I-II in this state can read the alphabet against the national average of 75.4 percent. Similarly, of the children in classes III-V, only 45.7 percent can read a simple (Tamil language) text, against the national average of 66.6 percent. In terms of mathematical ability, only 62.6 percent of the children in classes I and II can identify numbers against the national average of 75.7 percent; and a mere 36.3 percent in classes III-V can do subtraction (54.9 percent). However, this southern state has the highest GER of 99.4 percent, and the number of five-year-olds attending school in Tamil Nadu has increased by 16-20 percent-age points during the past three years.
Tamil Nadu is a model state in terms of infrastructure, number of schools, teachers and student enrolment. Despite this, the survey indicates poor learning outcomes and one reason for this could be the early admission of children into schools — Tamil Nadu has the youngest official age (five) for enrolment into class I. Moreover, insufficient attention is being paid to remedial programmes to improve learning competencies, says Rukmini Banerji, director of ASER Centre, Chennai.
ASER 2008 has prompted much hand-wringing among educationists and education NGOs in Tamil Nadu, who are at a loss to explain how the states massive investment in elementary education infrastructure and teacher recruitment has not translated into improved learning outcomes. Despite the SSA wing of the school education department spending Rs.800 crore annually on primary education, and introducing the innovative Activity Based Learning (ABL) pedagogy, which is widely acknowledged as flexible and child centric, not much learning seems to be happening in the states classrooms.
Though a number of innovations have been introduced into classroom transactions, they dont encourage learning of basic skills. Schools should shift their focus from examinations and rote learning to development of basic reading and maths skills. Unless the state government prioritises the acquisition of basic skills, we cannot expect improvement in learning outcomes, says Dr. Balaji Sampath, secretary, AID India and trustee of the Pratham, TN Education Initiative.
Interestingly, the ASER 2008 survey in Tamil Nadu contradicts the national mid-term achievement survey (MAS) of class III children conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in collaboration with the Union ministry of human resources development, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and SSA wings of the states in 2007. According to the NCERT survey, Tamil Nadus primary school children rank first in maths ability and language skills with an average of 75.2 percent and 79.74 percent respectively.
Citing the discrepancy in the two surveys, government education officials put a brave face on the conclusions of ASER 2008. We have our reservations about Prathams ASER report and the manner in which the survey is being conducted. We have come up with a good solution in the form of ABL pedagogy which has transformed the way children learn in classrooms. It will take sometime before it begins to yield results, says N. Latha, joint secretary, SSA, Tamil Nadu.
However, the sheer scale of the ASER survey, which covers rural districts countrywide and tests students at home using simple tools, lends it great credibility, making its findings impossible to ignore. Clearly, high enrolment rates and infrastructure availability dont automatically translate into better learning outcomes. And whether they like it or not, Tamil Nadus educrats have to accept that the independent ASER survey supervised by Pratham has greater credibility than government reports.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)