The quality of primary education in schools in the rural India is slipping down even after the implementation of the Right to Education act which was introduced in April 2010. The learning outcomes in primary schools have drastically reduced in terms of quality.

Recent survey conducted by Pratham

In the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) prepared by Pratham, a non profit organization working for the upliftment of primary education in India, it is found that less than one out of every two students in 5th grade are able to read sentences in 2nd grade texts. The percentage was 48.2 per cent in 2011. It was 53.7 per cent in 2010, the year in which RTE was introduced. Another observation made in the report is that only 29.9 per cent of 3rd grade students were able to perform subtraction which involved two digit numbers, in 2011. While in 2010, this proportion was 36.3 per cent.

The report released on January 2012, is the third in three months that signifies the absence of quality of education in India, presenting the risk of deterioration in long term competitiveness of country.

Similar studies conducted on the quality of primary education

The first survey in this direction was the Quality Education Survey (QES) which was conducted by Wipro and Educational Initiatives. Educational Initiatives is an education assessment organization. The survey has found that high end schools in metros did not meet the required quality parameters and gave emphasis to rote learning.

The second study was conducted by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The study has found out that among 74 countries, India secured a position in the bottom of the ranking with Kyrgyzstan ranked lower than India. The study covered students from higher secondary schools.

The study conducted by PISA covered schools from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. These two states are ranked high in the country in terms of human development index. The study was organized by Paris-based organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The findings of the study conducted by Pratham

The survey conducted by Pratham had covered about 650,000 students from elementary schools across the rural population in the country. It has found that the enrollment had increased to 97 per cent. Meanwhile the dependence on private schools and private tuitions has also increased.

In India, the enrollment to private schools has increased to 25.6 per cent in 2011. In 2006 it was 18.7 per cent. States such as Kerala and Manipur recorded highest enrolment to private schools which is above 60 per cent to private schools. This is alarming as this might a indication of the lack of quality in education in government schools.

In the rural areas of states such as Haryana, Punjab, UP, J&K, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, the enrollment of students to private schools fell in the range between 30 to 60 per cent.  In the case of private tuition, about 20 to 25 per cent of the students went for paid tuition outside the school.

According to Madhav Chavan, a founder and CEO of Pratham, the study has observed that the RTE has not made any noticeable impact. He says that if 25 per cent of the students are going to private schools and another 25 per cent are going for private tuition, then 50 per cent of them are not learning at government schools.

Another issue that was observed in the study was that the attendance level in schools has fallen even as the enrollment rate has increased. Across the country, attendance of the students has fallen from 73.4 per cent in 2007 to 70.9 per cent in 2011. States such as Bihar and UP observed decline of 7 per cent and 9 per cent respectively in attendance.

The complete picture of the primary education in the country

The survey report of ASER, PISA, and QES has brought out a complete picture of the school education in India which is highly depending on the human capital and is trying to become a knowledge hub for the world.

The Right to Education and the government

The Right to Education act was enacted on 1st April 2010, and the government allocated an amount of Rs. 2.31 Trillion for the execution of the act over a period of five years. The burden of the fund is to be shared by the Indian and state governments on the basis of 65:35 ratio. Put in common words, both the state and the central governments would spend an amount of Rs 46,000 crore every year till 2015 to improve the primary education system in India. The Union government had given the state governments a period of three years to put the system in place.

The ministers view on the report

Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal, who released the report said that it too premature to arrive at such conclusions as it takes time to reap the full benefit if the act. He said the benefits of the bill will be evident after five years. The minister added that the state governments need to be more pro-active in their approach to the bill.

Sibal pointed out that he wants to put in place a quality assessment test similar to the GRE and SAT, but he received no support from the state governments.

The report by Pratham has found that there is not much improvement in the student to teacher ratio after the enactment of right to education act. There is only minor improvement in terms of the number of schools that are complying with the RTE provisions on the student to teacher ratio and the proportion has increased from 38.9 per cent in 2010 to 40.7 per cent in 2011.

A positive trend that was observed in the survey was the decrease in the dropout rate of girl students in schools. The drop out rate has declined from 17.6 per cent in 2006 to 4.3 per cent in 2011 in the state of Bihar. In the case of Rajasthan, it has dropped from 18.9 per cent in 2006 to 8.9 per cent in 2011.