The Hindu Business Line : Some elementary lessons

In the context of declining enrolments in government-funded schools, the State Government should strive for better teaching and learning conditions in the schools that it administers.

As schoolchildren in Kerala enjoy their long summer holidays and schools in the State remain closed, it may well be time for the government and concerned parents to debate the condition of basic schooling. A recent survey by the National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) of the health of elementary education in the country in 2005-06 placed Kerala as the top performing State.

The NUEPA's District Information System for Education data consolidated access, infrastructure, teacher and outcome indicators to compute the Educational Development Index (EDI) for 11,24,033 schools in 35 States and Union Territories.

According to the composite primary and upper primary EDI, the top five Indian States are Kerala, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, while the five bottom-ranked ones are Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam, with Bihar figuring in the last spot.

Kerala's elementary schooling system features three streams of schools, namely, government schools, "private aided" and "private unaided" schools. The first two categories are often referred to as government-funded schools.

RAPID DECLINE

According to demographers J. Retnakumar and P. Arokiasamy of the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, data published by the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) - the agency dealing with the administration of school education in the State - shows a rapid decline of student enrolments in these schools since 1988. As a result, larger numbers of government-funded schools have turned uneconomic and teachers have been rendered `protected', they point out.

As enrolments in government-funded schools began falling, only a marginal increase was seen in the enrolments of private unaided schools. While in the rest of the country, enrolments at primary levels are increasing because of high fertility and the emergence of universal primary education, this is not so in Kerala, which passed this stage by the mid-1980s.

CAUSATIVE FACTORS

The demographers believe that both the rise in per capita income and dysfunctional government schooling are leading to thriving private unaided education in the State.

This trend is seen among non-resident Keralites as well, since spending on education comes next only to living expenses in the disposition of remittances, the study points out.

The demographic transition - the historical process of first moving from high birth rates (fertility) and high death rates (mortality) to high birth rates and low death rates, and then finally to low birth rates and low death rates - also has a role to play. According to Retnakumar and Arokiasamy, the direct effect in terms of declining child populations tends to have a negative impact on all types of school enrolments, and significantly in government-funded schools.

The tendency in Kerala for increasing enrolment in private unaided schools should be viewed in the context of declining enrolments in government-funded schools, which is directly related to the inefficient functioning of government-funded schools. This, thus, is a lacuna that the State Government ought to address through better teaching and learning conditions in the schools that it administers. As a pioneer in universal primary education, Kerala owes it to its future generations to tidy up its classrooms.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com