BHAMY V. SHENOY and ASHVINI RANJAN write: Can our villages throw up another A.P.J. Abdul Kalam or K.R. Narayanan? Young boys who make it big on the world stage in spite of their rural backgrounds and their poverty? Young boys who rise and shine through the sheer weight of their schooling and learning?
We would like the answer to be “yes”.
The answer, unfortunately, is a resounding “no”.
Pratham Mysore with the help of seven other NGOs and three volunteer groups covered 11 districts in Southern Karnataka for the Annual Survey on Education Report (ASER) between November 14 and December 20 last year testing about 4,500 children in 220 villages (the other 16 districts were covered by our sister organization Akshara based in Bangalore)
Some of our shocking findings are:
# In Karnataka 53% of children between the ages of 7 and 10 years attending schools in villages (private and government) cannot read even a simple small paragraph (level 1) and 72.5% cannot read a story (level 2).
# Of the same age group, 60% cannot solve numerical sums of subtraction and a whopping 91% cannot do a division (3 digits divided by 1 digit).
# In villages in Mysore district, 58% of children attending Standard V cannot read beyond level 2 (in the case of best performing district Udupi, it is only 9%) and 84% cannot solve division and subtraction problems (even for Udupi it is a dismal 39%).
Karnataka which takes pride in having the maximum number of high-tech firms in India is at the bottom of the performance tables based on tests conducted to measure reading and arithmetic abilities of children. While the all-India statistics is appalling, Karnataka’s statistics is shocking. We rank well below Bihar!
This should have made head line news in any civilized country. Surprisingly, there is neither a mention nor a statement by our state leadership.
While we want to usher in our own industrial revolution based on the knowledge industry, why is there such an indifference? We all know that the destiny of a nation is shaped in the classrooms.
Mysore may soon become the next Silicon Valley City creating high paying jobs. What does this new prosperity mean to these village children?
Umpteen high level committees have taken a look at the sorry state of affairs in our education sector over the years. Intellectually challenging reports with high sounding recommendations have been submitted by them. Still we have not made any significant improvement in universalizing education.
However, there were some bright facts revealed by ASER. Of the children between the ages of 6 and 14, only 2.9% have dropped out and 3.7% have never enrolled at all India level. Thus we have made a quantum leap in enrolling children. On this measure, Karnataka has the third highest rank with only 1.9% being out of school when the all India average being 6.6% and Bihar at 13.5%. But what about the quality of education they are receiving in the school?
India already spends Rs 60,000 crore annually towards elementary education. The Planning Commission has promised to spend more money on the latest scheme known as Sarva Sikshana Abhiyan. We wonder if spending more money by itself will solve the problem.
Today, in Karnataka teachers in government schools are paid four to six times the salary of private schools. Government school teachers are given regular training and have access to teaching resource materials. In some respects, many government school teachers hired in recent years are better qualified than teachers in private schools.
Still it is difficult to find a single government teacher who would like to send his or her child to a government school.
School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) was one of the best strategies developed in recent years to improve education in our school. During our survey work, we have found out how that strategy has failed in most places because of politicization and indifference on the educated people to stay away. All of us know how our examination system is totally obsolete and corrupting the system. But we as a society have failed to come up with an alternative way.
What we need is a total revolution in our education system. To usher in such a revolution we are suggesting the four policy decisions to be adapted by our government. All of them look simple and straightforward. But we have no illusion that any of them can be implemented soon or without a lot of hard work. However if there is general awakening in the society as a result of one more survey like the one by ASER, we should be able to implement these reforms.
# There should be an independent body constituted (like NAAC for colleges) to evaluate the teacher performance at every district level. Teacher promotion and increment should be based on the evaluation by these independent bodies. Every effort should be made to keep politics as far as possible from these institutions. Karnataka government has taken a small step in starting Karnataka School Quality Assessment Organization in 2005.
# Teachers should not be transferred from place to place. Preference for appointments should be to teachers who live within a radius of 10kms from the school. The new government order of transferring teachers through a computerized system may reduce corruption, but will not solve the basic problem.
# It should be made mandatory that every government teacher send his or her child to government schools.
# Education management should be decentralized as envisaged by 73 and 74 amendment to the constitution. Each city, taluk or group of villages should have an autonomous education body with full financial and operating responsibilities and as well as authority to manage educational institutions under them. In other words, we need to completely dismantle the current dysfunctional top heavy and bureaucratic education system. Again the proposed new government initiative of making SDMCs subcommittees of Gram Panchayats is only a small step in the right direction.
The above four strategic policy decisions will start a chain reaction to bring about hundreds of micro-level improvements suggested by various reports automatically. However there will be fierce opposition from a small group of people including some of the teachers who are benefiting from the current status quo. However if we the citizens come forward in large numbers and demand such a change, we can bring about dramatic improvement in our education system.
(Ashvini Ranjan is managing trustee of Pratham Mysore and Bhamy V. Shenoy is a trustee. Pratham Mysore today has 143 balawadis, 131 balasakhis and 6 bridge courses to help more than 6,000 poor children in the slums of Mysore. The ASER findings covering 485 districts, 9,521 villages and 3,32,971 children were presented to Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, on Jan 17th, 2006.)
can you please mail me a copy of your report. my address: sugata raju, 308, outlook, regency enclave, 4 magrath road, bangalore – 560 025. If a soft copy is available then:
A company’s Market Analyst surveying the market for its “Plum Cake” seems like a good business model. Not a soup kitchen surveying the districts in need of a bakery.
It’s nicer if “Statistics” and “Action” are handled by different Not-to-Profits.
This reminds me of the “Statisticians” joke published in ‘churumuri’ a few days ago. KP, we need to link that from this page.
http://WWW.Pratham.org gives a complete report of ASER and can be easily downloaded.
I am unable to decypher the message by kUli Mutt and Stud. I would request both to put in simple words that I can understand.
In her article ‘They suffer in silence” (‘Deccan Herald dated 26 Apr 05), Kathyayini Chamraj says – “A highly placed State Education Department official mentioned apathetically that the depatment has no time to frame laws ensuring a child’s right to education. Instead, he says much of the depatment’s time is going for controlling ( a euphemism for harassment) private school, attended by just 15 percent of children in the State. Ironically, the depatment exists in the first place guarantee education for the remaining 85 per cent.”
What on earth makes yo think that Karnataka kids “should” do better than those in Bihar. And in an article which has nothing to do with Bihar. Somekind of deep rooted inferiority complex coming out as a pathetic “superiority” complex. Maybe the constant barrage of the dim wited neo-nazi “Oye bihari brigade” that maraud the streets as english language journalists?
Bihar has survived very bad explotation for millenia, which only got worse in the post independent India – stepmotherly treatment in each five five year plan has deprived it of about one lakh crore since 1951! and yet survived. With the awakening now in process, be prepared for more such “shame” to be heaped on you and your ilk.
An article that has nothing to do with any state should not mention other state in bad taste and just because some state is not at par with Karnataka in economics mean that some couch sitting english journalist (bloggers are also journalist in its own right) can drag Bihar’s name in a shame that Bihar is surely not in. It is a report on Karantaka and that is how it should be projected. If comparision are drown, it should not be with any state but in general. Display a table that explains the data.
Bihar is in shambles (debateable) but even then, it should be supported, not vindicated. By not supporting Bihar and its cause, we showing a kind of apathy that is not called for.
By hurting someone’s feeling, no good can be had – this is what our elders tought us. Learn to show some respect and you will be respected in return.
Thank you. Paragraph 9, sentence number 2 and 3: "While the all-India statistics is appalling, Karnataka’s statistics is shocking. We rank well below Bihar!"
How touching so see such patriotism from our Bihari brothers! They should be asking all these questions of their great netas: Laloo and Rabri, Sharad and Paswan, Nitish and Rudy. What is their precise point of objection here? That Karnataka was compared to Bihar? Well, if they haven’t got the memo, Bihar is THE benchmark for all that is wrong with and in this country. Who wouldn’t feel superior to Bihar? We want our kids to do better simply because we do not want them to end up asking questions like this. Nobody would want to. But wait. Probably we are already there. One newspaper recently called Karnataka the “Bihar of the South”. So M/s Sinha & Ranjan need not feel so angry. We are conjoined twins. What stepmotherly treatment are they talking about. Guess which state had the most ministers in the Vajpayee government? The only support non-Biharis must show for such a State is pity and sympathy for a people who can only elect their netas by their jaathi.
In case Mr Sunil has not got the point, the objection is feeling shame because Karnataka kids are doing worse than Bihar – and not that they are doing bad themselves.
Truly sad to see that a fellow countryman Sunil has to denigrate Bihar to feel some sense of pride even after pointing the sense of hurt such a supercilious attitude is causing. No Bihari and for that matter Indian or any human being needs pity – only those who lack self respect show pity to justify thier blinkered views.
I feel appalled to read some of the comments and the piece itself. What is with Bihar and Bihari bashing people? Just because Biharis have lost their identity due to some schemeing politiians one cannot see the people of Bihar from the same angle. Mr.Sunil is clearly out of his line to say that biharis need only pity and sympathy from non-biharis forgetting probably that economic prowess is not the “only” benchmark for a state to be judged. Biharis have excelled in every and any field they have chosen. Every year a host of bihari students clear one of the most prestigious of exams…namely IIT JEE and IIM dispite of all the obstacles they faced. Every day life you atleast meet one bihari probably in the form of Veggie guy, your Doodhwala, Rickshaw wala and you pity them forgetting that they are earning honest money for the work they render. You probably live in a place which may have been built by a bihari worker forgetting his toil and effort to get you what you wanted. Yes, Bihar as a state may have failed due to some politicians serving their interests but biharis haven’t.
DEAR ALL,
EXCELENCE BY AN INDIVIDUAL IS OMETHING ELSE AND DOING COLLECTIVELY IS WHAT WE CALL TEAM WORK, SOCIETY, STATE, NATION HOOD, HUMANITY. THERE HAVE BEEN MANNY STALWARTS IN EVERY FIELD FROM POOR FAMILIES WITHOUT HAVING ANY FACILITIES TO EXCEL BUT HAVE EXCELLED. NO DENYING.
NOW THINK WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE DONE HAD THESE PEOPLE GOT THE ALL FACILITY. AND HOW MANNY PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE DEPRIVED OFF FACILITY SHALL PROGRESS. NEGLIGIBLE.
A BUISSNESS MAN CHILD SHALL PROGRESS IN HIS LIFE, SAME WITH DOCTORS, ENGINEERS, ETC WHEN THEY HAVE ALL FACILITIES. ITS NORM AND BASICS. BUT FROM ECONOMICALLY POOR FAMILIES NONE WILL PROGRESS EXCEPT ONE IN CRORES.
RATHER THAN GIVING LECTURES AND PEICE OF MIND TO OTHERS WHY NOT BIHARI’S IN DAY TO DAY LIFE HELP EACH OTHER AS OTHER COMMUNITIES DOES. THAT WOULD DEFINATELY MAKE DIFFERENCE FOR THE BETTERMENT FOR BIHAR & BIHARI’S AND INDIA TOO.
I CAN’T CONTRIBUTE TO INDIA IF I HAVE NOT CONTRIBUTED TO MYSELF ie MY LIFE. IF I PROGRESS THAN MY FAMILY SHALL PROGRESS, IF MY FAMILY PROGRESS THAN SHALL MY AREA PROGRESS, IF MY AREA PROGRESS THAN SHALL MY VILLAGE / CITY SHALL PROGRESS, IF MY CITIES PROGRESS MY REGION/ STATE/ NATION ETC SHALL PROGRESS.
IF I LOVE MYSELF, CARE MYSELF, RESPECT MYSELF THAN ONLY I WILL BE ABLE TO DO ALL THE CARING, RESPECTING, LOVING TO OTHERS. HOW YOU BIHARI’S BEHAVE VERY DECENTLY WITH PERSONS FROM OTHER STATES BUT NEVER WITH HUMAN BEINGS FROM YOUR OWN STATES. BEING EDUCATED IS OF NO USE. LEARN AND LIVE IN SOCIETY AS SOCIETAL PERSON. RESPECT YOUR OWN BROTHERN AND SEE THAN THE BIHAR AND BIHARI’S PROGRESS.
DO NOT GET EMOTIONAL, ITS NOT MEANT TO DENEGRADE ANY PERSON BY THIER REGION OR CASTE. THE SAME IS TRUE IN OTHER STATES TOO BUT AT VERY SAMLL LEVEL ADN THAT TOO DAY BY DAY ITS GETTING DIMINISHING.
IN OTHER WORDS WHAT BIHAR IS TO INDIA , INDIA IS TO WORLD.
IN EVERY SENSE.
BUT THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT INDIA IS MOVING AHEAD IN POSITIVE WAY AS COLLECTIVELY AND SHEDDING ALL THE BAD THINGS WITH PROGRESSING DAY.
BUT FOR BIHAR OPPOSITE IS TRUE AS SOCIETY.
IF TEN BIHARI’S MEET THEY SHALL START FIGHTING EACH OTHER. IF TEN GUJARATI MEETS THEY SHALL START DANDIA AND MAKE OTHER HUNDERED NON GUJARATI’S TOO PLAYING DANDIA.
THIS IS TRUE IN ALL FIELDS. IF TEN GUJARATI’S MEET THEY SHALL BE DOING BUISSNESS BY DAY FOR WEEK, AND AT THE END OF WEEK SHALL PAY EACH OTHER AND MAKE OTHER HUNDEREDS TO DO JOBS, BUISSNESS.
THIS IS ESSENCE OF SOCIETY.
NOTE THOSE WHO DO BUISSNESS MOSTLY MAY NOT BE EVEN EDUCATED. EXCELLING IN EDUCATION IS DIFFERENT. ITS INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE AND NOT SOCIEY’S ALWAYS. BUT EXCELLING SOCIETY IS TEAM WORK.
HOPE MY COMMENTS SHALL BE TAKEN IN POSITIVE DIRECTION / WAYS BY MY BIHARI BRETHEN.
ONE MORE PIECE OF MIND FROM ME: STOP LIVING BY PAST AND INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCY.
COMMENTS MAY BE BRAZEN BUT NOT MEANT TO HURT ANYONE. THE SAME HOLDS TRUE FOR OTHER REGIONS TOO BUT COMPARITIVELY AT VERY SAMLLER DEGREE AND THE PATTERN OF ALL NEGATIVITY SHOWS PROGRESSIVELY DECREASING TREND. BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE WITH LAND OF BIHAR.
HIGHEST NO OF UPSC PASS OUT IS FROM BIHAR. BY ANOTHER HALF DECADE ALL THE DM AND SP IN EVERY DISTRICT SHALL BE BIHARI. MOST OF THE TIME MAX NO OF MINISTERS ARE FROM BIHAR IN CENTRE. WORKERS, DOODHWALAHS, ETC ARE FROM BIHAR. INDUSTRALAISATION STARTED FROM BIHAR (TATANAGAR) AND MANNY LABOUR POLICIES ARE TODAY BECAUSE FROM BIHAR. ALL MOST ALL GODS ARE FROM THE PURVANCHAL. IN WORLD INDIA IS THE COUNTRY WHICH IS ORIGIN OF ALL THE MAX NO OF RELIGION. AND THIS RELIGION ORIGINATED IN BIHAR. BIHAR HAS MORE TOURIST PLACES (IF DEVLOPED) ETC.
WHY BIHAR WORD HAS THEN BECOME NEGATIVE WORD. ITS TWO WAYS SOME BITTERNESS LIES IN THE PERSON WHO SAYS AND SOME IN THE PERSON WHO LISTEN.
It is really sad to know the poor quality of education imparted. It therefore becomes all the more important to give quality education to these poor kids so that they the country can have more role models besides Dr. Kalam and KR Narayanan. It is hence the social responsibility of the rich to come for the upliftment of the future of India so that the gap between the rich and the poor can be filled. I have seen a very genuine and transparent website named save the children and have been very happy to donate there. Save the Children India rocks!