Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

Primary children in Kolkata school: modest progress

The annual status of education report (ASER) 2024, a comprehensive school education survey pertaining to 2023 conducted annually by the well-known Pratham Education Foundation, was released on January 28 in New Delhi. For the survey, a representative sample of 649,491 children aged 5-16 years in 17,997 villages of 605 rural districts of India were tested for language and arithmetic attainments. The findings highlight modest progress in reading and arithmetic skills, as well as recovery from pandemic-induced learning loss.

Surprisingly, West Bengal’s overall performance is better than the national average. ASER 2024 reveals that 54.6 percent of Bengal’s class V children can read class II texts (national average 27 percent), 41 percent can do basic sums (national average 33.7 percent) and 35 percent can solve simple division sums  (national average 30.7 percent). Bengal’s class VIII children showed a slight edge in reading (71.3 vs. 71.1 percent), but their maths proficiency (division sums) was lower (33.7 percent vs. 45.7).

In this connection it’s pertinent to note that against India’s average 82 weeks education lockdown during the Covid pandemic — the world’s longest — West Bengal’s was even longer (99 weeks). Schools restarted in all states before West Bengal. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s neglect of education during the pandemic was severely criticised because  the prolonged schools’ closure is estimated to have forced 8 million students out of the state’s 65,000 primary schools.

In response, and perhaps to counterbalance the extended education lockdown, in West Bengal’s state budget 2022, she allocated Rs.43,466 crore to the education sector (16.8 percent of total budget of Rs.258,726 crore) — 13 percent higher than in 2021. As a percentage of the budget, the 16.8 percent allocation was higher than the national average (15.2 percent). In 2023, the outlay for education was increased to Rs.45,812 crore and last year, the TMC government introduced a gender and child budget with an allocation of Rs.96,271 crore and provided Rs.900 crore for class XI students to buy tablets and smartphones.

However, Banerjee’s belated education damage control initiatives have been considerably negated by scams and scandals which resulted in several orders of the Calcutta high court staying teacher recruitment and appointments for over a decade  because of the repeated TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) paper leaks and unqualified teachers being appointed through bribery and corruption. But, over 2022-24 TET exams were held under strict vigilance as a result of which since 2022, 46,000 teachers have been appointed with the approval of the Calcutta high court. As a result, the state’s Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in government schools which had risen to an alarming 59:1 has improved to 31:1 within the ideal range of 35:1 prescribed by the Right of Children for Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

Nevertheless, academics in Kolkata rue the neglect of K-12 education during the rule of the Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress party and particularly the lost learning during the prolonged pandemic lockdown.

“ASER 2024 exposes the government’s utter failure in improving foundational learning for schoolchildren in Bengal. Despite years of promises, nearly 70 percent of students still struggle with basic reading and math, a damning indictment of the state’s education system. The marginal improvements in learning outcomes reported by ASER 2024 —mere percentage points — offer no real solace, because the overall picture remains grim. Instead of celebrating incremental gains, the government must take accountability for this crisis and implement urgent, systemic reforms. Without immediate intervention, an entire generation risks being left behind due to government negligence,” warns Prof. Pabitra Sarkar, former vice chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University and former vice chairman of the West Bengal State Council of Higher Education.

A sad requiem for a state that was the epicentre of the Bengal Renaissance of the 18th-20th centuries driven by giant intellectual social reformers including Raja Rammohan Roy, Satyendra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore, the latter Asia’s first Nobel laureate.