Government Schools

Teachers must be made accountable…

Though government schools are meant to work for around 200 days in a year, they invariably function for 150 days or less. Schools are closed at the drop of a hat, for local festivals, preparation for national celebrations, and other official and unofficial reasons. Shorter academic years, taken together with shorter school days, effectively reduce the prescribed hours of instruction almost by half. 

An international study of teacher absence in seven low- and middle-income countries, indicated that 25% of all government primary school teachers in India were absent on a typical school day.

A recent survey on government schools indicated that only about 50% of the activities of teachers present could be classified as teaching. Other activities include maintaining discipline, administrative work, talking to other teachers, sleeping, and getting students to massage them.

Shorter academic years and school hours, absentee teachers, and poor quality teaching have had a disastrous effect on the education of most poor children attending government schools. When teachers are chronically absent, many children simply stop attending school.

The argument put out by the Tamilnadu Government, is the shortage of funds for education. But when we look at Maharashtra's performance on this count. Although the outlay for successive years for education has increased, only a fraction of it is actually spent.

A government that could not handle formal education would not be able to manage non-formal education. Besides, the government has failed in making schools and the curriculum "attractive".  Schools without meals, toilets and uniform and a syllabus that did not pay any attention to "area-specific needs" are what Tamilnadu students have got apart from a politicised school environment.

Government elementary schools continue to teach children in the regional language. These students would traditionally have started the study of English, as a second language, in Std 5 or Std 6. By the time they appear for the Std 10 board examinations, they would have had 500-600 hours of instruction in English. However, instead of acquiring basic communication skills, most of them are unable to speak, read or write even basic sentences in English.

Illiteracy in government schools is not confined to English alone. Many children complete five or even eight years of elementary education in the regional language, and are functionally illiterate in the regional language. In such schools, teachers are not likely to be teaching regularly. Regular instruction by government school teachers would significantly improve reading and writing in the regional language, but not English.

The overwhelming majority of teachers, who teach English in elementary schools, do not know English themselves. Neither do they know how to teach it. Given the abysmal quality of teaching and learning in all subjects in government schools, it is little wonder that private alternatives, no more than substandard commercial teaching shops, are flourishing all over urban and rural India.

Most of these private institutions teach in the regional language, though they claim to be English medium schools. Regional medium schools, especially government institutions, are facing a grave threat. The urban middle class has by now completely deserted the municipal corporation schools. The ambitious poor are following in their footsteps.

With private alternatives emerging in the villages, a process of educational differentiation is visible in rural areas as well. The response of the political and educational leadership has been inadequate. Reversing a long standing educational policy of beginning the teaching of English as a second language in Std 5 or 6, many states have recently started teaching it from Std 1 onwards.

The distinction between the quality of government schools and private schools will perpetuate inequality in society...

What do we mean by unequal education? We mean that the quantity of education may be equal, but the quality is not. The performance of Indian states with respect to education has been highly varied. However, even in the states which have expanded the number of schools and increased literacy, all children do not get similar or equal education. The children of the rich go to expensive, private schools while the children from poor families go to government schools. There is a large difference between the educations given by these two sets of schools. It is now a commonly known fact that children from government schools are not able to read and write even after many years of schooling.

How will this kind of substandard education act as a liberating force? How will it fetch jobs to the underprivileged?  It is shameful for any child, no matter where, to be deprived of access to good quality education and denied the opportunity to learn and enjoy schooling. The real concern ought to be with the plight of millions of children who learn so little after many years in school. Unfortunately, there are no standardised tests that assess uniformly and systematically the learning achievements of children. Those children in schools learn little is no secret.

The politicians and bureaucrats responsible for policy-making are aware of this. That is one reason why they do not send their own children to government schools.

But for how long will we turn a blind eye to the reality of 60 or 70 or even more children belonging to different classes sitting in one common room being taught many subjects simultaneously by a single teacher?

Many developing countries have achieved better results with far little spends. And there we have India's problem wasteful spending. India spends 4.1% of its GDP on education but boasts of just 65% literacy. China, on the other hand, spends only 2.2 % of GDP on education yet has 91 % literacy. Sri Lanka and Indonesia spend only 1.3%-of GDP on education, yet have literacy rates of 92.5% and 88% respectively..

The problem is not lack of money but lack of quality. Teachers in government schools earn twice or thrice the salaries that teachers in private schools earn, yet are unmotivated, skips school, and teach very little.

The biggest blow to quality education came with the interpretation and mindless use of the no-detention policy. Children are pushed from one grade to the next with little care taken to ensure they attain grade specific competencies. As a result, we can find children who reach grade five without knowing how to read or write!

Teachers are not held accountable for learning levels their ‘performance appraisal’ is limited to enrolment data and retention rate. No one really cares to find out whether children have learnt anything at all. As a result they can get away without teaching.

Across the state, between 70 per cent to 80 per cent of children from poor households are enrolled in government schools. This is why the overall functioning of the government school, (in particular, the quality of teaching) becomes critical. Pushing children into dysfunctional or poorly functioning schools is making a mockery of the right to education. First generation school goers require an extraordinary amount of care and attention, and if we are serious about guaranteeing every child the right to education, then we have to transform our work culture and attitudes.

The state government Tamilnadu and its teachers are accountable for the present state of government schools. Though it will be bigger challenge for the upcoming new government to address the rotten educational system in Tamilnadu, due importance will make the positive change!