In order to improve the outcomes of primary education in India, the government of India has introduced many initiatives such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Right to Education Act (RTE). In spite of such efforts, the plight of primary education in India is not encouraging. The studies conducted by different NGO’s have observed that the primary education in the country is in a rickety state.

The findings of studies in the field of primary education

The Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) which is conducted by Pratham, along with the support of UNESCO and UNICEF is designed to explore the primary education India, focusing mainly on the rural areas. The study has found that the huge investments made by the government are not producing the desired outputs in terms of learning outcomes of students from schools in rural India. The study was centered on different factors such as learning outcomes, organization of the school, teacher background and ability of the teachers. The findings of the study are rather disturbing.

Students in 1st grade are supposed to read simple words. But the study has found that only less than 30 per cent of students from 2nd grade were able to read simple words. More over only 40 per cent of the students in the 3rd grade were able to read such simple words. In the case of writing simple words, the students in 2nd and 4th grade were found to have difficulty. This was the condition in the high performing states too. The ratio of children in 5th standard who were able to read 2nd standard texts has reduced to 48.2 per cent while it was 53.7 per cent the previous year.

In the case of performing mathematical operations to the study has found decline in the number of students who are able to perform such operations. In the case of students in the 3rd grade the number of students who were able to perform two digit subtractions with borrowing has reduced to 36.3 per cent in 2011. It was 70.9 per cent the previous year. In the case of students in 5th grade the number has reduced to 61 per cent in 2011. In 2010 it was 70.9 per cent. The fall in the proportion was observed in many of the states except TN, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Even though the numbers of students who are admitted to schools have increased to 96.7 per cent, the attendance in schools has reduced. In 2007 the proportion of attendance was 73.4 per cent; while it reduced to 70.9 per cent in 2011. There are states which has witnessed sharp fall in the attendance during the same period. In the state of Bihar, the attendance has fallen by 9 %. In the case of Madhya Pradesh the proportion has fallen by 12.5 per cent and in Uttar Pradesh it has fallen by 7 per cent during the 2007-2011.

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global study aimed at evaluating the learning standards of the participating countries has ranked India at the very bottom of the list.

The relevance of these findings today

These finding gains much importance as they have come at a time when India is in an effort to make a big leap in education and enhancing the skills of its workforce. These studies have found that neither the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which requires huge investment and the right to education act has brought any improvements in the outcomes in the field of education in the country. The government had invested a huge sum of Rs. 21,000 crore as a part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme last year; a threefold increase from Rs. 7,166 crore in 2005-06. Even though the government is spending huge amounts in the field of primary education, more and more parents are moving out their children from free government run schools to private schools. It is observed that the enrolment in private schools have risen to 25.6 per cent. Five years ago it was 18.7 per cent. In the state of Kerala, the enrolment in private schools stands at 54 per cent.  Even with the shift to private schools the condition does not seem to be improving.

Increased spending goes in vain

The increased spending by the government and parents has not resulted in improvement in learning outcome. Most of the studies have observed that the learning outcomes in private schools fare better when compared to their government run counterparts. They have also observed that the shift have not resulted in major improvements. Across the total number of schools that formed the sample of the study, student absenteeism stood at 50 per cent and teacher absenteeism stood at 45 per cent.  In the case of going to schools both students and teachers are not motivated and this is reason behind such huge absenteeism.

The issues with the Right to Education act

The Right to Education act requires the schools to increase their spending on playgrounds, buildings, recruitment of faculty and training. This is certainly not going to improve the learning outcome. In Indiaabout of the 50 per cent of the students go to private schools and this is more evident in the case of slums where private schools are set up to provide education to the children from these areas. Even if there are government run schools in such areas which provides free education, parents wish to send their children to private schools which charges a nominal fee because they provide better education than government schools. And such private schools in slums may not have proper infrastructure or playgrounds or proper sanitation facilities. So if such private schools are shut down on the basis of provisions in RTE, it will deprive quality education to many. The Right to Education act can be considered as an access to schooling and not education.

As a country which is striving to become a developed nation, education has an important role to play. So the government has to start focusing on improving the outcome of the education, rather than investing and sitting back expecting that it will result in positive outcomes.