The basic educational skills of rural India are improving, but way too slowly. The findings of ASER 2018 survey of 5.46 lakh children in the age group 3-16 across 596 districts, are not exactly inspiring. While enrolment has improved sharply since 2006 for both boys and girls, not only at the primary but also in the 11-14 age group, literacy and numeracy skills remain dismally below par. Curiously, learning outcomes have improved marginally over the years at the primary level but not at the secondary level. Hence, the percentage of Class V students who can read a Class II text was 50.3 per cent in 2018, against 47.9 per cent in 2016. Likewise, 27.8 per cent of children in Class V could do division in 2018, against 26 per cent in 2016. But what is alarming is the decline in reading and arithmetical abilities at the Class VIII level since 2012, with government schools faring worse than private ones: more than a quarter of all children at this level cannot read a Class II text, while over half of all children cannot do division (three digits by a single digit number). Seen along last year’s ASER survey on learning abilities of the 14-18 age group, those about to enter the workforce, it would seem that India’s ‘demographic dividend’ is turning into a sour joke.

That said, there are slivers of hope. Government schools in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu have shown an improvement in learning outcomes, bucking the overall trend. Government schools are finding favour in Kerala (the leading State in quality of learning, but with less than flattering figures) and other States, with the middle class willing to opt for them. The better outcomes of private schools is linked to the socio-economic status of the children, as the researchers point out, while the cost is a disadvantage. While the Right to Education Act provides universal access to schooling till the age of 14 by subsidising private schooling, it is obviously no substitute for the organic inclusiveness that State-led, universal schooling alone can provide. There can be no denying that focussing on mid-day meals and the physical infrastructure of schools has improved enrolment. The time has come to focus on learning per se, to ensure that the workforce becomes more productive and aware.

The quality of teachers needs attention. Their inability to cope with the NCERT curriculum, for instance, has led to demands that the standards be relaxed. Educationists have observed that teachers’ training programmes are unable to equip teachers with either the necessary knowledge or pedagogic skills. Teachers’ motivation levels are often low. A survey that unveils the hidden universe of teachers’ training would help policymakers.

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