Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/secondary-education-in-india-universalizing-opportunity-328.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Secondary Education in India: Universalizing Opportunity | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Secondary Education in India: Universalizing Opportunity


* Secondary education is critical in breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
* The number of secondary school students is expected to increase from 40 to 60 million over the next decade.
* India needs to prepare now for this expansion and improve the quality of secondary education provided.

In today’s global knowledge economy, education plays a vital role in determining a country’s economic growth and its people’s standards of living. Importantly, evidence from around the world suggests that secondary education is critical for breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty, providing huge beneficial impacts on health, raising the marriage age, reducing fertility rates, and improving child rearing practices.

Education also enables countries and their people to succeed in the 21st century world. In India, the maximum job growth in recent years has taken place in the skilled services and manufacturing sectors. The country therefore needs to provide the 12 million young people who join the labor force every year with the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes and experiences to enable them to access these better-paying jobs.

India, however, does not compare favorably with its global competitors in terms of the overall educational attainments of its people. Even countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh which have lower per capita incomes than India have higher gross enrollment rates (GER) in secondary schools. India’s GER in secondary school is 40%, compared to 70% in East Asia and 82% in Latin America.

Nevertheless, with larger numbers of India’s children now finishing primary school, the demand for secondary schooling– Grades 9 to 12 - is growing. Over the next decade, the number of secondary school students is expected to increase from 40 to 60 million. An increasing share of these students will come from rural and lower income groups, who will be less able to afford private secondary education.

The challenge now for the Government of India (GoI) is to dramatically improve access, enrollment and quality in secondary education, simultaneously. The GoI’s recently launched centrally sponsored scheme for secondary education – Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) – offers a tremendous opportunity to set up a mass secondary education structure - that is responsive to the country’s socioeconomic needs and capabilities.

Some Facts:

* 40 million children were enrolled in secondary school in 2008. The majority of them were boys, children from the urban areas, and those who belonged to the wealthier segments of the population.

* Enrollment varies greatly between states, from 92% in Kerala, 44% in Tamil Nadu, 22% in Bihar, and 4% in Jharkhand. 37% of secondary students fail, and 11% dropout before exam.

* There are 3 National Boards and 34 State and Union Territory Boards, with their own curriculum and certifying examinations.

* 75% of public funding for secondary schools comes from states. Less than 10% of this is for investment. While recurrent financing, mainly for teacher salaries, has been stable, the financing of new investments has declined.


60% of the secondary school system is privately managed - through unaided and aided private schools. Private unaided schools provide 30% of total secondary enrollment nationwide (2004-05), up from 15% in 1993-94. Their dramatic growth reveals the demand for secondary schooling and the willingness and capacity of households to pay for it. This however leads to the increasing inequality as poorer households cannot afford to pay both the direct and opportunity costs of their children’s secondary education.

On average, government school teachers earn 3 times more than their counterparts in private schools.

The quality of schooling as measured in students’ cognitive skills is more important than the number of years of schooling in determining students’ future incomes. Once quality is established, years of schooling matter. Just increasing years of schooling does not appear to be worthwhile.

Unfortunately, small scale standardized assessments of student achievement suggest that the quality of instruction and learning for the large majority of students is very low.

Schools determine some 50% of student achievement. Factors that determine the quality of education include: the quality of teachers; the curricula and teaching processes; quality and availability of learning materials – textbooks and ICTs. However, the availability of ICTs is very limited, and teachers’ pre-service education suffers from poor standards, there is a shortage of candidates with the necessary attributes, insufficient objectivity and political interference in hiring, and a high frequency of court cases.

Recommendations:

* Construct public schools, especially in rural areas where private suppliers are unlikely to venture;

* Pilot innovative public-private partnership models which utilize unused capacity in private schools; PPP does not mean privatization;

* Introduce double-shift teaching in urban schools;

* Expand use of open learning and new technologies, particularly for out-of-school youth and those who want a “second chance”;

* Invest in curriculum revision, progressive pedagogy, technology and examination reforms;

* Invest in ICTs, so that students can take greater control of their learning and skills acquisition from sources other than the teacher and textbook;

* Develop and apply clear teacher performance standards, and decentralize teacher recruitment to district or school level, initially on a contractual basis (no automatic tenure). Transfers to be within district only;

* Increase schools’ autonomy and parental involvement;

* Reform Grant-in-Aid System to make public financing conditional on achieving performance standards, and/or finance on a per student (or even per graduate) basis;

* Provide financial and in-kind assistance for poor and disadvantaged students;

* Provide financial incentives and technical support for states to further align their curricula and Board exams with National Curriculum Framework 2005.