To harness India’s demographic dividend — 500 million children and youth below age 34 — it is critical that we identify weaknesses in our K-12 system and fix them pronto. An overview of the deep-rooted problems of Indian school education with some remedial solutions writes Sridhar Rajagopalan In the emerging hyper-competitive global marketplace where the quality of human resources is likely to prove a critically important factor, India’s foundational K-12 education system is not in good shape. Year after year, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), published by the independent Pratham Education Foundation, has been reporting that over half of class V children in primary schools of rural India — which grudgingly hosts 60 percent of the national population — can’t read class II texts or manage simple math sums. And in the latest ASER 2023 report released on January 17, which field tested 34,375 teens in the 14-18 age group, the survey reveals that 25 percent cannot read a class II level textbook fluently in their regional language. “More than half struggle with division (3-digit by 1-digit) problems. Only 43.3 percent of 14-18-year-olds are able to do such problems correctly,” says ASER 2023. Unsurprisingly, as reported in the EW cover story last month (January), at the last minute India opted out of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), an international exam which tests the reading, science and maths capabilities of representative batches of 15-year-olds from over 80 countries. With the Indian economy clocking 6 percent-plus annual GDP growth rates and forecast as the fastest growing major economy worldwide for the next decade, there will be a desperate need for well-educated and skilled human resources which have to emerge from its education system. When Apple weighs moving 25 percent of its iPhone production to India, a critical factor in its decision will be the quality of the workforce it can recruit. Simultaneously, there is the risk of AI impacting tech outsourcing that contributes an estimated 7.5 percent of India’s GDP. The common perception is that India’s private schools which host 48 percent of in-school children are excellent. But studies have shown that while they provide a certain measure of drill and practice, they are not sufficiently developing modern 21st century thinking skills of relatively privileged children. To harness India’s demographic dividend — 500 million children and youth below age 34 — it is critical that we identify weaknesses in our K-12 system and fix them pronto. An overview of the deep-rooted problems of Indian school education is detailed below with some remedial solutions. Rote learning and the exam system. The elephant in India’s K-12 classrooms is rote learning. Simply put, rote learning is mechanical learning where students can recite dates and definitions and solve ‘typical’ problems, but cannot demonstrate deeper understanding of subjects and apply their knowledge to real-life situations. Rote learning is not simply ‘memorisation’, which is a learning tool and may be useful at times. For example, memorisation of formulas for quick recall, once understood, or of…
