Moving towards the corn cob cart saw a family of labourer already at the cart choosing a corn cob for their 3 children. I felt a stare of a little boy while i was choosing two corns for myself. He started pulling his father's shirt indicating that he wants one too. And I wondered why he needs to share a small corn cob amongst his siblings? Why can't his parents just "not" use the word "amongst" or "between"?
I compared there childhood to mine and wondered if I was them and my parents were in that condition would i be standing here spending Rs. 20 for 2 corns? I started to anticipate what future beholds for these small kids- 2 brother and a sister. Will the adage "survival of the fittest" hold true in their case too? But then hold on! I was way ahead of these children in the race when I was there age. I was going to school. I was having milk, fruits, company of children to play and grow and education which taught me Charles Darwin and Einstein. I was already fitter because of me born into a decent middle class family- so my upbringing and hence my future depended primarily onto the kind of parents I have and the family's economic conditions.
A recent UNESCO 11th Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (GMR) shared some alarming numbers at the state of education in the country which is looking to become economic superpower but still is compared with the ranks of sub-Sharan African nations and Pakistan when it comes to quality of education in this country. The report goes on to observe even after completing four years of school, 90% of children from poorer households remain illiterate. And this also holds true for around 30% of kids from poorer homes despite five to six years of schooling. Besides, only 44% of rural students in the Std V age group in Maharashtra and 53% in Tamil Nadu could perform two-digit subtraction. And it will take another 66 years for poor young women of the country to achieve universal literacy. 66 years? Ache din abhi bahut door hai!
Although India has made a faster progress in reducing the number of children out of schools, but the advancement is slow. Besides, in UP, only 70% of poor kids make it to Std V, while almost all from rich households are able to do so. In MP, 85% of poor pupils enter Std V, compared to 96% of rich children.
The country's primary education seems to be marred by quality and accessibility of the education. With government aiming to spend INR 83,771 crores on education sector, with sarva siksha abhiyan taking approx 30% of these spends, its more about execution and reaching the underprivileged families.
Report cites "teacher absenteeism" as one of the reasons for the learning crisis in the country with absenteeism varying from "15% in Maharashtra and 17% in Gujarat — two richer states — to 38% in Bihar and 42% in Jharkhand, two of the poorest states." Government needs to spend on the teachers training program. The best teachers need to be assigned to the toughest region with right amount of incentives so that these teachers are lured into the profession by choice and not because of economic pressure.
Some component of the learning crisis can also be attributed to "ambitious" curriculum drawn for the children in India. In Vietnam the curriculum focuses on foundation skill set and is closely mapped with what children "can" learn- especially the disadvantaged one; quite contrary to India where curriculum "outpaces what students can realistically learn and achieve in given time- especially the underprivileged lot."
The policy makers need to re-look at the problems confronted by underprivileged class of students and their families because more than education, they are more concerned about food and shelter. It is poverty and family sizes which is causing dropouts from schools and students being forced for child labour to support their families. This seems like a vicious circle as education and skill sets are need of the hour to overcome economic constraints but at the same time families need money for "quality" education. Though, the government is spending money on this sector, the results need to come at a faster pace and can not be left to be run at their own sweet time.It is high time that India seeks in technology in this segment of the society as well- virtual classrooms leading the pack in providing requisite "quality education".
All these new IITs, IIMs, NITs, AIIMS, makes sense only if the "survival of the fittest"adage holds true. Otherwise we are just letting the future of the children of underprivileged being decided from the day they are born without even letting Darwin come into the picture.
References- UNSECO- 11th Education for all
I compared there childhood to mine and wondered if I was them and my parents were in that condition would i be standing here spending Rs. 20 for 2 corns? I started to anticipate what future beholds for these small kids- 2 brother and a sister. Will the adage "survival of the fittest" hold true in their case too? But then hold on! I was way ahead of these children in the race when I was there age. I was going to school. I was having milk, fruits, company of children to play and grow and education which taught me Charles Darwin and Einstein. I was already fitter because of me born into a decent middle class family- so my upbringing and hence my future depended primarily onto the kind of parents I have and the family's economic conditions.
A recent UNESCO 11th Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (GMR) shared some alarming numbers at the state of education in the country which is looking to become economic superpower but still is compared with the ranks of sub-Sharan African nations and Pakistan when it comes to quality of education in this country. The report goes on to observe even after completing four years of school, 90% of children from poorer households remain illiterate. And this also holds true for around 30% of kids from poorer homes despite five to six years of schooling. Besides, only 44% of rural students in the Std V age group in Maharashtra and 53% in Tamil Nadu could perform two-digit subtraction. And it will take another 66 years for poor young women of the country to achieve universal literacy. 66 years? Ache din abhi bahut door hai!
Although India has made a faster progress in reducing the number of children out of schools, but the advancement is slow. Besides, in UP, only 70% of poor kids make it to Std V, while almost all from rich households are able to do so. In MP, 85% of poor pupils enter Std V, compared to 96% of rich children.
The country's primary education seems to be marred by quality and accessibility of the education. With government aiming to spend INR 83,771 crores on education sector, with sarva siksha abhiyan taking approx 30% of these spends, its more about execution and reaching the underprivileged families.
Report cites "teacher absenteeism" as one of the reasons for the learning crisis in the country with absenteeism varying from "15% in Maharashtra and 17% in Gujarat — two richer states — to 38% in Bihar and 42% in Jharkhand, two of the poorest states." Government needs to spend on the teachers training program. The best teachers need to be assigned to the toughest region with right amount of incentives so that these teachers are lured into the profession by choice and not because of economic pressure.
Some component of the learning crisis can also be attributed to "ambitious" curriculum drawn for the children in India. In Vietnam the curriculum focuses on foundation skill set and is closely mapped with what children "can" learn- especially the disadvantaged one; quite contrary to India where curriculum "outpaces what students can realistically learn and achieve in given time- especially the underprivileged lot."
The policy makers need to re-look at the problems confronted by underprivileged class of students and their families because more than education, they are more concerned about food and shelter. It is poverty and family sizes which is causing dropouts from schools and students being forced for child labour to support their families. This seems like a vicious circle as education and skill sets are need of the hour to overcome economic constraints but at the same time families need money for "quality" education. Though, the government is spending money on this sector, the results need to come at a faster pace and can not be left to be run at their own sweet time.It is high time that India seeks in technology in this segment of the society as well- virtual classrooms leading the pack in providing requisite "quality education".
All these new IITs, IIMs, NITs, AIIMS, makes sense only if the "survival of the fittest"adage holds true. Otherwise we are just letting the future of the children of underprivileged being decided from the day they are born without even letting Darwin come into the picture.
References- UNSECO- 11th Education for all
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