RIGHT TO EDUCATION –
HOW WRONG IS THE PREVAILING CLIMATE?
Tamil Nadu Findings from ASER[Annual Status Of
Education Report] 2012
The Release Function held in Chennai and Some Points To Ponder]
By
latha Ramakrishnan
The term ASER which despite concentrated efforts from the
Powers-that-be to overlook it, is slowly
and steadily gaining significance in creating awareness amidst those concerned
about the quality of education imparted to children at State Level and the
National Level is the abbreviation for ANNUAL STATUS OF EDUCATION REPORT based
on survey conducted in all the rural areas of the districts of India. Pratham,
a reputed NGO has been facilitating ASER Survey since 2005.
Right To Education Act makes Education one of the basic
rights of children upto Std VIII. But, in reality, how congenial is the
prevailing climate for the underprivileged children to receive ‘quality
education’?
The ASER Survey aims at finding whether the number of
children attending Schools is increasing or decreasing and whether children or
rather parents opt for government school or private schools, how good is the
learning level of children in the age-group of 5-16, in Language, Arithmetic
and English and how well or ill the educational institutions act in matters of
school infrastructure and compliance with norms.
ASER is one of the largest surveys in India being
conducted annually all over the country and in each State separately.
The NGO Pratham came into being in 1994 in Mumbai starting
with teaching the children in slums, within one year the balwadis run by them
in the slum areas grew from 150 to 2000 and this made the people of Pratham
realize the visible need of the children left out. And, in course of time
Pratham came to realize the other set of the underprivileged children – children going
to school but not being able to learn, due to various constraints,
deficiencies, lapses and what not in the educational system.
Hence, in 2002 Pratham decided to focus on Language-reading
and Arithmetic skills in this age-group of school-going children with the help
of some simple tools devised by them.
A group of committed volunteers, both from ASER and from
other like-minded NGOs championing the cause of ‘quality education for all
children’ visit the villages in various districts of the States and select
school-going children on a random basis, and going and visiting them, not in
their schools where the school authorities usually give forth the brighter
students to take part in the Survey, but in their households. After, making the
children feel comfortable the volunteers ask
them to undergo simple language reading and Arithmetic tests with the
help of which they are able to evaluate and ascertain the level of learning of
these children and so find out the reasons
and suggest corrective and remedial measures to set right the deficiencies
present in the educational system.
From 2005 onwards every year the ASER Report is being
released, both at the national level and at the various state levels.
This
year, on the 8th of February, Tamil Nadu Findings from ASER Report
2012 was released in Chennai, the venue being Music Academy
wherein eminent and committed educationists, social activists, medial persons
and the discerning members of the society took part.
Speaking on
the quality of education and educational system of his days educationist S.S.Rajago palan observed
that when he was a teacher in a small village, trained teachers were not many
and the students were mostly of the first generation coming to School. Yet,
there was education, said he, expressing an guish that now, despite having
trained teachers and improved infrastructure, the learning-level of the students is to up to the mark, for
which they are to be blamed the least. Pointing out how we choose to vigorously
protest against a ration-shop that doesn’t function properly Mr. Rajagopal
observed that we shouldn’t keep quiet if a school doesn’t function properly in
imparting education to the underprivileged children and that it is imperative
on our part to protest against it collectively.
He also pointed out that the state and Central Governments
should take note of the findings of independent and in-depth Surveys such as
the ASER Surveys and act on them suitably and without wasting time. Pointing out that the official
surveys of the governments and their findings in this regard do not always
reveal the real situation prevailing he observed that the governments need not
view such independent Surveys and Reports as detrimental to them, but should
come forward to take them into consideration and genuinely introspect and
effect the desired changes in the Educational System. Only then the term
Welfare State is justified, said Mr.S.S.Rajagopalan.
Further, whenever there is a change in Government some of
the good projects initiated by the previous government are shelved or left in a
suspended state, which should not be the case, said he. Head-Masters, AEOs,
District-level Educational Authorities are not available in sufficient numbers,
Mr.Rajagopalan pointed out and laid emphasis on the need for having a
monitoring agency from the government side to act on such Surveys and Reports.
Though it is said that for every formal inspection there should be three
surprise visits to the schools, it is not at all being adhered to, he pointed
out and said that we can change the
system for the better if those in power have the will and commitment.
Dr. Vasanthi Devi in her speech emphasized the crucial need
and role of education in uplifting the individual and the society and nation as
a whole expressed anguish at the highly pathetic state of affairs at the level
of elementary education itself in Tamil Nadu, as shown by the findings of ASER
Report 2012. Though fre and compulsory education is being offered in Government
schools more and more children are moving towards private schools. Why so?
Asked Dr.Vasanthi Devi and pointed out that the ASER Survey-2012 belied the notion that the
private schools fare better in imparting quality education. Pointing out that
the private schools are sought after mainly because there are English Medium
classes and the parents hope that their children would become fluent in
English. But, the fact being that in most of these private schools in the rural
areas the teachers themselves have no proper training nor the requisite
proficiency in English.
Tuition is another social malady, said Dr.Vasanthi Devi, pointing
out how children are being harassed in the name of tuition-classes. Added to
paying School fees, the children studying in private schools have to shell out
tuition fees too. As per the ASER Report2012 15.7% of the government school
students and 26.7% of the private school students go to tuition classes. But,
the Report shows that the children benefit very little[especially, the private
school students] by attending tuition classes.
When it comes to compliance with the rules and norms
stipulated by Right To Education Act Tamil Nadu fares better than all India
Level[ in particular, after 2012], but, when it comes to acquiring academic
skills Tamil Nadu stands far below the National Average Level, among the
developed States.
Dr.Vasanthi Devi highlighted the need to have a School
Management Committee in every government school which should be away from the
hands of government bureaucrats and informed that there would son be a Campaign for establishing this School
Management Committee.
Mr.Gnani, at the very outset insisted that the role of
school teachers needs to be probed and scrutinized. More than on the students
our focus should be on the teachers, said he emphatically and said that the
ASER Survey should evaluate the teachers too. And, while evaluating the Reading, Writing and
Arithmetic skills of school going rural children there should be one or two
questions on their teachers too, posed to them, he opined. Pointing out that on
a macro-level commercialization of Education and on a micro-level the role of
teachers need to be closely scrutinized, Mr.Gnani said that though there are
committed teachers around, it is imperative that the teachers should be made
accountable. Lacking in role-models the children of today are largely
influenced by Small Screen and Big Screen which give them as role-models heroes
who are more often than not unruly persons, having no real values of life.
Hence, the need of the hour is to find out or rather chalk out a wholesome
solution, said Mr.Gnani.
Mr.Sidharth Vradharajan, Editor, The Hindu, in his speech
pointed out how from ASER Data we can see a macro-failure in giving quality
education to the underprivileged children, at the national level and insisted that the urgency
of the problems should not be overlooked. In matters of providing adequate
infrastructure things are far better today than before 20 years, but, yet, the
prevailing situations far from satisfactory, said he. Further, despite more
schools and better infra-structure, the outcome is very poor. Why so he wondered and asked what kind of training
and motivation are given to the teaching faculty and to the other associated
authorities. The level of Teachers’ Commitment, Teaching skill, Expertise,
Training etc., should be looked into, he observed.
ASER’s
Data is indeed a large-sized one and the government refusing to give it proper
attention only goes to show that they don’t care sufficiently for providing quality education
to the underprivileged children, said he further.
Mr.Henry Tiphagne, Executive Director, People’s Watch
extended his whole-hearted congratulations to the 630 volunteers who have
participated in ASER Survey.
Pointing out that Social Audit is being conducted by
People’s Watch for the past several years and Block Level Public Hearings are
held he observed that thus for the first time the government officials were
made to realize that they are accountable and answerable to the general public.
Further, he pointed out that the teachers in rural schools
do not come in time which cause a significant number of children to turn
drop-outs.
Calling the School Management Committee a hoax Mr.Henry said
that SMCs were constituted just like that and the members were never trained or
sensitized. Abusive words are freely hurled at the students and it is common
for students to be discriminated on caste and economic grounds, and in the case
of the differently-abled, said he. Even corporal punishment is freely doing the
rounds, said he.
Highlighting the need for bringing Panchayats into this
purview Mr.Henry pointed out that fund-allocation for constructing school
buildings has not been brought under School Management Committee.
Anyone has the right to go and see the accounts of a
government school on the Friday of the last week of every month, said Mr.Henry but the Education
Department as a rule never encourage any such initiative and it never allows
authorities outside its purview to step inside and take a stock of what is
going on. He also said that in Government Schools there is provision for providing
mid-day meals on Saturdays too but it is never practiced, but merely exists in
the Accounts Book.
Mr.Ravishankar, Joint Secretary, AID INDIA in his
speech pointed out that despite some people asking sarcastically about the
purpose of ASER Survey, year after year this has created an overall awareness.
Parents request us to do something to save their children, he observed and said
that teachers are just one part of the whole complex system.
No use sitting in the city and conducting seminars, said he
and felt that we should have them in rural areas too and create the much needed
awareness amidst the rural populace, The civil society should involve itself in
this, he observed.
Dr.Balaji Sampath, Founder – Secretary, AID INDIA in his speech regretted that
despite their saying it for seven years, pointing out the pitiable and
avoidable lapses in primary school education and that the situation is
deteriorating on a steady basis, the people in power keep turning the other
way. “suppose we come to know that our children cannot read how painful it
would be and how swiftly we would be finding remedial measures. But, here, year
after year we keep pointing out the lapses and deficiencies in the system but
to no avail, said he in a deeply anguished tone.
Further, if weathering against all odds an underprivileged
child manages to do well in his or her studies we are all too eager to bask in
its glory, go all out to claim that we have contributed to it in some way or
other, but we never bother about mediocre students because our mindset is such
that we firmly believe that education is above the reach of a section of
children. In other words, we strongly feel that, among the poor sections not
all can study well. This mindset should
change, said he and insisted that the teachers should take upon
themselves the goal of imparting education and knowledge to all the children
and not just concentrate on making the better students shine and excel in
studies.
It is only when there is a paradigm shift at the policy
level whereby the focus on top-students should give way to the thought that it
is our topmost priority and responsibility to make education accessible to one
and all underprivileged children that ‘quality education’ can come within the
reach of one and all of them, Mr.Balaji pointed out. When our goal remains to make
the smart children shine better there will naturally be such poor learners,
steadily being sidelined, he observed.
In all, the release function of ASER 2012 Report of Tamil
Nadu Findings held in Chennai on the 8th of February, the venue
being Music Academy proved an eye-opener in more
than one way, so to say. It left wondering why the political parties claiming
to be championing the cause of the have-nots and underprivileged continue to
remain apathetic and indifferent to this unenviable situation prevailing in the
realm of education.
This Meet highlighted
the significant role that can be played by the civil society in such an
awareness campaign and the need for the powers-that-be as well as the civil
society to become more active and pro-active in this area of imparting ‘quality
education’ to the underprivileged children.
In conclusion, as for the ASER Report 2012 and the release
function I have a few observations to make. Firstly, I wish it had included the
city-based schools also in its study, for, as things stand today even the
city-based government schools suffer from such incompetence. On the one hand
there are tall claims about championing the cause of Tamil, but, in fact very
little effort is being taken towards creating interest in learning the
language. Even in private schools proficiency in reading and writing Tamil is
not given the required attention and effort. There is no special attention
given to students lagging in these areas.
What is worse, children who are not up to the mark in these
areas are excluded in other areas of academic activities too such as
computer-learning, playing chess etc., which make the children undergo a loss
of self-esteem and suffer terrible psychological stress and strain. Instead of creating in these children an
interest in acquiring proficiency in language-learning and the capacity to
understand what is being read, taught and written, these children are made to
by-heart pages and pages which is but torture of the worst order. Further,
these children face condemnation and exclusion at the hands of the teachers
which add to their woes.
Go to any number of browsing centers and you won’t get Tamil
fonts at all. Or, take the case of mobile phones. How many youngsters suffer not being able to send
smss.
Teachers’ salary in the Government Schools is not to be
decried for it is the living wage. In fact, many private schools and schools
run by NGOs do not pay the teachers this ‘living wage’ salary which is not proper.
But, we can say that they should work and earn the salary and that appointment
of teachers should be on merit basis and there should be no room for bribe and
political influence in this.
As there is no examination up to 8th std, there
should be some other means of assessing the
children’s learning skill periodically.
The Release Function could have been more inclusive with
representatives of the rural parents, children, teachers too were present. And,
more number of copies of the Report could have been made available and
circulated to those present. By and large, the news coverage of the Report
concentrated more on giving statistics and data of the Report which is unfortunate.
Yet, weeks after leaving the Meeting Hall the million dollar
question of Dr.Balaji Sampath born of deep anguish and concern keeps haunting: “Suppose
we come to know that our child can’t read and write, can’t identify the
alphabets how painful it would be and with what lightning speed we would have
set forth to find a solution?”
ASER REPORT 2012 – Some important points to ponder
with special reference to Tamil Nadu
ASER – 2012 Survey covered the whole of India,
in its 16, 166 villages in 567 districts. Altogether 5,96,846 children were included in this Survey.
When it comes to Tamil Nadu, 811 villages in its 28 districts have come under
this Survey, with 22844 rural children included as random samples.
690 volunteers from 21 NGOs the list of which is
given below conducted this Survey from Tamil Nadu:
1]Award Trust 2] Foundation of His Sacred majesty 3]
Gramodaya Social Service Society 4] Grass Roots Foundation 5] Institute of
Human Rights Education 6] Jeeva Anbalayam Trust 7] Manitham Charitable Trust 8]
NEEDS Trust 9] New Life – Villipuram 10] NEWS Trust 11] Nilam Trust 12] PRESS
Trust 13] Raise India Trust 14] READ Trust 15] RIGHTS Trust 16] RWDT 17] SODEWS 18] Udhavum
Manasu Trust 19] Valarum Vandavasi 20] VEPADA 21] WORLD Trust.
In this Survey rural children studying in Class I are given a
paragraph in simple Tamil ad they are expected to read it fluently. Same way,
Std 2 children are expected to read simple sentences in English and Std2
children are expected to solve 2 digit subtraction.
In the Evaluation Sheet-1 several alphabets and
two-letter words are given in Tamil. In Evaluation Sheet-2 there is a ten-line
story and t wo paragraphs comprising four lines each, in simple Tamil.
As per the findings from ASER 2012 Tamil Nadu
reading, only 43.4% of children studying in Std 1 can recognize the letters
from Tamil alphabets Only 43.6% of children in Std 2 can read simple Tamil
words. Only 29.9% of children in Std 5 can read a story[Std 2 level text].
In India,
the percentage of children in Std 3-5
who can read a simple para has declined from 66.4% to 54% to 54% in the last 5
years.
In Tamil Nadu, the percentage of children in Std 3 -
5 who can read a simple para has declined from 49.2% to 48.9% over the last 5
years.
The Tamil Nadu levels have remained more or less the
same [close to 40%] over the last 5 years.
Only 53.9% of children in Std I can recognize
numerals from 1 to 9.
Only 54.2% of children in Std 2 can recognize numbers
from 11 to 99.
Only 13.0% of children in Std 5 can do division
problems.
In India,
the percentage of children in Std 3 – 5 who can subtract has declined from
59.4% to 40.7% over the last 5 years.
In Tamil Nadu, the percentage of children in Std 3 –
5 who can subtract has declined from 43% to 38.6% over the last 5 years.
In Tamil Nadu, only 57.1% of children in Std 5 who
can read simple English words.
With regard to right to Education[RTE] Norms:-
_In Tamil Nadu, a higher percentage of Schools
confirm to various norms of Schools confirm to various norm specified in RTE
Act.
The percentage of Schools with usable toilets for
girls has gone up from 35.1% in 2010 to 62.2% in 2012, and is well above the
All-India average.
[*detailed Reports can be accessed at
www.asercentre.org].
Padmini Gopalan, the founder-President of Sri Ramacharan Charitable Trust starts speaking in her gentle voice. "We are a group of women, all office bearers of a renowned social service organization called the Monday Charity Club. We felt the need to carry out a project connected with primary education for under privileged children. Hence we started the Sri Ramacharan Charitable Trust® in 1999 that has successfully established the Montessori Method in 20 Balwadis and Corporation School units across seven centers in Chennai.
