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Problems with school education in India
Nitin Pandey,
Founder & CEO,
Parentune.com
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Guest Author Profile:-
Nitin Pandey is the Founder & CEO of Parentune.com, a
young Leader in Child Development & Education domain. Nitin’s driven to
making parentune a pro-parenting community empowering each parent to achieve
more for his or her child. He is a Laureate & was handpicked for the
Leadership Program at IIM-B. He engages as a Learning Faculty right from early
years to schools to leading B-Schools. He's done workshops & focused
courses with B-schools. He’s also authored various case studies & case
analysis with top B- schools, like IIM A, IIM B, MDI, IMI & Symbiosis.
Nitin has also been a strategic Advisor to firms & has also mentored
start-ups in the last few years.
Article:-
Indian Education industry is a $90bn opportunity;
Government’s outlay is the 3rd largest on education after US and China. We have
more than 2 lac recognized middle and senior basic schools and more than
6,50,000 primary and junior basic schools in India. The allocation per child
has increased from ~$390 in 2010 to ~ $800(é213%) in ’12. This is an impressive
scale indeed and if we don’t go beyond, this would make India one of the most
successful school ecosystems. Perhaps, there is a merit in going beyond scale
and asking the not so often asked question about quality. So, how do we stand
in terms of the quality of school education?
Let’s look at quality standards with PISA as a point of
reference. (PISA) Project for International student assessment is an
international comparative survey of 15 year-olds’ (46,000 learners) knowledge
and skills across reading, mathematical and science literacy. India was
represented by the states of Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. The recently
unveiled PISA report spread over 74 countries including the Plus nations (10
countries were added to the original 64), the two Indian states (Tamil Nadu
& Himachal Pradesh) came up 72nd and 73rd out of 74 in both reading and
Math. In short, India faired miserably across the three areas.
Well, it looks completely different, this school ecosystem,
when it comes to the quality of education. To be fair to the schools and
academic leaders across the nation, they understand this and are constantly on
a lookout to improve this equation. Southern India especially has been open to
trying several education solutions across the grades from III to VIII. It’s a
sorry state, as not much of it has changed the learning outcomes. Learnmile is
on the same mission, that to change this equation across teaching, learning.
Here are some of the links which we find missing in the current day Education
solutions.
1. Do we really understand the problem?
The amount of effort, energy we spend on understanding the
need gap, root cause and core issues is far from desirable, from all quarters,
be it the academia or the government. If the solutions are re-packaged with the
same assumptions, how then, will they bring in any change? Doing same things
again and again won’t change the outcome. There perhaps lies the big question
in diagnosis of the problem, rather than trying to put answers to the wrong
question. We need to constantly figure out the right question and ask ourselves
before we try and fit a school solution in desperation to improving outcomes,
“What am I trying to improve? What is the problem?”
2. Teacher is the problem?
The easiest way out to answering this tough question on
quality is to put the blame on to the teacher. If this were to be the crucial
cause, we would have long solved the quality conundrum in higher education in
India. Teachers are at best a true reflection of our ecosystem’s standards. I
have noticed that it has become a generalized statement, anyone can make, that
the teacher is at fault or the teacher is not good enough. Generalization has
hardly led to effective solutions.
3. Teaching v/s Learning
School solutions
today are being made with an idea to either substitute a teacher or that to
reduce the teacher’s role down while teaching and learning. This approach
hasn’t led to improvement in learning. There’s no study or empirical data, of
improvement in learning outcomes with any such education solution, including a
digital board. Most of the current
solutions suffer with the myopic vision of improving teaching. I would like to
question the basic premise and ask, “How about solutions focused on improving
thinking and learning among children.” PISA’09 results point to the fact that Indian
students are one of the weakest in integrating and interpreting. Indian
students scored 348 and 325 in Math against the OECD counties’ average score of
496.
4. Content v/s Hardware
Perhaps, its time that we asked the question, “Is it the box
or what is inside the box which is the key to improving quality of learning?”
The fad seems to be with the box right now. Most of the current day solutions
have been made keeping in mind the entertainment factor for the learner. More
than 30,000 schools in India have a digital classroom now. Does that ensure
thinking and learning among students? There is an urgent need for meaningful,
engaging, curiosity evoking, application-oriented and stimulating content. It’s
perhaps for this very reason, that the government, MHRD has openly acknowledged
and invited private players to come forward with superior content. To me, this
shift from the hardware to the content is no more a question of choice. It’s
inevitable!
5. Parents’ expectations
MHRD took a brave step with a change in the assessment
framework across CBSE schools with CCE. The idea seemed right, that to change
the goal to change the practices. Parents though haven’t warmed up to it much.
The schools, which take the brave step of focusing on learning rather than memorization,
are often met with a strong parental resistance. Parents perhaps need to ask
the important question, “ Do I want to encourage my child to think and to
innovate or push on testing her memory and speed. “
The current set of education solutions may miss more than
they match. One way to look at it is to say that it’s on a natural evolution
towards getting better, hopefully with a focus on improving thinking skills and
learning. Here’s something from my twitter handle, to sum up my thoughts….
“The key divide between knowledge & learning is the
ability to think and apply. Innovation in education then hinges on "to do
new", to encourage “thinking” among young learners.”
