Quality and Inclusion in Education: The Persisting Challenges 9781032345673, 9781032496313, 9781003394730

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QUALITY AND INCLUSION IN EDUCATION

This book calls for an equitable and qualitative access to education for all. It proposes paradigms of educational governance that are based on coalition building between key stakeholders, are grounded in local and cultural contexts, sensitive to the language needs of communities. It underlines the significance of gender-sensitive and inclusive approaches that ensure equity for marginalized children and minorities. Based on research-based studies, the  volume focuses on equity, quality, and learning – covering a broad spectrum, from school to higher, to adult education. It discusses the multiple learner deprivations amongst the marginalized communities and the severe impact of events such as pandemics that exacerbate learner inequities and the recent developments in India under the National Education Policy 2020. It also presents research-based country experiences in the Asian (India, Bangladesh, China) and African (Ghana, South Africa) contexts, showing how external influences on the changing priorities in policy perspectives cut across developing countries. Compiled in honour of Professor R. Govinda, this volume of insightful articles will be of interest to students and researchers of educational policy and studies, sociology of education, equity and human rights. It will also be useful for decision makers and think tanks. N.V. Varghese is Vice-Chancellor of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi. He is the Chief Editor of the Journal for Educational Planning and Administration. He has directed several national and international research projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and CIS region. He has published major works in educational planning, financing and higher education. Anjana Mangalagiri  is  Educationist and  Senior Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. She served as UNICEF’s Chief of Education in several countries and  is  Country Representative of the online network on the  South Asia Forum of Early Childhood Development Professionals. She  has worked extensively in the areas of  children’s rights,  educational  policy and  planning  at national and international levels, and is a strong advocate of equity, cross-sectoral and gendersensitive approaches in education and development. A. Mathew is In-charge of the Digital Archives of Education Documents, NIEPA. He was a National Fellow, NIEPA and an ICSSR Senior Fellow. He is actively engaged in the field of educational research, writings and publications for over four decades, on elementary education, Education for All, Adult and Non-formal Education, educational developments in historical perspectives and the study of state policies in Higher Education in southern states and Maharashtra.

QUALITY AND INCLUSION IN EDUCATION The Persisting Challenges

Edited by N.V. Varghese, Anjana Mangalagiri and A. Mathew

First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 selection and editorial matter, N.V. Varghese, Anjana Mangalagiri and A. Mathew; individual chapters, the contributors The right of N.V. Varghese, Anjana Mangalagiri and A. Mathew to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-032-34567-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-49631-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-39473-0 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730 Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC

CONTENTS

List of Figuresviii List of Tablesx Notes on Contributorsxii Introduction

1

SECTION 1

Deconstructing Inclusion, Quality and Learning

11

  1 Quality, Inclusion and Equality in Education: The Elusive Triad Revisited

13

MANZOOR AHMED

  2 How Do Students Perform at School Level?: A CrossSectional Analysis at National Level

30

YAGNAMURTHY SREEKANTH

  3 Adolescent Children – The Angst to Complete Secondary School Education: A Perspective

46

SHANTA SINHA

  4 Adult Learning and Education During and Post COVID-19

59

ANITA DIGHE

  5 Medium of Instruction in Schooling of Disadvantaged Muslims JOHN KURRIEN

v

75

C ontents

SECTION 2

Addressing Equity Issues Across the Education Spectrum

93

  6 Mapping Gender in School Education at Primary Level in India

95

MADHUMITA BANDYOPADHYAY

  7 Equity in Access and Learning: A Way Forward for Secondary Education in India

117

KEITH M. LEWIN, SHASHIRANJAN JHA, GAURAV SIDDHU AND JOANNA HÄRMÄ

  8 Equity in Higher Education and Education for All: Critical Considerations141 SHIREEN MOTALA

SECTION 3

School Management for Quality Inclusive Education

151

  9 Persisting Challenge of Contract Teachers in Government Schools of India

153

VIMALA RAMACHANDRAN

10 Principal’s Leadership Role in Mapping Synergies for School Improvement: Reflections From Policies and Researches

173

RASHMI DIWAN

11 Towards a Framework for Effective School Management: Diverse Partnerships for Quality Inclusive Education

187

SHELDON SHAEFFER

SECTION 4

Influences on Policy and Insights Into Educational Reform

203

12 Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: Planning a National Education System in the 1950s

205

S. IRFAN HABIB

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13 The Drivers and Inhibitors of EFA: Policy Change and Implementation in Ghana and India

217

ANGELA W. LITTLE

14 Privatization and Commercialization of Higher Education: The Caste and Politics Nexus in State Policies

234

A. MATHEW

15 Rethinking the Undergraduate Degree: Insights From Educational Reform Experience in India

249

MANASI THAPLIYAL NAVANI

16 Looking at Education Through a Binary Lens: Challenges and Alternatives

265

DISHA NAWANI

SECTION 5

Cultural Imperatives in Educational Research

277

17 Cultural Dilemma and How It Affects Education: A Personal Journey

279

KAI-MING CHENG

SECTION 6

Epilogue293 Epilogue: A Window Onto Prof. Govinda’s Tryst With Education Index

295 306

vii

FIGURES

2.1 Performance of Students by Gender and Location 35 2.2 Students’ Performance Over the Cycles of NAS 37 2.3 Category-wise Performance of Grade 5 Students Over the Cycles in Language 38 2.4 Category-wise Performance of Grade 5 Students Over the Cycles in Mathematics 39 6.1 Gross Enrolment Ratio and Net Enrolment Ratio at the Primary Level 99 6.2 Trend in Gender Parity Index at Primary Level 101 6.3 Gender-wise Proportion of Enrolment in Primary Schools of Different Management Type 101 6.4 State-wise GPI of GER at Primary Level 105 6.5 Percentage Share of Girls’ Enrolment at Primary Level (I–V): 2018–19 106 6.6 Availability of Different Types of Primary Education in Rural and Urban Areas 109 6.7 Percentage Share of Stand-Alone Primary Schools, Enrolment and Teachers 110 6.8 Availability of Female Teachers 113 7.1 Enrolment by Grade, All India 119 7.2 Percentage Completing Secondary in Five-Year Cohorts From 17- to 22-year-olds 121 7.3 Gross Enrolment and Age-Specific (14–15 Years) Enrolment Rates122 7.4 Relative Size of Age Group by Age Band Compared to Birth Cohort (1) 123 7.5 Relative Size of Age Group by Age Band (2) Compared to Birth Cohort 123 7.6 Distribution of Secondary Schools by Enrolment Size, Categories and Enrolment Share 125 7.7 Expenditure Per Student (in INR) – Actual Distribution and Norms-Based Distribution 126 viii

F igures

7.8 Example of School Mapping of Secondary Schools With 5 km Catchment Radius 128 7.9 Secondary Completion Rates by Wealth Quintile for Selected States, 2007 and 2014 130 7.10 Secondary School-Aged Children as a Percentage of State Population131 7.11 Expenditure on Secondary-level Education and Total Education as a Percentage of SGDP 132 9.1 Number of Contract Teachers, India 158 9.2 Percentage of Contract Teachers to Total Teachers, India 158 9.3 Year-wise Number of Contract Teachers in Government Schools by Level of Education 159 9.4 Year-wise Percentage Contract Teachers in Government Schools by Level of Education 159

ix

TABLES

2.1 National Achievement Survey – An Overview 2.2 Average Performance of Students in NAS-2017 at National Level 2.3 Performance of Gender Categories at Grade 5 Level in Cycle 5 of NAS 2.4 Performance of Students in Terms of Location at Grade 5 Level in Cycle 5 of NAS 5.1 Student Enrolment by Medium of Instruction (MOI) in Elementary Sections, in Complete Schools and in Schools having Secondary/Higher Sections of Muslim Students – All India 5.2 Percentage Distribution of Students by Medium of Instruction for Different Languages Spoken at Home and Different Levels of Current Attendance – All India 5.3 Percentage Distribution of Students by Medium of Instruction for Different Languages Spoken at Home and Different Levels of Attendance by Rural/Urban Location – All India 6.1 School Attendance of 6–10 Years Age Group in Schools 6.2 Gender-wise Gross Attendance Rate and Net Attendance Rate Among Different Quintile Classes of UMPCE at Primary Level 6.3 Grade and Gender-wise Promotion and Annual Average Dropout Rates at the Primary Level 6.4 Annual Average Dropout Rate and Transition Rate by Gender and Social Categories at the Primary Level 6.5 Percentage of Dropouts Among Ever Enrolled Persons of Age 3 to 35 Years for Different Levels of Last Enrolment 6.6 Number and Percentage of Primary Schools 6.7 Availability of Physical Facilities in Schools With Primary Section 6.8 Availability of Academic Facilities in Primary Schools x

32 35 37 38

78 80

81 100 100 103 104 104 108 111 112

T ables

9.1 Teacher Vacancies Under SS 157 9.2 State-wise Percentage of Contract Teachers to Total Teachers by Level of Education, 2017–18 160 9.3 Number of Contract Teachers in Government-Managed Schools, 2012 to 2018 161 9.4 Number and Percentage of Teachers on Contract in Specific Types of Government Schools, by Management 163 9.5 Number and Percentage of Teachers on Contract in Specific Types of Residential Government Schools 164 9.6 Number of Teachers on Contract, Disaggregated by Gender, in Government-Managed Schools 165 9.7 State-wise Number of Contract Teachers by Location and Level of Education 166 9.8 Number and Percentage of School With All Teachers on Contract, 2017–18 168 9.9 Number of Schools Having All Teachers on Contract, by Range of Enrolment and Level of Education 169 9.10 Enrolment in Schools Having All Teachers on Contract, by Rural/Urban169 9.11 States With Significant Percentage of Students Enrolled in Government Schools With All Contract Teachers 169 9.12 Overview of Professional Qualifications of Contract Teachers 170

xi

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Manzoor Ahmed is Professor Emeritus at BRAC University, Dhaka. He is Chair of the Bangladesh Early Childhood Development Network (BEN) and Vice-Chair of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), Bangladesh. He served as Senior Education Adviser of UNICEF and as its country representative in China, Ethiopia and Japan. Madhumita Bandyopadhyay is Professor in the Department of School and Non-formal Education at National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi. Her research and areas of interests include education of disadvantaged groups and social equity, decentralization of school education and governance, gender and education of women. Kai-ming Cheng is Professor Emeritus at the University of Hong Kong. He works on education policies and in recent years, he has been focusing on changes in society and their challenges to education. He has been consultant to various systems of education, most recently in Mongolia and Vietnam. Anita Dighe is Former Director, Campus of Open Learning, University of Delhi. She had a long association with the Adult Literacy and Education programmes in the country and has several national and international publications to her credit. Rashmi Diwan is Professor at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi, and Head of the National Centre for School Leadership under the aegis of Ministry of Education, Government of India. Her spectrum of work centres on school leadership, educational management and critical areas of school education. S. Irfan Habib is Historian of Science and of Political History. He spent three decades at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and a decade as Maulana Azad Chair at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi. xii

N otes on C ontributors

Joanna Härmä is Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Education, University of Sussex. She specializes on low-fee private schooling in subSaharan Africa and India. She has worked as a consultant to DFID and as research officer for the UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report ([email protected]). Shashiranjan Jha works as Consultant with extensive research experience in access, enrolment, transition and inequality in school education in India, household financing of education and the internationalization of higher education. He was the state coordinator in two UNDP-funded projects in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in India. John Kurrien is Co-Founder and Director of the Centre for Learning Resources, Pune, India. He has been involved in the development and education of poor children and students in India since the mid-seventies. He has served on various national and international committees. Keith M. Lewin is Emeritus Professor of International Development and Education at the University of Sussex. He is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences, a Chartered Physicist and was Chair of Trustees of the UK Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET). His main interests are in the economics, educational planning and finance, science education and aid policy and practice. Angela W. Little is Professor Emerita at the University College London Institute of Education. She is Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and was previously Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She is actively engaged in the field of Education and International Development through research, teaching and practice. A. Mathew is In-charge of the Digital Archives of Education Documents, NIEPA. He was National Fellow, NIEPA and an ICSSR Senior Fellow. He is actively engaged in the field of educational research, writings and publications for over four decades, on elementary education, Education for All, Adult and Non-formal Education, educational developments in historical perspectives and the study of state policies in Higher Education in southern states and Maharashtra. Shireen Motala is Chair of the NRF SARChI: Teaching and Learning. She was Inaugural President of the South African Research Association providing leadership and promoting collaborations for regional and international partnerships. Her research and expertise span education financing, access, equity and quality in higher and school education. Manasi Thapliyal Navani is Assistant Professor, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD). Her research interests include higher education reforms: policy and practice, dynamics of institutional xiii

N otes on C ontributors

change, academic cultures, Peoples’ Science Movement and education for social transformation. Disha Nawani is Professor and Dean, School of Education at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her primary area of interest and research is Sociology of Education. She writes extensively in books, journals and newspapers. Vimala Ramachandran has been engaged in pre-primary to secondary education, focusing on gender, equity and the intersection between health, nutrition and child development and has published widely. She served as the first National Project Director of the Mahila Samakhya (Education for Women’s Equality), Government of India, from 1988 to 1993. Sheldon Shaeffer is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Asia-Pacific Regional Network on Early Childhood (ARNEC). He has taught, researched and worked in development programmes in Southeast Asia for over 50 years. His interests now focus more broadly on early childhood development, language policy in education, and inclusive education. Gaurav Siddhu is Teacher and Development Economist. He has worked with the World Bank, UNESCO, DFID and NGOs in the area of primary education and undertaken education sector evaluations. His interests include educational financing, secondary schooling, monitoring and evaluation. He currently runs a school in rural Uttar Pradesh, India. Shanta Sinha is India’s leading Child Rights activist. As the first Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (2007–13), she addressed child labour, trafficking, children in civil unrest, right to education, juvenile justice, child sexual abuse and child malnutrition. She is Founder Secretary Trustee of MVFoundation and spearheaded a social movement withdrawing a million children from child labour, stopping over 20,000 child marriages and ensuring they enrolled in and completed school. Yagnamurthy Sreekanth is Professor in Education (Assessment Studies) and Principal of Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru. He has published in several journals on many aspects of school, sociology of education and educational assessment. He is a part of the editorial Board of Journal of Educational Issues and the Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology.

xiv

INTRODUCTION

The last quarter of the 20th century experienced a dramatic spread of literacy and expansion of schooling across countries thanks to the Education for All (EFA) movement that in turn charged the 21st century’s global priorities through the Millennium Development Goals and currently, the Sustainable Development Goals. Political commitment from national governments compelled reform and policy development. It fired renewed energy and strength into actions by the international organizations, national governments, private sector and civil society, towards achieving the timelines and targets. Notable achievements include more children in schools and improvements in net enrolment ratios, fewer children out of school and those enrolled mostly remain in schools. However, the right to education remains a far cry for the disadvantaged and marginalized groups. At the same time, disparities in the quality of education provided and the rate of completion of the primary cycle continue to be daunting tasks. The global agenda and national priorities are shifting from improving access to ensuring equity and inclusion in school and quality of student learning. Inequality in education today is a major global concern. To what extent is policy and decision-making at national and local levels addressing the educational needs of the poor? How can education lift marginalized populations from the clutches of inter-generational poverty? Why are the disadvantaged not benefitting from economic development and social progress to be able to pursue their dreams? Education, ironically, is contributing to accentuating inequalities in society where its provisions are not reaching equitably to all communities. The nature of inequalities and its impact on marginalized children and on adult learning are even more severe when countries experience economic or political crises, or are affected by pandemics. We know that disadvantaged children suffer deprivations at multiple levels such as in health, nutrition and even early learning that affect their access to education and ability to learn, and that permanently damage their lives while perpetuating intergenerational poverty. DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-1

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While India has made tremendous progress in education, its achievements are dwarfed by socio-economic and regional inequalities with consequent wide disparities in access, quality education and learning outcomes. Empirical studies indicate the growing phenomenon of schooling without learning in India, which is an unacceptable situation in a sector attracting heavy human and financial investments. The more challenging issues also relate to prioritizing enhanced levels of learning among students and reducing disparities in institutional performance across regions in the country. Much has already been deliberated upon these issues. The collection of writings in this volume however is significant. It discusses the quality and inequality conundrum in education and educational reform, covering a broad spectrum, from school to higher to adult education. The writings deconstruct concepts to critically examine the underlying causes of inequities in education that have remained unquestioned or unexplored, the relationship between equity and quality at primary level, the impact of poor educational governance that plays an important role in determining school and learner quality, the unfavourable school and community imperatives that fuel the angst of adolescents impacting their school completion at secondary level or the failures of policy and reform at various levels of education. It brings to attention the multiple dimensions and cross-sectoral linkages that influence educational outcomes on learners at both primary and secondary levels to examine how and why problems are persisting where they are, or merely evolving but not going away for marginalized children and minorities. The volume also provides important policy insights towards inclusive approaches and proposes new paradigms such as in the governance of education, in coalition building between key stakeholders, one that is gender sensitive, grounded in local and cultural contexts or sensitive to the language needs of communities. As argued by several authors, schools need to become the basic units of planning and decision-making, adhering to the principles of accountability to the community they are serving. It presents research-based country experiences from Asia (India, Bangladesh and China) and Africa (Ghana and South Africa), showing how changing priorities in policy perspectives and critical issues of equity and quality cut across developing countries. To what extent do policy pronouncements such as the recent National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of India address multiple learner deprivations; how are the resultant severe learner inequities whether in schools or in adult learning exacerbated by crises situations such as that being witnessed due to COVID-19; what are the imperatives within the education system that perpetuate inequities of gender, caste, class and minority communities at each of the three levels of learning (primary, secondary and higher); to what extent are systemic proclivities of educational personnel and governance and of cultural insensitivity accountable for the quality in educational outcomes; what insights can one draw from the experience of policy-making 2

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and reform and to what extent does the New Education Policy, for instance, address these? These are some of the critical questions that are examined in this volume with insights, analysis and way forward. The book is thematically organized in six sections. Section 1 deconstructs the commonly understood relationships between Inclusion, Learning and Quality. The “elusive triangle” of equity, quality and quantity in achieving universal school education, which was flagged three-quarters of a century ago in Indian policy-making, still continues to be remarkably evasive not only in India but also across most countries in the Indian sub-continent (Manzoor Ahmed). As long as the education paradigm is viewed on the basis of inputs and not the quality of learning outcomes, and education governance is not decentralized, the larger issue of equity and quality will remain evasive. An outcomes-focused approach, argues the author, is achievable with the restructuring of education governance and providing autonomy to schools. The issue of equity and inclusion in the area of learning quality does not receive much attention in educational research. An analysis of the National Achievement Survey 2011 shows that the performance of students not only declines across the learning cycles, from lower to higher grades of schooling, but also remains low for children from the lower economic strata, regardless of their social groups (S. Yagnamurthy). While the first trend clearly calls for assessing equity in quality and standards of schooling, exogenous factors such as the economic status of students, more than their social status, has an overwhelming impact on achievement levels, making a strong case for addressing equity in learning quality for children from the lower economic strata. This argument is further reinforced when examining specifically the cases of marginalized adolescents in secondary schools (S. Shantha) and of mature learners in adult education (Anita Dighe). Inadequate government resources and abysmally low budgetary allocations have adversely affected learning quality and performance, impacting on the inclusion and survival of learners in education. It has fuelled a disinclination amongst adolescents to complete secondary education and a disempowerment of adult learners resulting in deepening economic and social inequalities. These trends get exacerbated further with crises situations such as that of COVID-19 as has been witnessed in India. While positive practices and interventions discussed by the authors, respectively, have demonstrated success amongst both groups, the recognition of the educational challenges faced by them meets scant attention even in the recently enunciated NEP 2020. A largely neglected issue in educational studies is the impact of the medium of instruction (MOI) on equity and quality of learning amongst disadvantaged Muslim children in India (J. Kurrien). Dedicated research on this subject by the author reveals that children from disadvantaged Muslim communities represent 80 per cent of the Indian Muslim population with 3

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significantly lower enrolment and school completion rates than scheduled castes (SCs), tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs). And while some positive progress in opportunities for SCs/STs/OBCs is evidenced, that for the Muslim community has substantially deteriorated. On the basis of extensive analysis of educational data, a number of variables across government and low-cost, private, unaided English medium schools attended by most Muslim students are examined. Evidence provided demonstrates the critical role that MOI plays in reducing inequality and in improving human resource development. An educational reform agenda for disadvantaged Muslims is proposed if the goal of NEP 2020, to achieve 15 years quality education for all children, is to be realized. The writings in Section  2 address Equity Issues across the Education Spectrum based on extensive empirical research and data-based analysis, to show the multiple levels at which inequities are embedded both within the education system and also influenced socially, impacting educational outcomes in each of the three levels of education – primary, secondary and higher. Despite the gender parity index being in favour of girls at the primary level in India, an incisive analysis of time series, cross-sectional and spatial data of key educational indicators clearly demonstrates that gender gaps persist not only in enrolment but also in retention, transition and learning outcomes (M. Bandyopadhyay). Social, economic, locational and ethnicity factors on the one hand and unequal provisioning and quality of educational facilities and educational personnel on the other hand describe the multi-dimensionality of disadvantages that impact upon, in particular, girls’ education and gender equity. The NEP 2020, which envisages developing an inclusive and discrimination-free education system, but without adequate financial investment, is called to action. Issues of access, equity and financing are extensively analysed in the Government of India’s initiative on secondary education – the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). Reflecting upon a decade of wide-ranging research on secondary education in India (Keith M. Lewin et al.), the chapter examines the endemic and systemic inefficiencies that underline the deepseated lacunae in access, equity and financing in secondary education. The uneven access of children from marginalized communities, especially girls, with NER of less than 50 per cent, and poor performance, with over 40 per cent students unable to graduate to grade 10, does not behove inclusiveness or provide any basis for accomplishing the “skilling” of high school youths that the NEP 2020 envisages. The analysis is built on extensive data correlates, mapping of demographic transition, school size, location, household affordability and public financing, providing evidence on factors leading to student ineffectiveness in secondary education. A concrete policy agenda for transformational reform and the re-structuring of RMSA is proposed. Equity in higher education in most developing countries is beset, no less, with typical fault lines of massification and pro-poor policies on the one 4

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hand, and restrictive funding and resource allocations on the other. The case of South Africa demonstrates the tension between public and private good in higher education (S. Matola). In societies characterized by high levels of inequality and poverty, questions on whether equity can be achieved through fee remissions or provision of subsidies for a defined strata of students or if ameliorative measures can lead to sustained equity in education are examined. A  strong case is made for strengthening the internal effectiveness in higher education that can address equity and efficiency and for bridging the intra-sectoral divide between school and university, to level the playing field. Section 3 on School Management for Quality Inclusive Education brings together the significant parameters of school management related to recruitment of teachers and teacher quality, school leadership and decentralization. It argues that all of these factors influence the quality of learning and the learner outcomes. Significant lessons emerging out of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown, albeit in pockets, that, despite the unpreparedness of schools and without additional resources, initiatives taken at school level, with support of the local communities and parents, spurred innovativeness and kept the online/long distance schooling uninterrupted. This section discusses the critical components of decentralized management in education that determine school and learner quality which receive scant attention otherwise, when discussing school management. The nature of teacher recruitment in India has been silently taking on an interesting dimension in the form of contract teachers which, without any formal policy, seems to have become part of the public education system in India over the past three decades. Intended to have been a short-term solution in the 1990s and later, used as a quick solution to comply with the pupil-teacher ratio under the Right to Education Act 2009, it is now seen as a regular, low-cost solution to teacher vacancies and sans the long-term financial obligations (V. Ramachandran). A micro-analysis of trends shows a continuous growth of contract teachers and their percentages across spatial and gender dimensions. Primary schools have the highest number of contract teachers posted in remote, poor and disadvantaged corners of the country with a greater number of female contract teachers. The implications of this practice on the school education system in India are serious, affecting the rights of teachers which, in turn, have severe impact on the quality of their performance while consistently eroding the social and institutional status of teachers. The author underlines the urgent need to resist this practice in order not to jeopardize the quality of education and also safeguard the rights of teachers. The onus for effective school management is a function of leadership skills of school principals (R. Diwan). Educational policies in India have emphasized mostly the administrative and managerial responsibilities of principals. The centrality of their leadership in the overall improvement of 5

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a school remains largely undermined. A strong case is made for promoting the agency of school principals and their leadership skills, to not only manage both school and learner quality but also address the daily challenges in meeting the minimum basic facilities in schools, more so in backward, rural and tribal localities. The author discusses critical imperatives of leadership and professional support for principals to feel competent, to address both school-based challenges as also to ensure the quality of learning outcomes. With the experience of COVID-19, the demands on principals for creative and innovative leadership have become ever greater. The argument for decentralization raised by Manzoor Ahmed in Chapter 1 is taken a step further, and the finer and more perceptible nuances of effective school management are discussed (S. Shaeffer). As against the multilayered, hierarchy-dominated educational administration with policies and programmes designed at the central level of the system, a new framework, based at the local level, grounded in local contexts, and promoting diverse partnerships and inclusive approaches, is advocated an environment for school and learner quality would entail stimulating a sense of ownership and defining the limits of authority and accountability. A new framework for effective school management, nearer to the school, calls for a transformation in the existing administrative arrangements but more importantly, in the mindsets. Influences on Policy and Insights into Educational Reform, presented in Section 4, delve into the historical influences, the nexus of vested interests, the alternative frameworks as basis for examining and analysing education policies and highlighting the insights gained. The first of these presents a brief history of the early efforts in conceiving independent India’s first national education system (S. Irfan Habib) under Maulana Azad, a highly learned individual who had also been a freedom fighter, and had been tasked with the responsibility. With a woefully low literacy rate at 25 per cent among the young as well as adults in India at the time, the author provides a fascinating account of how Maulana Azad took upon himself the task of rebuilding a national education system. He envisioned the integration of education with culture and science which influenced later-day national policy pronouncements. Policy development from the historical perspective is further explored to understand the underlying drivers and inhibitors, in an interesting comparison between Ghana and India (A. Little). Against the backdrop of the global EFA (1990s) and later the MDGs (2000s), the author examines the histories of swings in political and economic environments in both countries that drove or inhibited the changes in educational policies of these countries. The similarities seen between Ghana and India, such as in the strong constitutional provisions for universal basic/elementary education, in the constraints in translating policy into action or in the nature of implementation challenges, seem to be common trends across developing countries. During 6

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periods of economic decline, rather than examining the broader systemic problems in the economy itself, the rhetoric of policy comes in as a handy tool to drive reform in education. This sounds more than familiar even in the making of NEP 2020 in India. Zooming in on the imperatives that determine education policy and reforms, a historical analysis of the trajectories in higher education demonstrates the tightly interwoven dynamics at play between economic interests and political nexuses (A. Mathew). The cases of four southern Indian states, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, and one western, viz. Maharashtra, best represent how the grip of the caste-politics-education nexus drives policies, in this case, towards privatization and commercialization of higher education. These two trends have been mutually reinforcing. The timeline of policy shifts is determined, not surprisingly, by that of elections and electoral politics. Higher education policies towards privatization and commercialization have tended to be masked under different arguments such as the social justice verbiage in Tamil Nadu, or the need for expansion of the social base of those aspiring for technical and professional education in Andhra Pradesh, or the logic for sanctioning of self-financing colleges in Kerala. The vested interests that have influenced policy including resistance to voices for regulation are unpacked and examined. However, a significant gap remains in higher education, between the envisioning of the reform idea within the polity and the regulatory apparatus, and its implementation context (Manasi Thapliyal Navani). In the pursuit of quality, unless policy thinking is proven in practice within institutions, it remains a superficial exercise just as access to education by itself does not signify quality education. The dynamics of the change process within institutions is mired in systemic challenges. The author discusses the reform thinking in higher education in India in the context of the shift from the three- to the four-year undergraduate programme enunciated by the NEP 2020. The success of reform in education, it is argued, is ideally a function of local consultation processes and ownership by the academic community. Central imposition is destructive to innovation in pedagogy, impinging on and adversely impacting the quality of higher education. A review of the method of policy in NEP 2020 as a case study shows how it is caught in a binary framework that homogenizes features into mutually opposing types (D. Nawani). Binaries such as traditional versus progressive, teacher-centred versus child-centred, intellectual versus practitioner or more recently, the debate between offline and online learning are becoming increasingly popular in interpreting educational issues. While these categories are essentially ideal types, they can lead to simplification of analysis and in undermining the many nuances of presenting problems and/or proposing solutions. Discussions using binary lenses tilt towards an either/or extreme and veil several inter-connections which, if examined beyond the binary framework, would reveal underlying complexities. The framework 7

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of binaries is critically examined, throwing insights on alternative methods in analysing educational problems. Section  5 on Cultural Imperatives in Educational Research presents a unique account by an educationist, of his personal experiences, crosscultural dialogues amongst educational fraternity and his own empirical observations in the field (Kai-ming Cheng). It leads him to recognize the significance of ethnographic perspectives in understanding education. The author’s intellectual journey in research method does come closer to an anthropology of education (though the chapter does not make any explicit mention of this), a comparatively new area that combines ethnography with pedagogy for alternative definitions in education.1 Qualitative research in education is heightened when seen through the prism of cultural diversities, unravelling multiple perspectives, which the standard and so-called universal (read western) methodological frameworks do not allow. Keeping an open mind to local interpretations provides tools to create cross-cultural patterns in understanding education and is a powerful tool in educational research methodology that not only shapes the paradigm of field investigation but also provides a better understanding of one’s own culture.

A Brief Note on the Festschrift This collection has been conceived as a festschrift in honour of Professor R. Govinda on his 75th birth anniversary (August 19, 2022). Prof. Govinda, former Vice-Chancellor of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (deemed to be University2), is currently Distinguished Professor at the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. He spent a major part of his career dedicated to NIEPA3 – a premier organization of the country that serves as an influential think tank, contributing to educational development and reform in the country while also engaged in capacity building of education professionals at state, national and international levels. With over three decades of his association with NIEPA, Prof. Govinda was on the forefront of educational development, nationally and internationally, contributing to the shaping of educational programmes and leading the organization in its contribution to important strategic developments and policy shifts in education in the country. A  visionary, an institution builder and committed to elevating professionalism in education, he was intimately associated with the architecture of the Education for All movement and some of the significant milestones in educational reforms on universalization of elementary education (UEE) in the country such as the District Primary Education Programme (that came to be known later as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan), the District Information System in Education and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (national secondary education system). He was also closely involved with pathbreaking, non-governmental 8

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programmes on UEE in the country such as the Lok Jumbish and Shiksha Karmi (Rajasthan). Under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, he led NIEPA in playing an influential role in the development of the framework of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Dedicated to promoting high-quality professionalism and research in educational policy, planning and management, NIEPA underwent an institutional transformation under his visionary leadership, to become a deemed university, along with the establishment of a number of centres of excellence. This festschrift attempts to commemorate the spirit of Prof. Govinda’s extensive engagement in the equity, quality and inclusion dimensions of education. It presents evidence-based, empirical research around these issues and discussions on policy development and reform in primary, secondary and higher education, all of which were central to his work. It also reflects the collaborations  that he leveraged both nationally and internationally in the process, as all the contributors are well-known educationists who worked closely with Prof. Govinda at one time or another, through his active professional service. Bringing together such a group also provided a unique opportunity to revisit and re-examine the status of those very dimensions that Prof. Govinda has been passionately engaged with. We are indeed grateful to all those who responded positively to make this festschrift a possibility. We take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to the contributors who, in their own right, have been engaged, through their work, in enriching the debates, the enquiry and research in the areas of equity, inclusion and quality, impacting and influencing the democratic principles and transformative processes in educational development and change. Thank you for making this festschrift a meaningful possibility.

Notes 1 For a discussion on this perspective, see Ashraf Alam et al. (2020): “Anthropology of Education: Discourses and Dilemmas in Analysis of Educational Patterns and Cultural Configurations Towards Pursuit of Quality Education”, Pal Arch’s Journal of Archaeology, 17(9), pp. 7893–7924. 2 The deemed university status was granted to the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration under Prof. Govinda’s leadership as Vice-Chancellor. 3 See Epilogue in Section 6 that traces the journey of Professor Govinda’s Tryst with Education.

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Section 1 DECONSTRUCTING INCLUSION, QUALITY AND LEARNING

1 QUALITY, INCLUSION AND EQUALITY IN EDUCATION The Elusive Triad Revisited Manzoor Ahmed

The Elusive Triangle About four decades ago, in 1979, the celebrated Indian educationist J.P. Naik wrote an article in the International Review of Education, titled “Equality, Quality and Quantity: the Elusive Triangle in Indian Education” (Naik, 1979a). Naik observed that anyone reading the history of Indian education would be struck by the fact that every generation lamented a deterioration in standards, and it would appear that there has been a continuous fall in the quality of education over the last 70 or 80 years. Naik argued that this was a partial truth because:  (i) Indian education comprised a “dual” system with a core of high standard institutions, mostly private and fee-charging, with highly competitive entry, capable teachers and good management. But they combined quality with privilege and served the well-to-do. This small core of quality institutions was surrounded by a large penumbra of institutions of medium and poor quality which were mostly in the public sector and largely utilized by the common people. (ii) But then the definition of quality itself has been shifting. For example, Naik noted that for a long time the most prized thing in education in India was the command over the English language, which became almost synonymous with “quality” in education. The Indian tradition emphasized verbal fluency, language proficiency and capacity to remember and reproduce. Other developments of personality, and especially manual skills, were under-estimated. (iii) Quality was often defined, Naik wrote, in terms of inputs, such as education and training of teachers, class size, quality of buildings and equipment, curricula and textbooks prescribed. Important as these are, by themselves these did not guarantee higher standards. DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-3 

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(iv) A legitimate indicator of quality, Naik noted, was educational output measured by examination results. Knowledge, skills and values acquired by students are better criteria than the others mentioned earlier, provided that examinations actually measured these attainments. The evidence in this respect, however, Naik observed, was mixed – showing standards going up in some learning output areas and for some students and going down for others. Whether high-stake public examinations actually measured appropriate competencies and skills of learners, that is the validity of the tests, has become more debatable than in the past. On the whole it appears that not enough academic work was done to define what quality in education really meant and how it could be measured in different areas at the same time or at different times in the same area, concluded Naik. And the discussion of deterioration or improvement of standards over time continued to be very subjective. Naik pointed out the reasons that hindered quality in education:   (i) The total resources made available were limited; and the claims of expansion had a higher priority over qualitative programmes.  (ii) It was far more difficult to develop qualitative programmes; educational administrators preferred more easily organized quantitative actions. (iii) Qualitative improvement, especially at the secondary and university stages, demanded a concentration of resources in people, money and materials at a few selected centres or on a few programmes. On socalled grounds of democracy, in Naik’s view, a selective and phased approach to quality development could not be undertaken. For instance, the recommendation of the 1966 Education Commission to select 10 per cent of the institutions at all stages, in the first instance, for qualitative improvement, was not accepted by decision makers.  (iv) Programmes of quality improvement needed money, which was scarce; but even more importantly, they needed careful planning and intensive human effort, which were scarcer.  (v) Promising qualitative changes achieved at great cost and effort often simply vanished when hit by such hazards as student unrest; strikes by teachers, students and employees; and political and communal disturbances. Arguably, conflicts and violence on a large scale, affecting lives and educational prospects of millions, have become pandemic compared to Naik’s time. In his summation of the Indian experience, Naik commented: The experience of free India .  .  . is probably repeated in many developing countries in its essential features. It does highlight the contradictions and immense problems involved in bringing about a 14

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transformation of the educational system on the principles of equality of educational opportunity, life-long education for all and the maintenance of standards, especially when resources are scarce and the over-all social situation is inegalitarian and hierarchical. (p. 184) After 40 years, quality of education is still an elusive goal in part because a dominant concept of sufficient clarity about its parameters and key components is lacking. A broad consensus on how it should be measured and how priorities are set to work on it does not exist. There is a consensus, however, that it is a central concern, that educational systems must not side-step it, that the objectives and outcomes of education must reflect the quality issues, and assessing education progress for individual learners and society must be based on quality measures (Ahmed, 2017). I began this article citing J.P. Naik extensively because we need to recall and reflect on his insight and wisdom since the problems he described persist today and his diagnosis remains largely valid. There is also a personal reason. I had the good fortune to meet him as a young researcher working on the concept and practices of non-formal education as means of fighting poverty and exclusion (Coombs and Ahmed, 1974). My mentor Philip Coombs (founding director of the UNESCO International Institute of Educational Planning) and I had the opportunity to visit him first in 1975. We met him at the office in Delhi of the Indian Council for Social Science Research (which he headed at the time and where he resided, with no line between work and home for the ascetic Naik). Naik introduced us to some of his protégés, including Anil Bordia, who had moved then from Ajmer, where he had been the District Collector, to the Ministry of Education. We spent long hours talking about why the Kothari Commission Report of 1966, which was largely the handiwork of Naik, had taken off only partially and what strategies and options could be considered. Some of the people we met, then moved later to the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) and the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Our discussion anticipated some of the approaches and choices reflected in the 1986 National Policy on Education, of which Bordia was one of the architects. Thirty-four years later, the NEP 2020 was announced. The elusive triad remains a challenge also for this latest policy statement.

Education Policymaking India Offering his observations about education policymaking and their fate in terms of implementation, Naik commented on the Kothari Commission. 15

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There were recommendations that attracted wide attention, he said. There were recommendations opposed and rejected. Some were agreed and approved, but not implemented. Others were accepted but implemented indifferently. There were still others simply ignored even if agreed. And many that attracted attention were not followed up with action. The final result on the whole was that not much of significance happened in the end after all the hard work and fanfare that entailed a national education commission (Naik, 1979b cited in Tilak, 2007). This observation arguably applied to a degree to the 1986 Education Policy recommendation announced by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. One must hope that it should not be the same for the 2020 policy. Why sensible and painstakingly crafted policies have the tendency to remain elusive in implementation is explored in this chapter. Anticipating the answer, the argument is made that the political dynamics of decision-making is the arbiter that determines what is implemented and how. The Kothari Commission recommendations of 1966 were conceived as a package of reforms which resulted in a comprehensive policy statement, the National Policy on Education, 1968. But then the government implementers picked and chose. Naik (1979b) observed, “It is thus a tragedy that the recommendations of the one commission which was directed to look comprehensively at education were considered mostly in a piecemeal fashion” (p. 38). Along with other factors behind government inaction or selective action, the political dynamics did not support a comprehensive and systematic implementation approach. Citing Naik, Tilak (2007, p. 882) commented: As a result, the Indian education system is still characterised with conspicuous failures – in eradicating illiteracy, in universalising elementary education, in vocationalisation of secondary education, in ensuring excellence and high standards in higher education, in allocating adequate resources for education, in improving the financial efficiency of the system, all these failures, along with of course some spectacular achievements in terms of student numbers, in building one of the largest reservoirs of scientific and technical manpower in the world, in “exporting” manpower, etc. Ironically, the commission itself had warned that “A report which is shelved or does not lead to action is worse than no report because it leads to frustration by arousing hopes that remain unfulfilled” (Government of India, 1966, p. 897). The National Policy on Education 1986, with the action plans modified in 1992, has been the policy framework for educational development in India. The inclusion, equality and quality objectives in it cannot be considered as significantly different from those of the Kothari Commission. The lack of 16

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significant progress compared to the set objectives prompted reconsideration of strategies and management of implementation, which were reflected in the 1986 policy. Thirty-four years later, the NEP 2020 has been launched. A few key features distinctive from the 1986 policy may be noted to indicate both continuity and differences from the policy it replaces. Going back to Naik’s characterization of the policy implementation process, is it to be expected that some of the items would be widely discussed, some will be given attention and followed up, some will not be followed up, and others will be ignored? The feature of the new policy drawing public attention is the grade-wise structure of school education – 5 + 3+3 + 4, a shift from the current 10 + 2. An emphasis on a longer early childhood development stage is a significant aspect of this structure. A shift from the current rigid tracking into humanities, science and commerce at the secondary level and greater integration and flexibility are proposed. Vocational course and content are made compulsory in grades 6 to 8 and “vocationalisation” is to be given greater attention in secondary grades (e.g. ten “bagless days” in a year). Finding a workable strategy for the cherished objective of “vocationalising” school education has historically remained problematic. How will it be different this time is a moot point. Preparation of teachers is proposed to be a four-year integrated programme that combines subject content and pedagogy – an approach followed in most high-performing education systems. Again, effective implementation is the key. Change is foreseen in student assessment adopting external assessment at key stages at grades 3, 5, 8, 10 and 12. Capacities and institutional structures are to be enhanced for learning assessment at central and state levels. Multiple entry and exit possibilities are proposed, especially in tertiary education, allowing more flexibility and potentially higher participation. A plethora of organizational and institutional provisions is proposed – such as distributing the remit of the University Grants Commission to several organizations including a Higher Education Council as well as a separate regulatory body, grants making body and accreditation body. The Ministry of Human Resource Development is proposed to be renamed Ministry of Education. The significance is not clear except perhaps a desire to mark a symbolic shift from the past. Expanding opportunities for lifelong learning is underscored using technology and flexibility in learning provisions. Wider and inclusive participation is to be achieved through financial support to students and multiplying provisions and facilities. A commitment is expressed to devote 6 per cent of GDP to public allocation for education, a proposal made in the 1968 Policy, but side-stepped in the 1986 policy. This is far from a full description of the new policy, but it highlights some distinctive features. What difference would the new policy make for the basic issues of inclusion, equality of opportunities and quality outcome in 17

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learning? It all depends on how effectively the recommendations are put into operation, especially some distinctive features which mark a departure from the present practices. One might think of the introduction of the four-year integrated teacher preparation, the extended early childhood and preschool stage, new methodology of student assessment, the vocational education ideas and expansion of tech-based adult education as of strategic importance (Sharma, 2020). An unease about effective implementation arises because the policy does not appear to place the required emphasis on accountable and effective implementation. Nor does it emphasize the approaches to overcoming the implementation barriers that have undermined the objectives of previous policies and plans. The causes behind the learning crisis – in broad terms, poor school environment and poor teacher performance and accountability which also are intricately linked to inequality and exclusion – merit to be underscored sharply. Ideas about fundamental reforms for strengthening the accountability of schools and teachers and instituting support and incentive structures for them from the organization and management hierarchy are not visible. Current approaches under the RTE Act such as a focus on input as criteria of performance and reliance on school management committees (SMCs) as the strategy for better school governance, which have proved ineffectual, are restated. One specific example may be cited to illustrate the gap between a policy objective and the means of realizing it. The policy document mentions that the average number of students per grade in the elementary school system (grades 1–8) was 14, with a notable proportion below six in 2017, and there were over 108,000 single-teacher schools. In these small schools, teachers teach multiple grades and multiple subjects at a time; key areas such as music, arts and sports are often simply ignored. The solution offered to the complex problem of small schools is an assertion that these challenges would, by 2025, be addressed by State/UT governments by adopting mechanisms to “group or rationalize” schools. The “finer decisions” would be devolved to principals, teachers and other stakeholders within each group of schools (Government of India, 2020, pp. 28–29). The 1986 education policy had envisaged district education boards to plan and manage schools in a responsive way, adapting to local conditions and needs, but the political dynamics of decision-making led to total inaction on this move. The new policy now leaves it centralized at the state level disregarding the consideration of genuine decentralization of education governance. Bangladesh Education policy development in Bangladesh indicates parallel challenges as those of India in confronting exclusion, inequality and poor quality in 18

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education. It is important to note that, while provision for public education is seen in the constitution as a fundamental state policy, it is not codified as a right in Bangladesh as is the case in India, Pakistan and Nepal. The first attempt to formulate an education policy soon after the birth of Bangladesh as an independent country was the Qudrat-i-Khuda Education Commission Report of 1974 (Ministry of Education, 1974). Political change after the assassination of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, put on hold any action on this report. Various regimes that followed set up bodies to make recommendations on education policy reforms. The common features of some half a dozen of these initiatives over more than three decades are that few of the substantive recommendations were implemented effectively (Ahmed, 2011a). Bangladesh NEP 2010 The NEP, approved by the Parliament in 2010, provides a framework for fulfilling the role of the educational system in the nation’s human resource development. Its key features include: • •

•

•

•

Universal education up to grade 8: At least one year of pre-primary education and primary education of five years, to be extended up to grade 8, to become universal within the decade. The historically evolved reality of diverse provisions in primary and secondary education: The existence of government, government-assisted, NGO and private sector schools, as well as the madrasas, is recognized. It is agreed that this diversity may continue, but all institutions would follow a common core curriculum and adopt minimum common standards regarding learning provisions. Multiple delivery modes with common core curriculum and standards: The common core curriculum for all types of secondary-level institutions (including madrasas) would include Bangla, English, mathematics, science, Bangladesh studies and IT and would be complemented by additional subjects pertinent for each major stream – general, vocational and madrasa. In addition to the vocational stream in schools, there would be various forms of skill training activities according to graded national skill standards designed to meet skill needs in domestic and overseas employment markets. Instruction in science and IT would be given special attention. Literacy and non-formal education: A literacy programme to eliminate adult illiteracy by 2014 was proposed. Non-formal education is seen as a means of providing a second chance to those who drop out of formal schools, complementing the “literacy campaign.” Quality improvement in tertiary education: Tertiary education institutions, both public and private, would be encouraged to take responsibility 19

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to establish and maintain quality standards within an agreed framework. A four-year degree programme would be the acceptable higher education qualification for most professional-level occupations except for those in teaching, research and other jobs that call for specialized expertise. A three-credit English course would be compulsory for all degree students. Various quality-enhancing investments in facilities and teacher upgrading are proposed. Pedagogic technology such as Internet and education television channels would be supported. Specialized professional education in medicine, agriculture, engineering, law and business would be made more practical and their quality enhanced with closer involvement of the professional bodies. • Student assessment to discourage rote learning: Assessment of learners’ achievement would be based on public examinations as well as continuous evaluation by teachers, which should aim at assessing cognitive, affective and reasoning domains. • Teachers’ status, incentives and training: Teachers’ recruitment, training, qualifications, professional support and remuneration would be key elements of the strategy for improving quality in education. A Teacher Recruitment and Development Commission would be established to recruit teachers and support their professional development. • Governance and management measures: A consolidated education law would be enacted providing a legal framework for educational governance and management in line with the purposes of the new policy. A permanent education commission would be established to serve as an oversight body for monitoring and guiding educational reform (Ministry of Education, 2010). The policy recommendations are in the form of normative goals or preferences expressed in general terms. Implementation of the policy called for establishment of mechanisms and processes, preparation of phased operational plans, and reconciliation of differing views and making choices among options on certain issues. With a decade’s hindsight, it can be said that major elements of the policy remain to be implemented. A concerted and systematic effort based on an operational plan and phasing of priorities that was required did not happen. The permanent education commission envisaged in the policy has not been set up. In respect of expanding access to primary education up to grade 5 and elimination of gender-based disparity in access at primary and secondary levels, Bangladesh has done better than the neighbouring larger population countries (India, Pakistan and Nepal with the exception of Sri Lanka). Oneyear pre-primary education is near universal in primary school. However, two concerns loom large. First, the learning outcomes remain at an unacceptable level, similar to other South Asian neighbours, as discussed later. Second, despite major expansion in access, there is much to be done on 20

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inclusion and equal opportunity. Significant proportions are at a disadvantage for economic, geographical, ecological and socio-cultural reasons, and those with individual attributes, such as with disabilities, remain excluded from the mainstream of services. The lackadaisical implementation of policy is manifested in not establishing a permanent education commission which could have overseen and pressed for policy implementation. A  comprehensive education law proposed in the policy has not been enacted. Presumably, these actions were potential threats to existing power balance in the education sector and the larger polity. Public education allocation as share of GDP has hovered around 2 per cent, lowest in the region.

The Learning Outcomes If acquiring the foundational skills of reading, writing and counting expected of all children in primary school is taken as the proxy for the education system’s performance, the net outcome of the successive policy regimes over seven decades in India and five decades in Bangladesh has to be regarded as disappointing. The World Bank has come up recently with the concept of learning poverty measured by a metric of reading proficiency that a child must acquire by age ten or at least by the end of primary education. This is regarded as essential for the child to continue learning and be on track to realize her/his life potential (World Bank, 2019). As a key foundational skill, reading is a student’s gateway to learning in other areas of learning, argues the World Bank and most education researchers would agree. By age ten, when children may be in grade 4, they are expected to master decoding alphabet and become independent readers. They are expected to make the transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” They would still continue to improve their reading skills, but more through their own independent reading than through explicit instruction. Learning poverty is a measure of the proportion of children reaching this stage of an independent reader. World Bank estimates that half of the children in low- and middle-income countries are learning poor. On the basis of the available national learning assessment data, World Bank estimates that for South Asia as a region, the learning poverty rate adjusted for school-age children who still remain out-of-school (i.e. children under ten not able to read) is 58 per cent (circa. 2018). Individual country rate for Bangladesh is 58 per cent (2017), India (2017) 55 per cent, Pakistan (2014) 74.5 per cent and Sri Lanka (2015) 14.8 per cent (World Bank, 2019, Annex A). It also asserts that at the current rates of progress, learning poverty will not be eliminated by 2030 even if the fastest rates of progress in recent decades can be maintained. It suggests intervention strategies targeted at literacy as part of a broader agenda for improving education quality, equity and inclusion. 21

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The widely recognized primary-level assessment protocols in the subcontinent are the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) surveys undertaken with large samples in rural India and Pakistan. The learning poverty proposition confirms what has been found and revealed by ASER. ASER defines “performing at grade” to be the ability of grade 3 students to read a grade 2 curriculum story and perform two-digit subtraction (with carryover). The results are depressing. The latest literacy result, in 2018, for reading at grade level is slightly over a quarter in India and decidedly below a quarter in Pakistan. Similar results were found in Nepal in a 2014 survey. The comparable share of students performing at grade level in mathematics is 28 per cent in India and 44 per cent in Pakistan (ASER Pakistan, 2018), based on somewhat simpler subtraction problems. Results from the Bangladesh National Student Assessment (NSA) are slightly better than the ASER results in India and Pakistan; however, the NSA results are not strictly comparable with the ASER results. In a 2017 pilot study in rural Bangladesh, using the ASERIndia protocol, results were similar to the pan-Indian results (Richards and Islam, 2018). The conclusion from ASER India surveys is that, relative to 2008, national outcomes in grades 3, 5 and 8 declined in the years immediately following the 2009 Right to Education Act and subsequent recovery has been slow (Richards et al., 2022, Ch. 3). One consequence of this situation is for parents with some discretionary income to opt for non-government schools. According to ASER sampling, the proportion of rural Indian children in non-government schools increased from 19 per cent in 2006 to 31 per cent in 2014 (Wadhwa, 2017, p. 17). In the most recent survey (in 2018), the non-government school share in India has neither increased nor declined (ASER India, 2019, p. 51). A similar trend exists in Bangladesh. The great majority of non-government schools in both countries are “low-fee” private schools. The category also includes no-fee schools managed by NGOs, religious organizations (e.g. madrassas) and prestigious “high fee” schools (Richards et al., 2022, Chs. 3 and 4). What has gone wrong? The RTE Act in India, which became operational in early part of 2010, gave effect to the 86th Constitutional amendment and ushered in a radically different policy perspective codifying universal elementary education as an entitlement. But its implementation has faltered. Govinda and Mathew explain: Unfortunately, the debates and discourses that followed the promulgation of the Act has shifted the focus from the core mandate of achieving UEE within a timeframe to addressing the problems of implementing selected sections of the law, such as no detention policy and admission of EWS [educationally weak sections] children in private schools. . . . But the saga of missed targets and unkept 22

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promises continues with the incredibly slow and indifferent process of addressing the educational needs of those in the backward areas, as well as children of the weaker sections. (Govinda and Mathew, 2018, p. 37) Similar struggles and failed expectations can be described in the other South Asian countries, attempted to be documented and analysed by this writer and colleagues (see Richards et al., 2022).

Quality With Equity – Some Action Points Drawn from an education quality agenda discussion based on the Bangladesh experience and broader trends (Ahmed, 2017; Ahmed and Govinda, 2010), the discussion above raises several concerns as listed below. Literacy – A Foundational Skill Literacy, as has been noted earlier, has a critical place in the discussion about learning poverty. UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) publishes the numbers and proportions of illiterate adults year after year. What do those numbers really mean? (Ahmed, 2011b). A  recent, independent national sample survey in Bangladesh showed that about half of those considered literate did not reach a self-sustaining and functional level. Even after eight years of schooling, 8.2 per cent remained semi-literate – a telling commentary on quality by any definition (CAMPE, 2016). Unlike Bangladesh, many countries have not tried to apply tested literacy assessment or recognize and measure different levels of literacy. It is imperative therefore, that: i. Literacy assessments take into account different levels of skills and a test-based assessment method is used to determine sustainable skill levels. ii. Primary education gives more systematic attention to building the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy than burdening the curriculum with a half dozen different subjects – all given about similar weight. Teachers’ Role There is clearly the need for a comprehensive and coordinated human resource development and management policy for the education workforce. Four connected steps may be part of such a policy: • Making education part of undergraduate general degree in selected degree colleges; 23

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• Attracting best students to this programme with incentives, such as stipends; • Taking the measures to ensure high academic standard for this course; and • Introducing a National Teaching Service Corps with high salary and status to which the graduates of the new education programme can look forward to, as a career. This way, a nucleus of talented and qualified young teachers could be placed in every primary and secondary school and can be catalysts in transforming teaching-learning in those schools. Educational Leadership The school as an enterprise has multiple and complex roles and functions that relate to academic planning, managing teaching and other personnel, protecting and promoting well-being of students, looking after finances and school premises, dealing with multiple stakeholders with high stakes in the school, and leading a change process striving for excellence. How prepared, skilled and motivated is the school leader vested with all of these roles and responsibilities? How are the status, incentives, rewards and performance standards ensured for the school leader? These questions receive scant attention. Wherever a school is known for its good performance, even in centralized management structure, and acquires a reputation for its accomplishments, it can be found that behind this success is the idealism and dedication of most likely the school head. This person recognizes and actively promotes the need for change, and inspires and gets the support of the school managing committee members, parents and teachers. ICT in Education and for Education The potential of digital technology has been brought to the fore during the pandemic when ICT-based learning became the only way to keep students engaged in some form of learning. However, in order not to widen the technology gap between the rich and the poor among and within countries, much more needs to be done to expand the access to infrastructure and devices such as laptops/tablets, affordable and reliable Internet connection for schools, and teachers trained to support and guide students in the use of the IT resources. Assessment of Learning Within the framework of SDG 2030 and Education 2030, basic competencies in language, math, science and computer skills of primary and secondary education students need to match or compare favourably with those of other higher middle-income countries as judged by international assessment. The critically important characteristic of a forward-looking middle-income 24

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country, aiming for prosperity and well-being of all its citizens, is to develop a competitive edge for its workforce by ensuring effective performance of students, schools and teachers. Home-grown assessments such as those of Pratham in India and ASER draw attention to and provide the metrics to monitor progress on quality and performance of students. Participation in international assessments such as Programme on International Student Assessment (PISA), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) not only provides a comparative view of the performance and a critical review of the school system’s teaching-learning but also helps build capacity in assessment (IEA, n.d.). Private Profit, Public Loss – Privatizing Schools In spite of the right to education law and the efforts to improve the quality and attractiveness, the perception of poor quality of the public system and a “better value for money” in the private sector is widespread, though not always supported by objective assessments (UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Office, 2017). Private education is growing in many countries in the region and has powerful champions.1 The Global Campaign for Education (GCE), a coalition of civil society education stakeholders, finds these claims about private schools and evidence in their support seriously flawed. “In reality, such schools worsen social inequality by creating an unfair system where the quality of a child’s education is determined by how much their family can afford to pay” (GCE, 2016). The report finds that these schools (a) are of low quality with substandard and low-paid teachers; (b) create barriers for girls’ education, as parents, not able to pay the fees, show preference to their boys to send to these schools; and (c) fail to serve children with disabilities. The report argues that with proper funding, strong policies and political will, governments can provide a free, quality education that’s accessible to everyone.

Politics of Decision-Making and the State Capacity None of the reforms required and the actions discussed earlier can be implemented or sustained with weak state capacity. State capacity depends on the ability of politicians to create consensus on priorities. A consensus has to be built among stakeholders on the perception and understanding of education problems and the role of the state in solving them. The urgency of effective implementation of reforms is heightened by the fact that South Asia is not on track to achieve the 2030 SDG4 education targets announced with much fanfare and good intentions in 2015 (UIS/ GEM, 2019). Added to this, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 emerged as a new global setback for education with deep immediate and long-term 25

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consequences, undoing decades of education and health advances for children across the sub-continent. There is a serious risk of regression for children whose foundational learning (reading, writing and mathematics) was not strong to begin with. In the 2020 ASER survey (conducted in the fall of 2020), the comparable non-enrolled rate had more than doubled (to 9 per cent for boys, 11 per cent for girls) over 2018 figures of the survey. Due to COVID-19, millions of vulnerable children are now exposed to greater health, psychological and well-being risks. When and how the setback will be overcome and reversed is uncertain (cited in Richards et al., 2022, Ch. 3). The Centre for Civil Society (CCS), an Indian think tank, argues that the obstacles to realizing a common understanding of the state’s role in education, and in assessing actual state capacity, are formidable. Obstacles arise in part from lack of reliable data, documentation and understanding of how the system works. Unfortunately, ideology seems to dominate the education reform discourse. Parth Shah, president of CCS (2015, p.  11), concludes: “The goal can’t be to remove ideology but reduce the range of the questions whose answers are ideological. It is in narrowing the scope of ideology that data, documentation, and research are of value” (cited in Richards et al., 2022, Ch. 13). In a meta-analysis of political economy studies analysing education systems across developing countries, Kingdon and her colleagues conclude that: Much of the reviewed literature on education has analysed the causes behind policy implementation gaps and policy failures, and it blames factors such as low state capacity, poor administration, poor delivery system, poor governance, poor community information, and corruption/leakages. However, underlying these is likely to be some political economy constraint, some lack of political will or some vested interest, which hinders the reduction in corruption or hinders better administration, governance and community information. (Kingdon et al., 2014, p. 3; Richards et al., 2022, Ch. 13) A meta-analysis of factors related to school and student performance do not offer across-the-board answers, because the innovations that work are contextual and dependent on effective implementation. The question of governance capacity rather than the merit of a technical solution itself becomes critical.

Towards a New Education Governance Paradigm Examining why achieving equity and inclusion with quality in South Asia remains intractable, my colleagues John Richards, Shahidul Islam and I  come to the conclusion that the triad of the elusive education goals of 26

Q uality , I nclusion and E quality in E ducation

quality, inclusion and equality has to be addressed by a parallel triad of capacity, coalition building and compliance. The triad of state governance capacity, a coalition of active and conscious citizenry, and a thriving private sector mindful of public goals and compliant to reasonable regulations may be the winning combination. Separation of powers in respect of exercising the roles and responsibilities of the state in a context of decentralized education governance can facilitate optimal functioning of the triad. However, implementing this solution itself is contingent upon political dynamics, a matter of negotiating and resolving the political economy questions of education reform (Richards et al., 2022). We argue that a new education governance paradigm is needed in South Asia. What should it look like? We draw on the work of the CCS which has an emphasis on learning outcomes – as opposed to education inputs. Parth Shah makes the point that with regard to implementing the Right to Education Act: “Despite all the research, the primacy was given to inputs and infrastructure and none to learning outcomes” (Shah, 2015). CCS advocates the restructuring of education governance, especially emphasizing two principles: separation of powers, and decentralization and delegation of functions and authority. The premise of separation of powers is that the rule maker, rule executor and adjudicator should be distinct from each other. This separation prevents conflicts of interest among regulatory and other functions, improves service delivery and increases institutional accountability for outcomes. A  second premise is delegation and deconcentration, promoting autonomy to schools and district-level administration. Districts are seen as the “the basic unit of education governance” (CCS, 2016). To make the separation of powers operational in India and, with modifications elsewhere in South Asia, CCS (2019, p. 4) proposed three measures on education governance in the context of India’s educational management structure: • Transferring the running of government schools from the state-level education ministry to quasi-independent public organizations (presumably at the district school level in a decentralized structure); • Setting up a tribunal to settle challenges to rules and enforcement (intended to resolve inevitable jurisdictional challenges); and • Creating an autonomous body for assessment of learning outcomes (in India this objective can be realized by granting autonomy to and enhancing the capacity of the State Councils for Education Research and Training for carrying out assessment of learning outcomes). A realistic analysis of education in South Asia is sobering, but it does not warrant fatalism or deep pessimism. Our book (Richards et al., 2022) concludes our analysis of the prospects of education in South Asia on a note of optimism. Education stakeholders (teachers, parents and young people 27

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themselves) constitute a formidable number. They can be a powerful social and political force – the potential champions in the cause of education. When and if they agree on a common vision for universal quality education and inclusion, politicians will have to pay heed.

Note 1 Publishing giant Pearson PLC, billionaires Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, the World Bank Group, and the UK’s Department for International Development. The claim is being made that these private schools deliver a quality education to children from poor families at a low cost.

References Ahmed, M. (2011a): “Education in Bangladesh: Anatomy of Recent Progress”, in Ahmed, M. (ed.), Education in Bangladesh: Overcoming Hurdles to Equity and Quality. Dhaka: BRAC University Press and University Press Limited. Ahmed, M. (2011b): “Defining and Measuring Literacy – Facing the Reality”, International Review of Education, 57, p. 179. Ahmed, M. (2017): “Education Quality-Chasing the Elusive Goal”, Bangladesh Education Journal, 16(1), June, pp. 47–60. Ahmed, M., and Govinda, R. (2010): “Universal Primary Education in South Asia: A Right That Remains Elusive”, Prospects, 40, pp. 321–335. ASER Centre India (2019): Annual Status of Education Report (Rural). New Delhi: Pratham. ASER Pakistan (2018): Annual Status of Education Report. Lahore: ASER Pakistan Secretariat. Campaign for Popular Education (2016): “Literacy, Skills, Lifelong Learning”, Education Watch 2016, Dhaka. Centre for Civil Society (CCS) (2016): CCS Recommendations for New Education Policy. New Delhi: CCS. Centre for Civil Society (2019): Reforming Education Governance in India: Policy Blueprint for Separation of Powers. New Delhi: CCS. Coombs, P.H., and Ahmed, M. (1974): Attacking Rural Poverty: How Nonformal Education Can Help. Washington, DC: Johns Hopkins University Press. Global Campaign for Education (2016): Private Gain – Public Loss: Why the Push for Low-fee Private Schools Is Throwing Quality Education Off-Track. www. campaignforeducation.org Government of India (1966): Education and National Development: Report of the Education Commission 1964–66, Reprint by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, March 1971. New Delhi: Ministry of Education. Government of India (1968): National Policy on Education. New Delhi: Ministry of Education. Government of India (1986): National Policy on Education 1986. New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development. Government of India (2020): National Education Policy 2020. New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development.

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Govinda, R., and Mathew, A. (2018): Universalisation of Elementary Education in India – Story of Missed Targets and Unkept Promises. New Delhi: Council for Social Development. IEA (n.d.): International Association of the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). www.iea.nl. Kingdon, G., Little, A., Aslam, M., Rawal, S., Moe, T., Patrinos, H., Beteille, T., Banerji, R., Parton, B., and Sharma, S. (2014): A Rigorous Review of the Political Economy of Education Systems in Developing Countries. London: Institute of Education. Ministry of Education (1974): Bangladesh Education Commission Report (Qudrat-iKhuda). Dhaka: Government of Bangladesh. http://lib.banbeis.gov.bd/BANBEIS_ PDF/BANGLADESH%20EDUCATION%20COMMISSION%20REPORT%20 %20-1974.pdf Ministry of Education (2010): National Education Policy. Dhaka: Ministry of Education. Naik, J.P. (1979a): “Equality, Quality and Quantity: The Elusive Triangle in Indian Education”, International Review of Education, 25(2/3), pp. 167–185. Naik, J.P. (1979b): The Education Commission and After. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation, 2nd edition, 1997 cited in Tilak, J.B.G. (2007): “The Kothari Commission and Financing of Education”, Economic and Political Weekly, 42(10), March 10, pp. 874–882. Richards, J., Ahmed, M., and Islam, S. (2022): The Political Economy of Education in South Asia: Fighting Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Richards, J., and Islam, M.S. (2018): “Assessing Literacy and Numeracy Among Primary School Students: A Pilot Survey in Rural Bangladesh”, International Journal of Educational Development, 61(C), pp. 55–63. Shah, P. (2015): “Foreword”, in Dinne, K. (ed.), Unpacked: The Black Box of Indian School Education Reform. Delhi: Centre for Civil Society. Sharma, D. (2020): “NEP 2020: A Comparison with the 1986 Education Policy”, Education Times, August 14. Tilak, J.B.G. (2007): “The Kothari Commission and Financing of Education”, Economic and Political Weekly, 42(10), March 10, pp. 874–882. UNESCO (2017): Ensuring Adequate, Efficient and Equitable Finance in School in the Asia-Pacific Region. Paris and Bangkok: UNESCO. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Global Education Monitoring Report Team (GEM) (2019): Meeting Commitments: Are countries on track to achieve SDG4? Paris: UNESCO. Wadhwa, W. (2017): “School Matters”, in Annual Status of Education Report (Rural). New Delhi: ASER Centre, pp. 16–18. World Bank (2019): Learning Poverty: What It Takes to End It. Washington, DC: World Bank.

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2 HOW DO STUDENTS PERFORM AT SCHOOL LEVEL? A Cross-Sectional Analysis at National Level Yagnamurthy Sreekanth

Introduction Students’ performance is considered as the hallmark of educational quality. It is also used as a proxy of systemic, institutional and teacher performance. With increasing globalization, performance levels of students are being increasingly perceived in an international context and requirements. There is a vigorous national and international debate regarding standards of education and student performance (Mills, 2008, p. 211). Globally, performance is monitored in academic subject areas that can be assessed through standardized testing. Internationally popular surveys such as Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) take into cognizance the performance of students in language, mathematics, science etc. The Union and state governments in India have also recognized the importance of students’ performance in the subjects that are emphasized by the international testing agencies. Addey in his study (2017, p. 322) has observed that “there has been a reinforced effort to align national and international large-scale assessments.” This is necessary to establish a smooth transition of students in the era of globalization, wherein the physical and virtual mobility of workforce is imperative. Although there were several attempts to enlist students’ performance at national level, it did not get a momentum until early 2000 to make it into a regular exercise. In order to systematically study the students’ performance at national level, the National Achievement Survey (NAS) was launched in the year 2001 aligned to Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).1 It is the only large-scale survey conducted in India on a representative student population in government and

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DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-4

H ow D o S tudents P erform at S chool L evel ?

government-aided schools. Following this, several States/UTs have introduced the State-level Achievement Survey (SAS) to assess a large number of students and enable systemic feedback at the district and sub-district levels. The NAS is conducted on a sample basis throughout the country to identify, review and provide feedback to States/Union Territories on the students’ performance. In this chapter, the performance of students across different social categories, such as General, Other Backward Class (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), rural, urban, boys and girls, is examined over a period of time, in order to verify progress. The achievement of students on different learning outcomes at national level in the NAS conducted in 2017 is also analysed on sample basis to identify the areas of high/low levels of achievement. Emphasis is laid on grade 5 NAS, which is the terminal stage of primary schooling. The students’ performance in different subject areas and across the states is analysed to provide a macro-level picture. For the purpose of statistical analysis t-test, ANOVA etc. are used.

The Importance of NAS NAS represents a strategically excellent value investment for the MHRD and the states of India, as a tool to assist in planning the education system on a rigorous evidence base (Oza et al., 2015, p. 4). NAS has been one of the key mechanisms in establishing awareness about systemic accountability in the country. Apart from the educational administrators who can guide key policy initiatives in the light of performance feedback on students, teachers can use them as educational standards at district, state and national levels and work accordingly to improve the performance of students. Over the past decade, there has been a growing expectation in education that teachers should deliberately and systematically use data to inform their decisionmaking (Vanlommel and Kim, 2019, p. 794). In the absence of data collected through NAS and SAS, there is a dearth of reliable information on students’ achievement at national and state levels. Several rounds of NAS have been conducted at grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. Although the National Education Policy 2020 has redefined the stages of schooling, NAS data until now has been conducted on the basis of the existing school stages. The selection of grades for the administration of tests at these levels has been based on sound academic principles. Grade 3 is the middle stage of primary schooling. Students entering the schools with divergent backgrounds require a gestation period of three years before they are assessed for their performance. Grade 5 is the terminal stage of primary, and it is pertinent to understand the performance levels at this stage for smooth transition to the next stage – the upper primary. Grade 8 is the terminal stage of upper primary and is also termed as elementary stage of schooling. Grade 10 is the terminal stage of secondary and also general education.

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Assessment of students at these key stages of schooling at national level provides a comprehensive picture of not only the students’ performance in general but also on how systemic support is being delivered. The latest round of NAS 2017 was conducted in 701 districts across 36 states/union territories. It covered a total of 2,121,173 students in grades 3, 5 and 8. The survey was administered in a total of 116,534 schools, making it one of the largest surveys ever conducted anywhere in the world. Before this, four rounds of NAS survey were conducted as shown in Table 2.1. Apart from conducting survey of students’ performance, background information is collected in the form of school questionnaire (SQ), teachers’ questionnaire (TQ) and pupil questionnaire (PQ). The SQ broadly enables the review of facilities made available in the school; the teacher questionnaire enlists the qualifications, experience and practices of a teacher; and PQ aids in understanding the socio-economic background of the pupils. All this information is collected in the schools where the NAS is administrated so that effective correlations could be drawn regarding the pupils’ performance. The NAS thus enables to understand the students’ performance against the backdrop of systemic support provided to the students in the schools. More importantly, the surveys are aligned to the curriculum transacted in the schools, making them contextually relevant and valid. If tests are not well aligned to curricular standards, they do not validly measure those standards and critical underpinnings of a fair assessment system

Table 2.1 National Achievement Survey – An Overview Cycle

Commencement Year and Tools Class 3

I II III IV V Achievement Tests in Subjects

Background

Class 5

2003–04 2007–08 2012–13 2014–15 2017 Language, Mathematics

Class 8

Class 9

2001–02 2002–03 2012–13 2005–06 2007–08 – 2009–10 2010–11 – 2013–14 2014–15 – 2017 2017 2015 Language, Language, Language, Mathematics, Mathematics, Modern Environmental Science, Indian Science Social Science Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Science Student, Teacher and School Questionnaires

Source: NCERT (2018), https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php

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linked to curriculum and instruction are missed (Lauren et al., 2003, p. 24). The achievement survey of NAS is designed to find out the true level of student learning with respect to a progressive scale of competencies regardless of expectations of student learning at a particular grade (Oza et al., 2015, p. 12). For this purpose, before administering NAS, an extensive review of the syllabus and textbooks of different States/UTs is undertaken to identify the common curricular areas for assessment. What started as a rudimentary study of students’ performance through un-calibrated raw scores, over a period of time, acquired scientific precision through use of multiple sets of test forms, anchor items and interpretation through scaled scores. The NAS surveys, though initially planned as the baseline, mid-term and terminal assessments in line with the duration of the SSA project (2001 to date), are now conducted at regular intervals.

Scope of NAS in the Light of NEP 2020 The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 views that in addition to access, equity and quality, educational accountability is critical in improving the performance of students. Through NAS all the four elements critical to quality performance of students are monitored. The background questionnaire related to school enumerates the available facilities. The performance across the social categories – general, SC, STs, OBCs, gender, rural and urban, facilitates in assessing equity and quality. Finally, it makes systems at different levels accountable by providing feedback on different dimensions of students’ performance. NAS scores do not represent the performance of an individual student or school; rather, it projects the general performance of students at district/state level of the different categories. The NEP also lays emphasis on process assessment, rather than the end goal of product or output assessment. It says, “The assessment system will be objective and developmentally oriented, while ensuring accountability. It will have multiple sources of feedback and assessment, to ensure a full view of the performance” (Ministry of Education, 2020, p. 32). In order to emphasize on learning rather than marks, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in the year 2017 conducted NAS that was aligned with the learning outcomes developed for each grade of schooling at elementary stage. This facilitated in providing qualitative feedback on learning outcomes of students at district levels in different school subjects instead of findings in the form of numerical data. It provided information on the competency levels in different areas related to curriculum. NAS is thus a significant source of students’ performance at national level, apart from School Based Assessment (SBA) and the public examinations that are conducted in the schools.

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A Snapshot of Students’ Performance in 2017 In the year 2017, the NAS was conducted across different stages in the same year, unlike in earlier years. Although data related to attainment of learning outcomes is useful to academia, it is pertinent for public information as well. In all the three subject (mathematics, language and environmental studies or EVS) areas, there is a progressive tapering in the performance of students in the same subjects across different stages from lower to higher levels. Although there is a decline in all the subject areas, the decline in mathematics is very steep compared to language and EVS. For instance, on an average, in the state of Delhi, the correct response rate in grade 3 mathematics in 2017 was 54 per cent, while at grades 5 and 8 it was 44 and 32 per cent, respectively, in the same subject. Similar decline is found in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh with 49 per cent in grade 3 and 39 and 33 per cent in mathematics in grades 5 and 8, respectively. Compared to this, the decline is not so steep in language. In the state of Delhi, while the average correct response was 58 per cent in grade 3 language and 52 and 55 per cent in grades 5 and 8, respectively, in Arunachal Pradesh, the same is 51 per cent in grade 3 language, and 43 and 44 per cent in grades 5 and 8, respectively. This data is a snapshot and does not denote the performance of cohorts through the school years, though the trends over the period of time are no different. The performance of the bottom half of the students is also declining with the increasing stage of education. In grade 3, the bottom half responded correctly to the extent of 25 per cent in language test and 29 per cent in the mathematics test. The response rates in the same subjects are 38 and 40 per cent in grade 5, and 39 and 64 per cent in grade 8, respectively. The increase from grade 3 to grade 8 is more than two times in mathematics, compared to a very lower change in languages. It indicates that not only the average performance rate is declining but also the percentage of students performing below the benchmark is increasing as students move from lower to higher grades although the decline in performance varies across different subjects. It is not only the mean performance of students at the lower spectrum at national level that indicates a disconsolate image, but also the minimum and maximum mean across different states in mathematics that has wide variations. Similar decline is visible in EVS and languages also, but the decline is steady compared to mathematics. The students’ performance is high in the initial years but declines in the higher stages of elementary schooling. In general, when students who do not perform well in the initial stages of schooling are promoted without addressing their learning requirements or concerns, they are likely to fall behind as they move on to higher levels. The NAS also shows how increased complexity in the curriculum, both physical and cognitive, teaching learning practices, facilities in the school etc. are also factors that affect students’ learning levels. 34

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Table 2.2 Average Performance of Students in NAS-2017 at National Level Subject

Number of States

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

Grade 3 Maths Grade 5 EVSGrade 3 Language Grade 5 Mathematics Grade 5 EVS Grade 5 Language Grade 8 Language Grade 8 Mathematics Grade 8 Science Grade 8 Social Science

37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37 37

49.00 48.00 51.00 39.00 43.00 43.00 43.00 30.00 31.00 29.00

75.00 76.00 79.00 67.00 70.00 71.00 67.00 57.00 62.00 63.00

63.24 64.32 66.97 51.70 55.64 56.72 54.97 39.56 41.89 41.97

5.94 6.46 6.28 7.35 6.87 6.74 5.97 6.88 7.06 7.68

Source: NCERT (2018), https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php

Figure 2.1 Performance of Students by Gender and Location Source: NCERT (2018), https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php

As seen in Figure 2.1, the performance of students in terms of gender and location (rural and urban) indicates a similar pattern. While the decline in students’ learning is prominent in mathematics than in languages under all categories, the performance of girls is higher than boys in languages across all the stages. Also, the decline in the performance in language is steep from grade 3 to grade 5 compared to grade 5 to grade 8. In mathematics, the decline is sharper from grade 5 to grade 8, compared to grade 3 to grade 5. The mean performance of rural students is higher in mathematics at all levels compared to urban students. 35

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The performance of students on different learning outcomes indicates that when they are provided with concrete tasks, the mean performance is higher, in comparison to more abstract elements, which bring down their performance. For instance, on a learning outcome of grade 3 mathematics such as identifies and makes 2D shapes by paper folding, paper cutting on the dot grid, using straight lines, the mean performance at national level was 79 per cent. Contrarily, on a learning outcome estimates and measures length and distance using standard units like centimeters or meters  & identifies relationships, it was less than half, with 34.85 per cent. Similarly, in grade 3 environmental science, the mean achievement of students on a learning outcome such as identifies objects, signs (vessels, stoves, transport, means of communication, transport, signboards etc.), places (types of houses/shelters, bus stand, petrol pump etc.) activities (works people do, cooking processes, etc.) at home/school/neighbourhood, the mean achievement was 66.75 per cent. Whereas on a learning outcome, which is highly abstract for grade 3 students such as observes rules in games (local, indoor, outdoor), the mean achievement was 37.72 per cent. The performance of students in grade 5 mathematics also indicates a similar scenario. For a learning outcome which is concrete such as ‘calculates time intervals/duration of familiar daily life events by using forward or backward counting/addition and subtraction, the mean performance of students at national level is 62.98 per cent. In contrast to this, for the learning outcome estimates the volume of a solid body in known units, the mean achievement is as low as 37.14 per cent only. This pattern continues even to the level of grade 8. In case of learning outcome on finds various representative values for simple data from her/his daily life contexts like mean, median and mode, the mean achievement is 47.40 per cent, the highest in the mathematics. In case of solves problems related to conversion of percentage to fraction and decimal and vice versa, it is only 30.20 per cent, one of the lowest achievements in learning outcomes. In grade 8 science, the performance on the learning outcome differentiates materials, organism and processes is highest with 52.25 per cent. This is however a simple distinction. As opposed to this, for a learning outcome on conducting simple investigation to seek answers to queries’, which is based on a higher conceptual level, the achievement is lowest among all the learning outcomes at 33.62 per cent. Figure  2.2 provides a comparative picture of students’ performance across gender and location categories. The performance of students in cycle 4 was lower compared to other cycles. It also indicates that on an average, there were no steep variations across categories in terms of performance. Although, anchor items and multiple sets of test items was a later development and comparison across the cycles without such technical procedures is arbitrary, they do provide a comparative picture over time.

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Figure 2.2 Students’ Performance Over the Cycles of NAS2 Source: NCERT (2018), https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php

Table 2.3 Performance of Gender Categories at Grade 5 Level in Cycle 5 of NAS Sl.

Subject

No. 1 2 3

Language Maths EVS

Boys

Girls

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

53.80 49.00 52.20

6.72 2.55 2.38

54.80 48.80 52.40

6.05 3.11 2.60

t-value

p-value

(8) = .247 (8) = .914 (8) = .126

.811 .491 .759

Source: NCERT (2018), https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php

Gender and location play a significant role in the educational performance of students. As seen in Tables 2.3 and 2.4, contrary to the popular misconceptions that boys’ performance is better than girls and urban students perform better in comparison to rural students, the NAS 2017 findings have indicated no statistically significant differences across these categories at grade 5 level. In order to view the statistical significance among different social groups, an ANOVA test was conducted. The mean scores of other category students were higher than those of OBC and OBC than those of SC and ST as indicated in Figure 2.3. There were no statistically significant differences in language between group means as determined by one-way ANOVA (F(3, 15) = 0.494, p  =  .69). However, in case of mathematics (Figure  2.4 gives an overview of students’ performance across cycles), the findings were different, when it was tested at 0.05 level. There were statistically significant differences in mathematics between group means as determined by one-way ANOVA

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Table 2.4 Performance of Students in Terms of Location at Grade 5 Level in Cycle 5 of NAS Sl.

Subject

No. 1 2 3

Language Maths EVS

Rural

Urban

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

54.00 49.20 52.40

6.28 2.86 2.60

55.80 48.40 52.00

7.08 2.70 2.23

t-value

p-value

(8) = .425 (8) = .454 (8) = .260

.705 .859 .565

Source: NCERT (2018), https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php

Figure 2.3  Category-wise Performance of Grade 5 Students Over the Cycles in Language Source: NCERT (2018), https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php

(F(3, 15) = 6.36, p = .005). There is also a statistically significant difference in mathematics mean achievement between ST and OBC (p = 0.020) and ST and Others (p = 0.005). However, there were no differences between the groups of ST and SC (p = 0.192). In an in-depth study as part of a secondary analysis of NAS data conducted by Sreekanth (2016), that looked into different economic/occupational categories of parents such as unemployed, agricultural labour, clerical staff, farmer and businessmen, and educational status such as illiterate, literate, elementary, secondary, graduate and above, a few startling facts were discovered. At the macro level, the study indicated that “the economic status has overwhelming impact on students’ achievement than the social status, as students belonging to higher economic status with better educational 38

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Figure 2.4  Category-wise Performance of Grade 5 Students Over the Cycles in Mathematics Source: NCERT (2018), https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php

qualifications and occupational status have higher learning achievement, irrespective of their social categories” (Sreekanth, 2016, p. 18). The research (Sreekanth, 2016) underlines that quality education rather than social backwardness of communities leads to economic prosperity and alleviates conditions of deprivation. The lower achievement of students from SC/ST  categories is more to do with their multiple disadvantages, rather than just their social category (Sreekanth, 2016, p. 18). This chapter reinforces findings from a growing number of cross-sectional empirical research that provide compelling evidence that a negative relationship exists between average academic excellence and inequality (Parker et al., 2018, p. 855).

NAS Testing – A Boon or Bane The protagonists as well as critics vehemently argue about the relevance of the large-scale surveys. International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) explicitly aim to influence policy. One way they do this is through reports and presentations targeted directly at policymakers and government officials. Another way is by disseminating information in the public domain (Hamilton, 2017, p. 280). Likewise, the findings of NAS or SLAS could also stimulate debates about how the students are improving or otherwise over a period of time. However, these two kinds of surveys conducted at national 39

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and state levels, respectively, do not attract much media attention and consequently, fail to influence the public significantly. Contrary to this, the ASER (Annual Status of Education Report, n.d.)3 study has received international acclaim and high public visibility within the country. Though the instruments are crude, static across cycles and not necessarily aligned to the curriculum, its findings appear startling with statements such as “grade 5 students are not able to read grade 2 level text.” However, there are lessons that can be learnt from ASER. In order to inform decision makers and influence policy, the findings of NAS must be made visible by developing more easily comprehensible versions that for media and advocacy purposes. The NITI Aayog4 developed the School Education Quality Index (SEQI) in 2019 as part of Performance Grading Index, to encourage States/UTs to take up major governance and systemic reforms. As part of SEQI, out of a total score of 965 under two categories – outcomes and governance process aiding outcomes – 480 points amounting to 49.74 per cent has been earmarked for NAS conducted at grades 3, 5 and 8. This is a significant move in the direction of ensuring accountability of States/UTs to not only work for provisions/facilities but also to ensure performance of students and their achievements. Possibly, this could also make it a high-stake test and end up in preparation of students on the pattern of the test that may jeopardize the very purpose for which it is conducted. High-stakes test usage virtually guarantees that lawsuits will be filed by those who believe that some students have been inappropriately and negatively affected by the test (Yen and Henderson, 2002, p. 133). The States/UTs may also compete with each other to enhance the performance levels through undue means, such as focusing on the tests, rather than learning, and developing item banks in line with the test pattern etc. This may lead to treating scores as an end rather than reviewing the structural and functional requirements in carrying out holistic and systemic reforms at all levels. The test-centric preparation for the examination dilutes focus on the curriculum transaction process and deviates from the purpose of education. One consequence of current accountability policies, therefore, seems to be that high stakes cause teachers and students to focus more on the content of the exam than on a broader curriculum needed for a well-rounded education (Giersch, 2018, p. 913). Often, questions are raised about the validity of the large-scale surveys, as they confine to a limited domain of testing students’ performance. This is true not only about national testing but also about the international assessments. What creates concern among educationalists is that the OECD’s global education governance5 may be leading to a very narrow framework of educational values which does not sufficiently capture the complexity of learning and teaching around the world (Addey, 2017, p. 322). Making judgements about students’ performance through one-shot examination is another limitation that many of the large-scale assessments 40

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pose. Although the appeal of high-stakes tests relies on their consistency and impartiality, research has raised doubts about the accuracy of using single assessments to measure student progress (Giersch, 2018, p. 912). The domain of testing also does not consider a significant and productive part of students learning that goes beyond a theoretical and logical information gathering. Large-scale public testing is incapable of assessing all forms of learning, or because the instruments available are both too blunt and tend to capture a certain kind of knowledge that privileges theory over practice, and mental skills over physical skills (Stolz, 2017, p. 386). Van Barneveld and Brinson (2017, p. 5) view that “a test taker’s motivation to engage in activities related to large-scale testing depends on their belief about experiencing success on the test and the value that they place on the content, process, and/ or outcomes of the test.” However, the importance of an achievement survey like NAS cannot be undermined, as it provides a macro-level overview of the performance of students across stages and cycles. It has an alignment with the curriculum transacted in the schools and has the potential to inform both the policy makers and public about student achievement levels from different socioeconomic categories, gender etc. From 2017 onwards, the NAS also provides descriptive performance indicators in addition to numerical data. Effectively utilized at different levels, it can guide the quality improvement of the educational system in terms of teaching learning practices, resource allocation, teacher professional development and deployment etc.

Conclusion The NAS findings across the stages and in different subject areas provide a macro-level picture of performance of students at critical stages of school education. They show mainly a steady decline in students’ performance from lower grades to higher grades. This requires further investigation through in-depth tracking of students’ performance. Not only the NAS but other surveys have also indicated low performance levels of students. For instance, in a survey (Wu et al., 2009) conducted on ninth-grade students in 144 schools in Rajasthan and 109 schools in Orissa on publicly available TIMSS items, a first international benchmarking for quality education in India after three decades, several interesting findings were reported. Only 15 per cent and 25 per cent of students in Rajasthan and Orissa, respectively, achieved the expected international mean of 52 per cent correct responses (Wu et al., 2009, p. 406). Also, “approximately 50 per cent of the total unconditional variation in student performance is attributable to between-school differences. This indicates significant inequality among schools. . . in developed countries that tends to be less than 10 per cent” (Wu et al., 2009, p. 403) The NAS has helped to decipher the steep fall in performance of students in mathematics, compared to other subjects. The performance of languages 41

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is stable compared to other subjects, although there is a decline from lower to higher grades like in other subjects. The rural-urban variations are not prominent and in fact at times the performance of rural students is higher than the urban students. There are variations in literacy rates, which have not affected the performance levels of girls. “Although females remain the disadvantaged gender in both the rural and urban sectors, . . . while urban males have a higher literacy rate than the two female groups, rural males have a lower rate than urban females” (Shukla and Mishra, 2017, p. 265). The performance of girls is similarly equal to or better than boys, which indicates that there are no gender disparities in terms of performance. The findings reveal that higher socio-economic status has a positive influence on students’ mean achievement and the performance of SC and ST students is lower than that of OBC and general category students in general across the cycles (Sreekanth, 2016, p.  1). The 2017 NAS shows how these findings continue to persist although statistically significant differences are found only between ST and other categories, with the former’s achievement being lower than others. One of the key developments in the conduct of NAS is linking the survey test items with the learning outcomes. Since learning outcomes have been included in the RTE 2009 also, the recent assertion of the same for every grade and assessment through standardized testing such as the NAS gives a valid and reliable data for standard setting. Establishing linkages between learning outcomes and NAS ensures systemic accountability at various levels in realizing expected outcomes. Also, since the learning outcomes are competency based rather than content based, and pedagogically oriented, assessment through NAS provides scope for quality and standards in education. At present, NAS studies are confined to cross-sectional surveys. There is also a need for detailed qualitative studies along with quantitative data collected at national level, in order to investigate the reasons for high/low performance of students in different pockets at various stages. Qualitative studies investigate not only problems encountered by students but also the reasons behind them. Without these, the usual one-shot assessments may not provide a comprehensive picture. Tests must cover the full range of standards with an appropriate balance across the standards. No one assessment can measure the full range of knowledge and skills required by the state’s standards (Lauren et al., 2003, p. 7). The study of background variables of students, teachers and schools provides critical inputs. One of the startling revelations is regarding the social and economic status. The economic status has overwhelming impact on students’ achievement than the social status, as students belonging to higher economic status with better educational qualifications and occupational status have higher learning achievement, irrespective of their social categories (Sreekanth, 2016, p. 19). This does not mean that social categories are unimportant, as social and economic categories are often largely 42

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coterminous. It only highlights that the focus needs to be placed on ensuring quality education for the lower economic strata. Though, already several measures such as 25 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections under RTE 2009 are in place, the efficacy of these policies needs to be researched extensively. The NAS studies were confined to government and government-aided schools only, leaving out a large chunk of private unaided sector schools, till recently. Private sector schools are highly diverse in nature, but researches have indicated the advantages of private schooling, especially through preschooling (which the NEP 2020 has taken up as a major initiative). Attending private preschools is associated with substantially, and significantly, higher test scores relative to attending public preschools. A considerable portion of this difference can be removed by controls for parental background and selected child characteristics but the gap remains significant (Singh, 2014, p. 30). Since 25 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections is implemented in private unaided schools, it is imperative to review first, the extent to which these schools are fully implementing the quota and second, the performance of students in these schools. Given that there is a steady and substantial increase in the proportion of private schools, more importantly in urban areas, it is all the more necessary to undertake the survey of NAS across all the school types. Standards reflecting high expectations for student performance should be the focus of instruction, and tests should be a fair measure of whether students have attained the standards (Lauren et al., 2003, p. 4). NAS fulfils this at national, state and district levels, by providing information about the attainment of standards across critical stages of schooling, that is grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. Further, in order to bring about effective and positive change at grassroots level, it is necessary that the findings are made available to schools, educational administrators and planners.

Notes 1 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a comprehensive and integrated flagship programme of Government of India to attain UEE, covering the entire country in a mission mode – an initiative to universalize and improve quality of education through decentralized planning and a process based, time-bound implementation strategy (MHRD, 2004). 2 NAS is being conducted since 2001 at different stages of school education. Until 2017, five cycles of NAS have been conducted. For the first time in 2017, NAS was simultaneously administered at grades 3, 5 and 8 in the same year. 3 The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is an annual survey that provides annual estimates of children’s schooling status and basic learning levels for each state and rural district in India. It has been conducted every year since 2005 in almost all rural districts of India (ASER, n.d.). 4 A think tank of the Government of India, formed in 2015, providing directional and policy inputs.

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5 It is held that the PISA (OECD’s Program for International Students Assessment), that measures 15-year-old students’ reading, mathematics and science literacy every three years, does not cover the wide range of curriculum that is transacted in the classroom. Rather it aims largely at standard setting, and making comparisons across regions and groups of students.

References Addey, C. (2017): “Golden Relics  & Historical Standards: How the OECD Is Expanding Global Education Governance Through PISA for Development”, Critical Studies in Education, 58(3), pp. 311–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487 .2017.1352006 Annual Status of Education Report (n.d.): ASER Assessment and Survey Framework. New Delhi: ASER Centre. http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Bottom%20Panel/ Key%20Docs/aserassessmentframeworkdocument.pdf Giersch, J. (2018): “Academic Tracking, High-Stakes Tests, and Preparing Students for College: How Inequality Persists Within Schools”, Educational Policy, 32(7), pp. 907–935. Hamilton, M. (2017): “How International Large-Scale Skills Assessments Engage With National Actors: Mobilizing Networks through Policy, Media and Public Knowledge”, Critical Studies in Education, 58(3), pp. 280–294. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/17508487.2017.1330761. Lauren, et al. (2003): “Benchmarking and Alignment of Standards and Testing”, Educational Assessment, 9(1/2), pp. 1–27. Mills, K.A. (2008): “Will Large-scale Assessments Raise Literacy Standards in Australian Schools?” Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, 31(3), pp. 211–225. Ministry of Education (2020): National Education Policy 2020. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (2004): Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: Manual for Planning and Appraisal. New Delhi: Department of Elementary Education and Literacy. https://dsel.education.gov.in/sites/default/files/2019-05/Manual_Planning_ and_Apprisal.pdf NCERT (2018): Guideline Manual – National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017–18, Class X, Cycle 2. New Delhi: NCERT. https://ncert.nic.in/NAS.php Oza, J. et al. (2015): “Evidence for Learning: Supporting the Development of India’s National Achievement Survey”, UKFIET Conference (mimeo). Parker et al. (2018): “Inequity and Excellence in Academic Performance: Evidence From 27 Countries”, American Educational Research Journal, 55(4), pp. 836–858. Shukla, V., and Mishra, U.S. (2017): “Literacy Achievement in India: A  Demographic Evaluation”, Prospects (00331538), 47(3), pp.  257–274. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11125-018-9429-x Singh, A. (2014): “Test Score Gaps Between Private and Government Sector Students at School Entry Age in India”, Oxford Review of Education, 40(1), pp. 30–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2013.873529 Sreekanth, Y. (2016): “Students Educational Achievement at School Level: An Analysis Across Social Categories”, Paper presented at the International Conference on Social Statistics in India, organized by ADRI on June 24–27, Patna, Bihar, India (mimeo).

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Stolz, S.A. (2017): “Can Educationally Significant Learning Be Assessed?”, Educational Philosophy & Theory, 49(4), pp. 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131 857.2015.1048664 Van Barneveld, C., and Brinson, K. (2017): “The Rights and Responsibility of Test Takers When Large-Scale Testing Is Used for Classroom Assessment”, Canadian Journal of Education, 40(1), pp. 1–22. Vanlommel, K., and Kim, S. (2019): “How Do Teachers Make Sense of Data in the Context of High-Stakes Decision Making?” American Educational Research Journal, 56(3), pp. 792–821. Wu, K.B., Goldschmidt, P., Boscardin, C.K., and Sankar, D. (2009): “International Benchmarking and Determinants of Mathematics Achievement in Two Indian States”, Education Economics, 17(3), pp.  395–411. https://doi. org/10.1080/09645290903142627 Yen, W.M., and Henderson, D.L. (2002): “Professional Standards Related to Using Large-Scale State Assessments in Decisions for Individual Students”, Measurement & Evaluation in Counseling & Development, 35(3), p. 132. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/07481756.2002.12069058

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3 ADOLESCENT CHILDREN – THE ANGST TO COMPLETE SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION A Perspective Shanta Sinha

Prologue Adolescence is a developmental stage of an individual between ten and 191 years, growing physically, emotionally and intellectually as a social being (UNICEF, 2011). It is a period of experiencing special characteristics of exploration; questioning; rebelling and non-conforming, as a natural process (Dahl, 2004). For some it may also mean a tumultuous time, full of changes and transformations not under their control, pushing them to risky behaviour (Dahl, 2004).2 How conscious is the education system in responding to such a crucial period of life and the adolescent child’s education especially in the context of poor and marginalized children and the first-generation learner? Let us start by looking at a set of varied cases as presented by the children themselves.

School Dropouts and Aspiration for Education3 1. I belong to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community. I failed in English in class 10. We never had a teacher in English. The one or two who were there seldom came to school or teach well. I live 30 km away from Bejjur, in the forest, with no road. There is no primary school, no buses. I am preparing to take the exam again. I also work on cotton and soya farms. (T. Madhukar, 17 years, Bijpur, Adilabad)

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2. There was a severe drought in my and other villages around. Family after family migrated out of their villages. Our family too. I dropped out of school in class 7. At that time my teachers said I was a clever student and I should continue to study. But I had to migrate with family from Adilabad to Khammam, to work on chilli farms. After three years when there was rain, I  was back home working as an agricultural labourer. I  saw my classmates who were in class 10 now. I would very much like to do my higher studies through open schools to qualify as a nurse. My parents discourage me as they don’t feel I should go back to studies. They are looking to get me married. (Lakshmi, Bijpur, Adilabad) 3. I am Muslim boy. I have one older sister, two younger brothers and one younger sister. I  dropped out of school in class 8 and started to work as a helper in a pipe company, earning Rs. 360 a week. Later I joined as a mechanic, working on machines, welding and soldering. I stopped work for a while because my eyesight has been affected and can’t see too well. This has affected my work. Daddy is 50 years old and works as a waiter in a function hall; mother is a cook in a madrasa. My parents are willing to let me continue my studies. I would like to rejoin school and study. But my old school is not giving me a transfer certificate (TC). I owe three months of fees to the school which I am willing to pay but the school is not accepting it. Wherever I go, I am asked to show my certificates. Continuing my studies has become impossible. (Abdul Aamer, 16 years, Kanchanbad, Asad Baba Nagar, Bahadurpura, Hyderabad) 4. We are four members in family. I  was admitted into a private school and was punished all the time for no reason. I didn’t want to study in that school. The TC the school issued was lost and they refused to give us a duplicate copy. I could not get admission into another school. So, I could not go to any school after that as my parents didn’t know how to resolve this. I am now working as a head load carrier in a shop. As the earnings were not enough, my parents took me with them to collect garbage. I work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The bad smell is affecting my health. I have already been treated for this. Mother is hoping to get some help to put me back to school. (A. Kishore, 13 years, Nandanavanam, Saroornagar, Ranga Reddy district)

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Adolescent Children4 and Secondary School Education There are 120.5 million adolescents in the age group of 15–19, constituting 10 per cent of India’s population. Children in this age group are conventionally in secondary schools which cover classes 9 to 12. Of these children, 60 per cent are in educational institutions and the rest are out of school with a larger number of boys (55 per cent) than girls in secondary schools (Census of India, 2011). Normally, classes 9 and 10 are part of high schools which include classes 6–10, and classes 1 to 5 are under primary schools.5 A board examination gives a certificate of completion for class 10. A common curriculum exists for all children up to class 10 in both public and private schools across the states as well as in the central schools6 “for building citizenship in a democracy” and for linking the “world of knowledge” with the “world of work” (Kothari Commission Report, 1966).7 Students move on to the next stage referred to as “plus2” which cover classes 11 and 12 representing the higher secondary, senior secondary or junior colleges. This stage offers diversified courses and also other educational streams of vocational education through the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). In the year 2018–19, there were 63.8  million children in secondary schools in India as compared to 38 million a decade ago. The total number of children attending secondary schools nearly doubled in the ten years from 2008–09 to 2018–19. At the same time, there has been a substantial increase in the number of girls who aimed to complete education up to class 10. This indicated the aspiration and determination of girls to complete secondary school education. The numbers of secondary schools too increased to 1,50,573 and of higher secondary to 1,30,020 in 2018–19 (DISE, 2018–19). However, there are still not enough schools, classrooms and teachers at the secondary school level to meet the aspirations of the millions of children who complete elementary education or grade 8. Due to the shortage of teachers in mathematics, science and English, there are “mass scale failures” especially in the rural areas (CABE, 2005). The inadequate provisioning of public schools at the secondary-level forces more than half of the students to attend private schools, both aided and unaided, which charge heavy fees. After a couple of years, children are forced to discontinue their education as private schools become unaffordable. This ought to be construed as a systemic failure. Another reason why children feel discouraged from completing secondary school level is the detaining of the majority of children in class 9 itself. Since schools are evaluated on the basis of the performance of their children in the class 10 board examinations, children of class 9 who may not perform well in class 10 are not promoted and so they inevitably drop out. At no point is the non-performance seen as reason for systemic inadequacies such as lack of subject teachers and infrastructural lacunae (Chugh, 2011, p. 33).

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Those who have higher rates of exclusion from secondary schools are mostly from ST and Scheduled Caste (SC) communities and Muslims, who also have the highest incidence of poverty (UNICEF, 2011, p. 49). In 2018–19, only 15 per cent of SCs, and 14 per cent of STs reached up to secondary school level. This dropped further with only 9 per cent of SCs and 8 per cent of STs being retained at higher secondary level (DISE, 2018–19). The education system and apathy of the government are responsible for girls and children from SCs, STs, rural and poor households – not completing secondary school education. The state inaction towards demands for schooling prevents secondary school completion rather than any of the commonly perceived factors such as poverty, credit constraints and lack of information about benefits of schooling or cultural norms. The gaps in secondary schools become evident when one looks at the recommendations of the CABE Committee constituted to examine the extension of Right to Education Act 2009 to pre-school and secondary school education. The Committee proposed to upgrade 15,000 upper primary schools and increase the capacity of existing 44,000 high schools by adding 343 additional classrooms and 514 additional teachers. It recommended access to higher secondary schools within a distance of 5 to 8 kms, giving priority to habitations predominated by vulnerable groups like SCs and STs (CABE Committee, 2013). Considering that the government would not be able to universalize secondary school education, the Eleventh Five-year Plan recommended that, instead of providing for more schools and infrastructure, schools be run in shifts! And it encouraged collaboration with the private sector under the public-private partnership (PPP) model (Reddy, 2008; MHRD, 2020). The state in its planning seemed non-cognizant of the adolescents’ need for entry into formal education. It assumed that adolescents’ entry into the workforce by default precluded them from joining schools and therefore, it recommended skill education. It is in this context that the recommendation of the World Bank provides an indication of the neglect by the state. It is reflective of where the country stands as far as secondary school education is concerned in India. India needs to make the qualitative investments now in teacher education and accountability, curriculum reform, quality assurance, examinations reform, national assessment capabilities and management information systems, which will require time and significant institutional capacity building to succeed at a national scale. (World Bank, 2009) Instead of a universal approach to cover the entitlements of every child and make arrangements to meet the needs of the backlog of children who

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have missed their opportunity to complete secondary school, the NEP 2020 recommends high quality national residential summer programmes for secondary school students in various subjects . . . a rigorous merit-based but equitable admissions process to attract the very best students and teachers to these programmes from across the country including from socioeconomically disadvantaged group. (MHRD, 2020, para 4.40) Further, the NEP 2020 proposes to bridge the gaps in secondary education by 2035. There is a problem always when targets and timelines are given. In reality it becomes an excuse to postpone issues, obliterates a sense of urgency and disregards the lives of millions of children who would slip through the cracks.

Aspiration for Education8 At the MV Foundation (MVF), it has been seen that there is a doubling of participation of poor and marginalized children, especially the firstgeneration learners in the education institutions. This is also evident in both public and private hostels, residential schools, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidhyalayas (KGBVs), vocational training courses, ITIs and so on. The increasing participation is illustrative of the aspiration of children to complete education beyond elementary school. Some of them have moved out of their villages and settled down in groups of four to five in rented crowded spaces in the towns, where secondary schools are located, or are living with relatives while doing part time work. As they move up from one grade to the next and reach secondary schools, they become fully conscious of the disadvantages they face vis-à-vis the better endowed children who attend private schools. Beset with a sense of injustice, they fight their way, day after day, and complete school up to class 10 and beyond. Adolescent children come to grips with their families facing multiple challenges of impoverishment, lack of security in livelihood, migrant labour, indebtedness, fractured families and social exclusion, ill health and hunger – one aggravating the other, resulting in many a sacrifice. To meet the educational expenditure on books, clothes, school fees, transportation and other expenses, most of them engage in agricultural work or in labour at construction sites, shops and establishments as casual labour. They are even exposed to hard manual labour during vacations and on weekends (MV Foundation, 2015). They often do not have any food before going to school and are hungry until they return home in the evening as there is no provision of midday meals in schools at the secondary level. This lack of food is not just 50

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about unaffordability, but also the lack of time to pack a lunch box, given the distances they have to travel. The girls are in a worse situation, as they cope with patriarchy – everyday practices of gender discrimination, domestic chores, violence and abuse, sexual harassment, lack of mobility and control. They need permission from fathers before going to the market or even buying a personal item; have no control over what to wear; have no right to express their opinions in the family or to decide whether they want to be married or not. They also learn to accommodate threats from boys and men who invariably stalk and harass them with impunity. However, when daughters are determined to pursue higher education, the parents do not pressure them to get married but do what they can to encourage them to study further. Indeed, the discourse shifts from enquiries about prospective spouses, dowry, expenditure for the wedding to seeking information on the choices of colleges and courses their daughters are to take. Poor parents make enormous sacrifices to seek education for their children. They enrol their children in private schools, investing in their children’s future, often spending beyond their means. They perceive education as the only opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and deprivation. The unspeakable procedure and documentation for accessing scholarships for SC, ST, backward classes (BCs) and Muslim children dissuade deserving students from applying for the same. Having gone through the lengths in applying for the scholarship and if granted, it inevitably gets released late by which time the student has taken a loan at a high rate of interest to pay up the fees. There are occasions when the students spend more than what they actually get as scholarships (Institute of Development Studies, 2020, p. 4). There are also examples of private Junior Colleges in Telangana which offer seats to potential scholarship holders and give them admission in their colleges pending release of the cheques from the government. On their part, adolescent children from the poor and vulnerable sections persist in overcoming challenges and find solutions at the individual level. However, they have to deal with the larger hurdles of having to cope with state deficit in provisioning of education at the secondary school level.

Out-of-School Children and School Dropouts According to the 2011 Census, 48 million of the 15–19 age group were not in any educational institution. Thirty per cent of them had attended school earlier and an alarming 11 per cent had never attended school. Once out of school, all such children have no other option but to struggle and find a path in the workforce. There is a 5 per cent increase in the total workforce in this age group in the year 2011 when compared to 2001, mostly in the marginal workforce. This also depicts the vulnerability of such children who are not 51

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being absorbed in the labour market, for whatever reason, and are forever searching for stability and security in their lives. At the same time there has been a 25 per cent decrease of female participation in the main workforce and 4 per cent decrease of males from the main workforce in 2011 when compared to 2001 (MV Foundation, 2016). It is likely that with increase in education of girls and non-availability of any employment opportunities, girls were not in the labour market. They continued in hidden and invisible work, most of which being non-wage work, rendered for their families and therefore unaccounted for. Adolescent boys were in the labour market as wage earners on either long-term or short-term contracts or as daily wage earners. The out-of-school adolescents are thus forced to be part of the unskilled, casual labourers, at the low end of the economy, and are faced with the difficult reality of everyday survival. While boys survive seeking whatever options available, girls are unable to move to any employment spaces, overcoming gender discrimination and patriarchy. They are confined to closed spaces, in their homes doing domestic chores, in home-based non-wage work in the informal sector, and even wage work outside the house in farms or factories, always among older persons. Ultimately, those who have dropped out of classes 9 and 10 have no particular advantage over those who dropped out at lower classes. They miss having a peer group, being part of the “youth” or free-willed individuals with mobility in markets, street corners or any public space. Overall, children in this age group, who are out of schools, live with low self-esteem experiencing insults, humiliation and discrimination, due to their caste background and marginalization, and facing injustice in their daily lives. As school dropouts, they are fully aware of the fact that they studied in low quality schools where there is no teaching and they learnt nothing. They are aware that they were cheated out of an education and that it was not their fault that they did not understand what was being taught in the classroom. Yet most of them do not give up on education. In spite of dropping out of schools, they do make several attempts to somehow get back into school. However, the education system, in insisting on rules and procedures and in being insensitive to the situation of the first-generation learner, has denied the fulfilment of aspirations of children to re-join school. India’s large youth population has been considered an advantage and often referred to as its “demographic dividend.” The dominant view is that when skilled, they would contribute to productivity in the industrial sector and the economy and foster overall growth of the country. There is thus a strong argument made to increase facilities for technical and vocational education for such children in order to increase their employment opportunities. In 2019, 3.4 million students aspired to get employed pursuing vocational skills in the 14,788 ITIs (MSDE, 2019). In addition, there are a total of 3,440 polytechnic colleges, 3,039 nursing institutions and 3,759 teacher 52

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training institutions in the country and the female enrolment in these is 19.3 per cent, 86.1 per cent and 63.6 per cent, respectively (MHRD, 2018–19). All these children cannot be seen from an instrumentalist perspective, as a “demographic dividend” only. They have a right to equal opportunities and choices and to choose from the range of options available in the system for better endowed children. It is important to recognize that young people have to be provided education that would enhance their capabilities and functioning rather than be pushed through the tunnel of vocational and skills education.

Way Forward: Evidence From Positive Programmes There are many NGOs working on adolescent children and their right to education. Organizations such as Doosra Dashak, Aangan Trust, MV Foundation and Udaan are exemplars in reaching out to adolescent children, especially girls, and enabling them to complete secondary education. Doosra Dashak The Foundation of Education and Development based in the state of Rajasthan launched Doosra Dashak in 2001. It focuses on adolescent girls’ education and on combating gender discrimination. It emphasizes the critical importance of youth and adolescents in the 11–20 age group, reaching out to the most deprived, excluded and vulnerable adolescents with the objective of making their lives more productive and meaningful. Over 86,000 out-of-school adolescent children in 1,137 villages of 235 Panchayats in Rajasthan have been covered of which 50 per cent are girls. Its residential bridge course programme provides a second chance education to adolescents. Around 8,589 adolescents of which 4,974 are girls have been covered through camps and have re-entered into government schools. It also has a strong component of life skills programme for adolescent girls. It has actively involved the community, Mahila Samooh (women’s group) and Yuva Manch comprising local youth. It has collaborated with the education department on training in life skills and capacity building of School Management Committees and teachers engaged with gram panchayats (village-level elected bodies) on the one hand and also school teachers and education department on the other, mobilizing their support for the education of adolescent girls. Most adolescent children are tracked through their completion of secondary school and beyond. Some have also taken advantage of the Open School system. For such children who are unable to access formal schools, it enlists them into a programme of continuing education and lifelong learning through their Village Learning Centres known as Ikhvelos. Doosra Dashak also galvanizes public action for opposition to harmful social practices like child marriage, bonded labour, dowry, mrityu-bhoj,9 53

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violence against women and alcoholism. Its pioneering approach of education and development of adolescent and youth was endorsed by the Planning Commission and systematically incorporated into the 10th, 11th and 12th Five Year Plans (2002–17) for the entire country. Several partner NGOs from Rajasthan, UP, Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, Orissa and MP have implemented similar programmes for adolescents now. Udaan Udaan is a program supported by CARE India. It has evolved an excellent pedagogy to mainstream adolescent out-of-school children (aged 10–14 years), through accelerated learning, along with provision of leadership and life skills. On completing the Udaan curriculum, the girls are mainstreamed into age-appropriate grades in formal schools. It has reached over 250,000 adolescent girls since May 2000. Almost 95 per cent of the girls cleared grade 5 exams and 91 per cent continued schooling into subsequent grades. Many UDAAN graduates have pursued higher education. Each of these girls is followed up with support from the community who resolve conflicts, identify solutions and take decisions in favour of girls and their future. It has special model training centres in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. The accelerated learning curriculum has been adopted by the Government of Uttar Pradesh and is being taught to children in government-run special training centres and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya. Aangan Trust The Aangan Trust has focused on adolescent girls, intervening in matters of child marriage and education, leveraging multiple stakeholders, individual and systemic, right from the adolescents themselves, to the women volunteer networks, to the local officials. It works together with all of these groups to build community resilience and safety against child harm. It reached out to over 300,750 adolescent children especially girls, during 2019–20, rescuing them from child marriage and trafficking, and providing safe spaces for them. This also included provisioning of education, which involved negotiation with families to send their children to school, discussing both the shortand long-term social and financial consequences of education as opposed to being employed or married. It also activates local official stakeholders, such as the school principals, or the block-level officials, to facilitate the enrolment of children in schools. It mobilizes gram panchayats, to keep track of families and children that migrate for work in order to ensure that this does not interfere with their children’s education. Through community participation, it has formed a system where children are supervised by trusted neighbours or family members

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while the parents have migrated away, thereby ensuring that children have access to a school and don’t have to migrate with their parents. Beyond this, individual needs of children are also addressed to bridge that academic gap such as setting up of age-appropriate remedial classes to smoothen reintegration into mainstream schools. MV Foundation MVF’s activities on abolition of child labour and in bringing every child to school began in 1991. Using a rights-based approach, about a million children have been withdrawn from labour and enabled to join full-time, formal school and 75 per cent tracked until they completed class 10. Since 2012, MVF has extended its focus to universalizing education for adolescent children, especially girls in the state of Telangana. MVF adopts an area-based approach of tracking every child in 11–18 years both in and out of schools, and develops a database on each child. It also tracks children enrolled in various residential institutions and hostels. Its mobilizers maintain a regular contact with the children and help mainstream those being left behind apart from ensuring regularity of children’s attendance in schools. It facilitates children to take the crucial class 10 Board examination and helps enrol them in higher secondary schools, diploma courses and under graduate studies. While tracking out-of-school children, instances of child marriages and child labour are identified and academic support provided for children to join the formal stream or the residential bridge course programme, the Open School etc. MVF engages with thousands of youths, teachers, local leaders, women’s self-help groups and elected local representatives, school management committees and government functionaries. Girls’ committees have been formed where girls gain courage to say “no” to child labour and early marriage and aspire for higher education (MV Foundation, 2017). Through a sustained campaign in the community, a groundswell of public opinion and action is built to support the girls in their efforts to pursue education. Even though the programme is focused on adolescent girls, focusing specifically on the gendered obstacles girls face, boys too are enabled to access formal education at secondary school level. All the above programmes have placed emphasis on the role of community participation to encourage adolescent children especially girls to pursue education. Their active engagement with public institutions, schools and the functionaries of the system ensures accountability in the delivery of services. Decentralized planning and providing local solutions to resolve conflicts as also the involvement with the gram panchayats are key to the success of their programmes. All these elements of the programmes could be replicable.

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Conclusion More than 50 per cent of adolescent children are not attending secondary school. Given the specificity of the life situations of first-generation learners especially amongst the SC, ST, backward castes, minorities and girls, every poor child in school is a potential dropout. Many children who have been pushed out of the system aspire to continue their education. The system and its functionaries must be prepared to respond to their daily life experiences, fears and anxieties, hopes and aspirations. Any intervention for adolescent children must start on the belief that all of them want education and have made failed attempts to get back to schools. There has to be greater flexibility in re-enrolling them into schools, without insistence on documentations such as TCs, caste and income certificates and proof of address. Simultaneously there must be a process of inducting them to gain lateral entry into appropriate formal streams through programmes of accelerated education, open schools, bridge courses, remedial classes in regular schools for children who have failed in a couple of subjects etc. This requires an institutionalized and sturdy support system that focuses only on out-of-school adolescent children and their education but enables poor and marginalized children to cross hurdles and guarantee their right to education. As their numbers are large, the more the delay in addressing the issues of such children, the more complex it gets in providing education. Leaving them out would affect the next generation and perpetuate the cycle of disempowerment, poverty and repetitive violations of human rights. Investment in education of adolescent children and upholding their fundamental right to education require both a whole-hearted support and a strong political commitment.

Notes 1 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as an individual aged 0–18 years and, in time, the UN has come to formally define adolescence as the period between 10 and 19 years of age. 2 In the last two decades, there have been several studies on brain development and maturity during adolescence. An easy read is in https://raisingchildren.net. au/pre-teens/development/understanding-your-pre-teen/brain-development-teens and also see Ronald E. Dahl (2004). 3 Case studies extracted from Lost Childhood-Voices of Out of School Children in Telangana-June  2016’ https://mvfindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/dr/lost_ childhood_voices_of_out_of_school_children.pdf 4 In this article adolescent children include children studying in classes 9 to 12; children in 15–19 years in accordance with Census data; and children in 14–18 years in accordance with NSSO data. 5 This is quite complex as some states have upper primary schools that covers classes 1 to 8. 6 Central government schools in India are instituted under the aegis of the Ministry of Education (MHRD), Government of India.

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7 The rationale for a board examination at the class 10 level was recommended by the Education Commission (Kothari Commission) 8 This is based on the experiences of M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF or MV Foundation) between 2015 and 2017, in addressing the educational entitlements of adolescent children, especially girls, and its engagement with families, communities and the government as well as the studies conducted by MVF capturing the voices of adolescent children. 9 Feast for the dead.

References Aangan Trust: https://aanganindia.org/. CABE (2005): Universalisation of Secondary Education. www.educationforallin india.com/universalisation%20of%20secondary%20education%20report%20 of%20CABE%20Commuitee.pdf, accessed 12 April 2021. CABE (2013): Extension of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 to Pre-school Education and Secondary Education. http://14.139.60.153/ handle/123456789/9708, accessed 12 April 2021. Chugh, S. (2011): “Dropout in Secondary Education: A Study of Children Living in Slums of Delhi”, Occasional Paper. New Delhi: NUEPA. Dahl, R.E. (2004): “Adolescent Brain Development: A Period of Vulnerabilities and Opportunities”, Keynote Address, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021(1), pp. 1–22. DISE (2018–19): http://dashboard.seshagun.gov.in/mhrdreports/#/reportDashboard/ sReport, accessed 12 April 2021. Doosra Dashak: www.doosradashak.in Institute of Development Studies (2020): “Understanding Barriers and Enablers to Girls’ Secondary School Education in Rajasthan-Post COVID-19”, Policy Brief. www.idsj.org/publication/policy-brief-understanding-barriers-and-enablers-togirls-secondary-education-in-rajasthan-post-covid-19/, accessed 12 April 2021 Ministry of Education (1966): Report of the Education Commission-Education and National Development, 1964–66 (referred to as Kothari Commission Report). New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (2018–19): All India Survey on Higher Education. www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statistics-new/AISHEper cent20Finalper cent20Reportper cent202018-19.pdf, accessed 12 April 2021. Ministry of Human Resource Development (2020): National Education Policy 2020. www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf, accessed 12 April 2021. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (2019): Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. www.ncvtmis.gov.in/Pages/ITI/Count.aspx?Aspx AutoDetectCookieSupport=1, accessed 12 April 2021. MV Foundation (2015): Champions: Voices of Girl Students – A  Study of FirstGeneration Girl Students in Senior Secondary School of Telangana. https://mvfin dia.in/wpcontent/uploads/2018/dr/champions_voices_of_girls_2015.pdf, accessed 12 April 2021. MV Foundation (2016): Lost Childhood: Voices of Out of School Children – A Study of 14–18-Year-Old Boys and Girls in Telangana. https://mvfindia.in/wp-content/

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uploads/2018/dr/lost_childhood_voices_of_out_of_school_children.pdf, accessed 12 April 2021. MV Foundation (2017): And They Never Lived Happily Ever After: The Battle for Justice Goes On: Voices of Married Girls in Telangana. https://mvfindia.in/ wp-content/uploads/2018/dr/child_marriage_study_web_version.pdf, accessed 12 April 2021. Reddy, A. (2008): “Secondary Education in India”, ANTRIEP Newsletter, July 2007– June 2008. www.academia.edu/25743986/Secondary_Education_in_India Registrar General and Census Commissioner (2011): Census of India. New Delhi: Government of India. Udaan: www.careindia.org/udaan/# UNICEF (2011): UNICEF India. www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/adolescentdevelopment-participation, accessed 12 April 2021. World Bank (2009): Secondary Education in India: Universalizing Opportunity. South Asia Region: Human Development Unit. https://openknowledge.world bank.org/handle/10986/3042?show=full

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4 ADULT LEARNING AND EDUCATION DURING AND POST COVID-19 Anita Dighe

Context COVID-19 severely affected the economic well-being of the poor and the marginalized groups. Due to the lock-downs, millions lost their jobs, had to migrate back to their villages, or had to take pay cuts in order to survive. Women had to bear multiple burdens as, in addition to their domestic work, they had to take on health care responsibilities, and struggle to provide for food to sustain their families. It would be stating the obvious to say that non-literate adults or those with low levels of education, low pays or no jobs, are least likely to participate in any adult learning programme. The global pandemic likely exacerbated and compounded learning barriers for these groups. As the economy reboots, it is possible that many adults would need to up-skill, re-skill or seek new occupations. The government would need to be proactive in ensuring that the publicly funded educational programmes remain a priority concern for the well-being of the marginalized groups. Estimates from UNESCO showed that around 90 per cent of the world’s students were out of school during COVID-19. In order to ensure that the educational process was not disrupted, the teaching and learning moved primarily online. Children from poor rural households had problems since they lacked the resources to acquire and access technology and due to the poor or no Internet connectivity. While technology might be a suitable way to facilitate adults’ learning in some circumstances, not everyone has reliable access to an Internet connection or the digital literacy skills to engage in self-directed learning. This is particularly true of non-literate women who are also digitally illiterate. This is exacerbating the problem of digital divide. Besides the possibility of contracting COVID-19, various social problems were reported due to the outbreak of the pandemic. A prolonged lockdown and a limited living space led to a number of mental health problems. Women DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-6 

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suffered physical abuse and violence. Due to job loss and acute economic distress, child marriages and child trafficking were reported. Reports about fake news were rampant. So also reports about the media targeting the minorities. What is apparent is that COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the problems of the youth and the adults. In such a scenario, adult learning is undeniably facing new challenges. The adult education community needs to find diverse creative solutions to these challenges.

Challenges for Adult Learning and Education (ALE) While the continuance of education of marginalized groups might seem hopeless and inconsequential due to the severe economic and health distress COVID-19 has caused, it needs to be stated unequivocally that ALE has an important role to play, since learning must continue as it is one of the most important strategies for responding to this crisis. Children, youth and adults need to be made aware of the constantly changing developments regarding the virus and its impact, enabling them to – individually and collectively– cope, adapt or sometimes even challenge the far-reaching consequences due to the changing circumstances. This has to be recognized by the government and the necessary resources – human, technological and financial – need to be provided. On November 16, 2020, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus the resolution “Literacy for life: shaping future agendas,” in which it emphasized that literacy is crucial to the “acquisition by every child, young person and adult of the essential knowledge, skills and competencies that will enable them to address the challenges that they may face in life and represents an essential condition of lifelong learning” (UNESCO, 2020). While expressing deep concern that even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 773 million adults – two-thirds of them women – lacked basic literacy skills, the resolution underlined that in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the international development partners and governments would have to ensure that sufficient and sustainable funds continue to be mobilized. The resolution called upon governments at all levels to scale up literacy programmes for all boys and girls, youth and adults, including older persons, with particular attention to those who are vulnerable and marginalized. It also called upon all member states, United Nations organizations, civil society groups, academia, media and the private sector to collectively mobilize resources to meet these challenges.

Rationale for Developing Effective Adult Literacy and Education Programmes During and Post COVID-19 An attempt is made in this chapter to take note of theoretical and research studies and the lessons learnt from field experiences, to identify some 60

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major issues that need to be addressed in developing meaningful, relevant and need-based literacy and adult education programmes for marginalized groups during and post COVID-19. (i) Understanding the Evolving Concept of Literacy in the Lifelong Learning Framework According to the Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2014), 37 per cent of the world’s non-literate population lives in India alone, the majority of them being women. The problem of illiteracy among youth and adults, particularly among women, would therefore have to be centrally addressed, and not deferred or postponed. It is, however, essential to understand what literacy means and its evolution over the years. Traditionally, adult literacy has been viewed as acquisition of skills of reading, writing and numeracy. UNESCO later expanded this limited view of literacy to the concept of “functional literacy” which emphasized links between literacy, productivity and overall socio-economic development. Another development involved the ways in which literacy is used and practiced in different social and cultural contexts. Influenced by Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator, literacy is viewed as an active process of learning, involving social awareness and critical reflection, which can empower individuals and groups to promote social change. The concept of non-formal education gained ground during the 1970s due to the overall disillusionment with the efficacy of the formal system of education in meeting educational challenges. Further developments helped in viewing literacy as a broader and more complex social construct. Levine (1984) focused attention on the social dimension of literacy and on the importance of understanding the social context in which literacy was being used. Street (1984, 1995) refers to two models of literacy. These are the “autonomous model” and the “ideological model” of literacy. In the former model, there is a distancing of language from the learners. External rules and requirements are imposed, and the significance of power relations and ideology in the use of language ignored. With regard to school as well as most of the adult literacy programmes, it is the autonomous model of literacy that has generally dominated curriculum and pedagogy. According to Street (1995), the notion of multiple literacies is crucial in challenging the autonomous model that represents one sub-culture’s view while there are varieties of literacy practices. He advocates the ideological model of literacy that views literacy practices as being inextricably linked to cultural and power structures in a given context. Literacy is now increasingly being conceptualized as multiple, sociocultural and political. It is therefore conceived in the plural as “literacies” and embedded in a range of life and livelihood situations. Thus, the concept 61

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of “multiple literacies” – related to technological, health, information, financial, media, digital and other contexts – is considered better suited to life in the 21st century. UNESCO has played a pivotal role in shaping the discourse on adult literacy and education ever since its inception. In recent years, the Belém Framework for Action of 2010 (UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning (UIL), 2010) records the commitment of Member States and presents a strategic guide for the global development of adult literacy and education within the perspective of lifelong learning. It affirms that “literacy is the most significant foundation upon which to build comprehensive, inclusive and integrated lifelong and life-wide learning for all young people and adults” (p. 5). Literacy is also central to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 in ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. It is therefore apparent, that it is necessary to situate literacy in the larger framework of lifelong learning in order to understand the complexities involved in developing meaningful and relevant adult literacy programmes during and post COVID-19 times. (ii) Understanding Adult Learning and Education for Inclusive and Sustainable Development In the Belém document, adult learning and education (ALE) integrate formal, non-formal and informal learning, which address the learning needs of both youth and adults. Due to the growing interest in non-formal education, it is necessary to understand the relationship of non-formal education with formal and informal education or learning. Rogers (2004) places much greater value on informal learning which for him is not always unintentional (as was understood earlier) but which is a natural activity which continues at all times and is highly individualized and contextualized. It is mainly through informal learning that a whole range of perceptions, attitudes and skills are developed. The earlier approaches regarded formal, non-formal and informal education/learning as distinct categories. Rather than viewing them thus, Rogers suggests that they be viewed as part of a continuum, with fine gradations between them and blurred boundaries. According to him, the key distinction between these three categories of learning would lie in the individualization of learning. While formal education would be highly de-contextualized, standardized and generalized, informal learning would be highly contextualized and non-formal education would be a hybrid that would include informal as well as formal learning. According to the Belém document, lifelong learning is all-encompassing and integral to the vision of a knowledge society for bringing about inclusive and sustainable development. 62

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(iii) Revisiting Theories of Adult Learning In order to develop meaningful and relevant ALE programmes, it is necessary to recall principles of adult learning. Knowles (quoted in Merriam and Brockett, 1997) has enumerated some of the principles of andragogy. Thus, adults need to know “why” they should learn and are known to learn best when they know learning has immediate value to their lives. While school children tend to be dependent on their teachers to guide their learning, adult learners tend to move towards self-directed learning when they are provided opportunities for ownership in the learning process. Women lack the self-confidence and have low self-esteem in starting or returning to an educational programme. This lack of confidence due to their socialization and personal experiences is endemic to poor non-literate women and cuts across cultural barriers. Coupled with this is what has been described by Belenky et al. (1986) as the phenomenon of “finding their voices.” This is a positive reinforcement and an assurance that women need to know that they are intelligent and can express an opinion. Adults join an educational programme with years of their own experiences and are ready to learn those things that enable them to use learning as a form of problem-solving to cope effectively with their real-life situations. While experiential learning is an important concept in adult learning, it is not just the accumulation of experiences that matters; rather, it is the manner in which individuals make meaning of their experiences that facilitates growth and learning. This idea is the foundation of transformation theory. It was Mezirow (1991) who used the term perspective transformation to describe a change process whereby the frames of reference through which we view and interpret our experiences are changed or transformed. Transformative theory is important because it focuses on how experiences can lead to fundamental changes in the learners’ perspective. Transformational learning takes place when new meaning is imparted to earlier experiences or old meaning is reinterpreted in a new light. An important aspect of this theory is that it can serve as a process for empowering learners – of particular relevance to poor women. According to Merriam and Brockett, in addition to concepts such as transformation theory, the importance of learners’ experience has helped shape techniques of “collaborative learning” – a sharing of information in relationships of equality that promotes new growth in each learner. Women are known to learn best when the learning environment is conducive to collaborative learning. Women also learn best when affective forms or knowledge that comes from their lived experiences are valued. Some of the most important developments in the field of adult education are linked to the introduction of “critical” perspectives in the theory, research and practice of adult education. The central theme of critical pedagogy is that for true learning to take place, it is necessary to ensure that the 63

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voices of the marginalized groups are fully engaged in the learning process. Freire (1970) advocated an approach that started with consciousness raising, enabling the poor and the oppressed to explore and analyse the sources of their oppression so that the literacy or the adult education programme becomes a part of a larger struggle for social, economic and political change. (iv) Understanding the Importance of Women’s Empowerment in Literacy Programmes In recent years, the need to empower women through literacy programmes has been gaining recognition. Experience indicates that programmes that are part of lifelong learning policies and supported financially by governments are necessary for promoting gender equality. The concept of “empowerment,” however, has to be better understood. Feminists are of the view that while the issues that affect women’s education – a negative self-image, low social status, survival needs and poverty – are essentially outside the education domain, yet education is the critical factor that can help women to break out of their predicament (Batliwala and Ramachandran, 1987). A movement from a passive state, where they have accepted their predicament and related to the world around them as recipients of welfare to one where they become active agents in their own transformation, is considered to be the essence of empowerment. This is the manner in which “empowerment” was conceptualized in the Mahila Samakhya programme, which was an outcome of the National Policy on Education, 1986, that stated “education must play a positive interventionist role in the empowerment of women.” Women’s empowerment has therefore to be regarded as a participatory process that is transformative in nature. A number of case studies undertaken across the world (UIL, 2016) highlight the wide variety of approaches to mainstreaming gender into literacy programmes and promoting women’s empowerment. In the Mahila Samakhya programme, which was functioning in 11 states of the country and had been in operation since 1989 until it was arbitrarily closed down in 2017, education was seen as a process of learning to question, to critically analyse issues and problems faced by women and seek solutions in order to change the patriarchal relationships within the family and the society. The principal strategy identified for ensuring women’s participation was by mobilizing and organizing them into “sanghas” or collectives. It was the women’s groups at the village level which determined the content of the educational programmes, depending on their needs and interests. Literacy was not imposed on women; rather, they asked for a literacy programme when they felt the need to become literate. Periodic reviews that were undertaken by international and national consultants showed that when women organized as a collective, they had been able to address issues such as access to drinking water, payment of minimum 64

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wages, ensuring access to health services, functioning of the village school, and had even been able to take action against domestic violence. The educational strategies proven to be successful in the Mahila Samakhya programme could be re-introduced and energized so that some of the problems highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic could be addressed by women’s groups. (v) Meeting Learning Needs of All Adults The Belém document refers to a wider category of youth and adults who can be excluded due to various social, economic and political reasons. Inclusive education would require an identification of all possible groups of youths and adults who tend to get left out of the educational fold. In India, adult education programmes are mainly targeted for the poor and marginalized groups such as rural youth, rural women, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and minority communities as the problem of illiteracy is particularly grave among them. While this is necessary, in order for adult education to be inclusive, various specific groups that normally get left out of the education system also have to be identified. A clear statement that the programmes would focus on these groups would help establish the priority concerns of the adult education programmes. These would include besides the marginalized groups mentioned earlier, specific groups such as the migrants, nomads, displaced persons, outof-school youth, under-employed/unemployed youth, physically challenged people, people with learning disabilities, older adults, transgender communities and particularly women and girls among all of the above groups. Even the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on the “no one is left behind” principle to ensure that the development programmes are inclusive. Needless to say, the learning needs of each of these groups would be varied and hence pre-packaged, “one-size-fits-all” type of programmes that have so far been offered, would be unsuitable. As suggested by Stromquist (2009), a variety of educational programmes that respond to specific educational needs of groups of learners, integrating ALE for broader, economic, social and human development, would be required. (vi) Providing Suitable Physical and ICT-Enabled Infrastructure for the Adult Literacy and Adult Education Programmes In India, adult education programmes have suffered mainly due to lack of proper physical infrastructure. In the case of literacy classes for women, most of the times literacy classes are either held close to where they live or else in the homes of the literacy instructor. Women of SC/ST communities also face problems of social distancing due to caste considerations. Lack of 65

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suitable physical spaces has been one of the contributing factors for closing down literacy classes arbitrarily. Suitable time for holding the classes has also been determined by the convenience of the women learners. Due to various responsibilities that women shoulder, whether at home, in the field, or in collecting water, fuel and fodder, women typically prefer to attend late evening classes after all the household chores are completed. Adult learners, particularly women learners, prefer face-to-face interaction for educational purposes. Given the protocols imposed by COVID-19 that would make classroom interaction or a gathering of adults in closed spaces and in large numbers unsafe, the literacy instructor could meet groups of learners in open spaces so that social distancing is maintained. The local community could be involved in allocating suitable physical spaces. UNESCO and governments have suggested distance learning solutions using appropriate technology and community-based learning programmes. However, since the majority of learners from poor and disadvantaged households are unlikely to have the resources to acquire and to access technology as well as Internet connectivity, it would be necessary to ensure free and open access to appropriate technologies and tools that facilitate distance learning and community-based learning programmes. Technology-based community learning centres can serve the information, communication and educational needs of the community. The common service centres (CSCs) that are being set up under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to provide e-services and information and communication services to all the Gram Panchayats across the country could be energized to ensure access to technology to the marginalized groups as well as provision of information, communication and educational services. During and post COVID-19, CSCs could play an important role in ensuring access and use of technology for encouraging adults to learn. (vii) Developing Appropriate Teaching/Learning Materials With the Participation of Learners Experience so far has indicated that in India, teaching/learning materials have generally been developed centrally by experts, with little or no participation of those learners for whom these are intended. This process of curriculum development would have to be reversed so that learners would begin to exercise more control over the content of the materials. Adults, particularly women, learn best when learning materials are developed on the basis of their lived experiences. Sensitivity to the culture of the learners and use of local language ensure learner involvement and learner motivation. Since women understand and speak the local dialect, it is necessary to develop learning materials in the local language. Nirantar (1997) – a national NGO working for gender and education – worked collaboratively with women learners in developing a curriculum around themes such as 66

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land, water, forests, society and health. While the initial literacy materials were developed in the local language, progression to the standard regional language was made so that women could have access to the state language which is the language of power. (viii) Understanding the Complexities of Literacy and Livelihood Programmes One of the problems organizers of literacy programmes for poor women face is lack of motivation for literacy amongst the women from poorer sections of society. The demand invariably is for the economic betterment of their lives, rather than a literacy programme. Given the grave economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is most likely that women would be attracted to a livelihood programme that links literacy to a skills training programme to better their lives. The question that is often raised in such programmes is whether to start with literacy or with livelihoods first. In several such projects, literacy is the first area of intervention, as livelihood activities are believed to require at least a minimum of basic reading and writing skills. However, there are enough examples to show that the above assumption is wrong. Also, experience has shown that improved literacy does not necessarily bring about significant economic improvements. According to Rogers (see Papen, 2002), the problem with the narrow definition of literacy and livelihood programmes is that these do not lead to effective command of literacy skills or to viable livelihood practices. It is therefore necessary to address the problems of poverty centrally so that there is an expanded vision of literacy and livelihoods education as part of lifelong learning. A  study that was undertaken in four African countries (Oxenham et al., 2002) showed that the success of livelihoods-plus-literacy/ numeracy programmes can be ensured if they start from or at least incorporate training in savings, credit and business management along with actual access to credit. According to Papen (2002), considering the diversity of social, political and economic factors that need to be addressed, it would be difficult to suggest a generic model when planning a literacy and livelihoods strategy. Rather, such programmes would need to be flexible, participatory and interactive in nature, grounded in the local context, developed with direct input from poor women to encourage empowerment from below. (ix) Creating an Enabling and Inclusive Teaching/Learning Environment Experience has shown how the literacy/adult education instructor would need to facilitate curriculum transaction by creating an environment of learning so that the adult learners not only are attracted to participate in 67

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the educational programme but also continue with the process of learning. A congenial atmosphere of give and take, of sharing experiences, of learning from one another, ensures that adults will continue to come to the educational programme. Ascertaining the expectations of the learners from the educational programme, what they want to achieve from the programme, would ensure their involvement and participation. Learning strategies that evoke curiosity, questioning, analysis, synthesis and perspective building among learners help sustain learner interest. Adults need to be helped to learn holistically, rather than confining learning to a few limited areas or attempting to compartmentalize learning. It is necessary to establish cause-effect relationships, and establish inter-linkages so that adult learners can begin to understand their own local reality within a wider context. Adults can be involved in eliciting information from different sources, facilitating the process of developing a variety of materials, using technology wherever possible. Audio/video cassettes can be very useful in generating interest and promoting adult learning. Adults are known to participate enthusiastically in producing their own programmes for a community radio station. Motivational levels among adults go up if the literacy or the adult education programme becomes part of a larger struggle for social, economic and political change, as was reported in the Total Literacy Campaigns in some districts. (x) Understanding the Importance of Integrating ICTs in Lifelong Learning Programmes Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have an important role to play in creating a knowledge-based society and in promoting lifelong learning. However, previous experiences in the use of traditional media such as radio and television for teaching literacy to adults, particularly adult women, showed that while these were innovative initiatives, the efforts were ad hoc, half-hearted and were thwarted due to lack of political and administrative commitment. On the basis of a review of existing materials, Dighe et al. (2009) spelt out strategies for the successful use of ICTs in ALE programmes that include: •

Formulating a coherent policy for integrating ICTs in ALE programmes that are broad-based, all-encompassing and within the overall framework of lifelong learning; • Providing technology infrastructure and ensuring access. Community learning centres can ensure community access; • Ensuring ICTs are people-driven rather than technology-driven. A parallel investment in ensuring people’s readiness to use technology has to be made; 68

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•

Ensuring effective planning and programme design taking into account connectivity, affordability and capability; • Community participation in planning and designing ICT-supported interventions so that communities support and commit to them; • Capacity building and training of the functionaries, programme administrators and support staff on an ongoing basis; • Using ICTs to develop content that is culturally and linguistically relevant to the needs of the learners; • Planning for sustainability at the planning stage itself; • Ensuring multi-stakeholder partnerships, including the public and the private sector; • Ensuring continuous monitoring and evaluation of ICT-supported programmes, with an interdisciplinary research approach to understand the complexities of using ICTs for ALE programmes. (xi) Sustaining a Learning Environment and Promoting a Learning Community/Society One of the reasons the literacy programmes did not succeed earlier was due to the absence of a literate environment and lack of suitable reading materials to ensure that the reading skills that were acquired by adults were sustained and strengthened. The UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning (UIL) has been advocating the creation of literate environments and the development of literate societies, communities and families for a long time. Thus, advancing a culture of reading, writing and learning should be part of all literacy and lifelong learning strategies. Case studies from different countries of the world (UIL, 2017) show how a rich literate environment is essential if young people and adults are to be encouraged to engage in literacy learning as a means of sustaining and integrating their newly acquired skills into their everyday lives. From a lifelong learning perspective, literacy and numeracy need to be applied on a continuous basis in order to sustain and further develop competencies at more advanced levels. Nirantar has trained literate women to bring out Khabar Lahariya (News Waves), a rural newspaper, to ensure that women’s literacy skills are sustained (UIL, 2016). (xii) Professionalizing Literacy Instructors/Educators One of the problems with most adult literacy and adult education programmes is that they tend to be run completely by volunteers at the village level. In most cases, these are part-time workers, with low educational background, who are paid a small stipend. While involvement of volunteers is desirable, experience thus far has shown that volunteer-based programmes are not effective in the long run. While it might be easy to recruit volunteers 69

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initially, for those who are not ideologically motivated, it becomes difficult to sustain their interest when they realize that they have to spend considerable time and energy without commensurate monetary benefits. This is also true with regard to one-on-one tutors who volunteer their services but with almost no accountability. In any case, the levels of literacy acquired by learners in such volunteer-based programmes are so low that they relapse into illiteracy. It is therefore necessary to recognize and accept that there is now a need for trained and competent adult education functionaries who can provide good-quality education to adults. Even UNESCO is now advocating the need to professionalize literacy instructors and adult educators. If the government is serious about addressing the educational needs of adults, then it must invest in developing a cadre of professional adult educators who work full time and receive remuneration and other benefits that accrue to government functionaries. (xiii) Improving the Quality of Training Adult Educators Training of adult educators is a neglected aspect of most adult education programmes. Many of the training programmes are conducted as a mere ritual or a formality, as a result of which they contribute minimally to the professional growth of the personnel involved. The importance of training not just the grassroots educators but also functionaries of various development departments at all levels has to be planned for and implemented. Training plans have to be made, institutions for providing such training identified and budget allocations made on a sustained basis. Training has to be seen not as a one-shot affair but as an ongoing, continuous process by offering courses that can lead to career development through certification and hence increased motivation to learn. Professionalization of literacy instructors/educators would require the involvement of universities that could develop degree, diploma and certificate courses. Since the training needs of functionaries at various levels would be enormous, a diverse range of stakeholders and organizations, including local community organizations, central government institutions, universities, the private sector, international and Indigenous NGOs, and capacity building organizations that have specialist knowledge and experience, would have to be involved. Training programmes organized by government-run organizations/institutions normally do not pay much attention to efficacy. As a result, the quality of training programmes is often poor and its usefulness questionable. Such training programmes focus largely on knowledge transmission and the acquisition of skills. Rarely is an attempt made to examine personal values and the extent to which these affect the trainee’s attitudes, beliefs and values. Building on Mezirow’s work, critical reflection on practice is necessary as a central element of learning for personal and professional growth. 70

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Such a reflection is particularly important when dealing with men and women who hold patriarchal values, or are intolerant of people from other communities, castes, religious or ethnic backgrounds. The advantage of involving NGOs is that they try to improve the quality of their programmes by developing models that promote adult learning and bring about sustained change in individuals and communities. (xiv) Understanding Complexities of Evolving an Efficient Monitoring and Evaluation System Monitoring and evaluation play an important role in improving the quality of adult learning, not only from the perspective of the providers but also from that of the learners. The objectives of lifelong learning range from eradicating adult illiteracy to providing educational opportunities to adult learners throughout life. What is therefore evident is that the overall objective of adult learning should not be reduced to just literacy and ways to improve literacy levels. One of the problems in defining and measuring literacy is the lack of reliable information as the definition of literacy is still rudimentary. The task of monitoring adult learning activities in non-formal education is not straightforward. For informal learning, concepts become even more complicated, making it difficult to identify activities and collect relevant data. Since lifelong learning includes formal, non-formal and informal learning, involving a wide variety of providers as well as varied groups of learners, it would be necessary to put in place an effective monitoring and evaluation framework. This would ensure that information about such programmes and of learners is systematically collected and analysed. Considering the enormity of the task involved, it might be useful to recall some of the recommendations made at a UIL meeting (2003) which include the following: • Monitoring and evaluation of adult learning be made a central and cross-cutting theme; • Two-way flow of monitoring and evaluation information between local, district, state, national and international levels be ensured; • Qualitative and quantitative data be compiled and analysed to present a more comprehensive and realistic picture of programme achievements; • Capacity building of adult educators be rigorously undertaken at national and sub-national levels for development of statistical, analytical and interpretive capability; • The use of ICTs for monitoring and evaluation be vigorously implemented; • Data be collected in disaggregated form allowing for comparisons to be made in terms of gender, socio-economic, religious groups etc.; 71

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• Monitoring and evaluation exercises consider the perspective of the learner; • International monitoring and evaluation efforts already under way are further strengthened. (xv) Formulating a Suitable Policy for Lifelong Learning Presently, adult literacy and education programmes, regarded as a concern of the Ministry of Education alone, have tended to operate within fixed targets and limited funds. This piecemeal and compartmentalized approach has led to ineffective programme achievements. This has often happened because of a lack of continuity in the programmes, which in turn has been due to the absence of a comprehensive framework that links literacy and education with all other aspects of life on a long-term basis. An expert committee on National Curriculum Framework set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2011 (Government of India, 2011) had recommended that since ALE are not short-term processes that can be completed within a certain time frame, a paradigm shift was necessary. These recommendations of the Expert Committee, which called for a comprehensive and lifelong learning programme, providing a variety of learning programmes for all adults, need to be re-visited. But for this to happen, a strong lifelong learning policy would have to be formulated. A stand-alone, truncated view of adult education would need to be replaced by spelling out how adequate organizational structures and links between adult education and other development ministries/departments would be established, and how inter-ministerial/interdepartmental coordination and cooperation would be brought about. In a knowledge society, adult learning would require a new paradigm using many modes of learning throughout life. Besides multiple pathways of learning, adult learning would have to be flexible, allowing adults to enter the formal system and leave at many different points. Thus, accreditation, equivalency, certification and synergies between the formal, nonformal and informal learning would become essential components of lifelong learning. Sustainable Development Goals (2030) emphasize that all the 17 SDGs must become the responsibility not just of the concerned ministries or departments but also of a societal concern. Hence, SDGs refer to “the whole of society” and “whole of government” approach in achieving the goals. In the case of ALE programmes too, it should not be just the Ministry of Education or department that should run these programmes but also the responsibility of various development ministries, departments as well as of the entire society to ensure that such programmes run effectively. The ALE programmes can take root, become a major trigger for development and get recognition and credibility if a comprehensive lifelong learning 72

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framework is established. Such a framework would need to be inclusive, address development issues and respond to the learning needs of all learners on an ongoing basis. But for this to happen, political commitment would be required inasmuch as adequate government funding for the creation of appropriate institutional support structures as well as a cadre of professional workers on a permanent basis.

Concluding Remarks Pandemics such as the COVID-19, have the potential to jeopardize years of progress made in the educational systems around the world. Various United Nations agencies, particularly UNESCO, have been augmenting financial resources through the Global Education Coalition, and increasing efforts to mitigate and curtail the impact of the current crisis on the educational systems and leverage education and skills development as an effective and efficient means for economic revival and sustainable development. Governments have been urged to “leave no one behind” in the educational system and to provide direct and targeted support to the vulnerable populations through flexible, hybrid and blended learning. The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, and allied international and bi-lateral agencies have been organizing a large number of webinars on relevant themes and a variety of capacity building programmes for this purpose. The problems faced by India are phenomenal and while issues regarding school education need to be addressed immediately, it is likely that due to various constraints, education of marginalized groups would be neglected. Needless to say, that would spell disaster for the country. The government must mobilize resources and garner support from international agencies, NGOs, civil society groups, universities, media, professionals and particularly the private sector to ensure that the education of the marginalized groups gets the attention it deserves and becomes a societal movement. Unfortunately, the National Education Policy 2020 (Ministry of Education, 2020) does not inspire that confidence.

References Batliwala, S., and Ramachandran, V. (1987): “Education for Women’s Equality – a Pilot Program in Ten Districts of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat”, Department of Education, MHRD, Government of India, New Delhi (mimeo). Belenky, M.F., Clinchy, B.M., Goldberger, N.R., and Tarule, J.M. (1986): Women’s Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. New York: Basic Books. Dighe, A., Hakeem, H.A., and Shaeffer, S. (2009): “ICTs in Non-Formal Education in Asia Pacific”, in Akhtar, S., and Arinto, P. (eds.), Digital Review of Asia Pacific, 2009–2010. New Delhi: Sage. Freire, P. (1970): Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Herder & Herder.

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Government of India (2011): Expert Committee Report on National Curriculum Framework for Adult Education, Draft Report. New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development. Levine, K. (1984): The Social Context of Literacy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Merriam, S.B., and Brockett, R.G. (1997): The Profession and Practice of Adult Education: An Introduction. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Mezirow, J. (1991): Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. Paris: UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org Ministry of Education (2020): National Education Policy 2020. New Delhi: Government of India. Nirantar (1997): Windows to the World: Developing a Curriculum for Rural Women. New Delhi: Nirantar. Oxenham, J., Diallo, A.H., Katahoire, A., Petkova-Mwangi, A., and Sall, O. (2002): “Strengthening Livelihoods with Literacy”, African Region Human Development Working Paper Series. Washington, DC: World Bank. Papen, U. (2002): Literacy and Livelihoods Revisited: Final Report of the Uppingham Seminar. www.uppinghamseminars.org/report_2002.htm Rogers, A. (2004): “Looking Again at Non-formal and Informal Education – Towards a New Paradigm”, The Encyclopedia of Informal Education. www. infed.org/biblio/non_formal_paradigm.htm Street, B. (1984): Literacy in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Street, B. (1995): “Social Literacies: Critical Approaches to Literacy in Development”, in Ethnography and Education. Essex: Longman Group Ltd. Stromquist, N. (2009): Literacy and Empowerment: A Contribution to the Debate. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001826/187698e.pdf UNESCO (2014): Education for All: Global Monitoring Report: Teaching and Learning: Achieving Equality for All. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO (2020): United National General Assembly Calls for Sustainable Funding for Education in the Era of Covid-19 and beyond. https://shar.es/aW2k5 UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning (2003): Monitoring and Evaluation of Adult Learning, CONFINTEA V Mid-Term Review Conference. Hamburg: UNESCO. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (2010): Belém Framework for Action. Hamburg: UNESCO. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (2016): Narrowing the Gender Gap: Empowering Women through Literacy Programmes. Hamburg: UNESCO. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (2017): Fostering a Culture of Reading and Writing: An Example of Dynamic Literate Environments: Selected Case Studies. Hamburg: UNESCO.

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5 MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLING OF DISADVANTAGED MUSLIMS John Kurrien

Introduction Post-independence national and state-level development and education policies have positively discriminated in favour of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), constituting a little less than 30 per cent of India’s population. In comparison, Muslims who are now about 15 per cent of all Indians and numbering about 20 crores (200 million) have been significantly neglected by central and state government policies and schemes. This has resulted in vastly different education and development trajectories for these three disadvantaged groups. In comparison to their population, Indian Muslims currently have significantly lower enrolment rates than SCs and STs at all levels of school and higher education, including elite school and higher education institutions (Kurrien, 2019, p. 3). Furthermore, an influential 2018 report noted that during India’s post-liberalization phase “virtually all of the upward mobility gains in India over recent decades accrued to Scheduled Castes and Tribes.  .  .and for Muslims these opportunities have substantially deteriorated” (Asher et al., 2018, p. 7). Implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommendation of providing all children with 15 years of good-quality school education is important for all disadvantaged groups, particularly for poor and lower middle-class Muslims who compose more than 80 per cent of the Indian Muslim population. “Access to high school and college for Muslims from bottom half families has stagnated for the last fifteen years”(Ibid., pp. 5). These vulnerable Muslim students are at the lowest rung of the educational ladder since they have the lowest rates of completed schooling in India. Most of them drop out by class 8 – or even before – and like their disadvantaged counterparts, acquire extremely limited functional skills (Kurrien, 2019, p. 9). DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-7 

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These poor educational qualifications limit the future employment options of many young Muslims. For those who do not want to pursue higher education, an attractive vocational training option is the large number of courses for a variety of crafts and trades offered by the industrial training institutes (ITIs). But these institutes now require candidates to have a minimum class 10 qualification, or a higher secondary qualification for most courses. Both class 10 and class 12 certificates are also minimum requirements for entry into polytechnic colleges in India. The range of reforms for the formal schooling of poor and lower middleclass Muslims have been articulated in my 2019 online report, A New Agenda for the Education of Indian Muslims in the 21st Century, which has a broader canvas encompassing the development and education of poor and lower middle-class Muslims under 25 years, that is infants and young children below six years, school students and out-of-school or college youth. This essay will focus on only one of the reforms in school education, which is the choice of the mediums of instruction (MOIs) currently used in the schooling of poor and lower middle-class Muslims. The choice of medium of school instruction, especially for educationally disadvantaged groups, is critical since it significantly affects the years of schooling that children receive, and the quality of their learning. In a multi-lingual country like India, promoting certain languages as MOIs is clearly an important instrument in reducing inequality and improving human resource development. MOI Policy and Ground Realities – English, Urdu and Regional Languages in the Education of Vulnerable Muslim Students Few countries in the world have such an extraordinary language diversity as India. The 2001 Census noted that there were 122 languages and 234 mother tongues, each of these with a speaker strength of 10,000 and above. Education and official government policies have for decades advocated the use of mother tongue in education, especially at the primary level. Given the complexity of the linguistic situation on the ground, and for a variety of other reasons, state governments have actively promoted the state regional language as the MOI. As a result of these aggressive state government policies, regional languages have flourished at all levels of school education in most states of post-independence India. Far limited government assistance for other languages has resulted in fewer state-supported schools for mother tongue speakers of even other, major Indian languages, including Urdu. English medium schooling has received even more limited state support, but has witnessed tremendous expansion especially in the last few decades. It is market forces alone and their wide-ranging impact that have driven the recent exponential growth of private unaided English medium schools for the disadvantaged sections. 76

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Objective and Brief Outline of Essay This essay attempts to address a single fundamental question. Which among the MOIs currently being provided in the schooling of poor and lower middle-class Muslim students – Urdu, the regional languages or English – will give them the best opportunity to complete 15  years of good-quality school education (three years of pre-primary and 12 years of school education from classes 1–12) in the coming decades? This range of quality schooling is the principal school education objective of the NEP 2020 and is an important element of the Education Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4). It is the sole pragmatic and utilitarian criterion that will be used for evaluating whether one or more of these competing languages are suitable MOIs. What are the quantitative and qualitative opportunities and constraints posed by each of them to achieve the maximum educational good for the greatest number of vulnerable Muslim students? To make an informed choice, Muslim communities and policy makers need to understand in some depth the MOI status of each of these three options, and their advantages and disadvantages. This is presented in this essay through the following four sections: Section 1 on English medium schooling is by far the longest MOI section. It analyses the English onslaught which has led to profound and unexpected changes in the entire Indian educational landscape, including official language policy, classroom instruction and learning in government and private schools, as well as the development and future of Urdu and the regional languages. Moreover, it will be demonstrated that Muslims are already more significantly invested in English medium schooling than others. This section will therefore provide an extensive review of the development and impact of English to understand whether it can serve as a suitable MOI for providing 15 years of quality schooling for poor and lower middle-class Muslims in India. Section 2 on Urdu medium schooling focuses on the status of Urdu as a suitable MOI and Section  3 on Regional medium schooling discusses the position of regional languages as MOIs. The development and future of Urdu and the regional languages as MOIs are of course intimately connected to the growing demand for English. These three separate discussions will provide the empirical and rational basis for the fourth and final section of this essay, synthesizing the main findings and arguments, and outlining considerations for the way forward.

English Medium Schooling Enrolment in English and Other MOI Schools Despite the many limitations of official educational statistics, the following table constructed from U-DISE data for 2015–16 provides an approximation 77

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Table 5.1 Student Enrolment by Medium of Instruction (MOI) in Elementary Sections, in Complete Schools and in Schools having Secondary/Higher Sections of Muslim Students – All India Category

Enrolment in Elementary Sections (in millions)

Enrolment in Complete Schools and Schools having Post-Elementary Sections (in millions)

Total Enrolment (in millions)

Hindi English Bengali Marathi Gujarati Other Languages TOTAL

80.31(56%) 13.78(10%) 7.79(5%) 7.04(5%) 7.32(5%) 27.15(19%) 143.39(73%)

15.73 (30%) 20.23(39%) 5.29 (10%) 3.57(7%) 0.63(1%) 6.81(13.0%) 52.26(27%)

96.04(49%) 34.01(17%) 13.08(7%) 10.61(5%) 7.95(4%) 33.96(18%) 196.7(100%)

Source: DISE State Report Cards 2015–16 Note 1 – The Other Languages category in the table is an overestimate. It has been created by taking the total of the school enrolment teaching in the five major languages and subtracting it from the total school enrolment. It also includes one million students for which no MOI data was reported. Moreover, the figures for English are likely to be a huge under-estimate for reasons that will be detailed later. Note 2 – Complete Schools are schools with the full range of elementary and post-elementary sections/stages.

of the MOIs that students are using at different levels of school education in India. Despite being grossly underestimated, English medium enrolment is still larger than the total student strength in three of the four major Indian regional languages – Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati, in complete schools and in schools having post-elementary sections. Moreover, greater than even Hindi medium schooling, English medium schools have the largest proportion of enrolment (39 per cent) in sections that have both full schools – from primary through higher secondary – and institutions with secondary sections/higher secondary sections or both. English is the only language, unlike Hindi or the other regional languages, where the enrolment increases from the elementary level to the post-elementary level, whereas all the other languages show quite dramatic falls in enrolment, indicating that students may be transferring to English medium schools from other schools. And as the state-level data indicates, English is the only language that has a presence in every state and union territory as a MOI. Major Limitation in Official Data Fee-charging, English medium schools have mushroomed all over rural and urban India attracting the children of ambitious poor and lower middle-class 78

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parents. While U-DISE data on MOI is incorrectly reported or not reported at all, its major limitation is that it excludes students in private, unaided and un-recognized schools. A detailed study of schools actually functioning in Patna City for instance documented that more than a thousand private unaided schools were missing in the U-DISE data for 2009–10, and these private schools accounted for 78 per cent of the total Patna city enrolment (Rangaraju et al., 2012, p. 1). Attendance in English Medium Schools A more accurate set of medium of instruction data is provided by the NSS 75th Round 2018 Report, Household Social Consumption on Education in India. More likely to be reliable than enrolment data provided by schools is data provided by household respondents on whether children attended schools that were teaching in the same language spoken at home, or whether they were studying in different languages – either in English medium schools or in schools in which the MOIs were in other languages. Tables 5.2 and 5.3 provide the overall totals and the All-India rural/urban breakdown, respectively. As Table  5.2 indicates, almost a quarter of all students (24 per cent) spoke in different languages at home, but were attending English medium schools. Table  5.3 indicates a clear-cut English medium schooling divide between urban and rural India. More than half of all urban Indian students (51 per cent), speaking in different languages at home, are studying in English medium schools. Most surprising of all is that at the pre-primary level, almost two-thirds of young children (66 per cent) in urban India are studying in English medium, and only 30 per cent of urban students are in pre-primary centres where the MOI is the same as the home language. As many as one-third of rural children (33 per cent) are also attending English medium pre-primary classes. This unexpected proportion of young rural children studying in English medium pre-primary centres reflects parental educational aspirations for their children. A recent large-scale study on pre-school education in rural India documented that parents from a random sample of 357 villages in the three states of Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana preferred pre-schools with English as the medium of instruction! (CECED et al., 2017, p. 23). The Post-1990s’ Rise of the English Tsunami In the 1990s and subsequent decades, the demand for English imperceptibly and exponentially expanded as a result of major political and socio-economic changes in India, namely its growing globalization and economic liberalization; the pervasive use of computers and the Internet; and the expansion of new employment opportunities requiring competency and fluency in 79

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Table 5.2 Percentage Distribution of Students by Medium of Instruction for Different Languages Spoken at Home and Different Levels of Current Attendance – All India Category (All)

Attending Educational Institutions in Language Spoken at Home

Attending English Medium Educational Institutions

Attending Ed. Institutions in All Other Language Mediums

Attending Ed. Institutions in All Language Mediums (Total)

Pre-primary Primary Upper Primary Secondary Higher Secondary TOTAL

48% 65% 68% 68% 62%

45% 23% 21% 21% 29%

 7% 12% 11% 11%  9%

100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

65%

24%

11%

100%

Source: NSS 75th Round, 2018, Household Social Consumption on Education in India

English. Unsurprisingly, people with English communication skills earn significantly higher than people who do not (Azam et al., 2011, p. 21). This new surge for English medium schooling came as the lower middle class and poorer strata of Indian society began to assert themselves –noticeable even by the first decade of the 21stcentury. As Baird in his analysis of private English medium schools in Hyderabad and Mumbai noted: Today, English serves as the language of expertise and management in India; politicians, if they can speak good English, will often do so to assert elite status. As a result, English maintains a powerful presence among the poor of India: the vast majority of lowincome parents I interviewed believed that if their child can speak English, he or she would be guaranteed a middle-class job. In previous demand-side analysis of the low-fee private school sector, the majority of lower-middle class Indians viewed English as their ticket to mobility – just within reach, but with required sacrifices. Private school tuition is one of these channels. In contemporary India, three broad types of English medium schools have evolved: high fee-charging, private unaided schools with extravagant infrastructure and provisions catering to the upper middle classes and rich; a larger group of more modestly equipped schools – fee-charging and sometimes government aided – catering to the expanding middle classes; and in the last three decades, the ubiquitous growth of private, low fee-charging English medium schools for the poor and lower middle class in slums and villages all over India for which there is a great demand – many merely 80

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Category (All)

Attending Ed. Inst. in Language Spoken at Home (Rural)

Attending Ed. Inst. in Language Spoken at Home (Urban)

Attending English Medium Ed. Inst. (Rural)

Attending English Medium Ed. Inst. (Urban)

Attending Ed. Inst. in All Other Language Medium (Rural)

Attending Ed. Inst. in All Other Language Mediums (Urban)

Attending Ed. Inst. in All Language Mediums Total (Urban & Rural)

Pre-primary Primary U. Primary Secondary H.Sec. TOTAL

59% 72% 75% 75% 72% 73%

30% 44% 46% 48% 42% 43%

33% 14% 12% 12% 17% 14%

66% 51% 48% 46% 54% 51%

 8% 14% 13% 13% 11% 13%

4% 5% 6% 6% 4% 6%

100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Source: NSS 75th Round, 2018, Household Social Consumption on Education in India

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Table 5.3 Percentage Distribution of Students by Medium of Instruction for Different Languages Spoken at Home and Different Levels of Attendance by Rural/Urban Location – All India

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English medium in name. This demand for low fee-charging English medium schools continues unabated. Muslims Heavily Invested in English Medium Schooling Two separate discussions based on the 75th Round of education data, and a third based on an unconfirmed report, illustrate the extraordinary involvement of Muslims in English medium schooling: • In ten out of 20 large states, the number of Muslims attending English medium schools, expressed as a proportion of all Muslims attending schools, is higher than the corresponding proportion for Hindus (Kishore and Jha, 2020). • Of all Urdu-speaking households, as high as 52.3 per cent were attending English medium schools. Only 12.2 per cent attended Urdu medium institutions (75th NSS Round, 2018). • Unconfirmed figures indicated that while there were about a dozen English medium schools in Bangalore run by Muslims in 1982, by around 2016 this had expanded to 450 schools! (Siraj, 2017, pp. 17–18). Many poor and lower middle-class Muslims are part of the post-1990’s English tsunami phase, and are now enrolling their children in low feecharging English medium schools. Therefore, the rest of this section is devoted to understanding its ideological underpinnings, its impact on state government English language policies as well as the quality of instruction and learning it provides its students. New Ideological Arguments for the Right of the Disadvantaged to English Medium Schooling In the early post-independence decades, state governments not only discouraged the use of English as an MOI but also neglected to improve its teaching as a second language in government schools. By the first decade of the 21stcentury, English medium schooling was for the first time being promoted explicitly, and sometimes aggressively, as being absolutely critical and empowering for the poor in contemporary India. It had many articulate and diverse spokesmen, including the Dalit intellectuals Chandra Bhan Prasad and Kancha Ilaiah, Narayana Murthy of Infosys (a software company) fame and Rajasekhara Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (Kurrien, 2006). The publication of the NEP 2020, with its political-cultural hostility to English reflected in the extremely limited, scattered and neutral references to it as one of the many languages to be studied saw a renewed, more self-confident and aggressive demand for English medium schooling for the poor. 82

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Critical of the 2020 NEP, one of its most vocal and articulate spokesmen – Kancha Ilaiah – observed: Among the ruling classes, whatever is their ideological and political position, their children are educated in English medium schools. But quite consciously, this language has been kept away from the rural agrarian, productive masses. . . . This has led to the creation of two nations – English-speaking India and mother tongue-speaking Bharat. . . . From tribal areas to our metropolitan urban centres, Indian school and college education has to be in one common language. (Ilaiah, 2020) Response of State Governments to the English Juggernaut Various state governments have abandoned their existing MOI policies and practices, and acquiesced to the widespread, pan-Indian popular demand for English medium schooling. Kashmir, Nagaland and Andhra Pradesh have made a complete switch to English medium, whilst in almost all other states, English medium has now entered the government system, which continues to selectively expand it in tribal, rural and urban areas. Another major change has been to improve the acquisition of English in government regional medium schools by starting to teach it as a subject at the primary level. Prior to independence and for many decades later, English was introduced as a subject/second language at the beginning of the upper primary stage – class 5 or class 6 depending on the state. The popular demand for English forced the abandonment of this position, and English is now taught from class 1 onwards in most states (NCERT, 2012, p. 4). And to counter the large number of private English medium pre-primary centres mushrooming in rural and urban India, Uttar Pradesh – a state traditionally hostile to English and English medium schooling – took a decision in 2019 to convert anganwadis (government-run mother and young child care centres) under the Basic Shiksha Parishad to English medium pre-primary schools! (Press Trust of India, October 26, 2019). Significantly Poor Standards of Teaching and Learning in the New Government and Private Low-Cost English Medium Schools The multi-state Annual Status of Education (ASER) Report 2016 on learning survey, involving 4,553 rural government school students in Kashmir, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, indicated that 42 per cent in classes 5–8 were at best able to read English words, but not simple sentences that a class 1 student could be expected to read and comprehend (ASER Report, 2016). 83

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In a state like Kashmir, where English has been the medium of instruction in the entire state for a number of years, the number of non-sentence readers was actually slightly higher at 47 per cent. If almost half the upper primary students in rural government English medium schools in Kashmir were not able to read simple English sentences, one can only surmise that the only way these and many other students coped with other subjects in the school curriculum was through learning by rote and reproducing answers verbatim from their textbooks. Almost 30 per cent of children in classes 1–5 in urban, low-cost, private unaided English medium schools in Delhi and Noida could not read simple sentences like I like to read and She has many books. Speaking skills were even worse. The parents of these children included drivers, construction labourers and security personnel (Endow, 2018, p. 7). Main Reasons for Deficits in English Skills of Disadvantaged Students Attending Low-Cost Private and Recently Established Government English Medium Schools The following briefly summarizes field observations of classrooms in lowcost English medium private unaided schools, and interviews with students, parents, teachers and other stakeholders conducted in three different regions of India, highlighting the poor acquisition of English skills: the extremely limited English proficiency of poorly paid teachers; sole reliance on translating the textbook and its translation in local languages to convey meaning; and focusing classroom instruction on memorizing model answers for possible questions that could appear in the all-important examinations. Since parents themselves had limited formal education and knowledge of English, they were unaware of the English language deficits of their children, and spent considerable sums of additional money on tuitions for them (Endow, 2018; Bhattacharya, 2013; Lall, 2000). As in the case of private low-cost English medium schools, the main reason for the low standards of instruction in government English medium schools is the limited English skills of their teachers. Any observer of government English medium schools would confirm what Baird has noted of government schools in Andhra Pradesh: “in practice, English-medium government schools are not teaching in English” (Baird, 2009, p. 50).

Urdu Medium Schooling Decline of Urdu and Extremely Low Attendance and Enrolment Rates of Urdu Medium Schooling Many historical and cultural factors account for the close affinity for Urdu among various Muslim communities in different regions of India. It is also 84

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the mother tongue of many Muslims. However, the number of speakers declaring Urdu as their first language has been continuously decreasing, and declined in the 2011 Census to only 4.2 per cent of the Indian population, which would mean that only about 30 per cent of Indian Muslims declared Urdu as their first language. But despite the strong bonds that Urdu has amongst Muslims, and many efforts by government and Muslim organizations to promote Urdu medium instruction, it too continues to decline in post-independence India. According to the 2011 Census, Urdu has 60.3 million speakers, and therefore is placed 7th in a rank ordering of the 12 major languages spoken in India. However, Urdu speakers rank lowest among those who send their children to schools teaching in the same medium of instruction as the language spoken at home, according to the 75th Round of the 2017–18 Household Survey on Education. The data indicated that only 12.2 per cent of Urduspeaking households sent their children to Urdu medium schools, and larger numbers to Hindi medium (13.2 per cent) and regional language medium schools (20.8 per cent). But the majority of Urdu-speaking households (53.8 per cent) sent their children to English medium schools. Within enrolment in all MOIs in India, Urdu medium enrolment accounted for a miniscule 2 per cent. The corresponding figure for Maharashtra was 6.7 per cent, the state with the largest number of Urdu medium schools. In many states, Urdu is taught only as an optional subject in schools (Kurrien, 2019, p. 38). The Decline of Urdu Medium Schooling Factors that have led to the decline of Urdu medium schooling include the changing socio-political-economic environment in post-independence India, the rise of regional language instruction and English medium schooling, internal factors concerning the quality of instruction and learning in Urdu medium schools as well as limitations in their outcomes. Loss of Patronage of the Middle Class and Poorer Strata of Muslim Society and Impact of English Medium Schooling Writing in 1997, Jeffrey observed that “where English is considered to be the language of the wealthy, Urdu is now regarded as the primary language of the poor, particularly of poor Muslims” (Jeffrey, 1997, p. 631). As indicated in the previous section, only a miniscule proportion of Urdu speakers are attending Urdu medium schools and far larger numbers are in English medium schools, and that the number of Muslims attending English-medium schools, expressed as a proportion of all Muslims attending schools, is higher than the corresponding proportion for Hindus. 85

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Limitations in the Quality and Outcomes of Urdu Medium Schooling A large-scale survey of reading and writing skills of primary students in Municipal Corporation schools of Mumbai indicated that Urdu medium students fared significantly lower than Hindi and Marathi medium students. Even by class 4, more than 40 per cent of Urdu medium students were able to neither read nor write (Pratham, 2005, pp. 41–42). There are more recent reports highlighting the poor quality of instruction and learning in Urdu medium schools in Maharashtra and Bangalore (Shaban, 2014, pp. 97–105; Vaijayanti, 2010, pp. 13–16). Since available educational resources in Urdu are extremely limited, it cannot be an instrument for developing technical and scientific knowledge. Nor does Urdu provide access to the immense store of knowledge available on the Internet. Few Urdu medium schools have class 10 or class 12 sections. This has limited the future of many young vulnerable Muslim students and ruled out attractive vocational training options – like the national network of ITIs and polytechnics – which impart skills in many occupations. Both require class 10 and class 12 certificates as minimum entry requirements. For students educated in Urdu, the most they can expect is to teach in an Urdu medium school or a madrasa (Shaban, 2015, p. 49). The following comment of an experienced Muslim observer of Urdu medium schools in Karnataka is illustrative of other relevant handicaps: For instance, Urdu medium of education does not endow the community with linguistic skills relevant for administration and the market. A person educated through Urdu medium is not sufficiently skilled to apply for a Government job, or can read a newspaper in English or Kannada or file an FIR in a police station, or plead his case for facilities with civic authorities or Civil Supplies Department or can understand the dominant cultural trends in popular literature, films or journalism. This incapacity deters the community’s effective integration with the mainstream life and development and also hinders its access to positions of power, profit and privilege which lends assertiveness to them. (Siraj, 2017, pp. 1–2)

Regional Medium Schooling Advantages of Regional Medium Schooling for Disadvantaged Muslims •

Unlike Urdu medium schools, it is possible to pursue 15 years of schooling from pre-primary level to class 12 in one of the regional languages. 86

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Both Tables 2 and 3 attest to high enrolment and attendance rates in languages other than Urdu. • By providing a variety of facilities, including textbooks, uniforms, midday meals and scholarships, government schools are facilitating the entry and retention of all disadvantaged students. • Unlike the small proportion of Muslims who attend full-time Urdu medium schools and madrasas, government schools attract children from different communities including Muslim, and consequently Muslim children learn to study and interact with non-Muslims. Much more needs to be actively done to promote fraternal attitudes at this early stage. • As documented earlier, only 30 per cent of Muslims claim Urdu as their mother tongue. Therefore, most poor and lower middle-class Muslims would be proficient to some degree in a regional language. Many of them, including those from Urdu-speaking households, would be speaking in the regional language in their communities, which is conducive to literacy acquisition as well as learning in other subjects. • Unlike Urdu medium, regional medium schools promote higher education and employment prospects. This also helps to deal with other practical daily life concerns. Disadvantages of Regional Medium Schooling •

The most striking deficiency of government regional medium schools is that the standards of learning are extremely substandard. Most students are learning far below grade level, as documented by the annual ASER learning surveys. Government schools are unable to retain disadvantaged students, especially Muslims. Nor are students being prepared with skills and knowledge for life outside school. • Importantly, practically everybody is now aware that many children are learning very little in these schools. At the same time in post-1990’s India, the educational and material aspirations of the poor and lower middle class have increased considerably. • Consequently, there has been a significant migration from government schools to private unaided schools in the last two decades. Between 1993 and 2017, DISE data indicated that enrolment decreased significantly from 70.8 per cent to 52.5 per cent in government schools, whereas in private unaided schools, it increased dramatically from 9.2 per cent to 34.9 per cent (Central Square Foundation, 2020, p. 31). • As documented earlier, poor and lower middle-class Muslims are heavily invested in private unaided English medium schooling. The cruel irony is that government schools have failed those who need them the most, and that Muslims and other disadvantaged groups are enrolling in low-cost English medium schools, which are for the most part teaching shops. 87

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Conclusion Let us revisit the fundamental question: which among the current MOIs – Urdu, the regional language or English – will give poor and lower middleclass Muslim students the best opportunity to achieve the NEP and SDG goal of 15 years of good-quality school education. It is important to make informed choices about the possible MOIs for disadvantaged Muslim students. In this context, the key arguments are summarized here and recommendations made that can serve as a compact guide for Muslim parents, communities, advocacy groups, politicians and policy makers, to understand the issues involved in selecting MOIs. The Unsuitability of Urdu Medium as an MOI for Marginalized Muslims Urdu medium school reforms feature prominently in many past and contemporary discussions on Muslim education, and preserving the Urdu language and its educational implications merits serious attention. However, Urdu medium schooling cannot provide 15 years of education for poor and lower middle-class Muslim students and accounts for only 2 per cent of total school enrolment. Only 12.2 per cent of Urdu-speaking households send their children to Urdu medium schools reflecting a growing trend of the loss of its importance amongst its base. Given the low contemporary demand for it, Urdu cannot be considered a suitable MOI for marginalized Muslim children. The quality of Urdu medium schooling is poor, and access to secondary education is extremely limited as are the career options for students. It also has grave limitations in terms of access to practical, technical and scientific knowledge that deters the community’s effective integration with mainstream life and development. The Attractions of English Medium Schooling for Disadvantaged Muslims and Its Delusionary Advantages In recent decades, English medium schooling has been widely demanded as the gateway to better education and employment prospects by all marginalized Indians. As the evidence indicates, Muslims have a particular preference for private English medium schooling. Moreover, unlike with the Urdu medium, many vulnerable Muslim children can pursue 15 years of English medium schooling from pre-primary through higher secondary stages. However, few poor parents realize that their children learn significantly limited English skills and other relevant competencies in these private

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low-cost English schools which merely offer delusions of learning and subsequent advancement. Making considerable financial sacrifices, unwary parents are misled into thinking that their children would also receive many of the educational and career benefits of English medium schooling accruing to their middle and wealthier counterparts. Schools for the wealthy are qualitatively different in that they have teachers who know English, an aspirational student and parent body, and a school environment in which English is actively promoted. Most important of all is the home cultural environment in which English and related cognitive skills of children are reinforced by parents with English-enhancing resources and technologies. Moreover, the social capital of these families facilitates entry of their children into the “right” colleges and careers. It is the quality of schooling reinforced by the home environment which makes for significant differences in English acquisition, and consequent educational and career outcomes. No amount of improvement in English medium schooling for the poor – whether in fee-charging private or government schools – can fully compensate for these school and home advantages. Regional Medium Schools for Marginalized Muslims – Its Advantages and Disadvantages Like other disadvantaged groups, most Muslims, especially in rural India, send their children to government regional medium schools. Moreover, for poor and lower middle-class parents (including Muslims), no fees are charged. Children get a variety of facilities, including midday meals and scholarships. Fifteen years of school education is also widely available. Disadvantaged Muslim children and adults speak in the regional language within their communities and neighbourhoods. Consequently, unlike English medium schooling, regional medium of instruction can facilitate comprehension, which is the foundation of all effective learning. The potential for promoting fraternity is higher in government schools, where Muslim children interact with children from other communities, than in Urdu medium schools and full-time madrasas attended by only Muslims. Moreover, unlike Urdu schools, regional medium schooling provides many more opportunities for higher education and employment, and promotes sociocultural and integration goals. Despite their many advantages, due to concerns of the significantly substandard quality of education and accountability in government regional medium schools, the poor and lower middle class including Muslims are increasingly deserting them for private schools, especially English medium schools. Many regional medium sections and schools are closing down throughout India.

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Considerations for the Way Forward If implementation is reasonably effective and sustained, the following pedagogical guidelines can make a significant difference to the education of marginalized Muslim students: • For providing 15  years of quality education for disadvantaged Muslims, and all other marginalized groups, the primary focus should be on regional medium government schools with a focus on improving English acquisition of students. • Given the high public demand for private English medium initiatives, both government and low-cost private English medium schools need to substantially improve the standards of English proficiency through comprehensive reforms in English instruction and learning. Improving teachers’ knowledge of English, and skills in teaching disadvantaged students who have limited supporting home backgrounds should be a priority. • As NEP 2020 is committed to promoting regional medium education, implementation of these reforms is therefore more likely to happen in government schools which have far more human and financial resources than unaided low-cost private schools, for training teachers and equipping classrooms and students with educational resources. • The COVID-19 pandemic will have a devastating impact on the survival of quite a few low-cost private schools, as many parents will find it difficult to afford them. Government schools will therefore need to rise to meet the new challenge of increased enrolment, providing 15 years of quality education for poor and lower middle-class Muslims and other marginalized groups.

References ASER Center (2016): Annual Status of Education Report. www.asercentre.org/ p/289.html. Asher, S. et al. (2018): Intergenerational Mobility in India: Estimates From New Methods and Administrative Data. www.dartmouth.edu/~novosad/anr-indiamobility.pdf. Azam, M. et al. (2011): “The Returns to English-Language Skills in India”, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 61(2). www.journals.uchicago.edu/ doi/abs/10.1086/668277?journalCode=edcc. Bhattacharya, U. (2013): “Mediating Inequalities: Exploring English-Medium Instruction in a Suburban Indian Village School”, Current Issues in Language Planning, 14(1), February. www.researchgate.net/publication/271625239_Medi ating_inequalities_Exploring_English-medium_instruction_in_a_suburban_ Indian_village_school.

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CECED, ASER and UNICEF (2017): The India Early Childhood Education Impact Study. www.asercentre.org/Keywords/p/306.html Central Square Foundation (2020): State of the Sector Report on Private Schools in India. https://centralsquarefoundation.org/State-of-the-Sector-Report-on-PrivateSchools-in-India.pdf Endow, T. (2018): “Inferior Outcomes: Learning in Low-Cost English-Medium Private Schools – A  Survey in Delhi and National Capital Region”, Indian Journal of Human Development, 12(1). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/ 10.1177/0973703018779725 Ilaiah, K. (2020): “Macaulay Is Very Relevant Today and Helps Dalits, OBCs Join the Global Economy”, The Wire, July 31. https://thewire.in/education/macaulayenglish-medium-new-education-policy Jeffrey, R. (1997): “Urdu: Waiting for Citizen Kane?”, Economic and Political Weekly, 32(13), March 29. Kishore, R., and Jha, A. (2020): “Mapping Education Inequalities”, Hindustan Times, August 1, New Delhi. www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mapping-edu cation-inequalities/story-xhTIlYty7kF7MNqxnOyGtO.html Kurrien, J. (2006): “Teach Me English”, Times of India, October 7. https://timesofin dia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/Teach-me-English/articleshow/2110303.cms Kurrien, J. (2019): A New Agenda for the Education of Muslims in Contemporary India. www.educationofmuslimsindia.org Lall, J. (2000): Schools for Thought – A Study of Small Private Schools in Jaipur. Kukas (Rajasthan): Bodh Shiksha Samiti. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (2018): Household Social Consumption in India. NSS 75th Round, July 2017–June 2018. New Delhi: Government of India. National Council for Educational Research and Training (2012): Teaching of English at Primary Schools: Synthesis Report. New Delhi. https://ncert.nic.in/del/ pdf/English_Primary_level.pdf Pratham (2005): Universalizing Primary Education in India’s Mega Cities: Issues From Mumbai and Delhi. Pratham Resource Center/UNESCO. www.dasra.org/ resource/improving-mumbais-public-schools Press Trust of India (2019): “Yogi Adityanath: Anganwadis to Be Converted to Pre-primary Schools”, Lucknow, October  26. www.indiatoday.in/educationtoday/news/story/yogi-adityanath-anganwadis-to-be-converted-to-pre-primaryschools-1613059-2019-10-26 Rangaraju, B. et al. (2012): The Private School Revolution in Bihar: Findings From a Survey in Patna Urban. India Institute with the EG West Centre, Newcastle University. http://indiai.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/The-Private-SchoolRevolution-in-Bihar.pdf Shaban, A. (2014): Urdu Medium Schools in Maharashtra – An Assessment of Their Infrastructure and Possibility of Developing Them in Model Schools. Mumbai: Tata Institute of Social Sciences. https://mdd.maharashtra.gov.in/Site/Upload/Pdf/ Combined_Urdu_medium_Schools_report.pdf Shaban, A. (2015): “Urdu and Urdu Medium Schools in Maharashtra”, Economic & Political Weekly, 1(29), July 18.

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Siraj, M.A. (2017): Status of Urdu Medium Schools in Karnataka. Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy. https://dom.karnataka.gov.in/storage/ pdf-files/Sir per cent20Syed per cent20Ahmed per cent20Khan/Status per cent20of per cent20Urdu per cent20Medium per cent20School per cent20-per cent20M per cent20A per cent20Siraj.pdf Vaijayanti, K. (2010): Educating A  Minority: A  Case Study of Government Urdu Schools in Bengaluru. Silicon City. https://akshara.org.in/wp-content/ uploads/2014/12/Educating-A-Minority-A-case-study-of-Government-UrduSchools-in-Bengaluru.pdf?x40243

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Section 2 ADDRESSING EQUITY ISSUES ACROSS THE EDUCATION SPECTRUM

6 MAPPING GENDER IN SCHOOL EDUCATION AT PRIMARY LEVEL IN INDIA Madhumita Bandyopadhyay

Introduction The school education system in India is going through a challenging phase. There is an increasing pressure to improve the quality of education as it has been considered the right of every child in India. India is striving hard for bringing all the children within the fold of elementary education system as it has been assigned the highest priority and enshrined in the country’s Constitution. An attempt has been made in this chapter to examine policies and schemes that have been enunciated to promote gender equity in primary education. It also examines the current status, issues, challenges and contributing factors such as provisioning of school spaces, school infrastructural facilities and teachers, and discusses the impact on gender equity – the stepping stone to enter the world of knowledge as well as for accessing a decent livelihood.

Policy Perspectives The post-independence period saw several policies and programmes (NPE, 1968, 1986; POA, 1992) being developed to universalize primary education for all children. Recommendations of these policies were the guiding principles for several centrally sponsored schemes and state-specific programmes that included various initiatives ranging from facilitating girls’ access and participation in schools to ensuring gender-friendly environment in schools. Notwithstanding the effective policy directions, universalization of elementary education (UEE) has remained an elusive goal since independence. To make UEE a reality, a more “intense and consistent attention” (Govinda and Mathew, 2018, p. 38) was required which, though “not far away,’ was still ‘not close enough yet to relax or even set a definitive timeline” (Govinda and Mathew, 2018, p. 37). Despite the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-9 

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(MHRD, 2010) making elementary education a fundamental right, with a strong emphasis on access, equity and quality, the attention to universalization of primary education is still wanting and therefore achieving the goal of UEE seems distant. Needless to say, primary education has received considerable attention for last several decades that lead to its quantitative and qualitative expansion. Programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) (MHRD, 2001), the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and the recent programme of government of India, namely Samagra Shiksha (SS), have focused on bridging gender and social gaps at all levels of school education from pre-school to class 12 also to address quality in education. Equity and inclusion are also the central concerns of the recently introduced National Education Policy 2020 (MHRD, 2020a) that brings to attention the need for achieving gender equality in school education. The policy envisages development of an inclusive education system by eliminating barriers to education for all children that represent the diversity of needs, aspirations and challenges in India. It proposes the establishment of a “gender inclusion fund” for providing girls and transgender children the educational spaces to strengthen inclusion.

Issues and Challenges Pertaining to Achieving Gender Equity in Education It is widely acknowledged that despite the tremendous expansion of educational facilities during last few decades, achieving gender and social equity in education is still a major concern for policy planning and implementation in India. Gender discrimination remains pervasive due to a patriarchal social set-up that displays a strong preference for sons over daughters and which has also resulted in female feticides, lowering the juvenile sex ratio in the country. As highlighted in the 2011 Census (Ministry of Home Affairs, 2011), the juvenile sex ratio declined to 919 from 927 between 2001 and 2011. Gender discrimination is further exacerbated by other conditions as described by Ramachandran and Chatterjee (2013, p. 7): It has been long established that gender, social and economic status has a strong influence on the education level of a child. A child is at a greater disadvantage if he/she is living in rural areas and belongs to a poor family. This situation becomes worse if a child is a girl and especially an older girl. Therefore, addressing gender and social equity issues in education requires a framework that can capture heterogeneous gendered realities and multiple disadvantages, which are influenced by factors such as location (rural, urban, remote, tribal etc.), identity (caste, cultural, religion, occupation), socioeconomic status of the family, which type of schools (government

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or private) children are enrolled in, ability and disability and within all this, gender relations. Such a nexus and intermeshing of varied factors and their influence on education of children has also been studied by other scholars (Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2011a, 2019; Bandyopadhyay, 2019). Drawing references from the National Sample Survey’s 71st and 75th rounds ((MOSPI, 2015) and data from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) III and IV (IIPS and ICF, 2007, 2017), as well as some recent researchers, Govinda and Bandyopadhyay (2019, p. 226) mention that Careful analysis of data by region, caste, economic background, religion and gender reveal that disparities have not reduced to acceptable levels. The most subordinated and poorest ethnic groups still experience gross forms of educational deprivation. Gender and class differentiations among them are sharp. The influence of intersectionality (Stromquist, 2001; Unterhalter, 2009, 2012) and the complex relationships between factors such as gender, sociocultural background of children, location and poverty impact children’s access to and participation in school. The educational situation is quite dichotomous in terms of geographical settings of rural and urban, which get further accentuated with other dichotomies such as the private and public management of institutions. Typically, a higher proportion of private schools are in urban and peri-urban areas, whereas the rural areas are mainly served by government schools resulting in uneven schooling provision and unequal access for children. In addition, often due to gender-biased attitude, parents stress more on women’s role as caregiver and homemaker and therefore not keen on girls’ education. This impacts not only the socialization process of children but also parental choices for schooling of girls and boys. Many parents prefer to send their sons to private schools while daughters to government schools as investment on girls’ education is considered wasteful (Bandyopadhyay and Subrahmanian, 2011). They often discourage their daughters attending English medium private schools or opting for science stream. This type of mindset of parents impacts girls’ education right from the primary stage, though the situation is changing gradually. Gender has been a primary concern for education policy and planning in the post-independence period, and since then, a wide range of interventions have been made to bridge the gender gap in education. However, the focus of policy implementation remains around issues of access and parity rather than equality (Sudarshan, 2016). Unequal provisioning of educational facilities has further jeopardized gender and social equity. This gender gap is

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visible in education too. While 63.5 per cent of men 25  years and above could receive secondary education, for women, it is only 39 per cent.

Gender and School Education: Present Status Out-of-School Children Against the backdrop of above discussion, one can examine the present status of gender equity in primary education and the extent to which gender matters for providing education to children at this stage. According to the 2011 Census, as many as 7.8 million Indian children are forced to earn a livelihood even as they attend schools, while 84 million children don’t go to  school  at all, and these children account for nearly 20 per cent of the age group covered under the RTE Act. Although boys and girls make up nearly the same proportion of the out-of-school segment, among students who work, 57 per cent are boys, and the remaining 43 per cent are girls. According to the periodical surveys of out-of-school children conducted by MHRD in 2006, 2009 and 2014, there has been significant decline in the number of out-of-school children over the years. While the number of boys declined to 6.7 million (6.18 per cent) to 3.2 million (2.77 per cent), the number of out-of-school girls reduced from 6.7 million (7.92 per cent) to 2.9 million (3.23 per cent) during the period 2006 to 2014. It may be mentioned that the number of out-of-school children as per the NSS of the same year (2014) was much higher, around 20 million. Thus, there is a considerable variation in estimation of out-of-school children as per different data sources. Referring to these two data sources, Bhatty et al. (2017, p. 2) point out that Each figure is based on an estimate of “never enrolled” and “dropped out” children. A closer look reveals that problems exist not just in the definitions, especially of drop out used by each source, but also in the methods of estimating ‘never enrolled’. In addition, discrepancies and inefficiencies in the overall system of collecting and collating data compound the problems. Enrolment The gender gap in enrolment is visible from the pre-school stage. As per U-DISE data of 2016–17, around 22 per cent primary schools had pre-primary sections enrolling only around 7.7 per cent children, leaving a vast majority out of formal pre-school education. According to 2018–19 U-DISE, the number of children receiving pre-schooling in different types of schools was 11.9 million out of which 45.7 per cent are girls and 54.3 per cent are boys. Such disparity continued at primary level and the proportion of girls was 48 per cent out of the total of 12 million students enrolled in primary schools. 98

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Figure 6.1 Gross Enrolment Ratio and Net Enrolment Ratio at the Primary Level Sources: NIEPA and MHRD (2018), Table 1.41, p. 33; MHRD (2020b). Source: MHRD (2020b)

However, it is noticeable that, both the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) at primary level have followed declining trends during last few years though these have been little higher for girls as compared to boys (Figure 6.1A and 6.1B). It is also to be noted that there is a considerable gap between GER and NER, which indicates the presence of over-aged and under-aged children in the system. Increase in enrolment of 6–10 aged children has been reported in both rural and urban areas during the last two NFHS (2005–06 and 2015–16). As highlighted in Table 6.1, there has been a considerable increase in percentage share of boys and girls attending school but despite this increase, slight rural and urban disparity is still visible. According to the 75th NSS (MOSPI, 2020), typically there is a substantial gap between Gross Attendance Rate (GAR) of 101.2 and Net Attendance Rate (NAR) of 86.1 at the primary level. While the GAR and NAR of girls are 100.4 and 85.1, respectively, for boys these are slightly higher at 101.9 GAR and 86.8 NAR indicating better attendance of boys in primary schools. This indicates that girls are not being able to attend the school even though they have been enrolled in school. 99

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Table 6.1 School Attendance of 6–10 Years Age Group in Schools Male

NFHS 3 (2005–06) NFHS 4 (2015–16)

Female

Urban

Rural

Total

Urban

Rural

Total

87.6 96.3

83.6 94.7

84.6 95.2

88.3 96.8

78.5 94.2

81.0 95.0

Source: IIPS and ICF (2017), Table 2.19, p. 47. IIPS and ICF (2007), Table 2.9, p. 33.

Table 6.2 Gender-wise Gross Attendance Rate and Net Attendance Rate Among Different Quintile Classes of UMPCE at Primary Level Quintile Class of UMPCE

1 2 3 4 5 All

GAR

NAR

Rural

Urban

Rural

Urban

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

Male

Female

100 98 102 104 109 102

96 99 100 103 106 100

100 102 105 106 101 102

101 101 105 102 102 102

80 82 84 85 90 84

78 81 84 87 87 82

78 85 88 90 89 85

77 85 87 88 89 84

Source: MOSPI (2015), NSS Round 71, Table 14d, p. A-108 & Table 15d, p. A-119.

This may have serious consequence on their retention and learning. It is also to be noted in Table 6.2 that GAR and NAR are much higher for males than for females and these are inversely related to the quintile class of Usual Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (UMPCE) in rural as well as in urban areas even at the level of primary education. This also explains the way gender interplays with other characteristics like location and economic categories that negatively impact on school attendance. As Figure  6.2 shows, India has witnessed considerable improvement in the Gender Parity Index (GPI) for primary schooling, which stood at a meagre 0.41 in 1950–51 and reached over 1.00 in 2009–10. As per U-DISE data (MHRD, 2020b), the GPI improved further during last few years at 1.03, favouring girls at the primary level. Despite a positive GPI, one of the explanations regarding gender disparity can be given with respect to the types of schools attended by children. As highlighted in Figure 6.3, the proportion of girls is much higher in the governmentrun schools, which gets reversed in case of private unaided schools. Such disparity suggests that for promoting girls’ education, it is essential to pay attention on the quality of education and services in government 100

Mapping Gender in School Education at Primary Level in India

Figure 6.2 Trend in Gender Parity Index at Primary Level Source: MHRD (2019) Table 31, p. 36, and MHRD (2020b)

Figure 6.3 Gender-wise Proportion of Enrolment in Primary Schools of Different Management Type Source: MHRD (2020b)

schools in addition to provisioning of incentives for girls, another determining factor contributing to increase in enrolment and retention of girls in government schools. Attainment Gender disparity can also be examined through outcome-related indicators including learning outcome, which is intrinsically important for improving attendance, grade promotion and retention of children in school. It has been observed that children who do not attend schools regularly often perform poorly in their examinations. Similarly, children with lower learning levels tend to lose interest in education. They stop attending school regularly and eventually drop out (Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2011a). According to Varghese (2012, p. 27), “Student learning is central to the educational process.” Data shows that the pass percentage of children at the primary level was quite impressive in 2015–16 with 98.78 per cent boys 101

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and 98.81 per cent girls that passed grade 5 (last grade of primary stage) though the proportion of students securing more than 60 per cent in the examinations was much lower with girls performing slightly better at 62.75 per cent compared to boys at 62.58 per cent. The average performance of girls in Language and Environmental Science in grades 3 and 5 was also slightly better than boys (NCERT, 2017). There was however, no gender gap in Mathematics with both boys and girls securing an average of 63 per cent. Learning outcomes can be assessed through the promotion rate which has also shown a declining trend during the last three years from around 95 per cent in 2014–15 to 93 per cent in 2016–17. There is hardly any difference between promotion rate of boys and girls in 2016–17, which registered around 93 per cent for both in 2016–17. The situation is little different in case of grade-wise promotion rate (Table  6.3). While the promotion rate was 92.52 per cent in grade 1 in 2016–17, it increased to 95.7 per cent in grade 2 but gradually declined in grades 3, 4 and 5. It was as low as 88.56 per cent in grade 5. The promotion rate was little higher for girls than that of boys in grades 1, 2 and 5. In addition, the transition rate from primary to upper primary level is slightly higher for girls (90 per cent) than boys (89 per cent) indicating an increasing demand for girls’ education beyond primary level as well. The annual average dropout rate at the primary level has been slightly higher in case of boys (6.45 per cent) than girls (6.30 per cent) in 2016– 17. According to the U-DISE (2018–19), the annual average dropout rate declined to 4.60 per cent for boys and 4.30 per cent for girls (Table 6.4). It is also to be noted that the grade and gender-wise annual average dropout rate considerably vary from one grade to another. Table 6.3 shows around 6.64 per cent children dropped out even at grade 1 in 2016–17. Although it declined to 3.79 per cent in next grade, it gradually increased at subsequent grades. It is disheartening to see that around 11 per cent students dropped out at the grade 5 which was slightly higher for boys (11.13 per cent) than girls (10.85 per cent). It is noteworthy that this annual average dropout rate is slightly higher in government schools where more boys (7.73 per cent) than girls (3.12 per cent) dropped out. The annual average dropout rate shows hardly any gender gap (Table 6.4) across the social categories favouring girls’ retention and transition. It is also to be noted that, as compared to other social groups, the dropout rate is much higher in case of ST boys and girls followed by SCs. This explains the intersectionality of different factors which tends to influence children’s schooling as mentioned earlier. Similar nexus is found in the case of location (rural and urban) and gender (Table 6.5). According to the recent 75th NSS, 42.3 per cent boys and 41.8 per cent girls of the age group of 3 to 35 who got enrolled in the past academic year were reportedly not attending school at the time of survey (MOSPI, 2020). It is to be noted that a considerable proportion of dropouts took place even 102

I

103

Boys

II Girls

Total

Boys

III Girls

Total

Boys

IV Girls

Total

Boys

V Girls

Total

Boys

Girls

Total

Promotion Rate 92.28 92.79 92.52 95.66 95.72 95.69 94.77 94.63 94.70 94.08 93.90 94.00 88.41 88.72 88.56 Annual Average 6.88 6.38 6.64 3.82 3.77 3.79 4.76 4.92 4.84 5.48 5.68 5.57 11.13 10.85 10.99 Dropout Rate Source: NIEPA and MHRD (2018), Table 1.49, p. 36

Mapping Gender in School Education at Primary Level in India

Table 6.3 Grade and Gender-wise Promotion and Annual Average Dropout Rates at the Primary Level

M adhumita B andyopadhyay

Table 6.4 Annual Average Dropout Rate and Transition Rate by Gender and Social Categories at the Primary Level Average Annual Dropout Rate

Transition Rate

Gender

General

SC

ST

OBC

Overall

SC

ST

OBC

Total

Boys Girls

3.61 3.62

5.41 4.90

5.71 5.23

4.55 4.18

4.60 4.30

87.90 89.00

90.40 91.20

88.90 89.40

89.00 90.40

Source: MHRD (2020b)

Table 6.5 Percentage of Dropouts Among Ever Enrolled Persons of Age 3 to 35 Years for Different Levels of Last Enrolment Level of Last Rural Urban Rural + Urban Enrolment Male Female Person Male Female Person Male Female Person Pre-primary Primary

5.1 9.1

9.6 12.3

7.2 10.6

3.3 6.9

4.4 9.0

3.8 7.8

4.5 8.5

7.9 11.6

6.0 10.0

Source: MOSPI (2020), Statement 28, p. 43

at pre-primary and primary levels particularly in rural areas, as shown in Table 6.5. It is also to be noted that more girls than boys dropped out at the pre-primary as well as primary stages in rural as well as in urban areas indicating an unequal footing in the educational trajectory of girls. As per the data given by this survey, around 41.5 per cent boys in urban areas against 35 per cent in rural areas had to leave their education as they were engaged in economic activities. The proportion of girls leaving school is typically higher than boys on account of engagement in domestic chores, marriage, safety issues linked with travel to school and other reasons. Another national survey NFHS 4 (IIPS and ICF, 2017) has also revealed that more girls (9.2 per cent) than boys (2.9 per cent), particularly in rural areas, were unable to attend school due to a number of factors such as distance from home, early marriage (causing 8 per cent girls to drop-out), engagement in household work, costs in education, safety concerns, lack of female teachers and non-availability of proper schooling facilities for girls. A considerable proportion of girls (24.8 per cent), though less than boys (43.7 per cent), left schools as they were not interested in studies. Apart from such national surveys, a community- and school survey-based study in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2009, 2011b) found that school-related reasons determine children’s schooling more critically than household-related reasons. Persistence of gender- and caste-based discrimination inside and outside the classrooms has been mentioned by many researchers, and this has 104

Mapping Gender in School Education at Primary Level in India

manifested in teachers’ attitude with regard to classroom management, seating arrangement and mid-day meal distribution. Gender- and caste-based stereotyping is often also visible in the allocation of different tasks to children in schools. It is known to all that eventually these children who face discrimination are pushed out of the school system. It is required to define good schools based on not only good facilities and learning outcomes but also how children are being treated in schools.

Interstate Disparity As per the U-DISE data of 2018–19 (MHRD, 2020b), a positive GPI in favour of girls was recorded at national as well as state levels, and it is more than 1 in majority of states (Figure 6.4) indicating substantial improvement in girls’ participation and retention at this level of school education. Nevertheless, there are still several states such as Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mizoram, Odisha, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttarakhand that are yet to achieve gender parity even in primary education. It is noticeable that some states have gained GPI considerably during last ten years after enforcement of RTE Act, 2009. Although impressive improvement is found in GPI in recent years, the proportion of girls (Figure 6.5) in primary grades is much less than boys in many states including those which have GPI more than 1.00. Haryana is one of these states where GPI is more than 1 but the proportion of girls is 45 per cent, which is the lowest among all states. It may be noted that many of the states including Haryana, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have also recorded lower proportion of girls in primary schools.

Figure 6.4 State-wise GPI of GER at Primary Level Source: NUEPA (2011), p. 22; MHRD (2020b)

105

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Figure 6.5 Percentage Share of Girls’ Enrolment at Primary Level (I–V): 2018–19 Source: MHRD (2020b)

Factors Affecting Gender Equity in Primary Education Introduction of NPE, 1986 and its POA, 1992 was the turning point in the history of Indian education which was followed by a series of interventions for improvement in all sectors of education including primary education. The following decades of NPE starting from 1990s witnessed a range of new programmes with a goal of Universalization of Primary Education with a considerable investment on it. According to a recent report of educational statistics (MHRD, 2019, p. A1): Thrust on providing primary education has yielded results across the social categories and gender with the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) exceeding 100. Over the years, remarkable progress is noticed in respect of female participation up-to the secondary level and GER for girls has exceeded than boys. Such progress in girls’ participation in elementary and secondary education is mainly attributed to Government programmes like setting up residential schools where female literacy rates are low, providing physical and financial incentives to the girls. The demand for education increased at every level which might have been attributed to improvement in literacy rates particularly during postindependence period (from 18 per cent in 1951 to 74 per cent in 2011). It is heartening to see that there has been considerable improvement in female literacy rate, and gender gap in literacy rate has eventually reduced with a positive impact on education of girls and women. This has also brought some changes in the attitude of parents and community towards girls’ education. Many parents from poor and disadvantaged sections are increasingly found aware about value of education in improving quality of life. They 106

Mapping Gender in School Education at Primary Level in India

are now found more willing to send their children to schools provided it is available, within their reach and it is endowed with a safe environment for their daughters. This increase in demand along with supply of educational facilities could lead to upsurge in enrolment of children specially girls in primary schools. The first and foremost initiative towards universalization of primary education has been provisioning of schooling space by opening and upgrading schools, which has been accelerated with the implementation of District Primary Education Project in 1990s. According to the U-DISE data, the total number of primary schools (including “primary only” and composite schools with primary sections) has increased substantially though an abrupt decline in the number of primary as well as total number of schools is also found during the last one year. Another notable fact Table 6.6 highlights is that during the last three years, there has been a reverse trend between rural and urban areas with respect to the percentage of primary schools. Out of around 1.3 million schools in rural areas, 81 per cent provide primary education; this proportion is around 80 per cent in urban areas where altogether 2.46 lakh (0.25 million) schools are functioning at present. The proportion of stand-alone primary schools is much higher in rural areas (57.15 per cent) than that are located in urban areas (33.05 per cent). On the contrary, the proportion of integrated schools including primary section is much higher in urban areas (46.71 per cent) than those that are functioning in rural areas (23.73 per cent) as indicated in Figure 6.6. Availability of higher proportion of integrated primary schools makes it easier for the children in urban are as to transit from primary to upper primary and higher levels of schooling, lowering the chance of their dropout. Despite this, it is to be noted that many states are still providing primary education mainly through stand-alone primary schools. It may be related to existing norm of provisioning primary schools in those villages with at least 150 population and without any primary schools within 1.5 km distance of that village. Figure 6.7 indicates that the provisioning of such schools varies considerably among states along with placement of teachers and enrolment in the schools. It can be noted that, despite having substantial proportion of stand-alone primary schools, a majority of teachers are employed in integrated schools in some states. For example, while Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have more than 60 per cent stand-alone primary schools, merely 24 per cent and 32 per cent teachers are found working in such schools in these states. This indicates that some of these schools might be experiencing inadequacy of teachers with serious implications on quality of education. It is also seen that one of the initiatives taken to encourage children to attend schools has been provisioning of different types of infrastructures such as drinking water, toilets, buildings, classrooms, approachable roads, electricity, boundary walls, playgrounds, ramps, library and adequate 107

108

Year

Primary Only

Percent

Schools With Primary Section

Percent

Total Primary Schools

Percent

Percentage of Primary Schools in Rural Area

Percentage of Primary Schools in Urban Area

Total School

2016–17 2017–18 2018–19

840241 842330 827028

54.72 54.03 53.32

395357 413510 424705

25.75 26.53 27.38

1235598 1255840 1251733

80.46 80.56 80.70

84.68 84.31 84.31

15.32 15.69 15.69

1535610 1558940 1551000

Source: MHRD (2020b)

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Table 6.6 Number and Percentage of Primary Schools

Mapping Gender in School Education at Primary Level in India

Figure 6.6 Availability of Different Types of Primary Education in Rural and Urban Areas Source: MHRD (2020b)

number of teachers. As per the 2018–19 data (MHRD, 2020b), there are many primary schools that are still functioning without girls’ toilets and do not have drinking water facilities. Thirty-five per cent schools do not have any electricity and only 65.47 per cent schools have ramps (Table 6.7). Such situations would impact on the participation of children at large and disabled children in particular. As per the data provided by U-DISE, 2018–19, availability of infrastructure facilities is considerably varying amongst stand-alone primary schools as compared to the integrated higher secondary schools which have a primary section. Even though 83 per cent stand-alone primary schools have a functional school management committee vis-à-vis only 39.27 per cent in the integrated higher secondary schools, a higher proportion of stand-alone primary schools function without some basic infrastructure facilities. For example, while 91 per cent integrated higher secondary schools have boundary walls meant to provide a safe environment especially for young children, in particular, girls, this figure stands at 58 per cent in the case of stand-alone primary schools. This difference in infrastructural facilities between the two types of schools also includes libraries, the availability of functional computers, medical check-ups etc. (Table 6.8). From the preceding analysis it is evident that many schools still do not have adequate infrastructure facilities which impacts adversely on the schooling of children. The skewed distribution of schooling facilities as discussed earlier seems to perpetuate disadvantage and inequality further as it works against the participation and progression of girls in general and particularly those who belong to scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other minority groups, first-generation learners, poor and living in remote rural areas. The children who get deprived of trained and qualified 109

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110 Figure 6.7 Percentage Share of Stand-Alone Primary Schools, Enrolment and Teachers Source: MHRD (2020b)

111

All Areas

Schools Students Approach- Classroom able Ratio* by All Weather Road

Schools Schools Schools With With Having Boundary Building Drinking Wall Water

Govt. Schools Having Kitchen*

Govt. Schools Having Kitchen Garden

Schools With Boys’ Toilet

Schools With Functional Boys’ Toilet

Schools With Girls’ Toilet

Schools With Functional Girls’ Toilet

Schools Schools Schools With With With Electricity Ramp PlayConnection ground

Primary Only Primary With UP P With UP and Sec. and Hr. Sec. P With UP and Sec.

83.23

21

57.61

98.9

94.46

82.74

18.8

92.6

85.59

93.8

88.62

65.19

65.5

67.81

87.91

26

79.06

99.5

97.40

86.76

26.1

95.3

90.96

96.2

92.74

85.60

63.7

78.81

88.41

34

94.11

99.5

97.99

80.52

26.8

93.9

90.80

95.7

93.39

96.31

62.6

92.05

90.77

30

87.34

99.7

98.01

81.91

25.8

94.7

91.86

95.9

93.41

93.61

51.2

89.73

Source: MHRD (2020b); NIEPA (2018), Table 1.22, p. 43, Table 2.14, p. 64. *

Data of U-DISE: 2016–17 has been used for Student Classroom Ratio and for Schools with Kitchens.

Mapping Gender in School Education at Primary Level in India

Table 6.7 Availability of Physical Facilities in Schools With Primary Section

Table 6.8 Availability of Academic Facilities in Primary Schools Single Teacher Schools*

Schools Having Library

Schools With Computers

Schools With Functional Computer (s)*

Primary Only Primary With UP P With UP and Sec. and HS. P With UP and Sec.

10.20

77.48

16.76

4.37

1.63

83.74

46.08

0.48

92.63

0.77

89.06

Schools With Internet

Schools With Facility of Medical Check-up

Schools With Newspaper Facility

Schools With Furniture

Schools With SMC*

6.37

77.95

23.76

51.56

83.85

25.21

27.09

77.89

60.82

75.28

66.47

81.72

46.01

75.37

81.47

83.57

80.80

39.27

69.87

42.03

56.07

79.32

75.20

81.31

40.07

Source: NIEPA and MHRD (2018), Table 2.10, p. 93, Table 3.23, p. 176, Table, 1.12, p. 16. MHRD (2020b). *

Data for Single Teacher Schools, Schools with Functional Computers and Schools with SMCs is from U-DISE 2016–17 (MHRD, 2019).

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112

 

Mapping Gender in School Education at Primary Level in India

teachers and good-quality infrastructure facilities tend to show poorer performance (Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2011b). Many studies (Ramachandran, 2004; Wazir, 2000) have already established close linkage between special gender-sensitive initiatives and school participation. Multiple strategies adopted over the years have helped improve the accessibility and participation of girls in schools. One such initiative is the provisioning of pre-primary education within schools or in Anganwadis located in proximity to schools. This helps with school readiness of young children while also freeing girls from care of younger siblings to be able to attend schools. Provisioning of scholarships has also been an important strategy for improving school participation of girls and other disadvantaged children. Drawing reference from recent data, Bandyopadhyay (2019, p.  63) has stated that “female students are getting more scholarships/stipends/reimbursements than males in all the quintile classes in both the areas, except for very nominal decrease for fifth quintile class in urban areas.” It is also to be noted that higher proportion of girls than boys particularly in rural areas are also receiving mid-day meal, free or partially free books and stationery as per the policy of country in order to promote girls’ education. The school being a social institution is in constant contact with the surrounding environment and the communities with diverse needs and characteristics. However, development of an inclusive school considerably depends on effective leadership of school heads and attitude of teachers. In addition, presence of female teachers in schools encourages parents to send their daughters to school. According to a government report (MHRD, 2019, p. 2) “studies have pointed out that non-availability of female teachers is one of the major reasons for drop out of children.” Despite this requirement, as Figure 6.8 shows, there are many states where the proportion of female teachers is less than 40 per cent which is much lower than national average (47.57 per cent). It has been found that the school community relationship has a considerable impact on school functioning. Active participation of community-based

Figure 6.8 Availability of Female Teachers Source: NIEPA and MHRD (2018), Table 4.6, p. 93

113

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and civil society organizations accelerated the growth of enrolment, retention and transition of all children, especially girls (Bandyopadhyay and Subrahmanian, 2011; Bandyopadhyay, 2013; Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2011a; Bandyopadhyay and Dey, 2011).

Conclusion The above analysis establishes the fact that despite enormous expansion of the system at the national level in recent years and enrolling a large number of children of eligible age group, major challenge still remains to bridge the gender and social gap not only in enrolment but also in retention, transition and learning outcome at the primary level. It is seen that the intersectionality of different characteristics like gender, social identity, poverty, geographic location etc interplays considerably, impacting adversely on the schooling of children. The framing and implementation of education policies and programmes needs to be sensitive to these factors. More research on the effect of the interplay of different factors and gender upon children’s schooling would need to be conducted in different social and community setting. Although India has shown much progress in enrolling children especially girls in recent years, the inability of schools to retain those children and improving their performance continued to be a serious problem. It has been seen that girls are increasingly gaining physical access to schools particularly those run by government, but their school participation is adversely affected when schools are not gender friendly and are devoid of basic facilities that compromise their safety as well as the quality of services. Greater attention is needed to provide quality education to all children through better equipped integrated schools. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and associated programme like SS, which envisage developing an inclusive and discrimination free education system, need to focus on aforementioned issues while introducing various strategies including the gender inclusion fund. The diverse educational needs of children living in different settings need to be recognized along with provisioning of quality education in an equitable manner – a prime concern of RTE Act, 2009. A sense of urgency is now needed to translate the NEP 2020 into action along with adequate financial investment.

References Bandyopadhyay, M. (2013): “Gender Equity in Educational Access in India”, Southern African Review of Education (SARE), 18(2), pp. 9–24. Bandyopadhyay, M. (2019): “Understanding the Linkages of Gender and Poverty in Addressing Children’s Right to Education in India”, in Wickenberg, P., Rasmusson, B., and Leo, U. (eds.), International Studies on Enactment of Children´s

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Rights in Education: 30 Researchers from Non-western Countries. Lund: Lund University, pp. 41–70. Bandyopadhyay, M., and Dey, M. (2011): Effective School Management Committees, CREATE India Policy Briefs, February. www.create-rpc.org, accessed 6 August  2020. Bandyopadhyay, M., and Subrahmanian, R. (2011): “Gender Equity in Education: A Review of Trends and Factors”, in Govinda, R. (ed.), Who Goes to School: Exploring Exclusion in Indian Education. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 123–165. Bhatty, K., Saraf, R., and Gupta, V. (2017): “Out of School Children in India Some Insights on What we Know and What we Don’t”, Working Paper. New Delhi: Centre for Policy Research. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2009): “Educational Access in India”, Country Policy Brief, CREATE. UK: University of Sussex. www.create-rpc.org, accessed 6 August 2020. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2011a): “Access to Elementary Education: Analytical Overview”, in Govinda, R. (ed.), Who Goes to School: Exploring Exclusion in Indian Education. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–86. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2011b): Overcoming Exclusion Through Quality Education: Pathway to Access (65). University of Sussex: CREATE. www. create-rpc.org, accessed 6 August 2020. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2019): “Exclusion and Inequality in Indian Education”, in Haque, T., and Narasimha Reddy, D. (eds.), Social Development Report 2018: Rising Inequalities in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 216–228. Govinda, R., and Mathew, A. (2018): “Universalisation of Elementary Education in India: Story of Missed Targets and Unkept Promises”, Working Paper I, CSD 1/2018. New Delhi: Council for Social Development. International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (2007): National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), 2005–06. Mumbai: International Institute for Population Sciences. International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (2017): National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015–16. Mumbai: International Institute for Population Sciences. Ministry of Home Affairs (2011): Census of India 2011. New Delhi: Government of India (GoI). http://censusindia.gov.in/, accessed 6 August 2020. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (1968): National Policy on Education. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (1986): National Policy on Education. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (1992): Programme of Action 1992. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2001): Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, 2000–01. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2009): Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, 2009. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2010): Right to Education Act, 2009. New Delhi: Government of India.

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Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2019): Educational Statistics at a Glance, 2016–17. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2020a): National Education Policy 2020. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2020b): U-DISE: 2018–19 Dashboard. http://dashboard. U-DISEplus.gov.in/#!/reports Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) (2015): Key Indicators of Social Consumption in India Education. National Sample Survey (NSS) 71st Round, January–June, 2014. New Delhi: Government of India. MOSPI (2020): Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India. NSS 75th Round: July 2017–June, 2018. New Delhi: GoI. National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) (2017): National Achievement Survey: 2017, Class III, V & VIIII. New Delhi: NCERT. National Institution of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) and Ministry of Human and Resource Development (MHRD) (2018): School Education in India, Flash Statistics, 2016–17. New Delhi: NIEPA. NUEPA (2011): Elementary Education in India: Progress Towards UEE, Flash Statistics, DISE, 2009–10. New Delhi: NUEPA. Ramachandran, V. (2004): Gender and Social Equity in Primary Education: Hierarchies of Access. New York: SAGE Publications. Ramachandran, V., and Chatterjee, P.G. (2013): Exploring How Gender and Equity Issues Are Addressed in the Evaluation and Review Processes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. New Delhi: NIEPA. Stromquist, N.P. (2001):“What Poverty Does to Girls’ Education: The Intersection of Class, Gender and Poverty in Latin America”, COMPARE, 31(1), pp. 39–56. Sudarshan, R.M. (2016): “Gender Issues in School Education in India”, ANTRIEP Newsletter, 22(2), July–December, New Delhi: NIEPA, pp. 10–11. Unterhalter, E. (2012): “Mutable Meanings: Gender Equality in Education and International Rights Frameworks”, Equal Rights Review, January 8, pp. 67–84. Varghese, N.V. (2012): From Schooling to Learning: IWGE Meeting 2012: A Summary of Discussions and Recommendations. Paris, France: UNESCO, IIEP, IWGE. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000219289 Wazir, R. (2000): The Gender Gap in Basic Education: NGOs as Change Agents. New York: SAGE Publications.

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7 EQUITY IN ACCESS AND LEARNING A Way Forward for Secondary Education in India Keith M. Lewin, Shashiranjan Jha, Gaurav Siddhu and Joanna Härmä

Introduction The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) is an initiative of the Government of India in partnership with state governments, which seeks to universalize enrolment in grades 9 and 10 across India. It supports the upgrading of existing schools, the building of new schools to reach under-served areas, investments in quality improvement and contributions to recurrent costs. The goal set was to universalize entry into secondary school by the end of 2017 and achieve universal completion of grade 10 by the end of 2020 (Government of India, 2007, 2012; MHRD, 2009, 2010). Achievement of this goal will lessen the gap between India and other low middle-income countries, increase international competitiveness through investment in human capital and enhance social justice and the extension of the Right to Education (RTE) to the age of 16. It builds on the report from the Council of the Advisory Board for Education (CABE) (Government of India, 2005, 2015). The challenge for RMSA is to identify ways to accelerate progress that are financially sustainable, demographically realistic, democratically accessible, and which lead to expanded capabilities indicated by higher educational achievement and attainment. This chapter summarizes and reflects on research undertaken over the last decade across India by the RMSA TCA group of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) with support from the National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) and assistance from the UK Department for International Development.1 The research addressed issues of access, equity and financing which have been long-standing concerns of Professor Govinda (e.g. Govinda, 2006, DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-10 

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2011; Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2008, 2010; Govinda and Biswal, 2006) and is written as a contribution to his Festschrift. This research builds on many other contributions to the development of policy on secondary education expansion in India (e.g. Tilak, 2008, 2020; Lewin, 2008, 2011; Bandyopadhyay and Chugh, 2020; Prakesh and Biswal, 2007; Reddy, 2008; Siddhu, 2010; World Bank, 2009; Biswal, 2011; Jha, 2015). This chapter has several sections. The first part identifies patterns of enrolment in secondary school. The next sections discuss five dimensions of recent educational development in India. These are demographic transition, school size, location, household affordability and public financing. The issues that arise are then synthesized into ten conclusions that will shape the agenda for planning and define policy dialogue over the next decade.

Patterns of Enrolment in Secondary School India’s progress in improving access to secondary education has been considerable but it has been uneven and has fallen behind the expectations of the 11th and 12th Five Year Plans and the ambition that no child would be excluded from grades 9 and 10 because of their social group affiliation or the wealth of their households. Though gross enrolment rates (GERs) at the secondary level have reached exceeded 70 per cent, average net enrolment rates (NERs) still linger at not much more than 45 per cent, indicating that many of those who reach grade 9 are over age.2 The National Achievement Survey (NAS) data shows that at least half of all children are performing poorly, confirming that many secondary school students would fail to reach the Programme for International Student Assessment’s (PISA’s) minimum score levels in core subjects. As a result of dropout and under-achievement, no more than 60 per cent of all Indian children complete secondary school to grade 10 successfully. Examination Board qualifications indicate wide variations between schools in mastery of the national curriculum. Those from scheduled tribes (STs) and castes and from other educationally marginalized groups are especially disadvantaged. Girls’ enrolments and achievement lag behind those of boys in low enrolment States, but girls often outperform boys where enrolment rates are high. About 27 million children are enrolled in grade 1 across India as shown in Figure 7.1. This total includes many over-aged and some under-aged children. By grade 5, the total number enrolled is similar to the number of ten-year-olds in the population (indicated by the dotted line). From grade 6 upwards, there are fewer children enrolled than there are in the relevant age group, and by grade 9, after the transition to secondary school, enrolments have fallen to about 19.7 million. Over the last ten years, enrolments have grown at every grade level. However, dropout has not fallen rapidly, and the numbers surviving to grade 8 are becoming a constraint on growth at secondary level. Figure 7.1 shows enrolments by grade over time for all India. 118

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Figure 7.1 Enrolment by Grade, All India Source: Selected Education Statistics, Ministry of Education, MHRD 2018 and previous years

It is highly aggregated, and patterns differ greatly between States, districts and blocks. There are also large differences between the social groups (i.e. Scheduled Castes (SC), STs, Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and those with disability). Participation in secondary school is highly unequal. Only about 11 per cent of children in the lowest quintile of household expenditure are likely to reach secondary school whilst almost all of those in the richest quintile complete grade 10. The average number of years of schooling received by all children varies by more than 2:1 between States. Children who are two or more years over-age make up more than 30 per cent of children enrolled in grade 5, and only 30 per cent of 14-year-old children are in the correct grade for their age. Boys entering school at age 10 have one-eighth of the chance of attending secondary schools of those entering at the age of 6, and over-aged girls only one-sixteenth the chance. GERs have increased consistently over the last 20 years. The growth in participation partly reflects the success of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in increasing the flow of students into grade 8. Future growth will be concentrated in low enrolment States and districts, and will need to be much higher amongst SCs, STs and OBCs than other caste groups. It is important to note that though RMSA attracted support from development agencies, it has been overwhelmingly financed from domestic revenue with the consequence that reforms have been endogenously driven, not led by external partners. This anticipates new relationships between development partners (Lewin, 2020). Completion rates for secondary schooling have followed a trajectory of slow growth, accelerating since 2007. There was a steady increase from the 1970s when about 20 per cent completed secondary school, until 2006 when the average across India was around 45 per cent. After this, participation 119

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accelerated rapidly in most States. There is evidence that gaps between the more and less developed States began to widen as growth accelerated, as is made clear in Figure 7.2, which shows completion rates across four States. Since 2015, growth in enrolment and completion has slowed as increased participation has been balanced by falling numbers in the age group. The first critical issue for RMSA is managing the flow of new students into the expanded secondary school system. In some States the number of children reaching and successfully graduating from grade 8 is insufficient to support universal access to grade 9 (MHRD, 2015b). Repetition is still common, and transition rates from grade 5 to grade 6 and from grade 8 to grade 9 remain substantially well below 100 per cent in low enrolment States. They are especially low for SCs and STs. The gap in enrolments between boys and girls in secondary schools has closed considerably. Whilst there were three times as many boys as girls enrolled in 1970, by 2015 boys’ enrolment was only 5 per cent more than that of girls. Nearly half (15 out of 36 States) have more girls than boys enrolled in secondary. Figure 7.3 shows how GERs at secondary level vary by sex and how much lower the age-specific enrolments are in different States. Many children are not on schedule to complete secondary school by the age of 17  years and are over-age because of late entry to grade 1 and repetition in higher grades. There are strong associations between being over-age and failure to transition to secondary school. The differences in enrolment rates by gender are much smaller than the differences related to household wealth. Children from the poorest quintile can have a less than 30 per cent chance of completing secondary compared with over 80 per cent in the richest group. The poorest 20 per cent of children are eight times less likely to complete secondary school than the richest 20 per cent in Gujarat and Rajasthan. These differences related to income are much bigger than those associated with urban and rural residence though these are also substantial. Differences between girls and boys are concentrated amongst the poorest with almost no difference between boys and girls in the richest quintile. From the analysis of a range of data sets we note that: •

•

About 40 per cent of children fail to reach grade 9 as a result of dropout in grade 8 and below. Gaps in enrolment rates between more and less advanced States may have increased during the recent period of rapid growth. The all-India participation rates of boys and girls is approaching parity though differences remain between States. Parity does not mean that there are similar numbers enrolled since there are up to 15 per cent more boys in the school-age population in parts of some States like Gujarat and Punjab.

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121 Figure 7.2 Percentage Completing Secondary in Five-Year Cohorts From 17- to 22-year-olds Source: National Social Survey Organisation: 70th Round June 2014, Government of India

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Figure 7.3 Gross Enrolment and Age-Specific (14–15 Years) Enrolment Rates Source: Selected Education Statistics, Ministry of Education, MHRD 2018 and previous years

• ST  students have much lower enrolment rates than other groups and Scheduled Tribes and Castes (STCs) and OBCs also have further to go to reach universal enrolment. • Students from the poorest quintile of households have a much smaller chance of enrolling in secondary school than others. Most future growth in provision needs to be in free government schools since it is those in the poorest quintiles who are most excluded by a wide margin.

Demographic Transition and Enrolment Projection Demographic transition and migration condition the demand for school places. India’s fertility rates are declining. The population of six-year-olds is already shrinking in most States, foreshadowing shrinkage in the numbers of secondary age children (MHRD, 2015c). Alongside demographic transition, urban migration is progressing rapidly and is changing where secondary school-aged children live. Where rates of migration are 7 per cent a year, the numbers of children seeking school places will double every ten years. There are risks that school location decisions based on current population distributions will be rapidly outdated and result in overcapacity in some places and shortages of places in others. The number of six-year-olds for all India is expected to decline from almost 25 million in 2011 to 17 million in 2025, or by more than 30 per cent. The population of children aged 14 and 15 (secondary school age) is likely to decline from over 50  million to under 39  million in the same period. Expanded capacity needs to be profiled against demand; otherwise,

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Figure 7.4 Relative Size of Age Group by Age Band Compared to Birth Cohort (1) Source: Census, 2011, GoI 15th Round Census Data, Projection

Figure 7.5 Relative Size of Age Group by Age Band (2) Compared to Birth Cohort Source: Census, 2011, Government of India 15th Round Census Data, Projection

there is a risk of overshoot as more places are created and the school-age population starts to fall. Figure  7.4 identifies States where the number in an age cohort peaked in the 6–8 or 9–11 age group and entered demographic transition to low growth according to census data. In all the States listed, the total number of secondary age children has been falling since 2015. Figure 7.5 identifies the States that have experienced an earlier demographic transition to lower growth. Here the declining numbers in the age group amongst 12–14 and

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15–17 were already a reality in 2011 – hence older children outnumber younger children. The decline in the size of the age group will continue for at least the next 15 years. This makes it easier to achieve higher levels of enrolment at secondary level. However, it carries the risk of overshoot in capacity if more schools are opened when overall demand is set to fall. Local conditions, especially urban migration, may create patterns of demand that diverge from the overall trend towards a falling student population. Falls will be greatest where existing enrolments are lowest and where increased participation rates compensate for falling numbers of school-age children. •

Modelling shows that the flow of students to grade 8 acts as a constraint on the expansion of secondary schooling since large proportions of students drop out of school before completing grade 8. • Demographic transition means that the number of 14-year-olds will start to decline before 2020 almost everywhere. There is a risk that meeting peak demand before the number of 14-year-olds starts to fall will result in overcapacity. • New classrooms and other facilities are needed in existing secondary schools, and new schools need to be strategically located and built to service areas with no secondary schools but only at a rate consistent with the changes in the size of the age group. • ST and SC children enrol in secondary school at half (or less) of the rate of their more privileged peers. Higher participation rates can only be achieved if the most excluded groups triple or quadruple their enrolment rates.

School Size The third issue is that the expansion in the number of secondary schools has resulted in large proportions of small schools. More than 50 per cent of all secondary schools in some States have fewer than 100 students in grades 9 and 10. Across India about 66 per cent of secondary schools had fewer than 150 children and 23 per cent less than 50 children in the middle of the last decade (Figure 7.6). In terms of enrolment share, only 3.6 per cent students attended the smallest schools with less than 50 enrolled. The price is that the cost per student in these schools may be as much as four times greater than for schools with more than 300 students. Academic performance in small schools is lower as a result of the difficulties of providing qualified staff for all subjects and adequate facilities. In six States more than 70 per cent of all schools are small and unlikely to be fully staffed with qualified teachers in all core subjects. An increasing proportion of schools have been established as standalone schools which only offer grades 9 and 10, and these account for more than 20 per cent of new schools. 124

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Figure 7.6 Distribution of Secondary Schools by Enrolment Size, Categories and Enrolment Share Source: Selected Education Statistics, Ministry of Education, MHRD 2018 and previous years

Small schools have much higher costs than larger schools (MHRD, 2015f). Recurrent costs are primarily determined by teachers’ salaries and pupil teacher ratios (PTRs). RMSA norms produce a cost per student profile that shows that schools below enrolment of 150 have rapidly rising costs (Figure 7.7). This research identifies several factors that influence the growth of small schools. These include: • Norms and standards allow schools to be established when there are only 25 students in grade 8. Such small schools cannot provide sufficient teaching lesson periods to all teaching staff when fully staffed according to the norms that provide for a minimum of six teachers per school. • Population density shapes the distribution of schools by size. Lowdensity areas have widely dispersed communities that may be fragmented by social status and religious affiliation. Travel times of much more than an hour to and from school may become exclusionary and can also have substantial costs. • In some parts of India private fee-paying schooling has been growing, and this may have the effect of hollowing out public school systems by attracting richer students leaving small enrolment public schools. • Pupils in larger composite schools consistently out-perform pupils in smaller schools. The positive effect on learning achievement of school size holds for SCs but not for STs. This may be because STs at secondary level may be outside tribal areas and attend schools similar to those of the general population. 125

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126 Figure 7.7 Expenditure Per Student (in INR) – Actual Distribution and Norms-Based Distribution Source: Author data reported in Lewin et al http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5.-Cost-and-Equity-in-Accessing-Secondary-Educa tion.pdf

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The last reason for small schools to exist relates to the raw politics of patronage. If it is not addressed, then refining norms and standards may have a limited impact on improving the efficiency of the secondary education system (Little, 2008). School building and classroom construction offers opportunities to award jobs to supporters and capture contracts. The small schools provide opportunities for conflicts of interest in the use of public monies.

School Location The fourth set of concerns relates to school location. RMSA stipulated that there should be access by all households to a secondary school within 5 km. Analysis shows that in some States, secondary schools are now located much closer together than 5  km (MHRD, 2015e). There has also been a tendency to co-locate primary and secondary schools without combining school administration and thereby creating economies of scale. Underenrolled schools and small schools may utilize classrooms less than 70 per cent of the time and teachers cannot have a full workload. A basic school map of a sample district is shown in Figure  7.8. This illustrates that in this district in Assam, the density of schools on the plain beneath the mountains is high with an average distance between secondary schools of no more than 2 km and many primary and upper primary schools within a kilometre. About 70 per cent of schools are being operated at less than 50 per cent of their capacity. Large savings would be available from rationalizing school provision. If there were half the number of schools, substantial investments could be made in enhancing quality and infrastructure. Location-allocation analysis was used to determine the best locations of schools using different distance norms and criteria of appropriateness. Three different average school sizes were modelled (of 160, 340 and 520 students) with optimization of average distance to secondary school and access to the secondary school-age population. Figure 7.8 shows the extent to which school catchment areas overlap and are much less than 5  km. There are many schools which are less than 5 km of several other secondary schools in a district, largely on level ground with no exceptionally difficult terrain. This case study concludes that: • On average, secondary schools are located less than 2  km from each other and are less than 1 km from primary and upper primary schools. As a result, there is a proliferation of small schools with inadequate catchment areas. • School utilization rates indicate that 71 per cent of government secondary schools are operating at or below 50 per cent capacity with corresponding low enrolments and low student-teacher ratios. 127

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128 Figure 7.8 Example of School Mapping of Secondary Schools With 5 km Catchment Radius Source: Original data reported in http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/4.-Efficient-School-Siting-Using-GIS-Modelling.pdf

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• Demographic data for villages indicates that the secondary school-age population over the next five to ten years will decline. • If the average school size is increased to about 160 and demographic transition takes its course, the analysis indicates that the total costs of providing 75 schools would be approximately Rs. 520.3 million. Only 300 classrooms would be required and 375 teachers for the 75 schools compared to the present 150 schools and 1,800 secondary teachers. The teacher salary bill would decrease from 539.4  million rupees to 112.5 million rupees per year.

Inequality and Household Affordability The fifth issue is that there are six patterns of unequal access linked to household income as illustrated in Figure 7.9, which shows how enrolment rates in secondary school varied during a period of rapid growth. In Delhi the lowest three quintiles of household wealth did not see an improvement in access, and this is also the case for the poorest quintile in Rajasthan. In both locations the richest groups (those in quintiles four and five) benefitted most from expanded participation. In Odisha while the participation of the poorest has improved, it is only by half as much as the improvement for the richest 40 per cent of people. Other States with similar patterns of unequal growth include Bihar, Gujarat and Punjab. More equal growth has occurred in Uttar Pradesh where all income quintiles have enjoyed increased participation but the gap between rich and poor has not changed dramatically. Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal also follow this pattern. Andhra Pradesh has a different pattern where the richest and the poorest have benefitted less than those in the middle; Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are similar. Lastly in Kerala the greatest beneficiaries of increased participation have been the poorest, which has also been the case in Assam and Karnataka. Future growth in participation will have to be more equitable and focused on the poorest who have the lowest enrolment rates. Affordability is a serious constraint on universalizing access to secondary school. Costs to households may be more than four times those for enrolment at local primary schools depending on location and school type. Household poverty interacts with other sources of inequality including caste, language, gender and disability. Additional demand for secondary education will come from marginalized groups not previously able to enrol. These groups disproportionately include children from low-income households, those from rural areas and from urban slums, those from scheduled tribes and castes (STCs) and OBCs, and, in some States, girls. This research estimates that poor households need to spend as much as 30 per cent of household disposable expenditure on every child in public secondary schools. The next poorest quintile has to spend at least 12 per cent. In grant-aided schools the proportions are 50 per 129

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Figure 7.9  Secondary Completion Rates by Wealth Quintile for Selected States, 2007 and 2014 Source: NSSO data from 71st and previous rounds of social surveys

cent and 17 per cent for quintiles 1 and 2, and in private schools, 75 per cent and 29 per cent. These levels are clearly unaffordable. A final observation is that one-third of all parents appear to borrow money to pay for secondary schooling, including 39 per cent of private unaided school parents, and 35 per cent of government school parents. Nearly a third of government and private school parents borrow money to pay for private tuition (29 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively) with around the same proportion of parents having to pay school fees late (34 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively). Interest rates for borrowing from private lenders in rural areas can exceed 100 per cent Annual Percentage Rate (APR). This is unaffordable and likely to sink families deeper into poverty. 130

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Sustainable Public Financing The sixth issue is that expanded participation has to be publicly financed by state governments who receive centrally allocated funds. The cost to the public budget depends on: • • •

the number of secondary age children the costs of secondary school places the willingness to allocate public spending to secondary education

Taken together, these determine the fiscal demand to support universal access to different levels of education (Lewin, 2015). On average, a little over 4 per cent of children are of secondary age with the smallest proportions in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh have much higher proportions of school-age children as a result of higher population growth (Figure 7.10). In many States the number of secondary school-age children has started to fall as a result of declining fertility as noted in Figures 7.4 and 7.5. Costs per child are determined by teachers’ salaries, non-teaching salaries, and non-salary recurrent costs and other expenditure (MHRD, 2015d). The costs of infrastructure and building works also need to be financed. Universal provision will be difficult if not impossible where unit costs at secondary level are more than twice those at primary level. The availability of public finance is indicated by proportion of state GDP allocated to secondary education (Figure 7.11). The amount of tax collected determines the domestic revenue from which funds are drawn for public services. This in turn depends on state GDP and fiscal measures which differ between States.

Figure 7.10 Secondary School-Aged Children as a Percentage of State Population Source: Census, 2011, Government of India. 15th Round Census Data, Projection

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Figure 7.11 Expenditure on Secondary-level Education and Total Education as a Percentage of SGDP Source: Analysis of Budgeted Expenditure on Education: 2015–16 to 2016–17, Government of India, MHRD

Costs per child to government vary from about INR 6,000 (e.g. Bihar) to over INR 20,000 (e.g. Assam). Secondary schools have to be financed at costs per child that do not exceed about 30 per cent of state GDP per capita if universal participation is to be affordable. Providing universal secondary education with current costs per student is projected to require as much as 2 per cent of state GDP (SDGP) in states where PTRs are low and costs per student are high. This level is financially unsustainable without a disproportionate allocation of the state budget to secondary education. In contrast, some States spend less than 0.7 per cent on secondary schools which suggests they are underinvesting. Planning should plan funds at levels that are sustainable and which are not likely to cost more than 1 per cent of SGDP. In absolute terms, the poorest 20 per cent of households spend less than one-ninth of the amount the richest spend on secondary schooling. Average household expenditure in government schools is typically about half that for private-aided schools and one quarter the average for private unaided schools (MHRD, 2015f). Students from more advantaged castes spend twice as much on school attendance as those from SCs or STs, not least because they are often richer. Secondary schooling is typically about 2.5 times more expensive than primary schooling for the poorest, but less than 1.3 times more for the richest who have a much more even pattern of spending by educational level. The largest expenditure for the poorest is to access private tuition. Private tuition represents 36 per cent of the total expenditure 132

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associated with accessing government schools, 22 per cent for aided schools and 13 per cent for private schools (MHRD, 2015h). The issues of affordability are central to the success of RMSA. Most of what may need to be done is likely to revolve around incremental change to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing systems. This requires a sustained ambition to make secondary schooling more affordable to the state and to households.

Issues Arising The challenge for RMSA is that no more than 65 per cent of all Indian children complete secondary school successfully and NETs are little more than 45 per cent, suggesting that many are overage for their grades and that the system is far from providing universal access. In the northern States less than half of all children transition to secondary school. Participation is inequitable. Those from scheduled tribes and castes (STCs), OBCs and from other educationally marginalized groups are especially disadvantaged. Girls’ enrolments lag behind those of boys in some States and there are fewer girls in the child population than boys in some States. Only 11 per cent of children in the lowest quintile of household expenditure are likely to reach secondary school whilst almost all of those in the richest quintile complete grade 10. The average number of years of schooling received by all children varies by more than 2:1 between States. Inequalities are reflected in system inefficiencies. For example children who are two or more years over-age make up more than 20 per cent of all poor children enrolled and over 30 per cent of children enrolled in grade 5. Across India, only 28 per cent of 14-year-old children are in the correct grade for their age, greatly affecting access to secondary school. Boys entering school at the age of ten had one-eighth of the chance of attending secondary schools of those entering at the age of 6, and over-age girls only one-sixteenth. More generally data on student flows indicates that the internal efficiency of the education system is low with bottlenecks at grades 5 and 8, planning not closely linked to demographic changes, poor spatial location of schools, too many uneconomic small schools, inefficient mega schools in some states, and chronic under-funding of public secondary schools. At the same time issues of effectiveness are endemic. These are visible in the widespread concerns that levels of achievement in grade 8, as evidenced by data from the NAS, indicate many students are not ready to succeed in mastering the curriculum in grades 9 and 10. Dropout is closely associated with low levels of achievement and high rates of repetition to improve grades. Around half of those completing grade 10 of secondary school fail to acquire high-level Board qualifications that would demonstrate mastery of the national curriculum. This is not much more than 30 per cent of all children in the age group. 133

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These realties indicate that RMSA has to address issues that compromise system efficiency and effectiveness and improve the flow of students from elementary schools through to the end of grade 10. Expanded access may lead to even more unequal patterns of participation as enrolment is rationed by the direct and indirect costs of secondary schooling. Without better matching of curriculum and pedagogy to the capabilities and aspirations of students who are the first generation in their families to reach secondary-level efficiency will suffer and the number of successful graduates will stagnate. The analysis in this study identifies ten concerns that will shape secondary school development in India over the next decade through until 2030. First, most States will find it difficult to achieve secondary-level GERs of 105 per cent and will not succeed until well into the 2020s.3 The reasons include insufficient numbers of students reaching grade 8; inadequate levels of achievement of grade 9 entrants: insufficient access to secondary school places in some areas and oversupply in others; poor attendance of students and absenteeism by teachers; wide variations between schools in staffing, class size and availability of learning materials; and failure to ensure adequate financing. Second, demographic transition means that in low enrolment States demand for secondary school places is likely to decline after 2020 and the number of secondary age children will fall by 20 per cent or more over the next decade. Planning will have to manage a peak and then declining demand and avoid creating excess capacity that will become redundant as numbers fall. Third, additional demand for secondary education will come mostly from marginalized groups not previously able to enrol in and complete elementary education. The needs of these new students will have to be addressed through changes in pedagogy and curriculum to avoid higher levels of dropout. Pipeline effects will increase demand for higher levels of education with consequences for educational finance and diversification of the curriculum (Varghese, 2014). Fourth, increased participation of marginalized groups will increase average distances to travel to secondary school and result in additional costs to poor households as demand grows. Safety and security issues are also problematic in some States especially for adolescent girls. School type and location and working practices need to address these concerns. Fifth, there is a surfeit of small schools with low PTRs and high recurrent costs in some States (e.g. Assam where more than 50 per cent of secondary schools have enrolments below 100 in grades 9 and 10). In other States “mega schools” have developed with PTR over 150 and enrolments in grades 9 and 10 of over 600 (e.g. Bihar). In some situations, small schools are unavoidable and new models are needed for staffing and pedagogy

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which are affordable. Mega schools are likely to be unwieldy institutions which suffer diseconomies of scale, very poor attendance and difficulties in ensuring no children are left behind. Sixth, less than half of all grade 10-aged children take Board examinations with even lower percentages graduating successfully and being rewarded by places in higher education and job opportunities. New qualifications and courses suited to those who will leave school and seek employment after grade 10 will be needed to reduce the chances of a decline in pass rates and ensure higher relevance of secondary schooling. Seventh, the distribution of teachers is very uneven with PTRs within the same district varying from below ten to above 100. In some States less than 14 per cent of schools have teachers qualified in all four of the main subject areas (as in Assam and Odisha) despite very low PTRs and high teacher per class ratios. Expanded secondary schooling requires many more qualified teachers covering all major subjects and electives. Merging small schools, and making use of multi-subject and multi-grade teachers, could reduce the costs of small schools and allow more investment in quality. Eighth, secondary education expansion will be constrained by costs to households. Those at or below the poverty line (BPL) will need cash transfers to support the direct and indirect costs of secondary school attendance and to avoid contracting debt at high interest rates that will make them poorer. No child should be excluded from secondary school by the costs of attendance. This means that secondary school should be fee free and supported by scholarships or cash transfers for those in the lowest two quintiles of household expenditure. Ninth, financing universal secondary education with current cost structures in some States could require more than 2 per cent of state GDP. This level is unsustainable, and planning should allocate at least 1 per cent of SGDP. In States with higher current per-student expenditure, the additional costs of universal participation require cost-saving reforms that increase efficiency and effectiveness (e.g. in Assam and Odisha). In States with low per pupil expenditure (such as Bihar), there is likely to be a need to increase expenditure per student linked to reforms designed to improve quality and achievement towards national averages. Finally, growth in participation may be inequitable. The relatively advantaged within excluded groups will benefit more than the most excluded. Thus children from richer SC, ST and OBC households may increase their chances of completing secondary school at the expense of those in the same groups from lower income levels. There is a need to monitor who benefits from expanded access to ensure that the most marginalized are also reached. The political economy of educational reform mediates the implementation of all of the possibilities identified (Little, 2021; Little and Lewin, 2011).

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Conclusion A matrix of policy options has been developed following the thematic concerns developed within this research. Twelve major reforms would be transformational for the landscape of secondary education in India.4 •

•

•

•

• •

• • • •

Implement a district-level medium term planning process using District Five-Year Rolling Plans. These would use school mapping, geographic information system (GIS) and demographic projection to analyse supply and demand for school sites, teachers, learning materials, infrastructure, school size and distance travelled to existing and new schools. Promote equity and monitor indicators of inequality and place data in the public domain. Reduce variation in key indicators of participation, achievement and attainment between and within States. All main indicators that have distributional characteristics should be reported in terms of average, range and standard deviation. Abolish fees for children from wealth quintile 1 and quintile 2 and provide scholarships for all boys and girls BPL. Offer free secondary schooling to all those who cannot afford the direct and indirect costs. Replace income from fees with capitation grants to schools. Develop a new secondary school curriculum to recognize the broader range of capabilities, aspirations and preferences of grade 9 students. Embed the systematic management and tracking of learning in the curriculum with regular school based formative assessments. Develop curriculum teachable in small secondary schools with staffing and other costs no more than 50 per cent of average costs per student in schools with 500 students. Develop a diagnostic entry test to be used in schools for grade 9 to provide baseline data for teachers to use to target pedagogic support to new students. This requires the NAS for instance, to produce detailed pedagogic guides and systematic intervention programmes to identify learning difficulties. Reform Board examinations to increase their predictive validity and reliability, offer different pathways for different students, improve their relevance to life futures and reduce the incentives for private tuition. Commit States to ensure every child in secondary school is taught by qualified teachers possessing the necessary subject content and pedagogical knowledge, and manage teachers to achieve this goal. Extend the RTE requirement to at least 25 per cent of enrolment of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students in private secondary schools. The rationale is similar to RTE for the 6–14 years. Regulate the growth of the private schools so that they are complementary to public schools rather than in direct competition for students and locations.

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• Develop a predictable system of funding of public secondary schools that guarantees adequate resources for learning and a qualified teacher in all core subjects. This needs an allocation between 0.7 and 1 per cent of SGDP to secondary schools and cost-effective delivery so that school places cost no more than 30 per cent of SGDP per capita otherwise expansion will be unaffordable. • Provide all core learning materials free of cost, copyright free and online through a national portal. Include core texts, pod casts, video clips etc. Develop on-line enrichment and examination preparation materials to give access to additional tuition to all students, independent of household wealth. Policy dialogue can be structured around the four themes of access, equity, efficiency and effectiveness since these are the key aspects of development that will shape RMSA over the next decade. It is essential that the future development of RMSA should link access, equity, efficiency and effectiveness to the flow of children through the school system. Planning must reconcile high aspirations with realistic goals and allocate resources in ways which reflect demography, constraints on growth arising from the flow of children through to grade 8, efficient teacher deployment, curricula and pedagogies relevant to new learners. It needs to tailor expansion to promote pro-poor and more equitable access to quality secondary schooling (Lewin, 2021). These are themes that resonate with Professor Govinda’s life work and enduring themes of concern across the NUEPA and the MHRD as India progresses towards realizing the goals of universalizing access to secondary schools of quality.

Notes 1 This chapter draws on research reported in https://keithlewin.net/wp-content/ uploads/2016/05/0.-Synthesis-Equity-in-Access-and-Learning-in-India.pdf. The research team was led by Keith M. Lewin and included Shashiranjan Jha, Guarav Siddhu and Joanna Harma, who contributed extensively to the data collection and analysis and provided insights and illumination to the findings. The programme was undertaken by the Technical Cooperation Agency (TCA) of the RMSA, MHRD, Government of India. The research was supported by grants from the United Kingdom, Department for International Development. 2 Statistics on participation are drawn from the Selected Statistics of the Government of India (SES for various years, the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and census data. 3 Universal access and completion would result in GERs over 100 per cent as a result of repetition and overage enrolment. If an education system is efficient the GER would not normally be more than GER = 105 per cent. 4 This discussion is developed more at length in MHRD (2015a).

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References Bandyopadhyay, M., and Chugh, S. (2020): “Status of Secondary Education in India: A Review of Status, Challenges and Policy Issues”, in Tilak, J.B.G. (ed.), Universal Secondary Education in India: Issues, Challenges and Prospects. New York: Springer. Biswal, K. (2011): “Secondary Education in India: Development Policies, Programmes and Challenges”, Create Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 63. Falmer: CREATE, University of Sussex, UK. Government of India (GoI) (2005): Report of the Council of Advisory Board on Education (CABE) Committee on Universalizing Secondary Education. New Delhi: Government of India. Government of India (GoI) (2007): 11th Five Year Plan. New Delhi: Government of India. Government of India (GoI) (2012): 12th Five Year Plan. New Delhi: Government of India. Government of India (GoI) (2015): CABE Sub-committee on Extension of RTE to Pre-school and Secondary Education 2015–17. New Delhi: National University of Educational Planning and Administration, Govinda, R. (2006): “Literacy and Elementary Education in India: Regional Imbalances and Social Inequities”, National Seminar on the Education Commissions at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, December 26–28. Govinda, R. (ed.) (2011): Who Goes to School? Exploring Exclusion in Indian Education. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2008): “Access to Elementary Education in India: Country Analytical Review”, Falmer, University of Sussex, Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity with NUEPA, New Delhi. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2010): “Social Exclusion and School Participation in India: Expanding Access With Equity”, Prospects, 40, pp. 337–354. Paris, France: UNESCO. Govinda, R., and Biswal, K. (2006): “Elementary Education in India: Promise, Performance and Prospects: A Background Paper for Mid Term Assessment of Tenth Plan”, HDRC and UNDP, New Delhi. Jha, S. (2015): “Universalising Secondary Education in India: Seeking Efficiency, Effectiveness and Equity in Planning Enhanced Access and Improved Quality”, Proceedings of the 13th UKFIET Conference, New College, Oxford, UK. Lewin, K.M. (2008): “Secondary Education in India: Managing Expansion With Affordable Costs: Policy Guidance Note for Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD”. New Delhi: Government of India. Lewin, K.M. (2011): “Beyond Universal Access to Elementary Education in India: Is it Achievable at Affordable Costs?”, Pathways to Access No. 53, Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity, Centre for International Education. Falmer. University of Sussex, UK. Lewin, K.M. (2015): Educational Access, Equity and Development: Planning to Make Rights Realities. Fundamentals of Educational Planning, Number 97. Paris, France. International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO

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Lewin, K.M. (2020): “Beyond Business as Usual: Aid and Financing Education in Sub-Saharan Africa”, International Journal of Educational Development, 78, p. 102247. Elsevier. Lewin, K.M. (2021): “Unequal Access to Education: Accounting for Change and Counting Costs”, in Rose, P., Arnot, M., Jeffery, R., and Singal, N. (eds.), Reforming Education and Challenging Inequalities in Southern Contexts. London: Routledge, pp. 37–59. Little, A.W. (2008): “Size Matters for EFA”, Pathways to Access Research Monograph No. 26. Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity. Institute of Education, London. London International Development Centre (LIDC), Little, A.W. (2021): “Education for All in India and Sri Lanka: The Drivers and Interests Shaping Egalitarian Reforms”, in Rose, P., Arnot, M., Jeffery, R., and Singal, N. (eds.), Reforming Education and Challenging Inequalities in Southern Contexts. London: Routledge. Little, A.W., and Lewin, K.M. (2011): “The Policies, Politics and Progress of Access to Basic Education”, Journal of Education Policy, 26(4). London, UK: Taylor and Francis,. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2009): “Framework for Implementation of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)”. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2010): “Centrally Sponsored Schemes in Secondary Education”. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2015a): “Equity in Access and Learning: A Way Forward for Secondary Education”, RMSA-TCA Research Report 0. New Delhi: Government of India. http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/ uploads/2016/05/0.-Synthesis-Equity-in-Access-and-Learning-in-India.pdf Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2015b): “Making It Past Elementary School”, RMSA-TCA Research Report I. New Delhi: Government of India. http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1.-Making-it-PastElementary-Education.pdf Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2015c): “Demographic Transition and Educational Planning”, RMSA-TCA Research Report II. New Delhi: Government of India. http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2.-Demographic-Transition-and-Education-Planning.pdf Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2015d): “Equity and Efficiency in the Expansion of Secondary Schools”, RMSA-TCA Research Report III. New Delhi: Government of India. http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/3.Equity-and-Efficiency-in-Expansion-of-Secondary-Schools.pdf Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2015e): “Efficient School Siting Using GIS Modeling”, RMSA-TCA Research Report IV. New Delhi: Government of India. http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/4.-Effi cient-School-Siting-Using-GIS-Modelling.pdf Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2015f): “Cost and Equity in Accessing Secondary Education”, RMSA-TCA Research Report V. New Delhi: Government of India. http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/5.-Costand-Equity-in-Accessing-Secondary-Education.pdf

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Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2015h): “Private Tuition: Extent, Patterns and Determinants”, RMSA-TCA Research Report VII. New Delhi: Government of India. http://keithlewin.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/7.Private-Tuition-Extent-Patterns-and-Determinants.pdf Prakesh, V., and Biswal, K. (eds.) (2007): Perspectives on Education and Development: Revisiting the Education Commission and After. New Delhi: National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). Reddy, A.N. (2008): “Public Expenditure on Secondary Education in India: Emerging Trends and Issues”. New Delhi: National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). Siddhu, G. (2010): “Can Families in Rural India Bear the Additional Burden of Secondary Education? Investigating the Determinants of Transition”, Pathways to Access Research Monograph No. 50. Falmer, Sussex. Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity. Centre for International Education University of Sussex, UK. Tilak, J.B.G. (ed.) (2008): Financing of Secondary Schooling in India. New Delhi: National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), 2007. Tilak, J.B.G. (2020): Universal Secondary Education in India: Issues, Challenges and Prospects. New York: Springer. Varghese, N.V. (2014): The Diversification of Secondary Education. Paris, France. UNESCO IIEP. World Bank (2009): “Secondary Education in India: Universalizing Opportunity”. Washington, DC: World Bank

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8 EQUITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND EDUCATION FOR ALL Critical Considerations Shireen Motala

Introduction This chapter begins with an overview of policy shifts in the South African higher education system, particularly in relation to higher education funding. It then examines four major themes in higher education: fee free education and free higher education; education as a public and private good; expansion, equity and quality; equitable funding models and approaches. I argue that it is necessary to affirm and embed the notion that education is a public good, and that social justice must drive educational reform. In this chapter, equality involves uniformity or, in public policy terms, non-discrimination (Rawls, 1972; Secada, 1989). However, the concept of equity that informs this research goes further, encompassing social justice and presupposing differential distribution to achieve its goals (Van der Berg, 2001; Sayed, 2002; Motala, 2016). The Oxfam report (2016) and the work of Thomas Piketty (2014), Dani Rodrik (2016) and Kaushik Basu (2017) have put inequality into sharp and uncomfortable focus. Piketty provides detailed evidence to illustrate how inequality and inequity have increased amongst nations, leading to the development of plutocracy. Basu (2017, p. 3) notes that this rising global inequality has been accompanied by a surging sense of disenfranchisement that has fuelled alienation and anger, and even bred nationalism and xenophobia. He also points out that “as people struggle to hold onto their shrinking share of the pie, their anxiety has created a political opening for opportunistic populists, shaking the world order in the process.” The provision of public goods is occurring in a global context where the form of the state is changing and where inequality rather than poverty per se has become the defining feature of political, social and economic life. This is not to downplay the daily reality of grinding poverty for millions. Poverty, as Tawney said, is the unacceptable face of inequality: “What thoughtful DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-11 

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rich people call a ‘problem of poverty,’ thoughtful poor people call with equal justice a ‘problem of riches’ ” (Tawney, 1913). Against this backdrop, I want to turn my attention to equity and inequality in higher education in South Africa, and ask the simple question: how far have we come?

Equity, Expansion and Quality in Higher Education The increasing demand for higher education, due to globalization and the rise of the knowledge economy, is reflected in fast-growing higher education enrolments in sub-Saharan Africa, with a growth of 10 per cent annually between 2000 and 2010 (Wangenge-Ouma, 2010; Rensburg et al., 2016). Higher education has been shifting from an elite system to one promoting universal access, leading to a review of education financing models. At the same time many challenges continue. These include inadequate access particularly at secondary and tertiary levels, poor quality of provision, inefficiency as reflected in high dropout, repetition levels and inequity in access and the distribution of resources. In sub-Saharan Africa, low expenditure on higher education is a consequence of competing pressures on the education budget, severe resource constraints and pressure from social sectors such as health and welfare and a lack of sufficient recognition by governments of the value of higher education for economic growth, social welfare and broader sustainable development (Pillay, 2010). Ajayi et al. (1996) suggest that in Africa, including South Africa, funds available to run higher education institutions are insufficient, thus making them survive on what they refer to as a “starvation diet.” The avoidable contraction of financial resources to South African universities with an unprecedented increase in the demand for higher education constitutes the most serious if not the greatest challenge to South Africa’s higher education (Adetiba, 2019). As government is trying to promote the expansion of higher education to meet with the increasing demand for the sustainability of the country’s economic growth, the production of quality university graduates must be the key priority. The major challenge in most developing world is the growing demand for higher education. In most of these countries the government lacks the ability to provide resources that are adequate to meet these demands (Adetiba, 2019). The notion that South African higher education was failing to meet its commitment to access, supported by the publication of the first cohort study of the 2,000 student intake, rang alarm bells in both institutions and government. While it is true that the effectiveness of teaching and learning had been already a focus of the academic development movement, the expansion of the higher education system created a problem of both scale and funding (Lange, 2017). 142

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These issues, present all over Africa, are evident in South Africa also, and they have generated similar reactions. Principles of fairness and equality of opportunity underlay student demands in 2015 and 2016: applicants should not be excluded if they qualify in terms of admission criteria, and they should have access to institutions they choose. The latter point presents a powerful challenge to the current bifurcated tertiary education landscape (Allais, 2016). Consider the statistics in relation to the major indicators of access, efficiency, quality and resource allocation in tertiary education. Student enrolments increased dramatically by 67 per cent between 2002 and 2016, from 450,000 to 950,000, with the major growth being in African enrolment which reached 70 per cent of the total student population. In the same period, the growth in permanent academic staff was 20 per cent, and the staff-student ratio grew to an alarming 1:55 from an earlier 1:40 (Simkins, 2016). Government funding to universities decreased from 49 per cent of total funding in 2000 to 40 per cent in 2014 (Cloete, 2016). Fees increased in the same period by 9 per cent per annum in the context of a 5 to 6 per cent inflation rate. It is apparent that the higher education system is under considerable strain, with low throughputs, rising enrolments, high staff to student ratios and an unsustainable funding base with poor National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) loan recovery. To maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly transforming knowledge economy, countries need to invest more in quality education. However, with an investment of less than 1 per cent of GDP, historically South Africa has neither invested enough in higher education nor has it reached its own target of 1 per cent on Research and Development, a figure which is well below international targets. As a percentage of GDP, higher education funding decreased to 0.67 per cent in 2015. A key priority in relieving funding pressures is to improve the internal effectiveness and efficiency of the higher education system and, indeed, the schooling system, bringing to the fore the relationship between equity and efficiency. This requires systematic interventions to address the knowledge and skills gap between school and university, through restructuring the curriculum and qualifications. External and internal efficiencies can also be addressed, the former by improving the relevance of programmes and graduates in meeting societal and labour market needs, and the latter by improving how resources are allocated, within and across institutions, and by improving levels of degree completion.

Fee Free Education for All or for the Poor Calculations of the cost of providing free higher education often draw on examples from developed countries. In Africa, early post-independence provision of free higher education was for small numbers and proved 143

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unsustainable as systems expanded. Research from Africa and Latin America indicates that free public education benefits the rich far more than the poor, because students from the wealthier classes are in a better position to compete for access to selective public universities, while all but the most gifted students from poorer backgrounds are relegated to private fee-paying institutions or public institutions of low quality. Oketch (2003) highlights distributional problems in education funding in sub-Saharan Africa with strong competition between basic and higher education. Archer (2015) argues that this situation is regressive in that the poor subsidize the rich. Barr (2004) notes that even in OECD countries, government higher education subsidies predominantly benefit the rich. Muller (2016) notes that while the ostensible intention of the #Fees Must Fall movement was to benefit poor youth, only 5 per cent of South Africans aged between 15 and 34 are university students while 34 per cent are unemployed. In our current discourse, there is slippage between the concepts of “fee free education,” “free education for all” and “free education for the poor.” In the debates which followed the recent wave of student protest, those calling for fee free education for all focused specifically on the demand for no fees and related full costs of education provision for all students which included housing and subsistence. Those supporting free education for the poor proposed a model which differentiates students into groups or categories based on parental income. Different concepts have different consequences. Cloete (2016) argues that in a developing country the call should be for “affordable higher education for all,” with a clear understanding that affordable means different costs for different social groups. This can be expanded to the provision of free education for the poor, with an agreed definition of which strata of society constitute “the poor” (Motala, 2016). Many commentators (Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training, 2017, p. 105) make clear that while fee remission is an important equity gain in a society characterized by high levels of inequality and poverty, considerations of social inequity also require attention to the full package of accommodation, books and subsistence that is required. The “full cost of study” proponents argue persuasively that subsidizing tuition alone is of little practical value. Van den Berg and Raubenheimer (2015) describe lack of food and housing as a “powerful force,” which contributes to poor academic performance, inability to participate meaningfully in campus life and attrition. Wangenge-Ouma (2010) notes that, with the shift from an elite to a more representative student population, the needs are greater, and must include the full support package for the poorest. Proponents of “free education for all” suggest that current models, which classify households into income groups and apply means tests, are flawed, because they lead to increased vulnerability of the poor, high levels 144

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of indebtedness, reduced savings towards retirement and a compromised standard of living (Oxfam, 2016). Instead, increasing corporate tax from 28 per cent to 30 per cent and the skills development levy from 1 per cent to 3 per cent might be considered, as well as dealing decisively with corruption. Such an approach, which concentrates on the structural aspects of inequality and uses tax revenues for higher education funding, is preferable to the idea of a differentiated approach to the “rich” and the “poor.” Equally persuasive is the argument to make free education available to the poor, based on the available disposable income of the family, through a differentiated, post school system, with differentiated funding and fees. Teferra (2016) notes that several African universities in Uganda, Malawi and Kenya have moved from free higher education for all to cost sharing and to ensuring that university resource bases are both consolidated and diversified. Cost sharing in higher education is defined as “a shift in the burden of higher education costs from being borne exclusively or predominantly by government, or taxpayers, to be shared with parents and students” (Johnstone, 2003, p. 351). This redistributive model is gaining support in South Africa, with the premise that free education must be made available to the poor and that the wealthy must pay their share. As an OECD report (2008) notes, for cost sharing to be compatible with equality of opportunity and access, it must be accompanied by measures which remove financial barriers to entering tertiary education, especially for more disadvantaged groups.

Higher Education as Private and Public Good Higher education is arguably both a private and a public good, and there is a worldwide trend to expect individuals to pay more for the costs they incur in benefitting from it. As noted earlier, decreases in state expenditure on higher education meant that student fees had to be correspondingly increased. The profitability of investing in higher education can be calculated by undertaking a cost-benefit analysis, which reviews social and private returns to education. Higher education has a major effect on economic development and private earnings. In sub-Saharan Africa, returns on tertiary education are higher than returns on schooling: South Africa has one of the highest returns on higher education in the world (Psacharoupoulos and Patrinos, 2002), with considerable rewards in wages and employment opportunities. The private rate of return on education thus presents a persuasive argument for an increase in private fees, but the high social returns also indicate that investment in education is a profitable investment for the state since it impacts positively on areas such as health and welfare (de Villiers and Steyn, 2007). Unterhalter et al. (2018) raise the overarching question of who defines the public good and how. There appear to be two distinct ways in which 145

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higher education and the public good are conceptualized. First, qualifications, knowledge production, innovation, development of the professional classes and expertise can be perceived as leading to particular economic, social, political or cultural manifestations of public good (McMahon, 2009; Stiglitz, 1999). Others illustrate the relationship between higher education and the public good, for instance through reducing prejudice, democratization, critical thinking and active citizenship (Calhoun, 2006; Leibowitz, 2013). It is interesting to note the connections and disagreements between these two formulations and the way writings on higher education in contemporary Africa have engaged with this debate,

Modelling Funding Equity Over the last five years, several ministerial task teams and commissions have examined the chronic underfunding of higher education and assessed the possibility and promise of free tertiary education. These include teams led by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa (2012), Derrick Swartz, ViceChancellor of Nelson Mandela University (2013) and Sizwe Nxasana, Chairperson of National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and CEO of First National Bank (2015), as well as reports from the Council on Higher Education (2016) and, most recently, the Heher Commission (2017). Investment in education as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lower in comparison to other countries (University of Stellenbosch, 2021). The annual increases for higher education funding have been below the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This has been the case for more than 20 years and is the basis for the funding crisis in higher education (University of Stellenbosch, 2021). Alongside these deliberations, independent researchers along with civil society organizations, universities in South Africa, NSFAS and a number of tertiary institutions have built up a significant body of knowledge on higher education funding (Motala, 2016). Various funding models that have been proposed in other countries and South Africa have been presented. The models present different scenarios, including their likely impact in a context of low economic growth with a constrained fiscus. Questions have been asked about the viability of the current funding model, and about whether, in a developing country, free higher education is affordable or even desirable. Current mechanisms for dispensing student financial aid are also under intense scrutiny, and a more equitable allocation of resources for the entire education sector, which is viable, credible and inclusive, is being considered. The relationship between poverty, access to quality education and societal change has highlighted such systemic issues. There seems to be unequivocal consensus that any new funding model must be based on social justice. Simply put, no academically achieving and deserving student should be excluded from university because they cannot afford it. 146

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Publicly funded tertiary education for the poorest in our society, who meet academic merit criteria, must be made available as soon as possible. There is also agreement on certain key principles, which has distinctly shifted the discourse: for example, that full cost provision for the neediest students must include accommodation, food and books; that “missing middle” students outside the NSFAS criteria must be guaranteed access through a combination of grants and loans; that funding for higher education must increase, and that an increase in the share of the GDP devoted to this sector from 0.7 to 1.5 per cent must be considered. Undoubtedly, the diverse skills needed by our society and economy require serious attention to the learning needs of the entire cohort of young people in the 18–24 age group (Motala, 2017, p. 21). The students’ movement has brought the inequalities in our society into sharp focus and has demonstrated the deep frustration with the numerous inconclusive funding review processes, poor governance, corruption and wastage. At the same time, the movement appears fragmented, and its ultimate objective not clear. To end the impasse, proposals from the Fees Commissions need to translate into firm and achievable short-, medium- and long-term commitments. The macro funding principles embedded in the above commitments are cost sharing, efficiency and quality, and education as a public good. This will go a long way to contributing to much-needed stability in our increasingly fragile higher education sector.

Conclusion This chapter illustrates that various strategies have been put in place to address the many seemingly intractable problems in South African higher education to realize equitable and quality education. The necessary conditions for delivery of decolonized education of good quality are adequate finance and human resources, involvement and a sense of ownership by role players, regular monitoring and evaluation, and sustained effort. At both school and tertiary levels, the issues are strikingly similar: the education process needs to be understood as a continuum for interventions to be effective. Above all, it is essential to affirm and embed the notion that education is a public good and insist that equality and social justice must drive educational reform. In particular, differential redistribution must define our approach to equity. Widespread community mobilization is required to ensure that the undoubted gains in access to education and participation become the foundation for learning and outcomes, which offer real-life chances for our young people in further and higher education and in the labour market, thus enabling mobility out of poverty. There remain many questions about whether the pro-poor policy and the fee free trajectory are genuinely on track towards fundamental transformation or whether they are merely ameliorating, without overcoming, existing funding inequities. What we need is a new model of equity, relevant to our 147

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specific context, which prioritizes differential distribution. The state needs a more aggressive approach to redistributing resources, including human resources. Doing this would address poverty and disadvantage as well as accessibility and choice.

References Adetiba, T.C. (2019): “Massification of Higher Education In South Africa, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly”, University of Zululand, South Africa. IISES International Academic Conference, Paris Ajayi, J.F.A., Lameck, K.H.G., and Johnson, G.A. (1996): The African Experience With Higher Education. Athens: Ohio University Press. Allais, S. (2016): “Towards Measuring the Economic Value of Higher Education: Lessons From South Africa”, Comparative Education, 53(1), pp. 147–163. Archer, A. (2015): “Free Higher Education is an Inequality Engine”, Business Day, October 20. Barr, N. (2004): “Higher Education Funding”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 20(2), pp. 264–283. Basu, K. (2017): The Insecurity of Inequality. Project Syndicate. www.project-syn dicate.org/commentary/rising-inequality-globalization-by-kaushik-basu-2017-04 Calhoun, C. (2006): “The University and the Public Good”, Thesis Eleven, 84(1), pp. 7–43. Cloete, N. (2016): “University Fees in South Africa: A Story from Evidence”. Stellenbosch, South Africa: Centre for Higher Education Trust (CHET), May. Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training (2017): Report of the Commission of Inquiry Into Higher Education and Training to the President of the Republic of South Africa. www.thepresidency.gov.za/download/file/fid/1075. Council on Higher Education (CHE) (2016): South African Higher Education Reviewed Two Decades of Democracy. CHE Funding Task Team. Pretoria: Council on Higher Education. De Villiers, P., and Steyn, G. (2007): “The Changing Face of Public Financing of Higher Education, With Special Reference to South Africa”, South African Journal of Economics, 75(1), pp. 136–154. Johnstone, D.B. (2003): “The Economics and Politics of Cost Sharing in Higher Education: Comparative Perspectives”, Economics of Education Review, 23, pp. 403–410. Lange, L. (2017): “20  Years of Higher Education Curriculum Policy in South Africa”, Journal of Education, 68. Leibowitz, B. (2013): “Attention to Student Writing in Postgraduate Health Science Education: Whose Task Is It? Or How?”, Journal of Academic Writing, 3(1), pp. 30–41. McMahon, W.W. (2009): Higher Learning: Greater Good – The Private and Social Benefits of Higher Education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University. Motala, S. (2016): “Breaking the University Impasse: Time to Put Plans and Research into Action”, The Conversation, October. Motala, S. (2017): “Achieving ‘Free Education’ for the Poor – a Realisable Goal in 2018?”, Journal of Education, 68, pp. 15–29.

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Muller, S.M. (2016):  “South Africa’s #feesmustfall Protests: Some Inconvenient Truths”, The Conversation, October 31. Oketch, M.O. (2003): “Affording the Unaffordable: Cost Sharing in Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa”, Peabody Journal of Education, 78(3), pp. 88–106. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2008): Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries. Paris: OECD. Oxfam Report. (2016): “Financing, Not Funding, Mechanism Needed”, Proquest, 26, November. Piketty, T. (2014): Capital in the Twenty-First Century. London: Belknap Press. Pillay, P. (2010): Higher Education Financing in East and Southern Africa. Oxford: African Books Collective. Psacharoupoulos, G., and Patrinos, H. (2002): “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update”, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2881. Rawls, J. (1972): A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rensburg, I., Motala, S., and David, S. (2016): “Research Collaboration Among Emerging Economies: Policy Implications for BRICS Nations”, International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, 9(4), pp. 344–360 Rodrik, D. (2016): The Abdication of the Left. Project Syndicate. www.project-syndicate. org/commentary/anti-globalization-backlash-from-right-by-dani-rodrik-2016-07 Sayed, Y. (2002): “Post-apartheid Education Transformation: Policy Concerns and Approaches”, in Jansen, J., and Sayed, Y. (eds.), Implementing Education Policies: The South African Experience. Cape Town: UCT Press, pp. 250–271. Secada, W.G. (ed.) (1989): Equity in Education. London: Falmer. Simkins, C. (2016): Funding South African Higher Education Reviewed: Two Decades of Democracy. Kagisano: Council on Higher Education, 10, pp. 39–115. Stellenbosch University (2021): Making Sense of Funding in the SA Higher Education Sector. www.sun.ac.za/english/news-media/latest-news/student-fees/education-sector funding#:~:text=Universities%20in%20South%20Africa%20have%20been%20 chronically%20underfunded,%28GDP%29%20is%20much%20lower%20 than%20in%20other%20countries Stiglitz, J. (1999): “The World Bank at the Millennium”, The Economic Journal, 109(459), pp. 577–597. Tawney, R. (1913): Memoranda on the Problems of Poverty. London: William Morris. Teferra, D. (2016): “African Flagship Universities: Their Neglected Contributions”, Higher Education, 72(1), pp. 79–99. Unterhalter, E., Allais, S.M., Howell, C., McCowan, T., Morley, L., Ibrahim, O., and Oketch, M. (2018): “Conceptualising Higher Education and the Public Good in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa”, in Proceedings of the CIES 2018 Annual Conference. Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Mexico City. Van der Berg, S. (2001): “Resource Shifts in South African Schools after the Political Transition”, Development Southern Africa, 18(4), pp. 309–325. Van den Berg, L., and Raubenheimer, J. (2015): “Food Insecurity Among Students at the University of the Free State”, Journal of Education, 28(4), pp. 160–169. Wangenge-Ouma, G. (2010): “Funding and the Attainment of Transformation Goals in South Africa’s Higher Education”, Oxford Review of Education, 36(4), pp. 481–497.

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Section 3 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT FOR QUALITY INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

9 PERSISTING CHALLENGE OF CONTRACT TEACHERS IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS OF INDIA Vimala Ramachandran1

A Contract Teacher’s Journey Ramesar is a young man of about 30  years. He finished his high school several years back and subsequently completed a primary teacher training course. He tried hard to get a job in the government but the concerned state government had (at that time) stopped recruiting regular teachers, having decided to recruit only contract teachers. When Ramesar could not find a job as a teacher, he started working as a shop assistant in the local market. In 1999, there was a buzz in his village that the government was planning to sanction a school in the nearby tribal habitation. He was informed by the village Pradhan that he had been asked to recommend names of local persons who could work as teachers. An overjoyed Ramesar put in an application to the village Pradhan, indicating that he was willing to work anywhere – even in a remote habitation. He desperately wanted to be a teacher. Ramesar was asked to report for an interview at the block headquarters and after a few rounds of tests and discussions, he was offered the post of a contract teacher in the remote habitation. Soon after his appointment, Ramesar attended the 20-day induction training in the district headquarters. He was then asked to report to the village panchayat that had identified a space for the school and had also prepared a list of 29 children who would enrol. The first few weeks were rough. Ramesar had to clear up the space, meet the parents and ask them to send the children to school. He was shocked to note that several children had been pulled out of the nearby government primary school and enrolled into his school. The children were all from extremely poor families. As the months went by, Ramesar was able to procure textbooks for DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-13 

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them and also persuade the village Pradhan to supply slates and chalk. Over the next year, a thatched-roof school building was ready and Ramesar settled into the routine of teaching. He attended the monthly meeting at the cluster and also collected his honorarium of Rs. 1,500. The euphoria that surrounded the new school died down soon. Several months went by and there was no salary. He then heard that an association had been formed and there was a daylong agitation in the state capital. Then one day – on the second last day of the financial year – Ramesar was paid for six months. The erratic payments continued over the years. In the three years that he was a contract teacher, Ramesar attended two training/refresher programmes for two days each. These workshops focused on how to fill out the household survey and other forms that were routinely handed over to them. There were a few lectures on “joyful learning” and during one training session, they had a one-hour session on making teaching and learning material for children. Ramesar had just heard that all the panchayat schools were to be made “regular” upper primary schools. But the system of contract teachers would continue. In the fourth year his salary went up to Rs. 2,500 per month – far less than the minimum wage earned by an unskilled labourer. Ramesar is a disillusioned man. In the fifth year of his service, he was teaching 35 children in the age group of five to 12  years. Every year he starts off with the alphabets and numbers, manages to go up to simple addition and subtraction and maybe a few sentences, by which time the academic year is up. The next year he starts off again with alphabets and numbers. Many of his students have gone through this drill with him over and over again and have not been able to move beyond the basics in reading and arithmetic. His school was converted into a formal upper primary school in 2003 and regular teachers were appointed. Ramesar lost his job as a contract teacher. In 2014, the state where he worked took a decision to discontinue the contract teacher system – in accordance with the ruling of the High Court. He now runs tuition classes in his village and sometimes works in a local private school which pays him Rs. 200 a day.

What Does Ramesar’s Story Tell Us? Ramesar is qualified, having completed high school and a diploma in education; he worked full time – meaning that he managed the school for six hours. He attended the monthly meetings held at the cluster level and sometimes even in the block office. He filled out the same forms as his peers who work in regular primary schools. He was eligible to attend refresher training programmes like any other “regular teacher.” He was also asked to participate in non-academic duties like national and local elections, Pulse Polio campaigns and drought relief. 154

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How is Ramesar different from his “regular” peers? • •

His working conditions were far more challenging in the initial years; He was appointed on an annual contract basis, which is renewed every year; • He is not a government servant; • He earned Rs. 2,500 a month, while his peers who are “regular” take home almost 25,000 a month; • His salary came once or twice a year (roughly once in six months); • He worked in a remote rural area where regular teachers did not go; • He is not part of the primary teachers’ union – he is a member of an unrecognized association; • When his school was upgraded and regular teachers were appointed, he lost his job. He also faces extraordinarily difficult teaching conditions: • When he was first appointed, there was not even a school building – Ramesar had to push for its construction as well as for the provision of basic teaching-learning materials. • Because he worked in a poor, remote rural village, his students were first-generation learners. Family support for and understanding of educational processes were limited. He had to persuade parents to send their children to school and keep them there. • He had to teach in a multi-grade classroom, with students enrolled in classes 1 to 5. • He was thrown into this situation without adequate training and nonexistent support. • Ramesar received 20 days of induction training, by no means sufficient to teach children from classes 1 through 5, even under better circumstances. • He received two days of in-service or refresher training a year. Even these two days were largely spent on issues unrelated to teaching and learning. Ramesar’s situation is by no means unique. Although details may vary from state to state, what is clear is that contract teachers were wholly unprepared and poorly compensated for what is, by any standard, an extremely difficult and complex task: bringing education to first-generation learners in remote, poor and disadvantaged corners of the country. The situation in 2020 is different from the 1990s. Contract teachers today are as qualified as regular teachers, most of them have qualified in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), their salaries have gone up marginally and states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have discontinued the practice. Surprisingly, today we have teachers on contract at all levels – primary 155

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to higher secondary. While there is still no policy on contract teachers, the practice continues.

The Origins of the Concept of Contract Teachers The practice of hiring contract/para teachers slipped into educational practice from the 1990s. Drawing from the experiences of the Shiksha Karmi Programme2 (SKP) of 1987 in Rajasthan that had introduced community teachers in under-served schools, states like Odisha adopted the model to overcome serious teacher shortage. The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), in 1994, extended the practice of hiring contract teachers. This practice continued under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan3 (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan4 (RMSA) and Samagra Shiksha5 (SS) through funding provisions for contract teachers. This gave rise to disparities in recruitment processes, service rules, tenure and payment. Contract teachers gained in popularity because their engagement was seen as an immediate measure to address teacher shortages by following a far simpler process of recruitment within a short time, without having to go through arduous processes of getting teacher posts sanctioned and adding to the state’s/union territory’s (UT’s) financial burden. The need for compliance with norms for pupil teacher ratio (PTR) mandated in the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 contributed to hiring more contract teachers as the state governments realized that they could be deployed without long-term financial liability. The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), which introduced the Teacher Eligibility Test in 2010, tried to ensure only those with basic qualifications and/or having cleared the TET were hired as teachers. This, in many states, also includes contract teachers. In addition, state governments also hire part-time teachers for subjects like physical education, arts and craft, music and vocational education. Lately, many states have resorted to part-time teachers to mitigate shortage of subject teachers in secondary schools (Ramachandran et al., 2018). The number of contract teachers in India’s education system has varied from 498,944 in 2007 to 316,091 in 2010–11 at the elementary level. Data for elementary and secondary reveals that in 2017–18, the number of contract teachers was 6,32,316 (DSEL, various years). Notwithstanding the absence of any policy on contract and part-time teachers, it is interesting that in 2019–20, the Project Approval Board for SS (MHRD, GOI) approved 66,463 part-time teachers for the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya6 (KGBV), residential school/hostels and vocational education. Approvals were also made for ICT Digital Initiatives, sports and physical education, training in martial arts and self-defence and special training, all of which attract engagement of contract teachers. A part of the lump sum budget (usually allocated per school) is utilized to hire services of part-time teachers/instructors. 156

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Table 9.1 Teacher Vacancies Under SS State

Sanctioned Teacher Posts

Teacher Vacancies

Bihar Chhattisgarh Jharkhand Madhya Pradesh Punjab Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh West Bengal

1,26,740 38,039 56,299 34,556 1,049 13,334 1,33,911 32,861

31.5% 71.8% 45.9% 19.3% 9.8% 10.9% 53.5% 16.4%

Source: MHRD (2019–20)

Teacher Vacancies and Non-availability of Subject Teachers The need to hire teachers on contract can be linked to teacher vacancies and skewed PTRs. The year 2018–19 saw 11.7 per cent vacancies against the sanctioned posts of teachers (Table 9.1). Of the 1,764,956 posts of teachers under SS, 19.1 per cent posts were vacant and 8.8 per cent of teacher posts under the state/UT were vacant.7 As Table 9.1 shows, some states had significant numbers and proportions of teacher posts lying vacant against those sanctioned under SS. Though reasons vary from state to state, their fiscal situation could be a deciding factor for their ability/inability to fill the sanctioned posts of teachers. The states argue that closure of SS would shift the total salary burden of teachers to the state exchequer. To avert such an eventuality, states are perhaps prompted to hire contract teachers through SS funds and are also reluctant to regularize the appointments made under SS over the long term. In the Teacher Workforce study (Ramachandran et al., 2018), a number of other state-specific reasons like recruitment processes being held up in court, lack of proactive effort by state governments to fast track recruitment processes and apathy were identified as reasons for hiring contract teachers.

Contract Teachers: Trends Over Time The number of contract teachers peaked in 2014–15 when it reached 663,074. Despite a declining trend since, the number has remained above the 600,000 mark until 2017–18 and constitutes 12.7 per cent of teachers (Figures 9.1 and 9.2). Across elementary and secondary levels of education, there is a huge gap in the numbers of contract teachers as evident in Figures 9.3 and 9.4. There are many more contract teachers at the elementary level as compared to 157

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Figure 9.1 Number of Contract Teachers, India Source: DSEL (various years)

Figure 9.2 Percentage of Contract Teachers to Total Teachers, India Source: DSEL (various years)

secondary. This could be attributed to the increase in enrolment of students and the number of elementary schools from 1990 onwards. As RMSA was launched only in 2009, the expansion of secondary schools and increase in enrolment started after that. Even after this increase, a significant gap exists in the numbers of schools at the elementary and secondary levels as also in enrolment. Equally, many states do not follow the practice of hiring contract teachers at the secondary level. All these factors combined could possibly explain the gap in the number of contract teachers at the elementary and secondary levels. The state/UT-wise numbers and proportions of contract teachers presented in Tables 9.2 and 9.3 reflect significant state-wise variations. Proportionately, contract teachers may appear relatively low in states like Uttar Pradesh, but their number at 1,08,000 is quite high. 158

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Figure 9.3 Year-wise Number of Contract Teachers in Government Schools by Level of Education Source: DSEL (various years)

Figure 9.4 Year-wise Percentage Contract Teachers in Government Schools by Level of Education Source: DSEL (various years)

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Table 9.2 State-wise Percentage of Contract Teachers to Total Teachers by Level of Education, 2017–18 State/UT

Pr

U Pr

Chhattisgarh Madhya Pradesh Karnataka Gujarat Rajasthan Maharashtra Puducherry Manipur Andhra Pradesh Uttarakhand Tamil Nadu Kerala Jammu and Kashmir Andaman & Nicobar Nagaland Goa Bihar Haryana Tripura Telangana Assam Punjab Uttar Pradesh West Bengal Lakshadweep Delhi Chandigarh Himachal Pradesh Mizoram Sikkim Daman and Diu Odisha Arunachal Pradesh Dadra & Nagar Hav Jharkhand Meghalaya Total

00.01 00.01 00.14 00.14

Pr + U Pr Sec 4.26

HSc

UP + Sec Sec + HS NA

00.43 00.07 4.92 00.14 00.12 59.09

0.21 11.01

-

Total 00.06 00.14

00.18 00.08 10.71 00.42 10.52 10.86 00.37

00.35 00.93 00.30 0.26 10.35 4.75 20.67 2.13 40.97 9.45 30.14 12.45

00.74 50.47 00.08 50.38 10.44 30.00 40.35

00.48 50.67 36.36 00.06 70.71 7.41 50.48 2.83 30.99 7.76 35.73 6.50

39.13 0.67 13.64 8.77 23.53 5.95

25.00 00.36 00.59 00.82 00.88 20.70 20.90 30.18

20.41 00.90 50.80 80.41

00.58 10.44 40.58 50.64

40.54 00.96 40.40 00.69

80.92 00.74 70.15 40.38

5.13 0.67 2.63

14.15 5.26 3.51

40.35 30.73 30.84 50.49 50.65

10.50 90.81 50.00

70.75 40.04 36.11

38.46

-

60.24 70.16 12.68 12.56 14.65 11.60 22.42 17.51 24.75 25.46 17.41 17.30 28.64 18.29

24.07 10.92 12.38 14.17 70.30 27.12 13.64 16.36 10.78 00.58 14.11 21.83 23.13 35.63

15.79

70.53 70.34 11.46 14.93 24.50 25.38 90.02 26.77 50.62 28.12 14.88 38.81 33.57 38.87

2.52 1.67 4.88

9.85 12.35 6.67 47.06 55.24 26.46 21.43 28.93 32.48 -

80.87 39.01 60.61 12.45 00.53 40.95 30.68 90.94 20.56 10.91 46.84 24.08 15.68 25.81

60.40

35.63 3.32 26.38 4.00 13.78 12.32

11.80 11.51 2.94 25.52 4.76

4.94 1.03 11.00

8.11 1.57 43.37

30.82 38.01

27.90 51.23

10.00 90.11 10.18 11.78 14.36 14.57 15.56 16.36 18.50 18.69 30.83 21.48 23.38 25.28 13.53 27.87 28.16

23.97 31.19 21.29 41.92 35.88 36.45 -

36.93 26.39 44.08 54.34 33.82 38.27 27.78

46.15

29.30 35.19 35.86

38.82 40.66 41.69 56.25 55.67 49.42

36.08 10.99 31.45 31.39 11.36 42.39

20.18 43.30

38.63 50.46

44.96 67.43

54.08 69.52

64.46 55.95 49.54 51.74 88.41 15.38 14.48 12.09 32.60

60.14 70.76 29.66 43.56 11.84 22.22 70.85 70.27 13.60

Source: DSEL (2017–18)

160

54.99 6.45 8.51 9.98

57.05 65.29 40.25 12.69

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Table 9.3 Number of Contract Teachers in Government-Managed Schools, 2012 to 2018 Name of State/ UT

2012–13

2013–14

2014–15

2015–16

2016–17

2017–18

Chhattisgarh 846 513 387   76 111 Puducherry 286 89 102 139 176 137 Lakshadweep 126 107 112 193 271 263 Andaman & 339 337 298 265 315 279 Nicobar Goa 139 154 167 250 220 332 Daman & Diu 69 100 283 330 333 364 Madhya 56,286 51,628 4,853 561 1,106 488 Pradesh Manipur 653 708 936 1,207 1,075 554 Karnataka 2,628 607 1,782 791 787 784 Dadra & Nagar 609 445 698 1,011 1,192 1,185 Hav Gujarat 5,153 2,526 3,188 1,531 1,249 1,254 Chandigarh 1,056 1,768 1,768 1,753 1,787 1,468 Nagaland 904 1,022 1,040 1,029 1,397 1,834 Maharashtra 8,937 8,206 3,842 2,718 2,301 2,325 Uttarakhand 1,140 1,408 1,403 3,599 3,029 2,337 Rajasthan 4,531 7,330 3,801 2,512 2,807 2,824 Sikkim 918 1,334 2,553 3,361 3,361 3,763 Mizoram 8,624 4,097 5,261 5,151 5,099 3,843 Kerala 829 2,439 2,279 2,020 2,545 3,916 Tripura 5,968 6,028 5,981 5,894 5,931 5,969 Andhra Pradesh 13,073 11,576 6,068 5,354 3,816 6,056 Jammu and 13,513 14,959 17,104 14,230 10,400 6,216 Kashmir Arunachal 7,167 7,387 7,606 7,930 7,975 8,639 Pradesh Tamil Nadu 1,874 1,403 10,599 14,927 24,554 9,170 Haryana 10,344 14,681 15,462 11,710 13,861 14,014 Meghalaya 12,683 12,984 13,102 13,377 13,551 15,332 Delhi 11,714 19,481 17,450 20,071 20,332 18,848 Himachal 14,837 17,344 19,625 19,917 20,511 19,124 Pradesh Punjab 16,044 29,864 28,792 36,159 35,342 21,784 Telangana     6,819 7,052 9,509 22,592 Assam 39,777 33,269 43,423 40,412 36,220 39,322 Bihar 42,493 66,014 1,05,063 76,418 68,909 50,926 Jharkhand 72,529 77,007 80,316 72,461 69,454 68,446 Odisha 67,283 37,444 61,655 90,568 91,181 86,590 West Bengal 32,586 43,695 52,260 1,05,714 1,01,879 1,02,854 Uttar Pradesh 1,06,546 1,18,051 1,36,996 71,012 53,598 1,08,373 Total 5,62,504 5,96,005 6,63,074 6,41,627 6,16,149 6,32,316 Source: DSEL (various years)

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Numbers tell only part of the story. As evident from Table 9.2, Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh have over 50 per cent teachers on contract. Odisha and Sikkim with over 35 per cent teachers on contract are followed by Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and West Bengal – all having more than 20 per cent of teachers on contract. An increase across years in the number and percentage of contract teachers is seen in most other states. It is noteworthy that the primary level has the highest number of contract teachers (3,45,884) comprising 65.2 per cent of the total 530,737 approved by the SS Project Approval Board (PAB), 2019–20. Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have together received support for 78.6 per cent of the total contract teachers approved. The largest number and percentage of contract teachers have been approved for Uttar Pradesh (141,927 and 26.7 per cent, Odisha (101,203 and 19.1 per cent, West Bengal (94,648 and17.8 per cent), Jharkhand (41,655 and 7.8 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (37,697 and7.1 per cent). A counter-intuitive insight from this study has to do with the presence of contract teachers in different types of residential schools specially opened by government for specific groups of children or girls – for example KGBV, Navodaya Vidyalaya and residential schools under the Education, Social Welfare or Tribal Welfare ministries/departments. Schools meant for the most deprived, run by the Ministry of Labour (child labour) and the Social Welfare Department, have 41.6 and 22.5 per cent teachers on contract, respectively. Even the Sainik Schools (under the Ministry of Defence) are running with 32.4 per cent contract teachers (Table 9.4). Since the KGBVs were started in 2004, they relied primarily on contract teachers as per schematic provisions (Table 9.5). The national evaluations of KGBVs conducted by the Ministry to Human Resource Development (MHRD) in 2007 and 2013 reiterated this. After more than a decade since their inception, 57.6 per cent teachers in the KGBVs are on contract as the states have been slow in deploying/deputing regular teachers. Many teachers in the KGBVs, according to the evaluations, were without the requisite professional qualifications.

Gender-Based Differences As Table 9.6 shows, there are noticeable state-wise gender differences among regular and contract teachers. Some states have a higher proportion of women teachers across the board; there are states where the proportion of women is lesser than 50 per cent across cadres and some states have higher proportion of women contract teachers. The difference could be attributed to higher numbers of contract teachers in certain kinds of schools. In West Bengal, for instance, women over the age of 40 were hired to manage primary schools (known as Shishu Shiksha Karmasuchi) since 1999, where almost all teachers are women. 162

Type of Schools

163

Dept. of Education Tribal Department Local Body Other Social Welfare Ministry of Labour Kendriya Vidyalaya Navodaya Vidyalaya Sainik School Railway School Central Tibetan School Total Source: DSEL (2017–18)

Total Number of Teachers

Total Number of Teachers on Contract

Percentage of Teachers on Contract to Total Teachers

M

F

T

M

F

T

M

F

T

22,44,970 88,536 5,06,195 7,389 5,411 103 18,124 6,180

15,98,717 45,061 4,18,043 15,608 4,076 356 16,642 2,463

38,43,687 1,33,597 9,24,238 22,997 9,487 459 34,766 8,643

2,85,660 5,951 7,869 2,909 885 35 927 393

3,00,760 4,876 9,599 8,987 1,250 156 1,165 219

5,86,420 10,827 17,468 11,896 2,135 191 2,092 612

12.7 60.7 10.6 39.4 16.4 34.0 50.1 60.4

18.8 10.8 20.3 57.6 30.7 43.8 70.0 80.9

15.3 80.1 10.9 51.7 22.5 41.6 60.0 70.1

845 810 115

1,188 516 62

2,033 1,326 177

122 1 6

537 1 8

659 2 14

14.4 00.1 50.2

45.2 00.2 12.9

32.4 00.2 70.9

28,78,678

21,02,732

49,81,410

3,04,758

3,27,558

6,32,316

10.6

15.6

12.7

P ersisting C hallenge of C ontract T eachers

Table 9.4 Number and Percentage of Teachers on Contract in Specific Types of Government Schools, by Management

V imala R amachandran

Table 9.5 Number and Percentage of Teachers on Contract in Specific Types of Residential Government Schools Type of Schools

Total Number of Teachers

Total Number of Teachers on Contract

Percentage of Teachers on Contract to Total Teachers

M

M

M

F

T

F

T

F

T

Ashram 29,062 16,676 45,738 5,042 4,256 9,298 17.3 25.5 20.3 Non3,23,509 2,22,230 5,45,739 32,134 37,635 69,769 9.9 16.9 12.8 Ashram (Govt.) Private 1,733 1,638 3,371 186 233 419 10.7 14.2 12.4 Others 21,240 12,456 33,696 2,708 2,382 5,090 12.7 19.1 15.1 KGBV 4,173 18,869 23,042 1,269 12,011 13,280 30.4 63.7 57.6 Model 4,777 3,525 8,302 510 415 925 10.7 11.8 11.1 School Eklavya 489 216 705 138 112 250 28.2 51.9 35.5 Model School Source: DSEL (2017–18)

Where Are Contract Teachers Located? As India has more rural schools, the number of teachers in rural schools is expectedly higher. Predictably, there are more teachers on contract in rural areas as borne out by Table 9.7. As evident in Table 9.8, one-fourth of schools across India have at least one teacher on contract with state-wise variations in the proportion of such schools. The table also highlights states with more than 40 per cent such schools. Though 6.25 per cent schools in India are functioning with only contract teachers, the situation is somewhat grim in Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and West Bengal. There are 57,361 primary schools in India with all teachers on contract and account for 8.21 per cent of all primary schools. Further 9,021 (3.1 per cent) upper primary, 1,460 (2.4 per cent) secondary and 603 (1.2 per cent) higher secondary schools function with only contract teachers (DSEL, 2017–18). Interventions by the State Departments of Education, particularly in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Odisha and West Bengal would be imperative to deliver education with equity as intended by National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In the country there are 79.2 per cent of “small schools” with enrolment of up to 90 that function with all teachers on contract, making them the most disadvantaged schools (Table 9.9). This is indeed a very serious finding from the analysis of the U-DISE data of 2017–18. Any effort to reform the contract teacher regime would have to start with primary schools where 164

P ersisting C hallenge of C ontract T eachers

Table 9.6 Number of Teachers on Contract, Disaggregated by Gender, in GovernmentManaged Schools State

Kerala Goa Puducherry Chandigarh Andaman & Nicobar Islands Punjab Andhra Pradesh NCT of Delhi West Bengal Daman & Diu Gujarat Tamil Nadu Sikkim Telangana Uttar Pradesh Dadra & Nagar Haveli Lakshadweep Nagaland Meghalaya Haryana Manipur Karnataka Uttarakhand Odisha Arunachal Pradesh Assam Maharashtra Bihar Jammu & Kashmir Mizoram Chhattisgarh Himachal Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan Tripura Jharkhand Total

Total Number of Teachers on Contract

Per cent of Female Teachers to Total Teachers

Male

On Contract

Regular

Female

Total

687 59 31 348 71

3,229 273 106 1,120 208

3,916 332 137 1,468 279

82.46 82.23 77.37 76.29 74.55

69.6 77.3 61.3 71.0 57.3

5,755 1,745 5,976 33,969 125 485 3,583 1,484 9,060 43,677 479

16,029 4,311 12,872 68,885 239 769 5,587 2,279 13,532 64,696 706

21,784 6,056 18,848 1,02,854 364 1,254 9,170 3,763 22,592 1,08,373 1,185

73.58 71.19 68.29 66.97 65.66 61.32 60.93 60.56 59.90 59.70 59.58

58.6 42.5 58.3 32.7 50.8 47.0 65.5 47.9 40.5 44.9 48.5

109 865 7,407 7,232 288 410 1,245 47,129 4,719 21,513 1,299 29,717 3,693 2,314 67 11,557 311 1,842 4,363 51,144 3,04,758

154 969 7,925 6,782 266 374 1,092 39,461 3,920 17,809 1,026 21,209 2,523 1,529 44 7,567 177 982 1,606 17,302 3,27,558

263 1,834 15,332 14,014 554 784 2,337 86,590 8,639 39,322 2,325 50,926 6,216 3,843 111 19,124 488 2,824 5,969 68,446 6,32,316

58.56 52.84 51.69 48.39 48.01 47.70 46.73 45.57 45.38 45.29 44.13 41.65 40.59 39.79 39.64 39.57 36.27 34.77 26.91 25.28 51.80

44.7 46.4 50.6 40.9 50.8 47.8 39.7 39.7 34.6 33.2 36.3 38.3 37.2 39.0 35.5 37.3 32.1 29.9 27.8 30.7 40.8

Source: DSEL (2017–18)

165

Table 9.7 State-wise Number of Contract Teachers by Location and Level of Education State

Rural

Urban

P

S

HS

T

P

UP

S

HS

T

7

43

62

139

251

0

1

4

23

28

103 2,523

68 3,625

3,085 1,074

1,579 409

4,835 7,631

33 142

17 438

523 230

648 198

1,221 1,008

26,000 16,747 0 1 182 80 95 11 3,980 4,335

3,939 23,606 16 5 595 76 6 516 1,674 2,706

5,229 2,838 66 1 62 32 73 233 2,249 2,328

1,555 5,083 169 62 170 68 22 352 4,107 9,249

36,723 48,274 251 69 1,009 256 196 1,112 12,010 18,618

831 621 16 0 4 28 21 14 769 62

316 997 99 0 63 29 3 72 94 25

797 98 557 16 22 24 9 4 84 30

655 936 545 26 87 27 103 52 1,057 389

2,599 2,652 1,217 42 176 108 136 142 2,004 506

2,426

2,793

328

378

5,925

92

124

14

61

291

33,422 98 653 30 246

27,717 151 556 42 92

3,526 303 350 2 27

1,346 32 1,768 141 4

66,011 584 3,327 215 369

1,039 4 106 7 13

1,154 24 94 24 4

104 149 11 0 19

138 23 378 17 83

2,435 200 589 48 119

186 152

445 127

449 63

270 160

1,350 502

91 3

326 39

357 0

201 10

975 52

V imala R amachandran

166

Andaman & Nicobar Islands Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chandigarh Chhattisgarh D & N Haveli Daman & Diu Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Lakshadweep Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur

UP

6,493 771 390 84 28,710 0 5,934 2,025 516 28 4,237 2,386 96,199 615 65,337 3,05,002

Source: DSEL (2017–18)

7,684 1,385 401 5 36,250 0 3,171 601 918 1,323 2,293 2,428 8,850 13 9,329 1,43,449

412 558 685 71 17,924 6 3,522 27 1,008 1,947 8,749 765 41 258 3,685 62,038

79 10 85 692 449 44 5,282 80 1,096 2,945 3,443 75 324 1,206 18,001 60,874

14,668 2,724 1,561 852 83,333 50 17,909 2,733 3,538 6,243 18,722 5,654 1,05,414 2,092 96,352 5,71,363

181 339 35 2,669 676 13 1,260 16 8 16 629 115 2,376 7 2,177 14,413

446 492 67 94 1,103 0 225 35 7 522 245 110 512 9 94 7,904

17 165 102 1,069 1,389 22 295 2 40 496 2,157 26 2 6 560 9,400

20 123 69 14,164 89 52 2,095 38 170 1,893 839 64 69 223 3,671 29,236

664 1,119 273 17,996 3,257 87 3,875 91 225 2,927 3,870 315 2,959 245 6,502 60,953

P ersisting C hallenge of C ontract T eachers

167

Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland NCT of Delhi Odisha Puducherry Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Telangana Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal Total

V imala R amachandran

Table 9.8  Number and Percentage of School With All Teachers on Contract, 2017–18 State

All Schools

2017–18

Total Schools

Number of Schools Having Any Teacher on Contract

Arunachal 3,447 2,931 Pradesh Assam 50,965 22,316 Chandigarh 121 116 Dadra & 300 271 Nagar Haveli Daman & 115 94 Diu Haryana 14,450 6,350 Himachal 15,465 7,504 Pradesh Jharkhand 39,703 32,717 Karnataka 50,066 263 Lakshadweep 45 34 Meghalaya 7,805 5,894 Mizoram 2,582 1,615 NCT Of 2,787 1,840 Delhi Odisha 56,313 41,859 Punjab 19,515 10,053 Sikkim 853 650 Tripura 4,314 2,526 Uttar Pradesh 1,63,114 64,995 West Bengal 83,292 42,304 Total 10,94,543 2,80,410

Percentage of Schools Having Any Teacher on Contract

Number of Schools in Which all Teachers Are on Contract

85.03

Percentage of Schools in Which All Teachers Are on Contract

1,345

39.02

3,206 37

6.29 12.33

81.74

1

0.87

43.94 48.52

246 1,267

1.70 8.19

82.40 0.53 75.56 75.52 62.55 66.02

19,763 51 4,558 414 -

49.78 0.10 58.40 16.03 -

74.33 51.51 76.20 58.55 39.85 50.79 25.62

5,188 915 7 212 3,486 17,831 68,445

9.21 4.69 0.82 4.91 2.14 21.41 6.25

43.79 95.87 90.33

-

Source: DSEL (2017–18)

foundational learning takes place, particularly those with all contract teachers and those with enrolment of 60 and less. They merit urgent attention of administrators and policy makers. Table 9.10 shows enrolment of children in schools having only contract teachers is skewed heavily towards rural areas where 95.83 per cent of children study. The rural/urban divide clearly shows that regular teachers leverage their influence to remain in better connected and better resourced school in urban areas. Table 9.11 provides state-specific and level-specific differences in the proportion of students enrolled in schools with only contract teachers. At the 168

P ersisting C hallenge of C ontract T eachers

Table 9.9 Number of Schools Having All Teachers on Contract, by Range of Enrolment and Level of Education All India

30 or Less than 30

31–60

61–90

91–120

More than 120

Total

Primary with grades 1–5 Upper Primary with grades 1–8 or 6–8 Secondary with grades 1–10, 6–10 and 9–10 Higher Secondary with grades 1–12, 6–12, 9–12 and 11–12 All Schools

18,002

21,427

9,250

4,323

4,359

57,361

1,845

1,960

1,397

1,274

2,545

9,021

93

111

107

92

1,057

1,460

9

23

23

27

521

603

19,949

23,521

10,777

5,716

8,482

68,445

Source: DSEL (2017–18)

Table 9.10 Enrolment in Schools Having All Teachers on Contract, by Rural/Urban Location

Boys

Girls

Total

Per cent

Rural India Urban India Total

21,18,709 84,026 22,02,735

23,30,937 1,09,456 24,40,393

44,49,646 1,93,482 46,43,128

95.83  4.17

Source: DSEL (2017–18)

Table 9.11 States With Significant Percentage of Students Enrolled in Government Schools With All Contract Teachers States

Meghalaya Jharkhand Arunachal Pradesh West Bengal Mizoram Odisha Telangana All India

Primary (Grade 1–5)

Upper Primary (Grade 6–8)

Secondary (Grade 9–10)

Higher Secondary (Grade 11–12)

B

B

B

B

G

T

G

T

45.1 45.0 45.0 68.4 68.5 68.4 37.2 36.8 37.0 6.4 8.7 7.6 26.8 24.6 25.7 5.8 19.0 13.0 14.5 14.5 14.5 14.1 13.8 13.9 6.6 6.4 6.5 6.0 7.0 6.5 5.3 5.2 5.2

5.5 5.5 7.1 5.8 2.0 1.9 4.9 13.7 1.8 2.5

Source: DSEL (2017–18)

169

7.7 0.6 0.9

G 7.5 4.8 2.5

T

G

T

7.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.8 4.0 8.6 6.4 1.7 1.1 1.0 1.0

5.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.5 16.3 14.8 15.5 0.4 0.5 0.4 1.9 0.6 0.8 0.7 1.2 1.2 1.2 9.4 0.6 9.4 5.3 6.6 7.2 6.9 2.2 0.7 1.3 1.0 0.6 0.9 0.7

V imala R amachandran

primary level, 25.7 per cent of students in Arunachal Pradesh, 37 per cent in Jharkhand, 45 per cent in Meghalaya, 14.1 in Mizoram and 14.5 per cent in West Bengal and 68.4 per cent students in upper primary schools of Meghalaya are in schools with all contract teachers. It is a matter of grave concern that 5,33,882 children are enrolled in primary, upper primary and secondary schools with a single contract teacher only and another 17,11,455 children are enrolled in primary, upper primary and secondary schools with two contract teachers only (DSEL, 2017–18).

Are Contract Teachers as Qualified as Regular Teachers? The professional qualifications of teachers on contract have been improving gradually. From 41.8 per cent in 2011–12, the proportion of unqualified contract teachers declined to 29.5 per cent in 2017–18 (Table 9.12). The proportion of contract teachers in the states/UTs without professional qualifications varies in the range of NIL to 81.2 per cent. The states that fare the worst are in the range of 34.6 to 81.2 per cent. In the country 68.9 per cent rural and 85.5 per cent urban contract teachers come with the requisite professional qualifications. The sheer number of contract teachers without professional qualifications was huge at 1,86,777 in 2017–18. West Bengal has the largest number of teachers on contract without professional qualifications (83,551) followed by Uttar Pradesh (31,264), Bihar (17,765), Meghalaya (11,434) and Odisha (10,204). The north eastern states (except Mizoram), Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Tripura and Uttarakhand have high proportions of professionally untrained contract teachers. Only 22.9 per cent of contract teachers in the country have been provided the opportunity of professional development through in-service training. Four states, viz. Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Jharkhand have provided in-service training to at least half the contract teachers. Telangana Table 9.12 Overview of Professional Qualifications of Contract Teachers Academic Year

Number of Contract Teachers

Number of Contract Teachers Not Having Professional Qualification

Percentage of Contract Teachers Not Having Professional Qualification

2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18

3,16,091 5,62,504 5,96,005 6,63,074 6,41,627 6,16,149 6,32,316

1,32,037 2,53,022 2,46,427 2,76,075 2,55,409 2,09,529 1,86,777

41.8 45.0 41.3 41.6 39.8 34.0 29.5

Source: DSEL (various years)

170

P ersisting C hallenge of C ontract T eachers

is the only state where virtually all teachers on contract have received in-service training and almost all of them have the requisite professional qualifications.

Concluding Remarks The issue of contract teachers has remained a contentious issue through the decades. Though NEP 2020 (MoE, 2020) is silent on contract teachers (unlike the Kasturirangan Committee for the Draft National Education Policy, 2019), it endorses the need for humane service conditions and uplifting the morale of schoolteachers. Therefore, keeping a large proportion of teachers on contract with significantly different salary and service conditions goes against the grain of constitutional right to equal pay for equal work and the right against any form of discrimination. Notwithstanding a vocal group of international and national academics who promote the idea of teachers on contract as the panacea for teacher absence and teacher accountability – the big issue that we face is that the social and institutional status of teachers have eroded gradually. It is only getting worse as more and more teachers are made contractual workers. Realignment of the Constitutional principles of equality with the RTE Act of 2009 is necessary, but looks daunting in the light of the current practices under Samagra Shiksha and the ambiguity in National Education Policy 2020. Yet, there is an urgent need for academics, researchers, policy analysts and the teachers’ unions to come together and speak in one voice against the continuing practice of contractual appointment in the school education system. Our teachers and our children deserve better.

Notes 1 This article is based on two reports: (i) Ramachandran, Vimala, Deepa Das, Ganesh Nigam and Anjali Shandilya. 2020. Contract Teachers in India: Recent Trends and Current Status and (ii) Ramachandran, Vimala; Bhattacharjea, Suman and Sheshagiri, K M, titled Primary School Teachers – Twists and Turns in Everyday Practice (Unpublished Mimeo, October 2008). Both research studies were supported by Azim Premji University, Bangalore. 2 Initiated by the Government of Rajasthan in 1987, to improve primary education especially for girls, in the remote and economically backward villages of Rajasthan, it promoted a substitute teacher scheme wherein local youths called “Shiksha Karmis” (education workers) were recruited and provided with high level of training to solve the problem of large-scale teacher absenteeism. It was supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. 3 A Government of India’s programme for achievement of UEE with special focus on education of girls and children with special needs in a time-bound manner, implemented in partnership with state governments. It promoted opening of new schools in remote areas, strengthening existing school infrastructure, providing additional teachers, strengthening the capacity of existing teachers and academic support at the most decentralized levels.

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4 Another GOI initiative to provide universal access to secondary level by providing a school within reasonable distance and improve its quality through prescribed norms while removing gender, socio-economic and disability barriers. 5 A sector-wide development programme of GOI extending from pre-school to class 12 with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes. It subsumes the three schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) to help harmonize the implementation mechanisms and transaction costs at all levels. 6 A scheme under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and supported by CARE India in educationally backward blocks, it provides residential elementary educational facilities to girls belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minority communities and families below the poverty line and out-ofschool children bridging them to age-appropriate levels. Capacities of teachers, head teachers and teacher supervisors are also and leadership of girls promoted. 7 The type of posts under the states/UTs and Samagra Shiksha are the same. Only the funding sources are different – that is by either the state government or SS.

References Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) (Various Years): Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) and District Information System (DISE). New Delhi: MHRD, GOI. http://udise.in/. Ministry of Education (MoE) (2020): National Education Policy 2020. New Delhi: GOI. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (1986): National Policy on Education 1986. New Delhi: GOI. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2019): Draft National Education Policy. New Delhi: GOI. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2019–20): PAB Minutes of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan. New Delhi: GOI. Ramachandran, V., Beteille, T., Linden, T., Dey, S., Goyal, S., and Chatterjee, P.G. (2018): Getting the Right Teachers in the Right Schools: Managing India’s Teacher Workforce. The World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/ handle/10986/28618 Ramachandran, V., Das, D., Nigam, G., and Shandilya, A. (2020): Contract Teachers in India: Recent Trends and Current Status. Bangalore: Azim Premji University.

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10 PRINCIPAL’S LEADERSHIP ROLE IN MAPPING SYNERGIES FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT Reflections From Policies and Researches Rashmi Diwan

Introduction The role of school principal1 as a leader is crucial in contributing to the national aspirations of making Indian education comparable globally. At the same time, parental expectations from schools to move beyond the simple transaction of the prescribed curriculum points to the vital role a principal plays in leading the processes to reinforce learning. In the changing world of knowledge and awareness, the focus on enhancing quality in schools has led to the realization that school leadership responds in a way that this increased expectation and aspiration among people is not belied. Leithwood et al. (2004, p. 2) contemplate that “School Principalship” bears the prime responsibility for the entire organization. The goal in this perspective is to ensure that “every school improves and every child learns.” This brings schools at the centre stage of improvement and reforms.

Schools and Leadership: Exploring the Complementarities There exists a complementary role between the school and the principal. Improving quality of school education is crucial and so is the role of the school principal as a leader. The principal as a leader charts the journey of school improvement by reinforcing the processes involved in its transition from an “ordinary school” to “School of Excellence.” Huber and Muijs’ (2010, p. 58) argument around “school matters” and “leadership plays” is indicative of a strong symbiotic relation between a school and the level of school leadership. A noticeable demonstration of leadership is when a principal relates to the specific needs of the school, critically analyses the current situation, explores possibilities, identifies potentials of staff members and DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-14 

173

R ashmi D iwan

students, creates learning opportunities for each of them and evolves a strategic plan for improving schools from within. The manner in which a leader influences teachers and staff initiates and navigates the change process is all that makes a difference in the pace with which a school improves. It is most likely that the schools that produced results have utilized the teachers’ potentials for creating a momentum for taking the school forward. This implies that the principal as a leader and the team of teachers work together to build vibrant schools.

The Policy Pronouncements National and state policies in India have often defined roles and responsibilities of school principals. Dating back to 1952, the Secondary Education Commission Report (1952–53) stated that the position and reputation of a school principal depend largely on the influence exercised on colleagues, pupils, parents and the general public. “As a team engaged in a high endeavour with the head master as valued and more experienced member,” the report considered the influence of the principal greater, as a school leader, who functions as a link between the school and the community. The school leaders were expected to build collaborative culture and team spirit among the colleagues. A decade later, the Indian Education Commission (964–66) (GoI, 1966), popularly known as the Kothari Commission, underlined the significant role a school head played as an academic leader by “organizing suitable activities like staff study circles” and “discussion groups.” The Commission stressed that “the chain of the delegation of authority cannot end with the district office” and therefore called upon wider powers to be given to school principals and greater freedom to schools to make the system flexible and dynamic. Devolution of authority to schools formed one of the chief recommendations. Two decades post Kothari Commission, the National Policy on Education, 1986 and its Programme of Action, 1992 recommended “Decentralization of educational administration, creation of a spirit of autonomy for educational institutions with the greater role assigned to the institutional heads and development of professionalism among teachers” (Government of India, 1986, p. 132, 1992, p. 42). Following this, the flagship programmes of the Government of India, namely the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP, 1994), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA, 2001–02), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA, 2009) and Samagra Shiksha (2018– 19), gave quality improvement in schools’ paramount significance. With quality education as a priority, the onus of concerted efforts to ensure every school excels and every child learns falls on the principal. Given that principal leadership is a highly specialized job, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) on Universalization of Secondary 174

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Education (2005) proclaims it as the key to quality management and selfrenewal of schools. Four years later, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, popularly known as the RTE Act, came with a new hope to legitimize the right of every child to have access to quality education and restated the crucial role of the school principal. The Model Education Code (2015) defines 79 duties and responsibilities of school heads in India under 13 categories. These categories elaborate on internal efficiency of the schools, that is timetable, school curriculum, responsibility towards students, responsibility towards parents and community, matters pertaining to teachers, admissions, infrastructure, coordination with local authorities, school records, school management committees (SMCs), financial responsibilities, delegation of authority and power. Policies have largely emphasized on the administrative and managerial responsibilities of a school principal, and at best, on the principal’s autonomy and empowerment. They however, have by and large remained silent on the role of a school principal as a leader. They are still expected to abide by the rules, regulations and prescribed activities in curricular, co-curricular activities and all school affairs as a regular feature, thereby leaving lesser scope for initiatives for school-based changes. Insufficient academic guidance, lack of support and absence of feedback mechanism add to the challenges faced by principals in their day-to-day functioning of schools. Further, with limited training opportunities, particularly in leadership skills, they are left in sink or swim situations. Several pedagogical and logistical challenges such as high pupil-teacher ratios, shortages of teachers as well as qualified teachers, poor and inadequate infrastructure, and other resource constraints also continue to impinge on quality imperatives. In the global context, Goal 4 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is committed to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030.2 It embodies the crucial role of a school principal – to address differential learning needs of children from diverse social backgrounds and level the field of learning opportunities and abilities for all children. A massive school leadership challenge therefore lies ahead for providing quality education. The agenda for heads of institutions to bring substantial improvement in the quality of schools, leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes, is top priority. In the Indian context, the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP), which strongly emphasizes on “restoring the high-quality education system as a basic right of every child” by 2040 (MoE, 2020, p. 3), accords high importance to building leadership capacities of school heads to address all pertinent issues related to school improvement and student learning. It recommends continuous professional development of school principals to improve their leadership skills as well as their content knowledge for providing leadership 175

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in implementing pedagogical plans based on competency and outcomebased education. Undoubtedly, expectations from school principals have undergone radical changes but several challenges have largely remained unaddressed (2020, p. 22).

Understanding the Role of School Principal: Reflections From Empirical Researches in the Indian Context The focus of early studies based on the classical and scientific research was primarily within the framework of management with assessment of implications on leadership. Management was seen as a systematic process mainly examining the behaviour and performance, ideally measured too. This was the time when the role of managers was seen within the fixed roles and functions involving around the domains of planning, organizing, directing and controlling. One might like to ponder: is the role of a school principal confined to these four domains alone? Do they alone lead to school improvement? A review of field-based research is presented in this section to understand the context within which school heads function in India. Reflections from two studies in two different contexts in Madhya Pradesh unfold the managerial challenges in schools with limited physical resources. The first one carried out by Govinda and Varghese (1993, pp. 276–289) is an in-depth field study of five districts of Madhya Pradesh representing the privileged urban zone, semi-urban area (town), developed rural area, less developed rural area and under-developed rural area. It was found that minimum basic facilities in backward rural and tribal localities were of serious concerns like limited or non-availability of textbooks, absence of necessary teaching aids and equipment, and also the very essential classroom teaching items like a blackboard, chalk and duster. The teachers were found to be taking classes unprepared in almost all localities and were not using any additional reference materials other than a textbook. Instructive teaching methods, reading from the text, irregular homework and absence of a schedule for periodic testing were common observations. A majority of schools’ heads were found grappling with teaching-learning processes, preparation for classes, learner evaluation etc. The study recommended revitalization of the role of the head as an effective academic leader to create a work climate, streamline internal management, and spending more time in classroom teaching. The second study conducted by Govinda (2006) in six Indian states, namely Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Uttar Pradesh analysed the role of head teachers. In all the selected states, the results reflected the struggles of head teachers in managing day-to-day pedagogical and logistical issues, high pupil-teacher ratios, classroom management, financial crunch and limited human and physical resources. A closer examination of the functioning of schools revealed that more than 176

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the inputs, school processes3 to a great extent kept school heads occupied. Inadequate monitoring mechanisms on teachers’ performance, absence of feedback mechanism, forums for sharing innovations and absence of a clear set of guidelines on their core responsibilities hampered the head teacher to function beyond carrying out administrative and managerial responsibilities. The external controls exercised by the Departments of Education at state levels with instructions and circulars have never helped them become creative or innovative leaders. There exist a large number of small schools in rural areas in the Indian context which are deprived of basic minimum facilities and in deplorable conditions that impinge on the issue of quality education. This brings another set of management challenges. An in-depth study was conducted by Diwan (2015) on small schools in the suburbs and rural locations of Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh. The study was based on three parameters: (i) schools with one/two teachers, (ii) small schools with enrolment of 26–50 students and (iii) ultra-small schools with enrolment up to 25. The study revealed that these schools were replete with impoverished environments with gloomy, unhygienic, dark and dingy rooms and an absence of teaching-learning materials. Some limited teaching aids such as globe, science and mathematics kits were kept locked in cupboards. The teachers either single or two were grappling with multi-level, multi-age teaching methodologies, compressed teaching time due to workload of managing five grades in multigrade situations and non-teaching responsibilities, including management of mid-day meals. Moreover, caste dynamics in mixed caste villages tell the story of exclusion of the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups who have access to small schools in most of the rural locations in India. They have by and large remained isolated, neglected and excluded in a multi-layered school system. Within the government school system, small schools function as isolated divisions of a bureaucratically run formal school system. The leadership role of head teachers in such situations becomes far more complex due to remoteness of the school locations, poor connectivity, lack of interaction with peers, lack of need-based training coupled with inadequate and poor quality school facilities, thus maintaining the status quo and being unable to become more dynamic in their roles as school heads. The highly bureaucratic setup in which the principals worked did not allow freedom to take decisions beyond their prescribed roles and regulations. The compliance to the system is so high that most of them fail to function as leader. It goes without saying that most of the responsibilities of school principals, regardless of their school size and location, centre around administrative responsibilities such as maintaining school records, correspondence, organizing and conducting annual census, dealing with service and welfare matters of teachers and students, maintaining physical facilities, generating resources for the school, financial matters and student admissions. 177

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Research studies since the early 1970s have also elucidated upon similar results, pointing towards falling school standards, low learning levels and a high incidence of silent social exclusion. The leadership role of the principal has however been central to these studies, as the determinant for generating a climate conducive to quality student and teacher learning. While contextual factors do determine school performance, the need for principals as leaders emerged as an important area of concern for attaining the quality parameters. Micro studies, specifically on Indian schools (Diwan, 2000; Pushpanadham, 2006; Sharma, 2010), brought to the fore the critical role played by a leader in building good institutions. They underlined the role of a dynamic principal who leads the entire journey of change by reflecting deeply on the decisions affecting changes, thinking, planning, co-ordinating, organizing, negotiating, generating and sustaining an environment that is conducive to change and altering situations that hamper school performance. The researches acknowledged that there is no single set of leadership behaviour that may be effective for all situations. Leadership in a given situation was a function of the task, the organization’s culture and attributes a leader possesses. Another critical review on leadership by Nadeem and Mudasir (2012) led to the understanding of leadership as an “influencing process” where leaders created shared vision, motivated the members to put in their best efforts, solved problems, overcame obstacles and achieve organizational objectives to implement their overall vision for their schools. With quality education, empowerment of school leaders and autonomy being the main foci in the national policies and programmes now, a perceptible shift in the role of majority of school principals is recognized today. School heads performing their traditional administrative and managerial responsibilities are gradually expanding their spectrum of work to taking on a broader role of a principal who inspires, influences and transforms the school into a well-performing, quality institution.

Role of School Principal in the Context of School Improvement Researches globally have provided evidence on how underperforming schools have been turned around by effective leaders (Murphy, 2008; Leithwood and Strauss, 2010). System-level changes and inputs at the macro level are often inadequate to bring significant improvement in schools. While decisions may have been taken at the top level of hierarchy as it is in any bureaucratic school setup, it is the principal as a leader who is the prime mover of any change that matters the most to a school focussing on “a certain element of school that counts in the path of improvement” (Leithwood and Riehl, 2003). This is what makes the job of a leader different from the spectrum in which an administrator works. The key to improving schools lies in the leadership ability to build a shared vision, develop a collaborative decision-making 178

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process and shape action and practices around the differential school contexts and conditions. The major leadership domains in which the principal along with teachers and staff carves pathways for improvement of schools are: (i) setting vision, (ii) building teams and (iii) aligning practices closer to school contexts. Vision Setting Vision provides direction to the entire process of change. Literature on leadership (Sergiovanni, 1990) characterizes leader as a vision holder, the keeper of the dream or the person who has a vision of the organization’s purpose. Bush asserts that “vision is increasingly regarded as an essential component of effective leadership” (2008, p. 3). The principal as a leader with a vision takes the school strategically to newer heights by reflecting, articulating, sharing and setting a school-based vision. Drawing attention to the shared vision, Creemers, Stoll, Reezigt, and the ESI team (2007, p. 11) identified it as one of the prominent factors contributing to the improved quality of teaching and overall school culture, resulting in improved student learning. Team Building Principals as leaders have the ability to influence teams to work together, inculcate positive work attitudes and build an innovative culture. A review on principal’s effectiveness by Hallinger and Heck (1998, p.  187) reveals that the influence of a principal is vital in shaping the direction of a school through vision, mission and goals. Yukl (2002) contemplates “intentional influence” as a strong factor to structure the activities and relationships in a group or organization. The most influential principal is endowed with the competence and skill of bringing differential “mindsets” together and sustain their spirit and motivation for improved performance. The effectiveness of leadership is largely dependent on the mechanisms for mobilizing teachers, team and resources for taking a school forward. The principal works on what needs to be done more to accomplish goals determined by the school team. Promoting positive work culture reduces uncertainty, energizes people around and shows how future will be beneficial when goals are made realistic and attainable. All that makes a difference is the focus on working out strategies closer to school realities and nurturing school teams to become drivers of change. Evolving Leadership Practices Specific to School Context The principal as a leader functions in diverse school contexts and conditions. Since every school context is unique, the leadership challenge also differs along with the change trajectories. Day et al. (2010, p.  13) state 179

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that “school conditions can make leadership work either easier or more challenging,” depending on the context and/or the larger environment of a school. Recognizing leadership challenges in diverse school situations, Pont et al. (2008, p. 27) proclaimed “school-level differences or contextual factors have important implications for leadership practice.” Linking context-specific leadership action is a strong determinant for a principal to be effective in the entire cycle of school improvement. Leithwood et al. (2004, p. 12) persuade the need for examining deeper context-specific leadership issues and practices. Taking the work of Leithwood et al. further, Hallinger and Heck (2011, p.  11) confirm that interactions between the school’s environment and its internal organization form a context in which school leadership is exercised. The empirical evidences (Day and Sammons, 2014, p. 1; Grissom et al., 2019, p. 16) demonstrate that leadership in challenging school contexts is a key determinant in promoting its success. The success of leadership will therefore have to be seen from the perspective of relevance to the context and conditions in which a school functions. For instance, the leadership challenges in the coastal area schools of Odisha will require a different set of skills than coastal schools in Tamil Nadu. Residential schools especially those serving the marginalized and disadvantaged groups in rural or tribal belts will be different from residential schools in urban areas. Child labour, rampant in specific types of manufacturing industries, coal mining fields, tea gardens, agricultural lands, etc., bring challenges to classroom practices with implications for curriculum and teaching methodologies and poses another set of challenges for leadership. Similarly, schools in border areas bring other kinds of challenges for principals, teachers, parents and children in maintaining a quality academic climate while coping with life despite disturbances. It is the contextual leadership, and how strategies specific to circumstances are detailed out, that define the differential leadership models. Baporikar’s research also confirms (2015, p. 322) that strategies can vary considerably from institution to institution and location to location. Huber and Muijs (2010) made a conclusive statement that “leadership does matter but context leadership brings a marked difference.” Thus, it may be concluded that contextual reality, and accordingly differential leadership styles, need to be adapted by school principals for attaining the goal of quality education.

Establishing Linkages Between Principal Leadership and School Improvement The principal is expected to have a holistic view of school education to critically examine indicators which determine if the school is on the path of improvement. Those indicators may seem isolated or distinct from each other. However, the principal leader has the capacity to create a special bond of interrelatedness and interdependence across them. The synergy thus 180

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created helps a leader to draw a roadmap for school-based improvement. This exercise helps to assess the situation; engage deeply with the processes within the school; identify specific indicators with positive impact to address critical areas of improvement; make necessary leadership interventions and ensure that school is on the path of improvement. Effectiveness of a School Improvement Process Integral to principal leadership is the manner in which a particular process is followed in bringing overall improvement in the school. This calls for continuous engagement of a leader in different developmental phases involving work on goal and target setting within particular deadlines, focussing on strategies to ensure that school improves, maintain team spirit and momentum all through for improvement efforts. Murphy and Torre (2014, p. 4) explain school improvement leadership as an influencing process to evolve a set of strategies towards establishing effective schools by way of monitoring instruction, building linkages with parents and establishing growth targets for students. It may however be postulated that schools that changed over time maintained a consistency in improvement. Sammon et al. (1995, p. 9) elaborate on the importance of the individual leader’s quality, emphasizing “that their style of management, their relationship to the vision, values and goals of the school, and their approach to change matters.” The review of around 40 studies since 1980 by Hallinger and Heck (1998, p. 158) led to an understanding that the impact of school principals on the processes related to school improvement is powerful. In 2011, the same researches extended the role of principal as an agent whose leadership results in turnaround schools. Some schools improve more rapidly while others take years to improve. The pace of the improvement trajectory in a school depends on how effectively the principal leads and navigates the processes of change from within. Teacher Quality and Instructional Competence The decisive role of a leader in nurturing teacher potential to ensure quality teaching is well established. OECD (2005) acknowledged teacher quality as the most important school-level determinant of student performance. Pont et al. (2008) identified developing teacher quality to improve teaching and learning, as one of the key responsibilities of a school leader. In 2010, Huber and Muijs (p.  57) gave a further fillip to the significant role a principal leader plays to “create conditions under which teachers can be optimally effective, which in turn would result in higher levels of pupil performance.” A principal leader may not directly be involved in class teaching but has the capacity to guide teachers in classroom instruction and improve teachinglearning practices through the appropriate use of their influence. 181

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Influence of a leader generates mutual trust in creating congenial climates to improve student learning and outcomes. Capitalizing on collegial bonds, trust and collective responsibility for student learning, Printy (2010, p. 117) contemplates that when the energies of principals and teacher leaders converge on the same targets through shared decision-making and trusting environments, the promise for instructional improvement becomes greater. The presence of a principal therefore can be considered as one of the determinants of teacher commitment and teaching competence that makes a difference to student quality. Student Learning and Outcomes While there is a direct influence of teachers in classroom pedagogy, the principal influences that process indirectly, by creating conditions conducive to teaching and learning, providing opportunities for teachers’ professional development, planning and implementing activities targeting improvement in student learning. The studies by Barkar (2007, pp. 31, 36) and Pont et al. (2008, pp. 19, 64) arrived at similar conclusions. Both advocated that strong school leadership contributes to improved student learning by inducing conditions that are positive for teachers. In addition, Barkar also advocated that highly committed school heads “use data and benchmarks to monitor progress in every child’s learning and accordingly provide coaching and mentoring for intellectual stimulation and individualized support.” That “leadership is second only to classroom instruction as an influence on student learning” (Leithwood et al., 2004, p.  5) is widely acclaimed. The study by Tatlah and Iqbal (2012, p.  793) accords importance to purposeful leadership in the creation of a workcentred environment leading to better academic performance. The focus on creation of a positive work environment for enhancing student learning and learning outcomes is therefore a function of leading, supervising and guiding classroom practices in the context of school improvement.

Instructional and Academic Leadership It was argued that the major onus of nurturing teachers and teaching competence to bring improvement in student learning depends on the instructional role of the principal (Creemers and Reezigt, 1996, pp.  209, 212). Others claimed that instructional leadership “is now showing all the signs of a dying paradigm” due to being “heavily classroom-focused” (Bush, 2008, p. 502). Academic leadership must be seen in an extended role, in terms of providing learning opportunities inside the school while also drawing upon outside sources for overall school improvement. The principal improves teaching 182

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and learning by encouraging teachers to find innovative methods of teaching, in readings beyond textbooks, promoting active participation of students and teachers in all school activities and exploring what works best with different age groups of students to reduce high failure rates. Outside the school, academic leaders, as members of the Professional Learning Community (PLC), learn from the rich experience of professionals, subject experts, heads and teachers of neighbouring schools. PLCs help them to improve teaching-learning processes and methodologies, provides strategies for addressing specific areas of student weaknesses or in the commonly identified weak areas, or for targeted students with special learning needs, methods of student assessment and several other day-to-day pedagogical issues. Qadri and Khan (2019) reaffirm the significance of academic leadership that makes a substantial contribution to improving student learning by supporting collaborative work cultures. In essence, student learning is best fostered when a principal provides guidance in teaching methodology and strategies, creates enabling conditions for learning and leads all the academic activities of the school.

Concluding Remarks The world of school and leadership is changing. While many schools and classrooms have begun transformation to smart schools and classrooms, serious concerns still remain on how schools are organized and managed and how children are taught and evaluated for improving quality of schools. Conventional management practices are being replaced with new leadership models. In the emerging framework of school improvement, the role of principal leader is being redefined. In the shifting paradigm of leadership, the effort has to move from designing generic principles to promoting the acquisition of knowledge and skills that are contextual, school-specific and child-centred, to move towards the goal of quality school improvement. Review of researches and of national policies also reaffirms similar derivations, keeping the context of school and skills the principal must acquire for this purpose. The success of a principal leader largely stands on three strong pillars: change, transformation and development (of self, others and the institution). In contemporary times, the COVID-19 pandemic is posing a leadership challenge to contend with a new normal, for addressing the immediate learning needs of teachers and students, despite the understanding that the situation may not last forever. The pandemic ushered in new vistas to ensure continuity in student and teacher learning. For instance, two digital resources on different portals were made available by the Government of India, namely the National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) and the National Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) for principals and teachers. 183

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For students, depending on existing resources and feasibility, different initiatives were taken by school principals and teachers. In most locations, teacher-led virtual classes were held with the help of available digital tools and technology. In several locations, where the possibility of digital learning was remote, particularly in rural and remote rural locations, context-specific innovative practices were launched to carry on with classes, following government guidelines of physical distance and other norms. The times have also called for acquiring skills in digital technology that throw up newer leadership challenges and better preparedness for re-imagined schools. The post COVID-19 phase calls for a metanoia for the world of school and leadership. Principals would need to transform into creative and innovative leaders prepared to govern the next-generation schools.

Notes 1 The term school principal is also interchangeably used as school head, school leader, principal leader and institution head as per the references cited in the particular context. The focus is on defining the role of school principal as a leader though there are varied nomenclatures used in the global context. 2 Goal 4 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs (un.org); Sustainable Development Goal 4 and its targets (unesco.org). 3 School processes include administrative, managerial and pedagogical responsibilities that a principal carries out in the day-to-day functioning of schools.

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11 TOWARDS A FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT Diverse Partnerships for Quality Inclusive Education Sheldon Shaeffer

Prologue When Dr. Govinda and I wrote the original version of this article in 1995, some of the “shine” had already gone off the Jomtien Declaration and Education for All. The mid-decade assessment of progress towards the Education for All (EFA) goals had been disappointing. Although national EFA committees and plans had been established in most countries, the expected transformation of education systems – let alone the enhanced system quality and improved student learning outcomes that were meant to be the result of this transformation – was proving difficult to achieve. Additional resources had been made available, both nationally and from international donors; further capacity in planning and programming had been built in many ministries of education; and promising new policies and innovations were beginning to be put in place. But it had become increasingly clear that real change could not be achieved given existing structures and processes of system governance. The result was a renewed interest in more localized reform and innovation which, in the context of decentralisation, demanded both stronger school-based management and greater community involvement in school affairs. At the International Institute for Educational Planning where I worked from 1990 to 1993 (followed soon after by Dr. Govinda), I developed guidelines for promoting national-level policies which could promote greater community involvement in school-based management (Shaeffer, 1992). At the same time, UNESCO and UNICEF financed a series of thematic portfolios for a project on Innovations in Basic Education, “Education for All: Making It Work.” One of

DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-15 

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the portfolios was focused on “Innovations in School-Based Management” for which the original version of this chapter served as the introduction. On the occasion of the festschrift honouring Dr. Govinda’s achievements in the field of education, it is useful to revise our original paper based on insights gained and lessons learned regarding effective school management since its publication. These include, inter alia: • an expanded view of inclusive education which demands removing all barriers to education and achieving the best learning and socialemotional outcomes for children; • a definition of early childhood as covering children aged 0–8, therefore prioritizing the linkages between early childhood care and education and successful early learning in primary school, that is seeing “school readiness” as not only getting children ready for school but also getting schools ready for children; • recognition of the importance of seamless transitions between levels of education; • a more comprehensive analysis of school failure, including the concept that children are more likely “pushed” out – rather than “drop out” – of school; • the enhanced role (positive and negative) of information technologies in educational delivery; • an enhanced understanding of the importance of multi-sectoral approaches in achieving the best learning outcomes for children.

I. Introduction In most countries of the world, governments accept the major responsibility for providing basic education for all children – a responsibility reflected not only in the EFA declarations of Jomtien, Dakar and Incheon but also in the Millennium Development Goals and, most recently, in Sustainable Development Goal 4. In doing so, they play a dominant role in determining how a country’s education system is structured and managed and how its schools go about the business of teaching and learning. On the basis of this role, most countries have initiated reforms aimed at enhancing both the quantity and the quality of educational provision. While the focus of these reforms has generally been on system-wide changes (e.g. new curricula and textbooks, the restructuring of teacher education), attention has increasingly shifted from a focus on the system to a focus on the school. This has led to a trend towards the promotion of reform efforts at a level nearer to the “action”: the school itself. The movement in many countries toward more decentralised, school-based management, the development of school clusters, and the greater involvement of the local community in school affairs (and vice versa) is a manifestation of this global trend. 188

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Why the Shift in Focus From the System to the School? Five assumptions have prompted this shift in focus: •

•

•

•

•

Reforms designed and implemented from the top of the system often leave the core processes of teaching and learning in individual schools1 virtually unchanged. Innovative solutions to educational challenges – most importantly, ensuring that all children learn what they need to and want to learn – must therefore be encouraged at the local level. Given that a very large percentage of any system’s education budget is mandated for personnel salaries and benefits, local decisions about the use of any remaining budget to respond to local needs become essential. Schools need frequent and consistent support, and central ministries, even with their sub-national offices, cannot adequately meet this need. This has led to the creation of more localized support mechanisms, such as school clusters and local school councils, which can provide more sustained and continuous support to individual schools. Each school operates in a unique context and with unique growth potential. Measures to increase access and improve quality need to be school-based, school-driven, and school-managed, anchored to the unique organizational identity and context of the school, and not derived solely from nationally prescribed norms and programmes. Education systems often lack an effective mechanism for ensuring greater accountability for what they do – not only for actions within the system itself, in terms of raising student achievement scores and graduation rates, but also out to the “clients” they serve, in terms of guaranteeing outcomes essential for future individual, community and national development. Schools are being asked to play an increasingly critical role in an increasingly complicated development process. This role includes: a) mitigating the greater social and educational disparities which, in many parts of the world, are increasing: disparities related to sex, poverty, disabilities, remoteness, the digital divide, ethnic/linguistic minorities and migrant/refugee status; b) meeting the risks and challenges of the 21st century – political instability, increasing poverty, food insecurity, environmental collapse, and the loss of languages and cultures –of the new century; c) taking advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century, especially in terms of the potential of information technologies to revolutionise the worlds of education and work; d) working within an ever more connected, intersectoral world where the often competing interests and structures of sectors such as education, health and social welfare must collaborate more closely towards the holistic development of children; 189

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e) taking advantage of the movement towards greater government decentralization and community empowerment which is creating the demand for more innovative and localized solutions to the challenges faced. This shift in reform efforts from the system to the individual school has several potential advantages. It can help to: • • • • • •

• •

decentralize decision-making closer to the school where decisions on local curriculum content, teacher development and allocation, quality improvement plans and school budgets can make a difference; help schools identify excluded groups and individuals – those disadvantaged and at risk of failure and plan ways to overcome this exclusion; encourage local innovation by developing a greater sense of efficacy and professional commitment from both school staff and community members; increase the relevance and adaptability of education to local contexts and needs; increase accountability for the provision, quality and relevance of education and for the enhancement of student outcomes – cognitive, socialemotional and ultimately those needed for the likely future world of work; lead to closer collaboration with – and continuity across –different levels of education (e.g. pre-primary with primary), with alternative delivery systems, and with sectors (health, social welfare) similarly focused on enhancing the well-being of children and their families; stimulate participation in, and a sense of ownership of, the school by its various community partners; and generate stronger local demand and more resources for education.

Such a shift of focus requires a new framework for effective school management which is more school-based, context-specific, community-oriented and outward-looking. But building such a framework cannot simply be done by fiat from above or through individual, random school efforts. It requires, instead, a re-ordering of roles and relationships among the diverse actors and agencies which act on the school, directly or indirectly, at the local level – and it must be planned for, comprehensively trained for and adequately financed.

II. The New Framework: Desired Outcomes and Achieving Them A. What Are the Desired Outcomes of More Localized School Management? More localized school management is not only a conceptual framework. On the basis of the experience in programmes around the world – and only 190

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now being “reinvented”– such management can lead to several concrete outcomes: •

•

•

Within the context of national legislation and system-wide values, operating principles and standards, schools can define their own particular vision and mission based on their context and their role within the community. In collaboration with other local education units (e.g. sub-district offices and clusters), schools can implement a self-assessment, diagnosing their own problems, identifying their particular needs and clarifying their limitations and resources. On the basis of such assessments, schools can establish their own priorities, goals and targets in areas such as: a) the participation of children in school: enrolment, attendance, retention and completion (e.g. a reduction in the rates of repetition and failure); b) the improvement of teaching-learning processes through targeted in-service training and consistent professional support (e.g. from the head teacher, supervisors and peers); c) the availability and quality of teaching-learning materials and facilities (e.g. libraries, computers and Internet, clean water and adequate sanitation); d) student outcomes in regard to successful early learning and in later internal and external examinations; e) the environment of the school, to make it “friendly” to children and welcoming to their parents; f) the links they establish with nearby schools to facilitate a seamless transition of children from one level to another; g) the extent and nature of links to other sectoral offices concerned with child well-being; and h) meeting the special needs of disadvantaged and excluded children of the community (e.g. girls, children with disabilities, living in poverty, and from remote areas and ethnic/linguistic minorities) in terms of pro-actively seeking their enrolment and helping ensure their success.

• With such goals and targets in place, schools can develop their own school improvement/development plans in areas such as: a) identifying who, in the school and community, is ultimately responsible for getting all children enrolled and learning; b) developing ways to ease the transition for grade 1 children entering school from their home or from pre-primary programmes (i.e. promoting a seamless transition in terms of curriculum and pedagogy); 191

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c) creating mechanisms to identify children at risk of being pushed out2 of school and to ensure that they complete a full cycle of basic education (e.g. additional support to children with disabilities or having a mother tongue different from that of the school); d) selecting the appropriate language of instruction in multilingual environments; e) developing local curriculum content and its integration with the national curriculum; f) planning locally based teacher training and professional support; g) upgrading academic, health and IT-related facilities; h) adjusting timetables and calendars to local household schedules and economic cycles. • On the basis of such an improvement plan, schools can prepare their own budgets and mobilize, allocate and manage resources both for meeting their routine needs and for implementing school improvement projects. • Schools can also strengthen their relationships with partners in the surrounding community in order to mobilize demand and resources. • Schools can monitor and evaluate their own progress in implementing their improvement plans in order to adjust their targets and activities as needed. B. Why Is the Shift to School-Based Management so Difficult? While education systems need to get to the point where school-based management can be introduced and even flourish, the organograms of educational ministries in most countries show a multi-layered hierarchy dominated by the top. Within this, the school appears at the lowest rung of the ladder of authority, receiving instructions to implement policies and programmes designed at the central level of the system. The school is therefore viewed as just one small element in a larger administrative structure with little scope for self-direction and management. In this context, shifting the locus of control for school management away from the top of the vertical hierarchy and nearer to the school demands a transformation in existing administrative arrangements – and in mindsets – which dominate the entities and actors who constitute the system. One challenge is that changes in the system’s structure to make it more supportive of localized school management have direct ramifications on traditional functions, most notably in the usual relationships between ministry officials and school authorities and among the school, parents and the larger community. The introduction of local networks, such as school clusters, can significantly influence the roles and functions of school supervisors, head teachers, and teachers. 192

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C. What Is Needed to Support This New Framework? In moving towards this new framework, several broad actions need to be implemented. These include: • • • •

expanding the number of school partners redefining relationships among partners sharing and networking clarifying the division of labour Expanding the Number of School Partners

Traditionally, the primary actors responsible for schools have been the central ministry and its agents: local education offices, their supervisors and/ or inspectors, and, of course, head teachers and teachers. Parents have also been considered as participants in their children’s education, but rather passive ones, enrolling their children, providing them support within the home, and, above all, contributing financial and other resources to the school. Other actors in the community have generally played a peripheral role. Localized school management requires recognition that the number of potential partners is, in fact, considerably larger. These include: • • • • •

other schools and educational programmes, including kindergartens and other pre-primary options, adult education courses and alternative delivery systems; agents of other sectors; community-based and non-government organizations, such as religious and cultural groups, and women’s and youth organizations; the private sector– local factories, plantations and businesses; local government leaders and more informal community leaders. Redefining Relationships Among Partners

Moving management nearer to the school also means a significant departure from traditional role relationships. First, the “superior-subordinate” relationship between ministry officials and the school must be changed. The role of the school supervisor, for example, changes from one of inspection and control in regard to prescribed norms, to that of facilitation and support for innovation, diversified teaching-learning processes, and linkages across schools and teachers and between the school and the community. Second, more localized management of schools demands that ministry officials as well as school staff view parents and community members in a different light. Traditionally, parents often see themselves as “surrendering” their children to the school at the age of school entry and then “receiving” 193

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them back at the end of the school cycle, with little right or ability to worry about whether the school is actually “fit” for the child and little knowledge of, or interaction with, what happens in the school in the interim. Parents and the community must therefore not be seen merely as funders and passive receivers of services and, as silent spectators, kept outside of the relatively closed system of school management but rather as partners who share responsibility for what happens in the school. Similarly, teachers often see themselves as “receiving” children delivered to them from the home, as blank slates, and then “returning” them back to the families somehow improved, with little concern for whether the child is actually ready for the school (and if not, why not) and little knowledge of, and interaction with, the “preparing” family and pre-primary programme. But encouraging these new roles requires significant changes in the attitudes and behaviours of school staff towards parents and community members. Thus, the school must: • • • • •

become more open to the gaze, support and oversight of the community – a more transparent, welcoming place to parents and the community rather than a disqualifier of community knowledge and experience; engage itself more with, and in the community, rather than keeping to itself as an institution, apart from the community, and thus be seen as an institution “owned” by the people it serves; feel some sense of accountability out to the community it serves – and not only up to the bureaucracy it reports to – for the quality of education it provides; empower some kind of school-parent-community organization; be genuinely inclusive, welcoming children with diverse backgrounds and needs.

Third, more localized management of school implies that the relationships across schools and among different kinds of education programmes must be redefined. In order to carry out their school development plans, schools can cooperate, through school clusters, to share ideas, resources and facilities, and with early childhood education, adult education and literacy programmes and other alternative delivery systems, to help support education in the community as a whole. Fourth, more localized management, by promoting the school as an agency with an independent character of its own, implies that stronger links between the school and agents of other development sectors can be promoted. The school can work, for example, with: • health workers to guarantee healthier pupils and a healthier school environment;

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• agriculture and nutrition extension agents to promote school gardens and better nutrition; • social welfare workers to identify and assist children and families with special needs, tracing and tracking those most at risk; and • local governments to identify children not in school and try to get them enrolled. Sharing and Networking A basic principle that underscores the new framework of management is that of sharing and networking. A  more localized management system should view the school, the community and other education-oriented actors as organically linked in an architecture of coordinated and integrated support – financial, technical and moral. A  joint endeavour to promote good education that is getting children enrolled, improving teaching, and providing resources would be effective. In many countries, this collaboration takes the form of some kind of school cluster – schools geographically proximate and able to collaborate regularly in improving practices of management (e.g. support to the development and implementation of school improvement plans) and teachinglearning (e.g. localized in-service training, materials preparation and curriculum adaptation). In this context, it is important that one outcome of any cluster is to ensure not only that the average performance of the cluster members improves but also that the gap between the best-performing and worst-performing schools decreases. Clarifying the Division of Labour Traditionally, a low-level official of the ministry – usually a supervisor or inspector – and the local education office are the only actors to oversee school management. Such oversight often focuses on school administration and, to a lesser degree, quality improvement. This arrangement, however, leaves many important aspects of schools with little review or supervision, including ensuring that: (1) all children enrol in school and attend regularly; (2) achieve basic competencies as prescribed by the curriculum and (3) those with special needs (disabilities, language interference, toxic home environments) find these needs responded to. Bringing the ministry, the school and the community into closer collaboration can help support these efforts. But making this work demands a clear division of labour so that each partner works in a complementary fashion with whole school development as the common goal. The optimal division of labour between the three main partners – the ministry, school staff and the community – cannot be unilaterally or uniformly prescribed from outside. It has to be defined in a contextual manner

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depending on local factors such as the size of the school, its available facilities and resources, and the socio-economic characteristics of the community it serves. Thus for example, enrolling all children and guaranteeing their attendance can often be done more effectively by the community (especially where teachers may not live near the school). The community can also play an important role in the maintenance of the school and the provision of basic materials. On the other hand, any improvement of school quality, particularly the professional upgrading of teachers, must necessarily depend first on school staff, networking among the schools themselves, as in a cluster, and external support from the local education office/supervisor. The community, of course, can also help in this process – for example, by overseeing teacher attendance and providing additional support in the classroom. In any division of labour in relation to school management and improvement, the role of the school head teacher/principal becomes exceedingly important. Thus the single most instrumental factor in school performance or quality is the leadership provided by the school principal or a surrogate. That leader knows intimately his or her school, teaching staff, student body and community. His or her database may well be in his or her head, but these days is probably also in the laptop. He or she has a clear awareness of the environment and a vision, a sense of direction, communicated to those around.3

III. How to Make the New Framework “Happen?” There is no standard universal formula for adopting this new framework of school management to all contexts. The local socio-political, cultural and economic context and the level of educational development both of the country and the community will determine the nature of actions to be initiated in this regard. Yet in all countries some common issues have to be tackled if school management is to become more localized. These include: • • • • •

re-distributing power, responsibility and resources defining the limits of authority and accountability guaranteeing adequate finances building capacity in performing new roles meeting information and communication needs A. Re-distributing Power, Responsibility and Resources

A basic assumption critical to the new framework is that the school is not only an implementer of national policies and programmes but also a unit 196

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of planning, decision-making and management in its own right (Shaeffer and Govinda, 1997). Thus, every school, small or large, has to be viewed not as a standardized, subordinate unit under the ministry but rather as an individual administrative entity, existing in a unique context, with the potential to establish a unique set of goals, targets and plans for further improvement. The process of achieving potential benefits of more localized management and a different balance of power among levels of the system and between government and “civil society” must be adequately planned for. This requires four actions: • • • •

the transfer of authority down the system, from the central ministry to lower levels of the bureaucracy; the sharing of responsibility out to other actors beyond the system and the school, such as parent and community organizations; the ceding of greater autonomy to the individual school to make assessments of its own strengths and weaknesses and decisions concerning its own development; the provision of more resources to the school, either from higher levels of government or from local sources.

Introducing more localized school-based management will have direct implications for the existing distribution of power. Decentralization of the management system, for example is a prerequisite for introducing the new framework. But there is considerable scope in terms of the degree and nature of decentralization which need to be introduced. Providing some degree of autonomy to the school is also necessary for this framework to be successful. But the extent and nature of this autonomy vis-à-vis the national administration and the organizational architecture at the local level (e.g. whether it will be more school-based, community-based or even cluster-based) must be planned taking into account such local factors as the size and facilities of individual schools and the readiness and capacity of both school staff and the local community. B. Defining the Limits of Authority and Accountability A fear often expressed in regard to decentralization is that transferring functions and responsibilities to the local level, especially related to financing, may lead to inefficiency and corruption. This fear is not without basis. The transferring of authority to the local level on issues such as teacher recruitment, deployment and promotion can lead to problems related to corruption, local politics and eventually, greater disparities in quality (e.g. between urban and rural schools). Thus, clear guidelines and standards concerning the authority of different partners in areas such as these – what they can do and cannot do – have to accompany any definition of new functions. 197

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This specification of functions for different partners will also bring into clearer perspective principles of accountability. Defining the areas of responsibility for different partners involved in school management, especially if these are part of an overall school improvement plan, implies that these partners are also made accountable for the targets and activities specified in the plan, for example the parent-teacher association – for enrolment, the local government – for subsidies for marginal groups, the head teacher – for providing instructional leadership and organizing in-service training, and teachers – for greater discipline and higher student achievement. C. Guaranteeing Adequate Finances Many reforms linked to structural change fail due especially to inadequate and poorly managed finances. But decentralization and the development of school-based management do not necessarily come cheap – these processes must be adequately financed. In fact, such management may demand more financing from higher levels of government – in the short-term, perhaps, for items such as local capacity building, and, over a longer period of time, to finance school improvement plans and to provide assistance, financial or technical, to less advantaged schools and less advantaged children. It may also require additional authority for the school to raise funds without placing an unbearable burden on community or absolving the national government from its ultimate responsibility to guarantee the provision of basic education. One problem is that in most countries, allocations by category of expenditure are made centrally and the school is expected to use them for predetermined purposes. Such an arrangement has to change if localized school-based management is to become a reality. D. Building Capacity in Performing New Roles Localized school management also has to be adequately trained for. Many countries already do not pay enough attention to the training needs of head teachers and supervisors in regard to effective school management. With new roles being assigned to school authorities as well as to local ministry officials, the situation becomes even more critical. Including the community as a third partner, essential for localizing school management, makes the challenge even more complex. If the new management framework is to be operationalized, it is that more targeted local-level capacity building is implemented. It is not unusual to find central authorities resisting demands for decentralization on the grounds that local levels do not have the capacity to assume various kinds of authority linked to self-management (when the resistance, in fact, is often that of the central authorities unwilling to surrender this authority). In this context, a comprehensive assessment of the existing capacity in 198

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school management across the partners is necessary; this should then lead to the localization of the content and organization of training activities rather than depending largely on national institutions, standardized materials and cascade training approaches. Such approaches often fail to change management (or teaching) practices at the school level; centralized training messages are often generic and overly theoretical and do not take into account local school reality. But to be effective in actually changing school practice, training has to enable trainees to transfer their learning about general and ideal conditions to those of their own schools. The development and implementation of training strategies at the school and cluster level are therefore of central importance in enhancing the capacities needed for school-based management.

Three points are critical for the success of such strategies: •

•

•

The traditional method of training through centralized, institution-based group training must give way to school- and cluster-based training and continuous on-the-job support. Training at these lower levels – whether done by cluster trainers or master teachers, supervisors or staff of local training institutions –should facilitate the exchange of existing knowledge and skills and local problem-solving, with external input being added when local experience is inadequate. The “field” itself is an important source of learning. Externally designed packages are likely to be overly general and not applicable to the real conditions in which schools function. Finding solutions to local problems must arise through a process of school- and cluster-based assessment, analysis and experience exchange. Problems that might be addressed in this regard include facilitating transition between levels of education; making schools genuinely inclusive by welcoming children of diverse backgrounds; and collaborating with other sectors to meet the multi-dimensional needs of children. Facilitators and resource persons working at local levels need to combine their pedagogic skills with knowledge and capacities in educational management. Linking schools in a cluster, with a core school and a learning resource centre, for the purpose of ongoing professional support for teachers; facilitating peer-group learning; promoting school-community linkages and improving teaching strategies such as multi-grade classes – all of these require a high degree of both managerial and pedagogical capacity. E. Meeting Information and Communication Needs

The generation of educational data and information has invariably focused on macro-level needs, with data collected from schools being sent vertically up the system in order to fulfil the reporting, planning and management 199

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needs of the centre – and rarely sent down in any useful format. But if school management is to be localized (and if the school is seen as a unit of planning and decision-making in its own right), the need for a credible information base cannot be over-emphasized – both quantitative and qualitative data and supported by the technologies available. This information base can: •

be essential support for the assessment, planning, managing and financing of the school; • introduce an element of transparency in transactions among different school partners (e.g. in terms of financing, achievement results, absenteeism rates of both teachers and pupils). • become a template against which the school can set goals and targets related to student enrolment and outcomes (completion, achievement), financing, inclusion etc.; • combined with information gathered by other sectors in the community, become a means to identify families and children with special needs and facing special risks. Thus, a new strategy for collecting and processing vital information on the school and at the school becomes an essential prerequisite for shifting the focus of educational management from the national to the local level.

IV. Conclusion: What Are the Lessons for Policy and Practice? Schools and communities too often get stuck in a vicious and declining spiral of mutual indifference and inaction. Schools with poor results are seen as unattractive and even unhealthy places to be. This perception leads to unmotivated pupils, dissatisfied parents, a mistrustful community, a lack of support (financial and moral) for the school and its teachers, and a lower demand for schooling. This in turn leads to lower teacher motivation and performance, deteriorating facilities and even more casual management – a feeling that there is nothing to gain by fighting against this condition of mediocrity. And all of this pushes the spiral further downward with ever poorer results and an ever less appealing school environment. How to reverse this decline? Where and how to intervene? What can be done in order to change the direction of the spiral so that schools do better, which inspires greater community interest and support, which increases teacher and pupil motivation, which makes the school a more attractive place to be? These are critical questions for both policy-makers and practitioners alike. Experience has shown that top-down reforms, transmitted slowly, if at all, through the layers of the government bureaucracy, often do not make a crucial difference. New approaches to teaching, new textbooks and curricula, 200

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even budgetary allocations do not easily get to the base of the system intact, where they are needed most. Trying to work from the base, through the promotion of more localized school management, innovation and improvement may offer another way to bring about educational reform and change. Experience in developing such a process has led to the following lessons: •

•

•

•

Schools need to be seen and treated as unique units of planning, decision-making and management in their own right and not only as implementers of standard and uniform policies and programmes transmitted from above. Through a greater system, decentralization and institutional autonomy, school staff need to be encouraged and trained in how to collect and assess school data, analyse their own problems, set their own goals and targets, and design and implement their own school development plans. This way, schools will understand the extent to which they are accessible, inclusive and of good quality – ensuring that all children are included both in school and in learning and providing them the education they need and want. School staff – teachers and head teachers – have to be treated as individuals interested in, and capable of, developing their schools. Some, of course, are not, and often for good reasons – they have not been trained or encouraged (and are not rewarded) to be innovative, to show initiative, to animate the community, to collaborate with other schools (let alone other sectors) or to assume responsibility for the quality of either school inputs or student outcomes. Yet it is only these people who can really make a difference to the school. To change this pattern of inaction, they must be listened to, trained and trusted to do better. Involvement of more partners in support of the school – especially the community –is useful but requires changes in how schools are managed and clear definitions of their roles. The role of the community must be built into the framework of educational management as an integral component – not only as something to be added on when circumstances demand. Community participation should not be defined as “extraction,” with the community only providing financial support to the school. It should also not be viewed as a temporary strategy to be pursued only for improving enrolment and attendance rates – although this is an important role for the community to play. The community has to be considered as a natural partner – a “co-owner”– in the education of its children and should be given due place, with clear roles and responsibilities, in the local education management framework. Community-school partnerships and effective school-based management do not just happen by themselves – they must be planned for, financed and trained for. The system as a whole needs to accept and incorporate certain structural and procedural changes that facilitate strong partnerships among the school, the community, local education 201

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offices and other development sectors. The transfer of some authority and accountability down to the level of the school and out to civil society is one such change. But teachers should also be trained to think of themselves as “extension agents” of the ministry, working with and in the community as well as in the school; supervisors should be trained to see that one of their roles is to animate these partnerships as well as promote higher school quality; and community leaders should be helped to understand better the variety of support that they can offer to the school. The challenges facing school systems – traditional ones such as low enrolment, poor quality and disparities in outcomes but also new ones such as environmental degradation and climate change, pandemics and an everlarger digital divide – can be neither easily nor quickly resolved. Moving towards a new framework for effective school management, based at the local level, grounded in local contexts, and promoting more diverse partnerships and more inclusive approaches to schooling and learning must be seen as an essential strategy in more successfully meeting these challenges.

Notes 1 Unless specifically mentioned, reference to “school” in this brief refers not only to formal primary, secondary and technical/vocational schools but also to a range of early childhood/pre-primary education services (e.g. kindergartens and playgroups) and non-formal programmes which serve as equivalent alternatives to the formal system. 2 The term “pushed out” implies that school failure is often due to the school or education system pushing children out of school (by being too costly, too far from children, unresponsive to delays and disabilities etc.) rather than to the characteristics of the students; “drop out” blames the victim (the student) while “push out” puts at least some blame on the school and system. 3 Personal communication from Warren Mellor, former Senior Programme Specialist in Education, UNESCO New Delhi.

References Shaeffer, S. (1992): “Collaborating for Educational Change: The Role of Parents and the Community in School Development”, International Journal of Educational Development, 12(2), pp. 277–295. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ abs/pii/0738059392900046 Shaeffer, S., and Govinda, R. (1997): “Towards a New Framework for School Management: Creating Stronger Partnerships for Better Education”, in Shaeffer, S. (ed.), Innovations in School-Based Management. Dossier for ‘Education for All: Making it Work’ Programme. New York and Paris: UNICEF/UNESCO. https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/search/15706267-a486-4b6f-82c1-781f3733e87f

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Section 4 INFLUENCES ON POLICY AND INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATIONAL REFORM

12 MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD Planning a National Education System in the 1950s S. Irfan Habib

Introduction The immediate task before the new independent government of India was to rebuild the nation, apply salve to the wounds of the suffering masses, build confidence among people and convince them that hate will not add to their happiness or well-being. There were many other urgencies which had to be addressed on a war footing while resources were limited. When a large number of people were without food and shelter, education and culture had to wait for attention and resources. The colonial model of education under the shadows of Macaulay & Company were too deeply ingrained and needed a serious restructuring. This was the difficult legacy which the first independent government of India inherited. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad1 took the responsibility to reconstruct its education, culture and science. The challenge before him was to build a syncretic India that would truly reflect its diversity at various levels. J.C. Ghosh, one of India’s leading scientists and founding Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (in the state of West Bengal), put it well when he said that “the problems which occupied his mind till the last moment of his life were those of national unity, and of education for national prosperity, for developing balanced minds and for promotion of better understanding among the people of India” (Ghosh, 1959, p. 101). They were noble ideals indeed but they also remained the most intractable ones to achieve as they continue to pester us even now. Maulana Azad was not a run-of-the-mill politician but a scholar who brought with him decades of experience as a writer and thinker on different aspects of the Indian public life. Nehru visualized him as a “bridge” between the cultures of the East and the West, as the man who magnificently spanned in his person the gulf between the DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-17 

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past and the future. .  .  . Without any English education, without speaking or writing in English, he was as easily and effortlessly at home in Western culture as in Indian or Eastern or Islamic culture. Nothing that was good was stranger to him. (Nehru, 1959, pp. 1–2)

Azad’s Exposure to Learning and Education He surely had no formal education himself and thus no exposure to an institution – neither school nor any university. He was taught by his father at home initially and later he taught himself literature, religion, philosophy, arts and aesthetics. He was a voracious reader even as a child and with a remarkable memory. Being an autodidact, there were no restrictions or limits to his reading habits or choice of subjects. He read diverse stuff including articles on some important aspects of modern scientific and technical developments in Europe. His forays into education and even culture and science began early in life when he started writing serious columns in his papers Lisan-ul-Sidq, Al-Hilal and Al-Balagh, besides many other papers like Al Nadwa. He also touched upon some fundamental philosophical and ethical aspects of education in his magnum opus Tarjuman-Ul-Quran in 1930. Thus, by the time he took over as a minister, Azad had thought and written immensely about education and its challenges since the early 20th century. One feature, which is reflective in all his writings, is the emphasis on Adl or justice in the dissemination of education and its access to people. This Quranic concept of striking a balance in the formulation of policies, particularly education, was the core of Maulana’s educational policy endeavours. While translating and interpreting the Quran he wrote that “Every planet and every star is at work in space in balanced or just or right relation with one another. It is this principle which binds together a society” (Azad, 1981, p. 94). This is how he used the Quranic concepts to democratize the education system which had been enclaved for centuries, particularly during the British colonization. Education for justice brings in a state of stable equilibrium between the antithetic entities, viz. individual freedom and social control, the spiritual and the scientific outlook, the religious and the secular system, and the national and international aspiration. Indeed, justice commands the pivotal place in Azad’s general perspective, which has influenced his educational outlook quite profoundly (Abduhu, 1973, p. 42). We also need to be aware that Azad’s educational perspective was fundamentally Islamic in inspiration, yet he synthesized happily anything of value anywhere. He was not “exclusively an ‘Islamic’ mind or even an ‘oriental’ mind, unacquainted with, or insensitive to, the rich streams of influences emanating from other sources” (Hameed, 1990, p. 64). It is generally 206

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assumed that he was not exposed to the Western scholarship and educational philosophies, which is actually a fallacy. One Maulana Asadullah Khan was with Azad in the Meerut prison, who wrote about his experiences in the jail and narrated one interesting episode. One of their fellow prisoners Kishan Chand, who was known as the philosopher in the prison, got a popular philosophy book from the Meerut College library. He assumed that Maulana won’t have any clue to the book which would give him the opportunity to poke fun at him. Next day Maulana surprised everyone when he not only explained the book in detail but also pointed out some of the lapses of the author (Hameed, 1990). Another admirer of Maulana in the prison was Hafiz Ali Bahadur Khan, who confirmed that Maulana Azad used to read only English books in the jail and read Voltaire, Rousseau, Goethe and many others (Hameed, 1990, pp. 33–34). Thus, we cannot assume that Maulana was not exposed to the Western educational philosophy and literature. He was deeply impressed by the advances made in the West in the realm of elementary education for children. He was firmly committed to what was scientific in the Western system, and the two factors that most inspired him were the idea of freedom as the technique of education and the all-embracing importance of primary education (Abduhu, 1973, p. 24). He was particularly impressed by the French philosopher Rousseau and was in agreement with him on the innate goodness of man (Al-Balagh, February  25, 1916, pp.  10–11). He even wrote about this in his paper al-Hilal, where he looked upon Rousseau as one who revolutionized the entire intellectual and social life of his age (Al-Hilal, August 5, 1927). Azad agreed with Rousseau in his advocacy of the child’s necessity and ability to grasp the truth through his own insight (Abduhu, 1973, p. 25). Contrasting the centrality extended to education in the West, Azad was bewildered at the apathy towards it in the East, with mediocrity as its hallmark. He strongly felt that in India people were even oblivious of the fact that education is of paramount importance for the nation’s overall development. He considered planning for education on a national scale as more important than national planning in economic and industrial development. While addressing the CABE meeting in 1952 he said: Economic and industrial development creates material goods. These can be used by people in different parts whatever be their source or origin. Education, on the other hand, trains the citizens, and if this training fails to inculcate the right attitudes and ideals or encourages fissiparous tendencies, the security and welfare of the community is at stake. Our reconstruction of national education must therefore aim at creating a unity of purpose among all our nationals and developing in them a common outlook which will 207

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transcend and harmonize in an attractive pattern the differences in history, background, language and culture that exist among various sections of the people. (Speeches of Maulana Azad, [hereafter, Speeches of Azad], p. 208) There is a sizable opinion among scholars that Azad did not really have much to do with education personally, and the task was handed over to him by Nehru, who continued to play a key role in most of the policy formulations in educational and scientific matters. It is a fact that Azad accepted the responsibility on the insistence of both Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. But it is also a fact that the choice fell on him because Azad was the best available person for the job. Both Nehru and Gandhi were aware of the fact that Azad was passionately committed to education, culture and scientific and technical progress. He surely had his limitations and Nehru always came forward positively to take care of them. On the death of Azad, Nehru called him “a man of luminous intelligence and a mighty intellect with an amazing capacity to pierce through a problem to its core.” His erudition and high intellect led Nehru to compare him in European history, with “the great men of the Renaissance, or, in a later period, of the encyclopedists who preceded the French Revolution, men of intellect, men of action” (Kabir, 1959, pp. 1–2). Nehru, continuing with his tributes in the Parliament, said: There is little of graciousness in the world today, even though we may become more and more advanced in scientific and technical ways. Even though we may seek to reach the moon, we do it with a lack of tolerance, with a lack of some things which have made life worthwhile since life began. So, it was this strange and unique mixture of the good qualities of the past, the graciousness, the deep learning and toleration and an understanding of the urges of today that made Maulana Azad what he was. (Kabir, 1959, p. 2) He represented the idea of a composite India, which the nation evolved into, over the decades of freedom struggle. There could not have been a better choice in the times he opted to take over the crucial ministry. No one else could say it better than S. Radhakrishnan, who clearly spelt out his role after independence when he said: When once freedom was won, he again felt that we must use that freedom for promoting social welfare, cleanse this country of sickness, squalor, illiteracy, etc., and cleanse our minds of superstition, of obscurantism, of fanaticism. He stood for, what one may call the 208

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emancipated mind, the mind which is free from narrow prejudices of race or language, province or dialect, religion or caste. We had in Maulana Sahib a civilized mind. (Kabir, 1959, p. 6) Azad was not a professional educationist, nor were so many others like Montessori, Tagore or Gandhi, yet their impact on education have been enormous. He was essentially a scholar, a man of thought, a litterateur, a divine, who found himself pitch-forked into a life of intense political activity. Amazingly enough, he was able to combine the exacting and almost mutually exclusive demands of the life of the mind and his life of intense political activity – a rare quality which he shared with his life-long friend and colleague, Nehru (Hameed, 1990, p.  66). If we look retrospectively, Azad was the most eminently suited choice to bring India out of the morass it had gone into after partition. There was a need for a person of great vision and character who may be able to assess the situation correctly and adopt sound educational policies which would help, in the long run, to restore mental sanity and balance to national life and instil the right values in it (Hameed, 1990, p. 68). In his first press conference, after taking over the responsibility in the interim government, Maulana spoke with clarity of objectives thus: Nothing has a more important bearing on the quality of the individual than the type of education imparted. A truly liberal and humanitarian education may transform the outlook of the people and set it on the path of progress and prosperity, while an ill-conceived or unscientific system might destroy all the hopes which have been cherished by generations of pioneers in the cause of national freedom. (Speeches of Azad, p. 1) He began by referring to the Macaulayan system which was committed to promote the British colonial interests, yet he conceded that The great services which the existing system of education has rendered to the Indian people need not be denied. . . . There is equally no denying that this system has led to the creation of a small intelligentsia separated from the mass of the Indian people. He was also conscious of the fact that the current education has tended to distance the educated from the traditional life and even taught them to look down upon our national heritage. For Maulana the greatest charge against the Macaulayan system of education was “that it has not led to the development of a national mind.” 209

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Maulana emphasized on the need for a sound system of basic education. If the foundations have not been truly and firmly laid, no abiding superstructure can be built. India’s teacher education is a serious concern even today, many of the teacher training institutions are mired in corruption and controversies, despite the significant role teachers have played and the respect they have commanded over many centuries. Lamenting their loss of social and economic status, Maulana said in a press conference that: In the past, the status of the teacher in Indian society was an exalted one. He might not have been wealthy but his comparative poverty was compensated by the need of respect and prestige which the profession of teaching carried with it. Today, unfortunately, all this has changed, and the teacher, especially in primary stages, is considered as hardly better than an inferior servant. Any programme for reconstruction of education must therefore place in the forefront the task of improving the status and condition of teachers, and I am confident that the new National Government of India will recognize this as its first and foremost tasks. (Speeches of Azad, pp. 2–3) He was aware of the fact that a sound basic education with good and welltrained teachers can build a sound and viable higher education system. It is the good foundation at the school level that feeds the university system with competent and committed students. Thus, the education system from school to the university level is an interlinked chain, and the whole chain needs to be well-oiled and healthy. No super-structure is possible on weak foundations.

Taking on the Challenge: Building a National System of Education Within a year after assuming the charge in the interim government, Maulana called for an All-India Educational Conference on January 16, 1948, where he laid down “A Plan for National Education.” These were difficult times, as pointed out before, and within a fortnight, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, which impacted the functioning as well as morale of the government and the nation. However, Maulana clearly spelt out that Even if other nation building activities of the Government have to be slowed down or deferred on account of such difficulties, education, at any rate, must be pushed forward as rapidly as possible. We must not, for a moment, forget that it is the birthright of every individual to receive at least the basic education without which he cannot fully discharge his duties as a citizen. (Speeches of Azad, p. 29) 210

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The task to educate was not only for the school-going children but also for a large number of adults. Our population after partition was 24 crores (240 million) and the school going children between six and 11 years were around 2,93,72,000 (over 29 million). The number of trained teachers we needed at that time was nine lakh (900,000), which was an impossible task. In this context Maulana appealed in his address that young men and women should come forward to meet this deficiency. He said: I would urge upon every educated man and woman to regard it as a sacred national service to come forward and serve as a teacher for at least two years. They should regard it as a sacrifice to the national cause and accept for their services whatever allowance the State may afford. (Speeches of Azad, pp. 29–30) Maulana even proposed some kind of conscription for the purpose where educated young men and women could spend two years as teachers, which was of course an emergency measure. Unfortunately, none of these policies could be implemented. However, they remain as passionate examples of Maulana’s commitment to the cause of national education and the sense of urgency he felt to ameliorate the sufferings of the deprived sections of our population. In his national plan for education, Maulana also stressed on the education of illiterate adults as mentioned before. “It is obvious that with the extension of democracy, the problem of adult education has become even more important than it was in the past.” As part of the national education for adults, Maulana had two objectives: (a) the illiterate adults to be made literate and more importantly (b) provisions to be made to enlarge their minds and enable them to take an intelligent interest in the affairs of the country (Speeches of Azad p. 32). He, actually, stressed more on the second objective and not mere literacy, when he said “expansion of the mind of the adults can largely be effected today through the use of scientific methods and machinery which has made our task in this respect much lighter than it was before.” Unfortunately, this task remains unfulfilled even today. Many of those who have been products of even university education lack this “expansion of the mind” and remain cooped up in their narrow world instead. As I raised before, soon after freedom, “one of the most stupendous tasks was the reconstruction and expansion of her system of education” (Kabir, 1955, p. 1). Many steps were taken to provide free elementary education for all children of school-going age and ensure that they were not denied facilities that their parents had lacked. There was a large population of illiterate adults which also needed to be looked after simultaneously. Steps had also to be taken to reorganize secondary and higher education and promote rapid expansion of scientific and technical education necessary for the development 211

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of industry and agriculture (Kabir, 1955, p. 1). Maulana Azad also felt that Indian languages had languished over the past two centuries and also for steps to finalize the medium of instruction in schools and universities. Maulana Azad was deeply concerned about enriching India’s cultural life that had been ignored for 200 years. For him, no national education at any level was complete without art and culture. He repeatedly emphasized the significance of culture and heritage while formulating his educational policies. While opening an art exhibition in New Delhi, he said Art is an education of emotions and is thus an essential element in any scheme of truly national education. Education, whether at the secondary or at the university stage, cannot be regarded as complete if it does not train our faculties to the perception of beauty. (Speeches of Azad, p. 48) India’s Constitution was sincerely ambitious in hoping to provide universal compulsory education to all children below the age of 14 within ten years of its promulgation. However, we know that the existing facilities did not extend to even 25 per cent of the population on the eve of freedom, thus “this directive must be recognized as revolutionary in import.” The task was made even more arduous because India was shaken by a series of cataclysmic events at the time of independence. We had to pay a heavy price for freedom with the division of the country followed by massive violence and displacement of millions across borders. India also confronted a natural calamity in the form of a serious famine, leading to massive efforts to import food from outside. Thus, the education, science and culture were the departments which bore the brunt of a massive financial crunch. Maulana had to take forward the three crucial arms of future progress through the thick and thin of these financially and socially unstable times. One more important challenge in the context of national education plan that confronted Azad was the issue of language – the promotion and development of local languages and of course the medium of instruction. Any future formulation of a national education policy had to resolve the language question and make modern education accessible to students in their own languages. Addressing his one of the first press conferences, just on the eve of independence, Azad said categorically that A truly liberal and humanitarian education may transform the outlook of the people and set it on the path of progress and prosperity, while an ill-conceived or unscientific system might destroy all the hopes which have been cherished by generations of pioneers in the cause of national struggle. (Speeches of Azad, p. 1) 212

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Azad was conscious of the fact that the colonial education system, particularly the post-Macaulyan phase, had done tremendous harm to the Indian education, most importantly the medium of instruction. He somehow agreed with Macaulay’s contention that Sanskrit and Persian were unsuited as mediums of instruction, “but English could serve the purpose no better” (Speeches of Azad, 1989, p. 2). When the East India Company decided to introduce English as the medium of instruction, we made a beginning in an un-Indian way. The Indians had to shape their minds in artificial and not in natural moulds. He even said that “If the Indian languages had been made the medium of instruction a hundred and fifty years ago, they would have come in line with the progressive languages of the world.” Here, let me recall an attempt made in Delhi itself almost 150 years back, when Master Ramchandra and Munshi Zakaullah at Delhi College tried to teach modern science through the medium of Urdu. There were similar attempts in different parts of India, particularly in Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and such other languages in the 19th century. Zakaullah very poignantly expressed his faith in the local language, echoing Azad’s views, more than a century before him, when he once said: [T]he constant use of English even from our childhood, so that we begin to express our thoughts in it instead of in our mother tongue, will go far to denationalize us. If we wish to remain an Eastern people, we must not neglect the language which we learnt at our mother’s knee. . . . To forget it, or to despise it, is to lose one of the strongest factors in the building up of national character. (Andrews, 1929, p. 97) How close was Azad to Zakaullah’s understanding when he talked about English as the medium of instruction. That “now it became necessary for every child to shape an artificial mind and to tackle every aspect of learning from an unnatural angle of vision. He could not enter the sacred precincts of learning with a natural mind” (Speeches of Azad, p. 13). However, Azad was an intellectual and a freedom fighter, who could articulate the reasons for this inadequacy, in particular the loss of sovereignty, to decide about such policy issues. He compared colonized India with Turkey, China and Japan, who had the freedom of choice to go ahead and impart modern education through their respective languages. He said: Supposing this educational revolution had been brought about by our own hands, we should have certainly done what other countries of Asia and the East did in the nineteenth century. Egypt, Syria, Turkey, China and Japan all felt the need of having western education. They established schools and colleges for modern learning, but none of them had the experience of undergoing the artificiality 213

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of giving up their own languages and receiving education through the medium of a foreign language. (Speeches of Azad, p. 13) India lost this freedom very early, with the victory of the Anglicists in 1835, and since then it had to cope with a foreign language where learning was never a pleasure. Azad firmly believed that provincial languages need to be developed to serve the purpose of medium of instruction. Going ahead, he pointed out that [T]he experiment of imparting instruction in the mother tongue up to the matriculation standard has already been tried with success and the time has come when the process must be extended further and all education in the land made accessible to the people in their own language. His faith in the provincial languages, however, could not be properly introduced in our education system, leading ultimately to the growth of disparate generation of Indians, even alien to each other. We are still grappling with the issue and have no clear solution to resolve the problem. Maulana raised the issue of national education again two years later in the CABE (Central Advisory Board of Education) meeting on January  8, 1950, at Cuttack. He began with his commitment that we had to build our educational structure afresh – both qualitatively and quantitatively as the number of literates was lamentably low and the quality miserably poor. Thus, he spoke that the ministry of education should have the following objectives:   (i) The provision of basic education on a universal, free and compulsory basis for all school-going children; (ii) The provision of adult education in order to wipe out the colossal illiteracy of our masses; (iii) The improvement and expansion of technical education in order to solve the problem of manpower for industrial and technical development and (iv) The reorganization and improvement of university education from a national point of view. Besides laying down these objectives, Maulana again expressed lack of finance as a major limitation but he expected more than just this. “A truly national system of education demanded the creation of a new spirit among our educated men and women, so that they would regard the spread of education as a national obligation for all” (Speeches of Azad, p. 127). 214

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One of the major lapses of Nehruvian era is said to be the lack of focus on primary and secondary education, which is true to some extent. Maulana Azad did try to cope with this challenge and faced insurmountable hurdles on the way, many of them were circumstantial but some were consciously planned. Consciously planned, because the newly formed government was in a hurry to cover the lost ground and catch up with the world in industrial and scientific development. As said before, there were millions of hungry and desperate mouths to feed, to provide comfort and shelter. This is no explanation for the serious lapse. Critics contended that a more constructive way should have been found as the foundational attempts to build our holistic educational network were not enough. Maulana appointed an education commission in 1948, also known as the Radhakrishnan Commission. Though it was on education as a whole, its emphasis was more on higher education. The University Education Report was criticized, as any important document should be, and one of the criticisms was that the Commission was prematurely appointed (Qaiser, 2011, p.  287). This led to the rebuilding of an educational pyramid from the wrong side because socio-economic and political realities had hardly crystallized for educational imperatives to be clearly known (Nayar, 1989, p. 370). Not everyone subscribed to this criticism as many scholars stressed that efforts were made to strengthen not only higher education but basic and secondary education too. It is argued that when India became independent, the most spectacular change at the primary stage was the implementation of Basic Education, which was accepted as the national system of education (Thomas, 1970, p.  101). Azad took upon himself a difficult task to rebuild Indian education and set it up with national objectives. He built this national education system through the significant support of educational experts like Tara Chand, Humayun Kabir, Prem Kirpal, S.S. Bhatnagar and K.G. Saiyidain.

Closing Remarks This is so much different from what we see today in the education ministries since the past few decades. There were surely weaknesses in the early efforts, some of them palpably visible, in the current educational system which is weak at many levels. The attempts now to mend the structure are merely patchwork, not an organized effort to strengthen the foundations of the structure.

Note 1 An Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following India’s independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is commonly remembered

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as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning “Our Master” and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Abul_Kalam_Azad.

References Abduhu, G.R. (1973): The Educational Ideas of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. Al-Balagh, February 25, 1916. Al-Hilal, August 5, 1927. Andrews, C.F. (1929): Zakaullah of Delhi. London: London Agents, Simkin Marshall Ltd. Azad, A.K. (1981): Tarjuman Al Quran, rendered into English by Dr Abdul Latif. Hyderabad: SAL Trust for Quranic and other Cultural Studies. [1st edition in 1962] Ghosh, J.C. (1959): “The Educational Leader”, in Humayun, K. (ed.), Maulana Abul Kalam Azad-A Memorial Volume. Bombay: Asia Publishing House. Hameed, S.S. (1990): India’s Maulana. New Delhi: ICCR and Vikas Publishing House. Kabir, H. (1955): Education in New India. London: George Allen & Unwin. Kabir, H. (ed.) (1959): Maulana Abul Kalam Azad-A Memorial Volume. Bombay: Asia Publishing House. Nayar, D.P. (1989): Towards a National System of Education. New Delhi: Mittal Publications. Nehru, J. (1959): “The Passing of a Great Man”, in Kabir, op.cit., pp. 1–4. Publications Division (1989): Speeches of Maulana Azad 1947–58. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Qaiser, R. (2011): Resisting Colonialism and Communal Politics Maulana Azad and the Making of the Indian Nation. New Delhi: Manohar. Thomas, T.M. (1970): Indian Educational Reforms in Cultural Perspectives. New Delhi: S Chand and Company.

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13 THE DRIVERS AND INHIBITORS OF EFA Policy Change and Implementation in Ghana and India Angela W. Little

Introduction Access to basic education was a central plank of the global Education for All (EFA) initiative and key to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Access to good-quality education lies at the heart of development. Politics and educational policies are central to progress on access to education; so too are underlying conditions of demography, economy, society, culture and educational histories (www.create-rpc.org/about; Little and Lewin, 2011). EFA was the term used by the World Conference on “Education for All: Meeting Basic Needs,” held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990 to refer to the universalization of primary education of good quality worldwide. This goal had many precedents, names and slogans historically across the world. While international organizations have played a part in promoting strategies for EFA, the policies and practices that lie behind much of the progress towards EFA are driven mainly by national governments (Little, 2021). Policy Change and Implementation It is important to distinguish the underlying drivers and inhibitors of policy change from those of policy implementation. Historically, national education policy change has been driven by a range of factors that have included shifts in political regime, political instability, transitions from conflict, economic instability and economic transformation. A  wide range of interest groups in society promote and resist national policy change. These include, inter alia, national and local politicians, teachers and parents, education managers, teacher unions, elite and masses, class, caste, ethnic and economic DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-18 

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groups, civil society organizations. Policy implementation is also influenced by many of these groups. Implementation depends on the clarity, complexity and timing of the policy, between the perceived gains and losses of policy implementation by different groups, and the availability of human and economic resources as well as underlying structural characteristics.1 This chapter draws on research conducted by the Consortium for Research on Education Access and Equity (CREATE) between 2005 and 2011. It explores the underlying drivers and inhibitors of education policy in Ghana between 1950 and 2005 and draws selected comparisons with India over roughly the same period. Two broad questions are addressed: What were the underlying drivers of policy change? What were the drivers and inhibitors of policy implementation?2 The chapter is based on CREATE research undertaken by the author (Little, 2008, 2010a, 2010b) and by the CREATE teams in Ghana, led by Kwame Akyeampong, and in India by R. Govinda, and the consortium coordinated by Keith M. Lewin (2007, 2011; www.create-rpc.org). Ghana and India Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast, gained full independence from the British in 1957; India gained independence ten years earlier, in 1947. With a 2018 population of 29 million, Ghana’s population is small when compared with India’s of 1.35 billion. Historically, literacy rates are similar – in 1950, 22.5 per cent in Ghana and 19.3 per cent in India. By 2010, literacy in Ghana was estimated to be 80.9 per cent and in India 62.6 per cent.3 Since independence, both democratic and military political regimes have assumed power within the Republic of Ghana while India has been a Federal Democratic Republic.4 Both countries are multi-lingual and multi-cultural.

Ghana: Drivers of Policy Change Political Independence The prospect of political independence was a strong driver of education policy change. Between 1950 and 1957, Ghana was in transition to independence and elections to a transitional legislative assembly brought the nationalist and populist Convention People’s Party to power until 1966, under the leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The Accelerated Development Plan (ADP) of 1951 and the subsequent Education Act of 1961 were driven by widespread and popular demand for increased access to education. Under the ADP, fees for primary education were removed, large numbers of new teachers recruited and trained, and the number of schools expanded. Under the Education Act of 1961 tuition fees for middle school were removed and scholarships for primary, secondary and tertiary education were introduced, 218

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to increase the demand for education from students in the Northern regions and the region of Brong-Ahafo. Up to this point the policy emphasis was on increasing access through increased enrolment (Akyeampong et al., 2007). Military Coups and Regime Change Ghana experienced its first military coup in 1966, and this provided a strong impetus for education policy change (Afrifa, 1966). Enrolments had expanded so fast in the preceding years that the concerns now were low standards of education, rising unemployment of school leavers and the relevance of the content of education to the world of work. Some have attributed the coup itself to the havoc wrought by rapid education expansion and the lowering of educational standards during Nkrumah’s period of office (Afrifa, 1966 cited in Pedley and Taylor, 2009). The Kwapong Committee of 1966 set up after the coup recommended a diversification of the middle school curriculum in which students would be tracked after two years into an academic and a pre-vocational stream, labelled a “continuation school.” The committee’s report also recommended a structure of primary school (six years), secondary education (four years), sixth form (two years) and university (three and more years). This theme of restructuring and the removal of middle schools would re-surface in the proposals of the 1971 Committee on Education working under the Busia’s right leaning elected government and again in the proposals of the Dzobo committee, working under the Acheampong’s Military National Redemption Council (Akyeampong et al., 2007). Education and Social Reproduction While the proposals for restructuring appeared in the work of committees appointed under rather different political regimes, the proposals for curriculum diversification did not. Curriculum diversification in middle school education was perceived by many as elitist and pampering to the needs of the middle classes. By 1972, the military had taken control away from Busia’s Progress Party and the education policy pendulum swung back from standards and curricula to access and enrolments. Although the introduction of a “continuation school” was intended to meet the demand for education relevant to the world of work, its implementation reproduced social divisions between rich and poor as it channelled poorer children into an inferior education oriented to lower status jobs and with no pathway to higher education. By 1972, large numbers of children from the poorer households had gained access to primary education, and their aspirations now were for improved access to secondary, but to the academic stream of secondary and not the vocational. The Dzobo Committee Report of 1974 fused the themes of access 219

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and relevance by recommending that all children follow a common education of nine years and a more practical and skills-oriented curriculum thereafter. Economic Decline However, in the mid-1970s, oil price hikes, low levels of domestic and foreign investment and general economic decline saw the start of a serious decline in government expenditure on education, from 6.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent between 1976 and 1983 (World Bank, 2004, p.  7). There were shortages of teaching and learning materials and large numbers of trained teachers migrated to Nigeria, attracted by work in its fast-growing oil-based economy. Few of the Dzobo committee proposals would be implemented at this time. Implementation would have to wait until that of subsequent policy reforms of 1987 and 1996. By the early 1980s, the economy was in a dire state with 1982 income levels 30 per cent below their 1970 level, import volumes one-third less and export earnings just half (World Bank, 1989). General Rawlings5 had led his second military coup in 1981 and faced the mammoth task of economic transformation. In his efforts to counter economic decline, he expected financial support to flow from socialist countries and the Eastern Bloc. When this did not materialize, he turned to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for support (Pedley and Taylor, 2009). The World Bank provided extensive support for education as well. Writing a few years later in 1989, The National Education Forum of Ghana offered a retrospective on the status of education at this time. By 1983, Ghana’s educational system, which until the mid-1970s was known to be one of the most highly developed and effective in West Africa, had deteriorated in quality. Enrolment rates, once among the highest in the sub-Saharan region, stagnated and fell. . . . The real levels of financing fell by about two-thirds. . . . Scarcity of foreign exchange affected the country’s ability to purchase textbooks and other teaching and learning materials. The economic downturn also resulted in the mass exodus of qualified teachers. At the basic education level, the ratio of trained to untrained teachers fell significantly. Low motivation and morale led to ineffective supervision. (National Education Forum, 1999, p. 9) External Financial Support While the 1983 economic recovery enjoyed initial gains, problems in education had worsened. To maintain political legitimacy the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) government tackled what successive governments had wished to do but failed to implement: a significant reform of education. 220

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And, with considerable financial support from the World Bank and others the drive began (Fobih et al., 1996). Under this revolutionary military regime, the process by which education policy was reformulated contrasted with the process under earlier regimes. Professional experts, several from the university sector, were brought into the central arena of decision-making and were conferred with political powers as ministers. The education reforms of 1987 were intended to improve access to education, especially at the junior secondary stage, and improve the quality of teaching and learning. Non-selective basic education was introduced across the primary and junior secondary grades, and financial resources were concentrated on this basic education cycle. Children were provided with mother tongue literacy skills, a second Ghanaian language and English, modern farming skills, familiarity in using tools, skills of manual dexterity and practical mathematics. The reforms were not piloted and were introduced nationwide “with less than a year’s lead time in order to prevent vested interests from mobilising against the reforms” (World Bank, 1989, p. 2). Vested interests in maintaining the structure and content of education were anticipated to lie among the elite who had for some time gained considerable advantage for their own children in a socially stratified, urban-oriented, academic and selective education system. Despite the political determination to embark on implementation “money or no money,” external financial support was necessary. The Technical Versus Political Imperatives for Reform The decision to introduce the reforms with less than a year’s lead time points to a well-known tension between the technical and political imperatives of education reform. Most education policy implementers stress the need to trial and pilot reforms to test their technical characteristics and take corrective action before going to scale. Politically, reforms are often pushed through quickly to circumvent resistance and/or to secure electoral support. Inevitably the 1987 reforms met with resistance from several quarters, especially the middle classes. Already, the resistance of the middle classes to a common system of secondary education, that would place their children in a common race for educational and occupational opportunities, had thwarted reform efforts in the 1960s and the 1970s. But the political climate had changed. The PNDC’s political base was the rural poor, and the government did not fear resistance from middle classes. A New Constitution and Return to Democracy The year 1992 was a watershed in Ghana’s political history and marked the beginning of a period of sustained political stability and strengthening 221

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democracy. Military governments had dominated for more than half the period since 1957. In 1992, elections were held. Rawlings retired from the army and stood for election and his National Democratic Congress won most of the seats. A new constitution followed, with a legal and constitutional duty to provide “free, compulsory and universal basic education” (FCUBE). In turn the implementation of FCUBE offered legitimacy to the new government. The FCUBE programme was introduced in 1996 with an emphasis on infrastructure, management reform, curriculum change, community participation and the improvement of the quality of personnel who supported basic education at all levels. It sought to redress “four major deficiencies” – access for girls and those in disadvantaged areas, high repetition and dropout rates, low achievement and relevance (Government of Ghana, 1995, p. 4). The policy content did not change significantly during the period 1974 to 1996. What changed was the economic and political climate for reform. 1974 was .  .  . the blueprint, 1986 was when the government.  .  . said “we would do it, implement it”. . . 1996 was when it said ‘let’s correct some of the things, amend some of the issues. . . that were raised by the people who were against it. (interview with author) In brief, education policy change in Ghana has been driven mainly by political factors. Populist regimes, both democratic and military, have driven policy change and mainly in the direction of increased opportunities for the rural poor. This was so during the early post-independence years of Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (1951–66) that continued through the military regimes of the National Redemption Council (1972–79) and the Provisional National Defence Council (1981–92) and on through the National Democratic Congress (1992–2000). Quality Versus Quantity While not back-tracking on access, regimes owing their power base to the urban middle classes have tended to stress the importance of improving quality and maintaining and improving standards. Both the military regime of Ankrah (1966–69) and the elected Progress Party (1969–72) wished to see the rate of expansion contained with a greater focus on quality and standards. The right of centre National Patriotic Party, which came to power in 2000 remained committed to FCUBE, created a long-term plan for education (2003–15) and introduced a capitation grant scheme to remove the need for schools to charge any type of fee. At the same time, it promoted the private sector, the diversification of the senior secondary stage of education (where 40 years earlier the Kwapong committee had promoted diversification at the junior stage) and education 222

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decentralization and management, a move which some feared was contributing to increasing, rather than reducing disparities between schools in the quality of public basic education on offer (Akyeampong et al., 2007).

Ghana: Drivers and Inhibitors of Policy Implementation If political demands by different groups and the legitimacy of governments to rule were the main drivers of education policy reform, a host of other factors came into play during the process of translating policy into practice. The 1961 Education Act for free primary and middle school education continued to provide an enabling legislative framework for enrolment and progression. A  start was made on the introduction of junior secondary schools and 118 were established between 1974 and 1986. However, the 1974 policies on restructuring the education system ran into myriad obstacles. These included a lack of finance in a declining economy, and considerable resistance from the middle classes as well as the middleclass bureaucrats running the education system. Economic decline had led to the migration of large numbers of qualified teachers to Nigeria where prospects were better. There were shortages of educational equipment and other learning materials. The education system was growing at a rate slower than that of the population. Inspection and supervision of the system had all but disappeared. The new junior secondary schools struggled to achieve standards equivalent to Form 3 secondary. They were unpopular among the middle classes whose interests had been well served by the former system and who did not welcome the prospect of their children attending an extended common system of education with a common curriculum. With very limited economic resources, there was little political will to push the reforms forward in the face of opposition. The pattern of drivers for and inhibitors of implementation would change from 1987, after the reforms were announced by the Secretary for Education and Culture in October 1986. Their initial implementation was handled firmly and decisively from the top. Political leadership and will were strong (Kosak, 2009). In an early move to control education, the Ghana Education Service Council, which had authority in professional matters of appointments, promotions and discipline, was abolished and replaced by a National Education Commission with advisory powers. Executive powers vested hitherto with the Council were transferred to the Secretary (Minister) (Fobih et al., 1996). To increase the demand for education among girls, scholarship schemes were piloted. Teachers were given incentives in addition to salary through housing, prizes for teaching and training schemes. Significant financial resources for the reforms were made available by the World Bank. Detailed planning of the reforms and their implementation occurred in parallel for most of the 1987–92 period. The PNDC government wasted no time in moving to country-wide implementation to avoid obstacles that might be 223

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raised by those with vested interests. And it accepted financial support from the World Bank. Inhibitors of implementation were similar in some respects to those post 1974. The education bureaucrats were unenthusiastic implementers and the middle classes resisted passively. The revolutionary government dealt with bureaucratic resistance through, inter alia, restructuring the Ministry and the Ghana Education Service, directing the army to deliver textbooks and other logistics when necessary and creating a climate of fear in which implementation problems went unreported. Between 1985 and 1995, there would be four Ministers and six Director Generals of Education, indicating a certain lack of continuity of leadership (The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA, 1996, Annex 1). The implementation process was stymied technically because the reforms were not piloted, and teachers were insufficiently oriented and trained in the more radical curriculum content and pedagogy, including assessment and some shortages of equipment. Parental support for the reforms varied across the regions and some plans were insensitive to the different agricultural seasons in the north and the south of the country. In some areas, local politicians worked alongside local communities to undermine some components of the building programme. A New Constitution and Return to Democracy After elections in 1992, the implementation of the reforms enjoyed a new impetus. Importantly, with the transition from the military to an elected government came a new Constitution. Article 38(2) of the Constitution required that the government develop a plan for implementation for free, compulsory and universal basic education within the following ten years, giving a legal force to the provision of basic education across the country. The political will that had driven the 1987 reforms remained and finance from the international donor community continued to flow. The disappointing results from primary and secondary school assessments gave added impetus to the implementation process. Institutional continuity was offered by a Minister of Education on seat between 1993 and 1997. Despite early gains in planning, implementation was inhibited by changes in leadership at ministerial level after 1997, a vacuum in leadership at middle levels and insufficient delegation of decision-making powers. In contrast with the 1987 reforms, teachers were better prepared through extensive upgrading programmes. Research began to be used more readily to inform the work of policy makers and implementers. Education decentralization became a reality through legal fiat. Nonetheless the technical challenges faced in the development and establishment of large-scale distance education programmes for teachers were great, and the supply of untrained and trained teachers struggled to keep pace with increases in school enrolments. The student-teacher ratio 224

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at primary level declined from 32:1 in 1996–97 to 35:1 in 2005–06 and remained steady at 18:1 at the junior secondary level. The student to trainedteacher ratios increased from 43:1 to 63:1 in primary, and from 23:1 to 26:1 in junior secondary. Pass rates in the BECE examination sat at the end of the junior secondary stage, increased only very slightly from 60.4 per cent in 1998 to 62.2 per cent in 2008 (Akyeampong, 2009).

India: Drivers of Policy Change Political Independence India gained independence from the British in 1947. As in Ghana, the prospect of political independence provided an impetus for education policy reform. Education was a site for the nationalist struggle and was believed to have a liberating potential for all groups in society. Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy on the role of education in development diverged from those of several post-independence leaders. In Gandhi’s vision, elementary education would serve to make villages self-reliant. Manual and mental skills would be valued equally in school curricula. In Nehru’s vision and that of many subsequent Congress leaders, the expansion of access to education was needed to serve the broader process of industrialization and modernization through science and technology. While the rhetoric of free and compulsory education for all pervaded all political programmes at some level, improvements in access to and the quality of mass education did not sit comfortably with education designed to nurture scientific talent among an elite. Prior to independence, the Central Advisory Board of Education drew up a plan (popularly known as the Sargent Plan) in 1944 recommending the provision of free and compulsory education within 40  years, for all those aged 6–13 years. The 1950 Constitution established India as a Federal Republic and enacted universal adult franchise. Article 45 obliged the states to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years (Government of India, 1950). This goal “which was expected to be achieved by 1960, has remained elusive even now.” (Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2007, p. 1) Education and Social Reproduction The 1964 Kothari Education Commission called for a radical restructuring of education and an equalization of educational opportunities. The Commission undertook its work during a period of growing unemployment, economic stagnation, food shortages and political dissent over official 225

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languages and public administration. The resulting 1968 policy introduced a common structure of education, making science and maths compulsory subjects of study. However, as a senior government official commented, the “common school” system never materialized. For some people the common school refers to a school where the “common people” send their children. . . the core obstacle is caste. Caste is so deeply ingrained in our society that it is very difficult to overcome that barrier. (interview with the author) Decentralized-Centralized Government In contrast with Ghana, and in recognition of its large size and the nature of its colonial government’s administration of education, responsibility for the financing and implementation of education policies lay with individual states and union territories. However, from 1976, financing and implementation responsibilities were shared between states/union territories and central government. Over time, the central government would come to play an ever more active role in formulating, financing and implementing programmes for elementary education (Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2007). In 1977, a group more sympathetic to Gandhian ideals developed a “policy frame” for the period 1978–87 and called for an elementary system responsive to the needs of the poorest and deprived. But the fate of this policy (GOI, 1979) was sealed by a return to power of Congress in 1980. The 1980s saw a fresh political impetus for education reform, especially at the secondary and higher education levels. Education was being called on to promote national integration, contribute to the modernization of society and economy, address inequalities of gender, caste and class and to reduce unemployment. Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded as Prime Minister after Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, was keen that India’s future be grounded in a reformed education system. Rajiv Gandhi was personally involved in driving the formulation of the 1986 policy and in moving it through parliament in 1986 (Government of India, 1986a). Like its predecessor policy of 1968, elementary education competed for policy attention with the challenges of secondary and higher education. From Policies to Programmes of Action The reforms in elementary education called for a re-organization of curricular content, teaching methods, teacher education and of education management. The call for a detailed Programme of Action indicated the strength of political will for the implementation of the 1986 policy (Sarup, 1986; Government of India, 1986b). Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991, elections 226

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were called, and a minority Congress government, led by Narasimha Rao, was formed. So thorough had been the process of development of the 1986 policy and plans, and perhaps because the new Prime Minister had been involved in his former role as Minister of Human Resource Development, that the 1986 policy survived its review. Only a few amendments were made, designed to re-emphasize the need for improvements in school facilities and learning environments and to reduce social and economic inequalities (Government of India, 1992). External Financing From the early 1980s, and some years before the production of the 1986 national policy on education, a small number of foreign-funded projects, for example the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project (Ravi and Rao, 1994), and the Shiksha Karmi Project in Rajasthan (Mehti and Jain, 1994), designed to improve access and quality at primary education level, were initiated in various states. Following the Jomtien conference on EFA, more bilateral and multilateral funding agencies became involved in co-financing projects and programmes with central and state governments. The experience of the Andhra Pradesh and Shiksha Karmi Project would be drawn on in the design of subsequent programmes. These included, inter alia, the more extensive Lok Jumbish project in Rajasthan (Lok Jumbish, 1993; Ramachandran, 2003), the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of the 1990s launched across 42, mostly disadvantaged districts in seven states (Varghese, 1994), and the country-wide Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme of the 2000s (SSA, 2010). The gradual movement of programme decision-making from single states to a group of states to a country-wide programme was consistent with the more general movement of shared responsibility for education policy implementation between central government and individual states. Civil Society Pressure for reform from civil society groups also became a force to be reckoned with by government through the late 1990s and 2000s. While several states had had regulations for compulsory education on their statute books for several years, some from before independence, these regulations were not enforced. The movement to introduce “justiciable” legislation at the national level was led by various civil society groups, including intellectuals and facilitated by a handful of bureaucrats in the central ministry. There was resistance from inter alia, owners of private schools, who objected to the requirement that they reserve places for poor children, and from the “purists” who insisted that all key ingredients for quality education should be in place before the Bill was passed. Nonetheless, the Constitution 227

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was amended in 2002 to include the right to free and compulsory education until 14 years of age. The Right to Education Bill was enacted in 2009.

India: Drivers and Inhibitors of Policy Implementation The diversity of conditions under which elementary education is both provided and demanded in India renders a general story of the drivers and inhibitors of change almost impossible. States enjoy very different levels of provision in elementary education and very different experiences of its management (Govinda, 2006; Govinda and Varghese, 1993). Thirteen years after independence and the implementation of a range of education programmes, the educator J.P. Naik bemoaned slow progress. He attributed this to, inter alia, traditional resistance to girls’ education, the existence of “backward” groups such as scheduled castes and tribes and nomads, household poverty and the need for child labour, small and scattered habitations, forests and inaccessible areas, a high birth rate and explosion of the school-age population, a shortage of finance and the absence of a machinery to enforce compulsory attendance (Naik, 1966, p. 5). Others suggested that the promotion of mass education was resisted by the owners of property and capital who saw in it an undermining of the supply of cheap child labour (Kumar, 2005, p. 192). Implementation of the 1968 National Policy, covering elementary, secondary and tertiary education, was stymied in the early years by the growing unpopularity of the Congress party and government, and by the domination of the policy issues on the medium of instruction and admission to higher education. The subsequent war with Pakistan, a worsening economy, growing social problems and the state of emergency consumed the attention of the political leadership and distracted national attention from elementary education. Moreover, responsibilities for the implementation of central policies continued to lie exclusively with the respective states. Unlike in Ghana, while the centre could advise, guide and recommend, it could not direct implementation in individual states. No political party was committed to radical change in elementary education. Qualitative improvements were especially difficult to achieve in state systems where, if politicians were interested in elementary education at all, then that interest lay in the sanctioning and opening of new schools. In the 1980s the technical design of elementary education provided fresh emphasis. The Operation Blackboard scheme, with its technical requirements for two teachers, minimum levels of physical infrastructure, combined with a restructuring of the primary curriculum, gave an important fillip to increases in access and quality (Dyer, 2000). The SSA (education for all) programme launched in 2001 adopted a planning and implementation approach targeted on socially deprived groups, especially girls, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. It also attempted to make 228

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the curriculum more locally relevant with a focus on pedagogy and teacher training. It addressed access to schools through intensive exercises in school mapping and micro-planning, advocating and promoting community management of schools. The driver of “human resources” cannot be over-emphasized. Increasing the number of teachers in a school from just one to two makes a huge impact, not only on children but also on community perceptions. While the impact is marked, the human resource implication is challenging. Massively increased numbers of teachers trained in appropriate methods were required. Administrative drivers also played their part. Changes in the structure of education management at state and national levels facilitated a focus on elementary education and the flow of funds to it. Shifts in the unit of planning, progressively from State to District, and from District to Block, combined with increases in the powers over elementary education of the panchayat raj6 institutions changed the constellation of drivers for change at the local level (Govinda and Biswal, 2006; Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2010). The use of the mass media in the promotion of reform was very effective in some states. Underpinning these drivers and the general increase in political will and the increasing strength of civil society increased the levels of funding for elementary education (Little, 2010b).

Ghana and India Compared Similarities and differences between the experiences of Ghana and India may be drawn at different points in their respective histories. In both countries the prospect of political independence gave rise to ambitious plans for the expansion of educational opportunity – Ghana in 1951 and India in 1944 (prior to independence in 1957 and 1947, respectively). In both, legislative measures were enacted shortly after independence – Ghana in 1961 and India in 1950. In neither did single legislative measures alone guarantee education for all. Both had a succession of policies for the expansion and quality improvement of primary and elementary education, each of which would draw on earlier legislation. In recent years, the most important piece of legislation in Ghana was the new Constitution of 1992 which included the duty of government to provide “free, compulsory and universal basic education”; and in India the Constitution was amended in 2002 and the Right to Education Bill enacted in 2009. In both countries, we can observe policy tensions post-independence, between those who have promoted equal access to all stages of education through a single curriculum for all (designed to promote social mobility) and those who promote a differentiated curriculum and differentiated routes through education to the world of work (designed implicitly to reproduce social divisions). In both countries, it has been the middle classes (and in the case of India, landowners) who have resisted reforms that have the potential to promote social mobility. 229

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There does not appear to be a clear correlation between policy content and the nature of the political regime (military vs. democratic as in Ghana) or the ideological orientation of a democratic regime (left vs. right in both countries). In Ghana, different military regimes have been associated with curriculum diversification/tracking, while others are concerned with access and expansion of opportunity. More apparent in Ghana was the distinction between “populist” and “non-populist” regimes, whether military or democratic. Populist military and democratic regimes have been more inclined to drive policy in the direction of increased educational opportunities for the rural poor. The India case is more complex. There appears to be no consistent relationship between the nature of the national regime and policy content, though many would point to historical relationships between policy content and “left” versus “right” character of state-level regimes. In both countries, there have been periods when the process of policy reform was associated with strong political leadership from the very top. In the case of Ghana, this can be seen most clearly during the early 1980s and the military regime led by General Rawlings. In the case of India, it can be seen from the mid-1980s when Rajiv Gandhi assumed control. But the broader societal conditions underpinning leadership from the top were different. Rawlings was faced with a mammoth task of economic transformation in the wake of serious economic decline from the mid-1970s. Educational transformation and an increase in educational expenditure were part of this more general economic transformation. In the case of India, while the modernization of the economy was indeed a priority for Rajiv Gandhi, as it had been for his mother, his other pressing concerns at this time were religious revivalism and the regionalisms that threatened national cohesion. In many countries, economic crises have given rise to education reform. While educational expansion and quality are frequently viewed as a driver of economic growth, economic decline and the political and societal tensions that stem from that are often attributed to a reduction of education standards and a failure of the education system, rather than to broader systemic problems in the economy itself. The short-term solution of policy makers is to change education and make it more relevant to the “world of work.” We find examples of this policy rhetoric in both Ghana (1966, 1974, 1983) and India (1979, 1986). Both countries have faced major constraints in the translation of policy content into policy implementation. Both have needed to recruit and train more teachers, increase educational infrastructure and equipment, improve local-level management, reform curriculum content, devise plans that are sensitive to the educational and other conditions of different localities and increase financial resources for education. In the matter of finance, both countries have worked with external bi-lateral and multi-lateral partners, a process which began in both countries in the early 1980s, and continued through the 1990s and early 2000s. 230

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In contrast to Ghana, India demonstrates the powerful role played by civil society organizations in both education policy making and provision. In India they played a particularly powerful role in recent years in promoting the constitutional amendment of free and compulsory education in 2002 and the Right to Education Bill enacted in 2009. Other differences between Ghana and India not explored in this chapter may well have given rise to differences in policy change and implementation. These may include, inter alia, the relative size of the private sector of education, the degree of cultural diversity in states, regions and the countries as a whole, the particular histories of education in specific regions and states, and the degree of diversity in the media of instruction.

Notes 1 For examples of accounts of underlying drivers and interests, in various contexts, see Akyeampong et al., 2007; Govinda and Bandyopadhyay, 2007; Grindle, 2004; Kumar, 2005; Leftwich, 2006; Little, 2008, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c; Kingdon et al., 2014; 2 The chapter is based on CREATE research undertaken by the author (Little 2008, 2010a, 2010b) and by the CREATE teams in Ghana, led by Kwame Akyeampong, and in India by R. Govinda, and the consortium coordinated by Keith M. Lewin (Lewin, 2007, 2011; www.create-rpc.org). 3 www.hbs.edu. 4 With the exception of the period of the Emergency, 1975–77. 5 This was Ghana’s fourth military coup, and the second led by General Rawlings. 6 System of local self-government of villages in rural India.

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Little, A.W. (2010c): The Politics, Policies and Progress of Basic Education in Sri Lanka. Consortium for Research on Education Access, Transition and Equity (CREATE), Research Monograph No. 38. www.create-rpc.org/pdfdocuments/PTA38.pdf Little, A.W. (2021): “Education for All in India and Sri Lanka: The Drivers and Interests Shaping Egalitarian Reforms”, in Rose, P., Arnot, M., Jeffery, R., and Singal, N. (eds.), Reforming Education and Challenging Inequalities in Southern Contexts. London: Routledge. Little, A.W., and Lewin, K.M. (2011): “The Policies, Politics and Progress of Access to Basic Education”, Journal of Education Policy, 26, p. 4. Lok Jumbish (1993): Lok Jumbish – Learning Together. A Joint Assessment of Lok Jumbish: A Basic Education for All Programme in Rajasthan, on behalf of SIDA, and the Governments of India and Rajasthan. Mehti, S.N., and Jain, S. (1994): “The Shiksha Karmi Project in Rajasthan, India (SKP)”, in Little, A.W., Hoppers, W., and Gardner, R. (eds.), Beyond Jomtien: Implementing Primary Education for All. London: Macmillan. Naik, J.P. (1966): Elementary Education in India: The Unfinished Business. London: Asia Publishing House. National Education Forum (1999): Towards Sustaining an Effective National Education System. Accra: Ministry of Education. Pedley, D.J., and Taylor, D.C. (2009): “Politics and Policy in Education in Ghana”. Paper presented at the UKFIET Conference on Politics, Policies and Progress, September 13–15. Ramachandran, V. (2003): Lok Jumbish – Rajasthan: People’s Movement for Education for All. Case study commissioned by the World Bank. New Delhi. Ravi, Y., and Rao, S. (1994): “The Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project (APPEP)”, in Little, A.W., Hoppers, W., and Gardner, R. (eds.), Beyond Jomtien: Implementing Primary Education for All. London: Macmillan. Republic of Ghana (1992): Constitution of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. Accra. Sarup, A. (1986): “A Retrospective View of Formulating a New Education Policy”, Bulletin of the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific, 27, pp. 121–134. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (2010): Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, A Programme for Universal Elementary Education. Framework for Implementation. www.aicte-india.org/ reports/overview/Sarva-Shiksha-Abhiyan, accessed 21 January 2021. Varghese, N.V. (1994): “DPEP: Logic and Logistics”, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, VIII(4). World Bank (1989): Basic Education for Self-Employment and Rural Development in Ghana. Washington, DC: World Bank Population and Human Resource Department. World Bank (2004): Books, Buildings, and Learning Outcomes: An Impact Evaluation of World Bank Support to Education in Ghana. Washington, DC: World Bank, Operations Evaluation Department (OED).

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14 PRIVATIZATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION The Caste and Politics Nexus in State Policies1 A. Mathew

Introduction In a majority of the Indian states, privatization and commercialization in HE happened in the post-reform (1991) phase. The southern states like Andhra Pradesh (AP), Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (TN) and the western state of Maharashtra presaged and setthe tone for privatization and commercialization of HE, especially in technical education (TE) and professional education (PE) under unaided private managements. This trend also reflected in the over-centralization of powers of the university, undermining its autonomy by the government bureaucracy, under pressure from, and often in collusion with, the unaided private managements. Kerala, however, by conscious ideological intent, managed to keep away from this trend. There is great merit in unpacking the nexus between education and politics, with education empires of vested interests often influencing policy, including resistance against rules and norms of regulatory bodies. On the basis of state-specific studies, this chapter presents some salient facets of the trajectories of the HE policy, especially the caste-politics-education nexus and its grip driving privatization and commercialization of higher education.

Party and Caste Considerations Tilt Higher Education Policy in Andhra Pradesh Caste-based educational managements influencing HE policy in their favour in AP and the state government’s acceptance of it are not evident in policy discourses like assembly debates or reports of expert groups on specific aspects or sectors of HE. Instances as in the sanctioning of new colleges 234

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to fellow caste or regional groups or showing favourtocaste-based management of institutions had been a common practice. But it is often the discerning scholars or observers in the media who unravel the underlying connections between the interests of the socio-economically and politically powerful castes and communities and the policy trends in HE including shifts and changes (Upadhyay, 2014; Benbabaali, 2013). Traditionally, the Congress-TDP (Telugu Desam Party2) governments were known for the Reddy versus Kamma caste group patronage in sanction and management of educational enterprises from late 1970s till the time of YSR (Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, popularly known as YSR) till 2009. Certain castes dominated the bi-polar party government system in AP – the Congress by the Reddys and the TDP by the Kammas,3 Raos, Naidus etc.). In both cases, there was alignment with other castes, often dictated by similarity of interests (Shatrugna, 1993; Upadhyay, 2014). Shatrugna recalls how commercialization and privatization began from 1970s with Chenna Reddy of the Congress, as the CM, sanctioning Junior Colleges to his fellow caste men that began the coaching regimes and which became an industry (Shatrugna, 1993). The TDP turned its tenure from1982 to 1988, to herald the Kamma hegemony (socio-political and educational) by sanctioning a large number of HEIs to their fellow castes. During TDP’s second stint in power, when Chandrababu Naidu succeeded N.T. Rama Rao as the Chief Minister in January 1995, there were 35 Engineering, 26 Pharmacy, 57 MBA and 44 MCA (Master of Computer Applications) colleges. At the end of his second term in April  2004, AP had 236 Engineering, 207 MBA, 227 MCA Colleges, representing a three- to six-fold jump in the number of institutions with a similar increase in the intake capacity. The overwhelming majority of these institutions were private unaided, belonging to the Kamma caste (Bloom and Cheong, 2010, p. 21; Benbabaali, 2013). The TDP’s rule under Chandrababu Naidu, 1996–2004, marks a phase when AP was sought to be transformed into an international destination for PE with Hyderabad, the capital of the state, as the IT hub. This was facilitated with deregulation to enable setting up of professional educational institutions by private agencies or individuals, without any barriers from the government. It resulted in a six-fold increase, as mentioned earlier, owned mainly by the Kamma businessmen. This period also marks the acceleration of the focus on engineering colleges for turning out software engineers. This trend, that is “software engineers-sure IT jobs in MNCs and migration to US,” became a pervasive social aspiration in AP in the years to come (Benbabaali, 2013). It also marks the Kamma’s social hegemony including its legacy of positioning of the “software engineers in every Andhra household” as a pervasive social aspiration. In order to widen the base of those aspiring to climb the social hierarchy especially through the IT sector, the Congress government under Y.S. 235

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Rajasekhara Reddy introduced the Fee Reimbursement Scheme (FRS) in 2009. Under the FRS, fees of students from poor socio-economic backgrounds were met by the government. The social gains of the FRS were that it covered nearly 80  percent of the students in professional colleges who otherwise would have remained deprived of PE (Kiran, 2015). In essence, it was meant to dent the Kamma hegemony. But in the post-YSR era (after 2009), envisioned to dent the Kamma social hegemony, the FRS lost focus and led to mushrooming of substandard engineering colleges with an eye only on fee reimbursement from the government. Due to the crisis in TE on account of international economic crisis and freeze in IT sector recruitment, and consequently engineering colleges facing closure, the FRS itself became uncertain and lost the anti-Kamma hegemony edge (Chary and Chary, 2014, pp.  6–7; Gosavi, 2013, p.  76; Upadhyay, 2014, p. 14). After the AP state’s bifurcation in 2014 into Telangana and Seemandhra (with the remaining AP districts) states, the Telangana CM dubbed the FRS as a big scandal, and introduced another scheme, viz. the Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana (FAST) (The New Indian Express, January 5, 2017). The FRS has been a closed chapter since mid-2014 in Telangana (First Post, August 10, 2014), but perhaps the aspirations for social pre-eminence through the “software engineers-IT jobs and migration to US” route has not disappeared, including in Seemandhra, irrespective of its infeasibility. The caste-based educational complexes dotting AP, district-wise and cutting across the entire state, spanning from nursery to university levels and all sectors of education, bear witness to caste-politics nexus in tilting HE education policy in AP. The entry of business and monetary interests in the educational enterprises, often backed by political power due to same party of caste groups in power, lent certain virulence in the social hegemonic scenario. But that is how social hegemony refigures in today’s context in and through education and higher education.

Wavering Higher Education Policy in Karnataka The Karnataka HE policy evolution presents many paradoxes (Mathew, 2016a, 2020). The government and its various agencies would set up commissions and committees and expert groups on HE. But, there would be little evidence of details of implementation or rejection of the recommendations. In the reports of commissions and committees on HE, and five-year plan documents, there would be little reflection of government response to such recommendations. But at the same time, there would be Gazette notifications and government orders (GOs) on actions, sometimes completely contrary to, and sometimes, going far ahead of, the commission/committee suggestions. The various issues raised by the commissions and committees from 1980 when the Karnataka University Review Commission (KURC) 236

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was set up, to the time of Karnataka Knowledge Commission’s (KKC’s) Report on Higher Education Vision 2020 (2012), have been examined below, keeping the Gazette notifications and GOs as reference points, to understand the government response and policy trajectory. Aims and Objectives of HE: The Task Force on Higher Education (GoK, 2004) was the first expert group that examined the aims and objectives of HE. The aims and objectives, the Task Force stressed, should be guided by its social context; that it must shift from its elitist to the mass character with spatial, social and gender equity, with focus on inclusion and academic inputs necessary for first-generation learners. It called for an education that would promote values, especially those enshrined in the Indian Constitution, to counter the emergence of negative forces of wasteful consumerism and such social realities (GoK, 2004, pp. 22–23). Expansion of HE: The government was weighed down by the mounting burden of grant-in-aid (GIA) demands on the fragile state funds for HE. It was also faced with the declining funding support from the University Grants Commission (UGC). Hence, beginning from the 1980s, the state government was not in favour of expansion of HE system and was keen only on its consolidation. Neither the KURC (1980) nor the Strategy Paper (GoK, 2002) or the Task Force (2004) was in favour of large-scale expansion. But at the turn of this century, an increase of 35 per cent in the HE gross enrolment ratio began to be perceived as the only way to achieve the Vision 2020 (GoK, 2012, p. 10). The explicit connect between the expert groups’ recommendations and the government response was the establishment of 12 state universities in less than ten years during 2003–11, and 19 unaided private universities in just two years, 2012–13. Governance of Universities: The unique selling point of Karnataka’s HE is the opposition of the expert groups to obstacles affecting governance. Deploring heavy bureaucratization, both KURC (1980) and the Task Force (2004) advocated for “giving maximum autonomy to the vice-chancellors and heads of academic institutions across academic and administrative matters” (GoK, 2004, p. 6). The KKC’s Mission Group on Higher Education said that “governance is the core of all major reforms towards progressive change in higher education system.” It pointed to the major issues regarding governance such as lack of autonomy in the real sense, over-centralization, less accountability, increased political intervention and lack of financial support (GoK, 2012, pp. 35–37). Autonomy to Colleges: The KURC (1980) felt the proposal for college autonomy, which made much progress in other states, deserves “serious consideration from the universities in Karnataka” (KURC, 1980, pp. 55–56). That nothing happened for another 25–30 years became evident when the Strategy Paper (GoK, 2002, pp.  59–60), the Task Force (2004) and the KKC’s Mission Group (2012) all insisted for autonomy of colleges (GoK, 2004, pp. 54–55, 2012, p. 36). 237

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When some colleges did attempt to secure autonomy by directly applying to UGC, around 2002, the state government’s response was instructive: “Hence the Principals of all the Government Colleges are hereby informed that here afterwards not to submit any applications directly either to UGC or University, without obtaining prior permission from Commissionarate” (GoK, 2006, Part-I: 428). Exit from Grants-in-Aid Burden: The perennial problem in Karnataka was the GIA. The government was determined to exit from its burden and regime. Although only 31 per cent were aided colleges, they served 61 per cent of the students in general higher education, and therefore, the KURC 1980 was strongly in its favour. But progressively, through five GOs between 1981 and 2003, it was clarified that a college will become eligible for GIA only when it is five years old, rather than three years as before; that private colleges started after the 1985–86 academic year would be grantless for seven years; and all private institutes and courses started after June 17, 1987, would be permanently ineligible for GIA (GoK, 2006, Part-1). The aided colleges’ protests and litigations against such orders seemed to have forced the government against reneging from its GIA obligations. Restructuring and Revision of Curriculum and Contents: Being very critical of the content and curriculum as well as the examination system, the KURC (1980) recommended two types of courses at the undergraduate (UG) level: one, to provide liberal education with some vocational training, and the other, as a preparation for post-graduate (PG) education. The Task Force (2004) felt that the UG level, which is a terminal stage for most students, should impart both knowledge and skills required in working life (GoK, 2004, pp.  25–26). It is disheartening to see no gazette notification on curriculum restructuring when such powerful pleas were being made to connect education with life and employability-oriented skills. Private Aided and Un-aided Colleges: The KURC, which extensively surveyed the private institutions, found that about 20 per cent of such colleges were: established and carefully nurtured by persons and social groups with deep and abiding interests in higher education. . . . But . . . in the majority of cases . . .started by persons, with little interest in or knowledge about higher education, . . . (who were) attracted to it mainly by the generous grants-in-aid extended, the patronage they could exercise .  .  . and the wider social and political prominence they could gain. . . . Indeed, not insignificant number of colleges – particularly professional colleges – have been sponsored in the State by unscrupulous persons interested only in making money by exploiting the system of ‘capitation fees’ and turning higher education into another arena for black marketing. (KURC, 1980, pp. 10–11)

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On the whole, Karnataka’s approach towards the unaided educational institutions from 1980s to 2010 is marked initially by a transition from a strong distrust to a cognizance of their overwhelming presence. This later gave way to a pronounced preference for their free run, subject to their conforming to government norms on reservations in admissions and fee structure.

The Kerala Duel to Stem Privatization and Commercialization of Higher Education The trends in Kerala’s HE policy are enveloped in a quest, on the part of the Left Front government in power intermittently through the decades, to balance equity and inclusion in the provision and spread of HE. This was against the backdrop of perennial pressure by private educational managements to tilt the government policy that would be favourable for their free run. With the neighbouring states of AP, Karnataka and TN, there was no serious tension and conflict in policy about maintaining such a balance. Kerala, on the other hand, until around the year 2000, consistently wrestled and succeeded to a large extent, to stem privatization and commercialization of HE and, in sanctioning HEIs in self-financing (SF) mode (Mathew, 2016b). Yet another facet in the policy trajectory has been the apparent blurring of traditional policy proclivity of the left democratic frong (LDF). While the LDF was steadfast on its commitment to equity and was against privatization and commercialization of HE, the UDF was equally determined in its support of the private managements’ unchallenged sway in the HE system. The flight of Kerala students to other states and countries for HE and also the resource drain, on account of the fees foregone, especially in the post-reform (1991)4 era, became an emotive issue to press for opening of HEIs in the SF mode within its shores. The LDF could hardly oppose this. HEI expansion largely in SF mode would imply LDF’s giving in to the pressure of the UDF, the traditional champion of private managements. Being within the expansion mode, the LDF ensured regulation in admissions and non-exploitative fee structure. This was a conscious, tactical strategy with an enormous electoral edge without ideological compromise of equity and inclusion. Behind these post-reform trends in the HE policy trajectory lies a long tradition of a clearly emerging policy pattern since 1956, with the LDF and UDF formations wrestling about the all-powerful private HEI managements: the UDF would seek to dictate the state policy in favour of private HEI managements, and the LDF would relentlessly try to hold them at bay so as not to relent on the socially progressive equity thrust in education. The peculiar nature of HE system in Kerala was the proportion of governmentaided colleges to government colleges – 132:42, that is 4:1 in 1982–83 – an

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indication of the pressure exercised by private managements5 (State Planning Board, 1984, p. 10; Raj, 2010, p. 117; Nair, 2011, p. 32). The High-level Committee on Education and Employment (HLCEE) 1984 and the Kerala University Commission (KUC) 1985 strongly advocated strict norms for opening of new colleges. They found that the government (UDF) yielded to the pressure of private educational managements to sanction new colleges without any reference to the educational requirements. The expert groups also dwelt on various other core educational issues like shift to Semester system, establishment of Open University and reforms in curriculum and evaluation at HE level (State Planning Board, 1984, pp. 8–10; KUC, 1985, p. 124). From the government records, there is no evidence of the government’s positive response to implement the recommendations. The policy-oriented initiatives undertaken by the Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) during its first tenure, 2007–11, included the (i) Committee to formulate State policy on HE – the Ananthamurthy Committee; (ii) mapping the facilities on HE; (iii) restructuring UG education; (iv) credit and semester system; (v) norms for starting new universities; (vi) Cluster of Colleges Scheme6 and (vii) the Higher Education Scholarship Fund. On all except one of the above initiatives, the Council succeeded in bringing out the report of the expert groups it commissioned with the government implementing its recommendations – a very rare and unparalleled instance of synergy in policy recommendations and its implementation by the LDF government. A significant event with regard to state policy on HE during KSHEC’s Second Term (2011–16) was the Global Education Meet (GEM) 2016 organized by the HE Department and the KSHEC. Its Kovalam Declaration on “Making Kerala a Hub of International Education,” urged both central and state governments to help establish (i) an Academic City Authority (ACA) and (ii) International Higher Academic Zones (IHAZs) in metropolitan cities. The idea of ACAs and IHAZs implied that these could be open to many foreign universities that could establish their educational institutions, offer their educational programmes for a rate of fees left to their discretion. This agenda came under serious criticism among LDF supporters and in the media, alleging that it would neither serve the purpose of quality improvement nor was it in keeping with the inclusion ethos of Kerala that it assiduously built up even at the HE level. The GEM and the Kovalam Declaration 2016 under the UDF dispensation came and went without in any way rubbing on the HE system. It demonstrated Kerala’s resolve, as espoused and pursued by the LDF, against commercialization and privatization of HE and the success of equity and inclusion as the centrepiece of Kerala’s HE policy thrust.

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Education-Politics Nexus in Maharashtra’s Higher Education Policy The trajectory of higher education policy in Maharashtra may be defined as shaped by (i) a very large number of educational philanthropies that heralded a decisive beginning from the early 20th century, being eventually devoured by the commercialization wave from the 1980s onwards; (ii) the interference in the governance of university and the undermining of its autonomy due to educational empires owned by political heavy weights (Singh, 1993); and (iii) the undermining of the idea of university by unaided educational managements, who interfered with its governance and steadfastly resisted the University’s efforts to curb their malpractices. This section surveys and portrays the interplay of these three facets, as above, in Maharashtra’s HE policy scenario across four decades – from the time of the Pune University Act, 1974, to the Maharashtra Public University Act, 2016. Non-educational considerations, and pressures exerted by the Chief Ministers (CMs), Education Ministers (EMs) and other political leaders, with an eye on electoral gains, determined the location of educational institutions until the 1980s. This further strengthened the political clout over the establishment of universities. With respect to the governance and management of the university and higher education system in Maharashtra, there was a consistent and increasing trend, over the decades, of bringing it under the government control, as a result of collusion between private managements and the government. This manifested among other things, in the (i) persistent efforts to amend the Pune University Act of 1974 to erode the university’s autonomy and increase government control: this was done by filling up policy bodies with government nominees and representatives of unaided private managements while reducing representatives of teachers and students; (ii) protection of private enterprises’ interests in HEIs which politicians in the government owned in most cases and (iii) bureaucracy’s resistance to implement the Pay Commission recommendations for revision of pay scales to university and college teachers, even after four to five years (Deshpande, 2000, pp. 3291–392). For example, the Amendment, proposed in 1977, of Section  77 of the Pune University Act stated that Without the prior approval of the state government,. . . the University shall not (a) create any posts of officers, teachers or other employees; (b) revise the pay, allowances, post-retirement benefits .  .  . of its officers, teachers and other employees; (c) grant any special pay, allowance, or other extra remuneration; . . . (d) divert any earmarked funds for any other purposes; (e) incur any expenditure on any development work. . . the proposed amendment to Section 77

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destroys, in half a printed page, the entire autonomy of the Universities and their various bodies. (Economic and Political Weekly [EPW], 1977) Perceptive scholars like Dastane observed that the mushrooming of colleges, especially in mofussil areas, is a mute witness to this happening. Along with the directorship of a sugar factory . . . running a few colleges from the taluka or district became a singular indicator of power and prestige. That is how power at the grass-roots level was generated, nursed and mobilized. Dastane questioned why the need for a new college could not be assessed objectively before it was accorded affiliation (1993, pp. 1195–1196). The concerns expressed over the encroachment on university autonomy well up to and even after 2000, and government control through persistent amendments and ordinances on the Pune University Act, 1974 and Maharashtra University Act 1994 brought into sharp focus the urgent need for safeguards in the revisions of the university acts (Dastane, 1993; Deshpande, 1984a, 1984b, 1991, 1993; EPW, 1977, 1984). The Maharashtra Public University Act 2016 was the result of a series of committees between 2009 and 2012, to revamp the HE system and curb the menace of its commercialization. However, the Maharashtra Higher Education Authority (MAHED), envisaged to be managed by academicians, scientists, technocrats, and not by government nominees or representatives of unaided private education managements (GoM, 2017, pp. 44–45), has not seen the light of the day. This is perhaps a reflection of the clout of the education-politics nexus in Maharashtra. But the conscience that underlies in setting up of different committees and their proposals to cleanse the HE system from the menace of commercialization seems to be pricking somewhat in the post-2016 contexts, as seen in the Fee Fixation Committee for every undergraduate and postgraduate course and also in the Regulatory Authority7 as the watchdog to oversee the admissions and fee structure in respect of different courses.

Privatization and Commercialization of HE in Tamil Nadu Privatization and commercialization of education and higher education would generally be inimical to social, spatial and gender equity. But, in Tamil Nadu’s context, these two agendas cohabited without any tension. This was due to competitive politics of the two Dravidian political parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)8 and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).9 The DMK viewed education as an 242

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investment in its future generation, and its government committed increased allocation for HE in the public sector. This was besides all the measures to ensure social justice agenda, as an ideological commitment, by ensuring access and affordability in HE to the socio-economically disadvantaged sections. Yet, the same party government was too ready to discard its ideology and compete with the AIADMK in sanctioning SF HEIs in general and TE, given its socio-political influence and electoral returns. Similarly, the AIADMK, which valued higher education for building manpower infrastructure and was prepared to sanction unaided private HEIs, both general and TE and PE since the 1980s, was quick, from 2012, to give up its pro-private sector disposition and launch on sanctioning of government colleges. This was to outsmart its archrival, the DMK, in the competitive politics of the HE policy. The Tamil Nadu HE policy thus is an arena of competitive politics in privatization and commercialization without forsaking the social justice agenda. The emergence of this policy trajectory is an interesting account as seen below. When the DMK, a social justice and public sector proponent, succeeded the AIADMK in 1988, its government came down heavily on the unaided engineering, arts and science colleges that were indulging in the capitation fee menace and compromising the quality of education. It declared that no unaided colleges would be sanctioned in future and all their irregularities would be investigated and punished (GoTN, 1993, p. 130). But, once profit motive invaded the educational scene, it was not so easy to be done away with. Political patronage in sanctioning of unaided colleges had its returns, both electoral and monetary, and competitive politics overtook ideological commitment. The social reservation and the multitude of scholarships, fee concessions, and monetary assistance were assiduously promoted all through10; social justice agenda was a pillar of political and electoral realism, failure in which could imperil the return of the government, whether DMK or AIADMK. Thus, when the DMK returned to power in 1996, it turned the trend and promoted SF Engineering Colleges, taking it from 84.4 to 91 per cent in the total when it left in 2000–01 (GoTN, 2008, p. 40). By the time AIADMK came to power in 2012, TE was already in crisis. But, shedding its proprivatization inclination, and in spite of the12th Five Year Plan’s state retreat in favour of private engagement in HE, the AIADMK went on a sanction spree of sanctioning government colleges and appointment of its teachers in government colleges driven by competitive politics (GoTN, 2015, pp. 19–23). In sum, Tamil Nadu,  which has a history of communal reservation in HE dating back to the 1920s,11 still continues with the same tradition, even surpassing every other state, with 69 per cent of seats in HEIs reserved for SCs, STs, BCs and MBCs (Srinivasan, 2019). In the beginning, that is early 1970s, it was part of DMK’s ideological commitment, which manifested in de-eliticization and ruralization, ensuring affordability. The affordability 243

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and inclusion bent in HE was like a social contract in Tamil Nadu’s governance even during the Congress government’s rule till 1967. Later it became an ideological commitment for the DMK and the AIADMK. But this social justice agenda came to be accommodated without detriment to the privatization and commercialization of HEIs. Given that political considerations and electoral realism determine competitive politics, the ideology of social justice of the Dravidian parties went without any conflict with the privatization and commercialization of HE.

Conclusion The trajectory of the HE policy in the southern states and Maharashtra presents a nexus between education and politics. In these states, the unaided educational managements, often owned by politicians and wealthy caste groups, emerged as major forces, influencing policies regarding university quality norms such that these would not affect their interests. Within this overall policy milieu, what are instructive are the state-level variations in the caste-communal make-up of the educational empires and the way they influenced the HE policy. It was a straightforward caste group-political nexus tilting HE policy in AP, vying for social hegemony between the Reddy and Kamma caste-based party governments. A  state known for its caste-based educational philanthropies from 19th to mid-20th centuries, aimed at providing educational opportunities for fellow caste brethren, caste-politics nexus in HE, from around 1970s, seems to have made equity least important. In Karnataka, the HE policy often meant subordination of university autonomy to government control and government’s bid to exit from the GIA obligation, despite the stiff opposition of the different expert groups through 1980s and up to 2012. But Karnataka looks to be managing its privatization and commercialization, that is the influence of caste-based educational enterprises with some checks, and safeguarding equity and affordability in HE. In Maharashtra, the same educational philanthropies that were known for their intense zeal for social reform and free education to the Dalits, the rural and urban poor from 1880s to the 1960s, later became the powerful educational networks and empires. Owned by the Maratha caste political heavyweights, these educational empires tilted HE policy to resist the university efforts to enforce norms of quality in admissions, fees, teacher quality etc. Kerala alone managed its HE with regional and social equity in its spread and also in holding at bay the caste-religion-based educational managements’ pressure for their free-run in the privatization and commercialization of HE. The major marker of HE policy in southern states and Maharashtra is the emergence of caste-politics nexus behind privatization and commercialization, with a brand of social justice thrown in, to make it less virulent.

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Notes 1 On the basis of a study by the author  (sponsored by the Indian Council for Social Science Research) on State Policies on Higher Education: Policy Evolution on Critical Aspects. The study conducted between 2017 and 2020, covered four southern states of India and the western state of Maharashtra and includes five reports: (1) Party and Caste Considerations Tilt Higher Education Policy in Andhra Pradesh; (2) Policy Evolution in Karnataka Higher Education: Wavering Government Response to Expert Groups’ Recommendations; (3) Policy Discourses on Higher Education in Kerala: Duel for Equity and Less Privatization; (4) Policy Trends in Tamil Nadu Higher Education: Competitive Politics in Approaches to Expansion, Vision, Focus and Affordability and (5) Evolution of Higher Education Policy in Maharashtra: Education-Politics Nexus Diluting University Authority. On the basis of these studies, a number of articles have been published earlier (see References list at the end). This chapter consolidates the findings on all the five states. 2 The Telugu Desam Party was born as a reaction and opposition to the Congress’ control from Delhi. The TDP came into existence on the appeal of restoring the Telugu pride that was seen to be trampled upon by a distant control. The Congress was perceived to be foisting the minority Reddy caste rule. The TDP, under the leadership of its founder, N.T. Rama Rao, the famous Telugu movie star, campaigned and swept the Assembly polls in 1982 on the promise of restoring the Telugu pride. The TDP’s win in the 1982 Assembly elections signalled the emergence of the Kamma’s dominance in Andhra’s socio-political scenario. 3 The names Reddy, Rao and Naidu are used as last names representing people belonging to respective caste groups in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Raos and Naidus are sub-sects of a larger caste group – Kamma. The Reddys constitute around 6.5 per cent of the state’s population. They own large tracts of land and wield significant economic and social power. Years of ruling their own fiefdoms make them the most powerful caste in AP (from web-based sources). The Kammas as regarded as the richest group in AP, with socio-economic and political prominence in the states of AP and Telangana. 4 The Reforms in 1991 heralded globalization, liberalization and privatization in the economy. In HE, it led to the state to withdraw the subsidies for HE in the public sector as unwarranted and encourage HEIs to mobilize internal resources through raising fees etc., as alternative sources of funding HE. In the private HE sector, with the tacit central approval, the post-reform policy milieu prompted the state governments to promote private engagement in HE on self-financing mode on a massive scale. 5 Trend data shows that government colleges increased during LDF’s and aided colleges during UDF’s rule. The few years of UDF between 1980 and 1987 witnessed increase in private colleges from 104 to 132. This was also the case earlier with the entry and pressure of community-based organizations such as the NSS (Nair Service Society), Ezhavas (SNDP – Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam), Christians and Muslims, for having their own colleges in the 1960s whenever the UDF government came into power. 6 UGC has mooted the concept of Cluster of Colleges Scheme as an arrangement for mutual sharing of resources – human and physical, among neighbouring colleges, with a view to optimize utilization of the available facilities for enhancing enrolment and quality of education. The scheme would enable the partnering colleges in the cluster to progressively share existing infrastructure and manpower and create new common facilities. Accordingly, three Clusters, viz. Thiruvananthapuram,

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Ernakulam and Kozhikode, are functioning from 2009 onwards. See http://kshec. kerala.gov.in/index.php/activities/ongoing/cluster-of-colleges. 7 The Fee Fixation Committee and Regulatory Authority came in the wake of Supreme Court verdicts in 2005, accepted across India, to regulate the admissions and fee structure in technical and medical education institutions. The change in 2016 Act stipulated a Fee Fixation Committee in respect of every UG and PG course, and the Regulatory Authority became powerful to penalize erring educational institutions and order refund of excess fee charged from students. 8 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Dravidian Progressive Federation), a political party, was founded by C.N. Annadurai in 1949. It was a breakaway faction of the Dravidar Kazhagam (also known as the Justice Party until 1944), led by E.V. Ramasamy (popularly known as Periyar). The DMK, as its name represents, adhered to the socio-democratic and social justice principles, as espoused and advocated by Annadurai and Ramasamy. M. Karunanidhi became DMK President in 1972 and remained so till his death in 2018. He was a champion of social equality and launched several schemes aimed at protection of women and children, the marginalized and the poor. The principle of social equality in social sphere was forged as a political strategy and transformed into social justice, and became a powerful political slogan and an instrument of governance. 9 The AIADMK party was founded by M.G. Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR) in 1980. There has been no difference in the social base of both DMK and AIADMK. Both parties swore by following the principles and values espoused by the founder of the DMK, C.N. Annadurai. It was the difference in the leadership style that accounted for the branching of AIADMK. Both DMK and AIADMK became arch rivals, competing with one another by discarding their original policy proclivities, just to outsmart the other for purely electoral gains. This trend became particularly virulent after J. Jayalalitha became the CM of Tamil Nadu in the early 1990s. 10 Besides communal reservation, affordability and inclusion were a legacy even in Congress rule in 1966, when scholarships and educational concessions were continued for BC, SC and ST  students and children of deceased government servants (Government of Madras, n.d., pp.  181–182). These proactive affordability schemes were consciously kept up and widened, during both the DMK and AIADMK governments through the decades, as seen in the Budget Debates and Policy Note Demand No.20 – Higher Education. This is an indispensable part of the social justice trademark of Tamil Nadu politics. 11 Srinivasan noted that in 1927, due to the efforts of E.V. Ramasamy, the social activist politician and father of the Dravidian movement, a communal government order was brought into effect by the Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency. The reservation gave 44 per cent to non-Brahmin Hindus, 8 per cent to scheduled castes and 16 per cent to Brahmins, Christians and Muslims mainly in government jobs and in admissions to educational institutions. During successive decades, the reservation for non-Brahmin castes was further disaggregated to include within its fold BCs, MBCs, SCs and STs besides Christians and Muslims. These social groups were also the social base of the political parties such that the reservation system became their decisive social justice agenda in the government.

References Benbabaali, D. (2013): “Dominant Caste and Territory in South India: The Case of the Kammas of Andhra Pradesh, presented in Program in South Asian Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, Nov 7, 2013”, Telangana

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Talkies, November 16. www.telanganatalkies.com/dominant-caste-and-territoryin-south-india-thecase-of-the-kammas-of-andhra-pradesh/ Bloom, A., and Cheong, J. (eds.) (2010): Governance of Technical Education in India: Key Issues, Principles, and Case Studies. Washington, DC: The World Bank. Chary, D.T., and Chary, N.V.N. (2014): “Inclusive Growth Strategy for Higher Education – A Case Study of Andhra Pradesh State”, in Quality Assurance Practices in Higher Education-Issues and Challenges. Chennai: Notion Press. Dastane, S.R. (1993): “Maharashtra University Act”, EPW, 28(23), June  5, pp. 1195–1196. Deshpande, J.V. (1984a): “Education: Turning Universities Into Government Undertakings” (By a Special Correspondent), EPW, 19(38), September  22, pp. 1655–1656. Deshpande, J.V. (1984b): “New Universities Bill in Maharashtra: Wrong Diagnosis and Wrong Medicine”, EPW, 19(40), October 6, pp. 1733–1735. Deshpande, J.V. (1991): “Tinkering With Higher Education”, EPW, 26(20), May 18, p. 1258. Deshpande, J.V. (1993): “Maharashtra: Universities Bill: A Backward Step”, EPW, 28(11), March 13, pp. 436–437. Deshpande, J.V. (2000): “Teacher Is the Last Priority”, EPW, 35(37), September 9–15, pp. 3291–3292. EPW (1977): “Universities as Government Departments”, EPW, 12(31), July  20, pp. 1204–1206. EPW (1984): “Education: Turning Universities into Government Undertakings” (By a Special Correspondent), EPW, 19(38), September 22, pp. 1655–1656. First Post (2014): “Reimbursement of Fees: Students Caught in Bitter Telangana vs Andhra Battle”, August 10. www.firstpost.com/india/reimbursment-of-feesstu dents-caught-in-bitter-telangana-vs-andhra-battle-1657635.html. Gosavi, V.P. (2013): “Threat of Vacant Seats in Engineering Colleges: Reasons and Remedies”, American International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 2(1), March–May, pp. 75–80. GoTN. Policy Note Demand No.20 – Higher Education, 2003–04, p. 130 and also for the years 2005; 2007, p. 23; 2008, p. 40; 2015, pp. 19–23; 2019, p. 52. GoTN (1993): Tamil Nadu State Administration Report 1992–93. Madras: Government of Tamil Nadu, p. 130. Government of Karnataka (2002): Shaping Education in Karnataka: Goals and Strategies. Bangalore: Government of Karnataka. Government of Karnataka (2004): Report of the Task Force on Higher Education: Shaping Education in Karnataka. Bangalore: Department of Higher Education. Government of Karnataka (2006): Gazette Notifications, Part-I (GOs from 24.1.1962 to 1.11.2004), and Part-II (GOs from 20.6.1970 to 20.3.2004). Bangalore: Government of Karnataka. Government of Maharashtra (1994): The Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, Maharashtra Act No. XXXV of 1994 (As modified upto August 8, 2003). Mumbai: Law and Judiciary Department. Government of Maharashtra (2017): Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016 (Mah. Act No. VI of 2017), Maharashtra Act No. VI OF 2017 (First published, after having received the assent of the Governor in the “Maharashtra Government Gazette,” on the 11th January 2017).

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Karnataka Knowledge Commission (2012): Report on Higher Education Vision 2020, Submitted by Mission Group on Higher Education. Bangalore: Government of Karnataka. Kerala University Commission (1985): Towards Excellence in Learning: Report of the Commission for University of Kerala. Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala University. Kiran, R. (2015): “How the Andhra Govt. Killed the Education System-1: Growth Years ‘Scholarship’ ”, MoneylifeNews & Views, September 21. www.moneylife.in/ article/how-the-andhra-government-killed-the-educationsystemndash1-growthyears/43428.html]. Mathew, A. (2016a): “Inclusion and Privatization Strands in. Karnataka Higher Education Policy”, The Indian Journal of Technical Education, 39(3), July– September, pp. 71–92. Mathew, A. (2016b): “Policy Discourses on Higher Education Development in Kerala: Duel for Equity and Less Privatization”, The Indian Journal of Technical Education, 39(4), October–December, pp. 53–78. Mathew, A. (2020): “Higher Education Policy Approach in Karnataka: Government’s Response Inconsonant With Its Own Commissions’ Recommendations”, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, XXXIV(3), pp. 213–236. Nair, K.V. (2011): Documentary History of Higher Education in Kerala. Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Higher Education Council. The New Indian Express (2017): “Fee Reimbursement Scheme Will Continue: CM”, January  5. www.newindianexpress.com/states/telangana/2017/jan/05/feereimbur sement-scheme-will-continue-cm-1556192.html. Raj, R. (2010): Politics of Educational Management: A Case Study of the Christian Minority in Kerala, PhD Thesis. Kottayam: Mahatma Gandhi University. Shatrugna, M. (1993): “Commercialization of Higher Education in Andhra Pradesh”, EPW, 28(39), September 25, pp. 2057–2058. Singh, A. (1993): “University Governance in Maharashtra”, EPW, 28(11), March 13, pp. 443–447. Srinivasan, R. (2019): “Who Gained from CET Abolition in Tamil Nadu?”, Frontline, November 8, Chennai. State Planning Board (1984): High Level Committee on Education and Employment, Vol. II: Report on Higher Education. Trivandrum: Government of Kerala. Universities in Karnataka (1980): Report of Review Commission. Bangalore. Upadhyay, C. (2014): “Engineering Mobility? The ‘IT Craze’, Transnational Migration, and the Commercialization of Education in Coastal Andhra”, ProGlo Working Paper No. 7. Bangalore: National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).

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15 RETHINKING THE UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE Insights From Educational Reform Experience in India Manasi Thapliyal Navani

Introduction The rapid expansion of the Indian higher education (HE) system over the last two decades has highlighted the concern for maintaining quality with expansion. The state’s role in expansion of the HE system emerges from the role attributed to HE in sustaining a knowledge economy or society that is prepared to adapt to the emergent shifts in valued skill sets and technology; the role played in preparing the citizenship for democracy and expectations from HE as a vehicle for social mobility through better employment opportunities. The experience of universities and colleges in India, however, clearly demonstrates that access to education by itself signifies little in the absence of quality education. Thus, the state commitment to expansion has been accompanied by a strong articulation of the need for academic and administrative reforms in the HE system. The academic reform strategy has involved adoption of a credit-based modular system, uniform academic calendar, examination reforms and an attempt at standardization of curricular frames across universities. The academic restructuring and establishing credit equivalence for a uniform and comparable academic system also entails a review of organizational and regulatory structures within the HE system. The national concern and interest in reform and change in HE mirrors the global trends in HE with a multitude of areas and sectors being “exposed to policy initiatives aimed not only at changing the surrounding structures, but also at the ways in which teaching and research are organized and function” (Stensaker et al., 2015, p. 1). The plan for academic reforms mooted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2008 prompted significant curricular and structural changes within universities across the country. DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-20 

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The emphasis was on introducing modularity and thus flexibility in the curriculum through the adoption of a Choice Based Credit System (CBCS), modifying the academic calendar from an annual to a semester mode and reforming the assessment structure and practices. The impact of the state policy and commitment to reform the academic system has been most acutely experienced by the large undergraduate segment of the Indian HE system. As it exists, the general or liberal undergraduate system is the primary domain of expansion of HE in India and thus a critical space for meeting the access imperative of the state. It is also the pivot of quality debate and policy thinking around academic and administrative reforms. A bulk of the enrolments at the first degree level is in colleges affiliated to state universities and is concentrated within a limited number of programmes in liberal arts, science and commerce.1 Despite the concentration of enrolments at the undergraduate level across select programmes, there is significant disparity and unevenness in the perceived quality and standards of education across the institutional landscape (GoI, 2012). The pursuit of quality and institutional changes across903 Universities, 39,050 Colleges and 10,011 Stand Alone Institutions (GoI, 2018) is embedded within a field of dilemmas and systemic challenges. A significant gap remains between the envisioning of the reform idea within the polity and regulatory apparatus and its implementation context across diverse institutional culture(s). Organizational and critical policy research in education highlights that policy thinking is not simply about new ideas as much about the practice, and needs to take into account dynamics of the change process within an institution (Cerych, 1984; Bauer and Henkel, 1997; Bleiklie, 2002). It is in this context that the chapter attempts to problematize the reform thinking in Indian HE by engaging with the policy and the institutional context of general undergraduate education in the country.

Reform Impetus: The National Policy Context The HE system in its present form has only a 200-year history on the Indian subcontinent and has been seen as essentially tied to the western-colonial educational imperatives of “modern” education in the colony (Chitnis, 1993). The first three universities, established in 1857 in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay Presidencies, modelled after the London University, began purely as examining and affiliating bodies. They undertook neither teaching nor research. Teaching was done in the 27 colleges affiliated to the three universities. The university laid down the syllabi and conducted its examinations. While there were only 20 universities and 500 colleges in the country and 0.21 million students at the time of independence (UGC Annual Report, 2009–10), the HE system has expanded exponentially with 903 Universities, 39,050 Colleges and 10,011 Stand Alone Institutions (GoI, 2018). 250

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Education, as a part of the Concurrent List2 subject since 1976, is under the legislative authority of both the central and the state governments but the responsibility of coordination and maintenance of standards in HE is with the Centre. The policy directive for change is therefore by design vested with the Centre within the federal structure. The major policy actors for conceptualizing reforms, particularly for the general undergraduate degree in liberal arts and science programmes, are the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD, now Ministry of Education) and the UGC. With institutional expansion and increase in enrolments over last two decades, the persisting challenge for engendering quality has further intensified. The UGC, tasked with maintenance and monitoring of standards (amongst fewer than 1,000 institutions to begin with), anchored the HE reform thinking during the 1960s and 1970s. Many of the reform ideas that proposed significant structural changes, such as examination reforms or calendar change, or the implementation of a model university act or curriculum, were primarily aimed at quality enhancement through maintenance of academic standards. But as Zachariah (1993) notes, many of these recommendations remained largely confined to the UGC committee reports. The impetus for academic reforms in contemporary times emanates from the challenge to reconcile expansion with efficiency. The expansion, a significant proportion of which has taken place in recent years through opening of private colleges and universities, is simultaneously accompanied by the rhetoric of “world-class universities” and an increasing concern with global HE rankings. The “quality and standards” discourse now has converged with that of “equitable access” and “quality assurance (QA).” This convergence is marked by two forces. We are on the one hand witness to a far greater centralization of control by the regulatory body and the state over public HEIs. On the other hand, the QA and equity discourse makes the HE policy or reform proposals contingent on the institutional renewal processes. The new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 (MHRD, 2020) refers to this as the transformative project in HE and reiterates the challenge of addressing low standards of undergraduate education alongside a structural re-haul of the HE system. The next section reviews the reform emphasis within undergraduate education over the last two decades.

Reforming Undergraduate Education Immediate Policy Context The Ambani-Birla Committee Report (GoI, 2000) and the report of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) (GoI, 2009a) have been two major policy frameworks that have come to bear upon the contemporary HE discourse in India. The former had its roots in the finance-driven reform 251

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measures of the state, the latter saw an explicit positioning of HE within the knowledge economy framework, closely aligning HE with improvement of economic competitiveness. The stated objective of the reform thinking evinced during this phase had been “to improve quality and relevance of programmes offered by the university” (Varghese, 2009, p. 24). The Ambani-Birla Committee Report (GoI, 2000), although not formally adopted as a policy direction, seemed to provide, in popular perception, a template for the de facto privatization in HE; and the policy directions offered by the NKC were also received with much scepticism. One finds a significant continuity in ideas and proposals for HE reforms espoused by the NKC in the recently published NEP 2020 (MHRD, 2020). It is therefore critical to engage with the thinking around relevance and purpose of undergraduate education that the NKC report articulated. The NKC Working Group on Undergraduate Education (chaired by Kiran Datar, GoI, 2006a) identified constraints, problems and challenges relating to curriculum, teaching, infrastructure, administration and access, and proposed means of raising standards and promoting excellence in undergraduate education. The report of the Working Group emphasized the need to recognize twin functions of undergraduate education: initiating students into life-long learning, and skill building. Most undergraduate colleges were observed to be stifled by excessive regulations and outmoded procedures, lack of resources and lack of incentives to change (GoI, 2006a, Preface, p. 1). The report noted that a major academic challenge was that most undergraduate colleges had internalized the “minimum levels of learning” approach, and colleges replicated a set pattern of curricula, broadly described as the Bachelor of Arts/Sciences/Commerce, with early specialization in some subjects. The challenge of negotiating the relevance and effectiveness of curricular processes were subject to structural constraints given that undergraduate space is hosted by colleges, positioned within an academic governance structure of an affiliating university. As the NKC noted, colleges are significantly dependent on university departments for academic direction in structuring of courses and syllabi. With a very large number of colleges affiliated to the same university, the syllabi are approved in a manner that the quality and comprehensiveness of the course curriculum rest on the ability or capacity of all colleges to implement the courses. Lack of relevance or academic choices for students was highlighted as a critical curricular issue. The conventional courses offered in a majority of undergraduate colleges were found to be based almost entirely on rigid discipline boundaries, excluding recent developments taking place within or at the interstices of disciplines. The relevance of the curricular content remained hostage to infrequent syllabus reviewand rigidity in the selection and combination of subjects of study. The Working Group articulated a trajectory for academic change responding to the diversity in institutional context and emergent areas of academic 252

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engagement (pp.  24–26). In its recommendations on the curriculum and examinations, teachers and training, the Report of the Working Group noted: The structure of undergraduate education in India is broadly similar all over the country, following the pattern of a three-year programme. . . . Affiliation procedures place constraints on innovation and creativity and many colleges are forced to work around the system to offer short-term courses, or skill based courses, without university certification. University procedures for changes in syllabi and curriculum and introduction of new courses are long and cumbersome, resulting in the status quo being maintained over a length of time. Rigid course structures prevent colleges from responding to diverse and emergent needs of the student community and society. (pp. 6–7) The report noted that the only possible way of redeeming the undergraduate (UG) education would require a shift in curriculum thinking, away from “syllabi and content centric,” and moving towards“generating alternative ways of Being and Seeing. . . (to) fill an important gap in the continuum of knowledge and skills” (p. 9). In the Working Group’s view, the reform direction for undergraduate education to fulfil its democratic mandate of providing meaningful access required a “panacea for homogeneity or closure or fixed positions”(p. 9). The National Knowledge Commission also acknowledged in its report the diversity in college types and the need to think through quality and accepting diversity, keeping in mind the needs of locale and clientele. Within this broad framework, the report articulated the possibility for “a 2-year community college type program with skill development emphasis, a 3-year Arts or Science program, or a 4-year professional degree program with mobility possible between programs.” The recommendations for curriculum reform for UG education articulated the need to simplify processes and procedures for timely and speedy curricula revision and introduction of new courses; greater autonomy for colleges to initiate curricula changes with checks and balances through supervision by expert and professional bodies; a greater degree of choice integrated into the experience of undergraduate education by making syllabi indicative and not prescriptive; augmenting the core disciplinary courses with a greater variety of elective courses aligned to work-related opportunities and the needs of the economy; and addition of skill-based courses. The other set of recommendations of the NKC to address the curricular gaps included introduction of semester system at the undergraduate level for keeping students engaged in academic activities throughout the year (for autonomous colleges). For affiliated colleges, it recommended that the 253

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University administered examination should be combined with continuous internal assessment; in designing question papers, emphasis should be laid on problem-solving and analysis rather than descriptive questions; inclusion of dissertation work and oral presentation for the honours level students. Flexibility in curriculum design and greater space for colleges in curriculum development process were emphasized by the NKC as it opposed a fixed three-year degree course structure. Almost around the same time as the recommendations of the NKC were formulated, other academic bodies like the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) (GoI, 2006b, p. 89) among others, in their attempt to bring graduate degrees in science at par with other professional streams, also proposed a four-year, flexible and modular Bachelor in Science programme. They recommended that the UG science programme should be re-branded and the regular three-year programme strengthened to enable the UG science graduates aspiring for a research career to directly enter a PhD programme. For others, such a programme could provide graduates with measurable value additions like interdisciplinary skills, niche skills required in industry, or rigorous training in science education, science communication etc. It was recommended that, to ensure the success and acceptability of such programmes, the course content must be planned in consultation with diverse expert groups, and implemented in institutions with a proven track record. Simultaneously, they recommended reform of the existing BSc and MSc courses (GoI, 2009a, p.  97, Chapter on more talented students in Mathematics and Science). Another Committee constituted under the Chair of the former UGC chairperson and scientist, Professor Yashpal, noted in the interim Report of the Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher education in India (GoI, 2009b, p. 4) that: urgency of reform in higher education system has arisen because the sector has hardly seen any major reform in last 40 years. The world around us has changed dramatically but our higher education continues to operate in the old policy frame. The report sought to reconstruct the basic idea of the university and argued for a major paradigm shift in the HE sector, claiming that this shift was unlikely with small incremental and unrelated changes in the system. The focus of reforms in HE, the report argued, has to consider issues of access, equity and social justice concomitantly with the need for fostering quality and excellence so as to develop a creative and innovative human resource base. The report emphasized that this would require the culture of the classroom and pedagogic methods to change drastically (pp. 5–7). The emphasis and methodology for the reform here were on further democratization of universities to “make them more equitable and inclusive places which would relate to the real life demands of the society”(p. 7). 254

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Identifying low pedagogic quality as the challenge of undergraduate education, it argued that although strategies to improve the methods of teaching, learning and examining are undoubtedly required.  .  . time and again, evidence has surfaced that such efforts have proved only temporarily beneficial. Similarly, attempts at restructuring the academic calendar, misconceptions of methods like semesterization, have had limited success. (p. 14) While the Yashpal Committee espoused a comprehensive idea of university, attempting to bring research and teaching closer, as much as bridging the divide between the two cultures of science and humanities, it offers a critical stance on “strategies” or methodologies identified for bringing the reforms in the system. Notwithstanding the policy discourse, one finds on the ground that the 16 new central universities inaugurated around this time get enshrined in their very acts the obligation to provide education in semester mode, within a credit-based academic framework. A choice about the academic practice, entrusted earlier with the Academic Council, or similar body of the University, is taken away as a new kind of ambiguity that marks the regulatory bureaucracy about their mandate and scope of work. The UGC and MHRD have continued to emphasize the need to make curriculum more relevant to labour markets, and skilling the students, translating this focus eventually into a National Skill Mission. The emphasis on global comparability and compatibility also outlined the need for a uniform academic system that allows for transportability of content, curriculum and student mobility across universities. A common academic calendar, creditbased modular academic framework for taught programmes and continued commitment to review curriculum thus became some of the salient features of the UGC Plan. This reform emphasis eventually translated into a UGC programme of action for academic and administrative reforms, based on the recommendations of the Gnanam Committee.3 The recommendations included adoption of semester system, internal and continuous evaluation and choice-based credit system across university and college programmes. The academic reforms articulated by the NKC and its entire approach were critiqued as an explicit “neoliberal” framework of reforms for HE in the country. Reforms in academic calendar, credit framework and decentralization of assessment were seen as modalities for paving way for the private actors, both the providers and consumers, in the HE landscape of the country. While most of these proposals were a reiteration of plans which had been implemented half-heartedly or implemented without much success at scale, across the three decades of being in circulation, they also marked a radical departure from values, beliefs and practices that were held on to 255

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closely and defended within universities with their implementation being subject to the micropolitics of the institutions.

Reform Experience and Emergent Issues Despite a decade of policy rhetoric on academic reforms, the central organizing principle of university undergraduate curricula across the country still remains “disciplinary.” A foundational critique of mainstream, disciplinecentred, undergraduate programmes have been that they are designed from the perspective and interest of a very small fraction of students who pursue postgraduate studies and research, and inadequately addresses the needs of majority of students for whom it is also a terminal degree. The vertically integrated curriculum framework of the UG programmes is primarily aligned to an academic trajectory offering discipline-based specialization. As the NKC subcommittee report emphasized in 2006 and the various drafts of education policy preceding the NEP 2020 (MHRD, 2020) reiterated, undergraduate programmes have lacked in appropriately equipping students with relevant skill sets or learning tools to adapt to world of work, characterized by differentiated and rapidly diversifying disciplinary specializations. The policy context has identified the alternative to the traditional disciplinary frame of organizing undergraduate education as the credittransfer/accumulation framework, that seemingly allows greater student agency in shaping their learning experience and a curricular flexibility to encourage innovation. These ideas have been mooted within a policy context where capacity of colleges and institutions offering UG programmes has systemically been curbed by UGC since 1992. Manoranjan Mohanty (2018, p. 21) points out, [S]ince 1992 the UGC framed guidelines for restructuring of undergraduate courses and insisted on their adoption by colleges. That brought about not only increasing centralisation of the educational system but enforcing curriculum that was consistent with the regime’s economic policy rather than being the outcome of the local consultation process. The contemporary phase of reform in UG education maps out against this backdrop of imposed constraints on institutional agency and curbing of curricular innovation. Choice-Based Credit System Betts and Smith (1998, pp.  1–2) point out that there has been an essential shift in HE curricular approach through the adoption of credit framework. The traditional HE system and curricular approach, they argue, had 256

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primarily been tutor-centred, premised on the acceptance of idea of university as an ivory tower, or an “elite club.” The conventional face-to-face and full-time HE was organized around strictly adhered to principles, and standards related to the pace at which students gained their degrees within a “normal” period of time (Betts and Smith, 1998, p. 2). In this context, the Credit-Modular system attempted to place upon the rigid, traditional HE culturean educational philosophy which stressed flexibility. In the UK context, as they note, the initiative for credit framework emanated from Polytechnics, which had a need to serve and respond to the educational needs/aspirations of the local community amidst an increased demand for “relevant” courses of a practical nature. The philosophical underpinning for the new curricular vision was embedded in the growing acceptance of “student-centred” and experiential learning discourse (Betts and Smith, 1998, p. 4). While the transition has entailed significant debate on long-cherished ideals of academic learning and institutional ethos (Trowler, 1998), the experience indicates that restructuring of curricula of the first degree, within credit-choice discourse, has put pressure on faculties of science and humanities to provide a professional or vocational face to their academic provision (Ensor, 2004, p. 355). As Ensor (2004, p. 355) argues, the movement towards modularization and the specification of learning outcomes often remains an unfinished project, with accommodations made in the new frame for older practices. The shift from disciplinary discourse to modular frames has been found to still retain the earlier emphasis on disciplinary training: The disciplinary discourse . . . has persisted through the restriction on student choice, the tying of modules through pre- and co-requisites and the emphasis on induction into vertical knowledge sequences. (Ensor, 2004, pp. 355–356) Although the credit exchange discourse aims to disaggregate curricula into modules that students can then fit together according to their own interests and needs, it fails to question the assumption that students at the first degree level are prepared to do so, or factor in the institutional scaffolds that would be required to enable and support students in the process. As a reform idea, within the Indian context, the credit system seems to have ended up enforcing ironically, a standardized curriculum, by prescribing an exact syllabus in the form of CBCS guidelines for undergraduate education. A significant difference exists in the approach and implications of providing guidelines for minimum standards and the expectations from a degree, as opposed to specifying what to teach to the universities. The National Knowledge Commission had called for the reform of existing universities to ensure frequent curricula revisions, introduction of the credit system, emphasizing internal assessment as critical to learning, 257

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encouraging research, and reforming governance of institutions. The credit system and the emphasis on modularity in curriculum planning have been found useful in the process of revisiting the curriculum of academic programmes and chart the linkages and connects between each component of the programme with that of the overall programme objective. The modularity in curriculum design, obtained through articulating each curriculum unit in terms of credit weight, as quantum of work required to be completed to successfully meet the requirements for the degree, has also been found to be more facilitative in breaking the entrenchment of disciplinary domains. It is facilitative of re-configuring programmes (completely/ partially) and revisiting them, apart from enabling student mobility and agency (through choice) in assembling a degree relevant for them. Curriculum planning and review is a complex process, which needs to be informed by the ground reality of the nature of teaching, preparedness and aspirations of students as well as faculty orientation and strengths. Framing of a syllabus in a bureaucratic organization, informed primarily by developments and configurations within a select disciplinary domain, is in principle against a real-time engaged understanding of university classrooms and cultures. For curriculum review to be an organic process, both the content and processes have to be owned by the academic community. Many within the academic community have noted the CBCS implementation as “selfcontradictory and destructive of academic and pedagogic innovation.” For credits to be transferable, two conditions are necessary and sufficient: each credit should represent roughly the same number of hours of study across universities and the qualitative outcome of that much of academic effort should be similar across universities. Since choice, by definition, precludes uniformity, why should the credits sought to be transferred from University A to University B, be based on the same course as is offered in University B? Nor does uniformity of the syllabus guarantee qualitatively similar outcomes. It should be left to universities to work out the equivalence of one another’s credits (Arun, 2015). The Four-Year Undergraduate Programme The NEP (MHRD, 2020) has brought attention back to the structure and length of degree programmes, in particular the undergraduate (UG) programmes. It states that the UG programmes will be of “3  year or 4-year duration with multiple exit options within this period, with appropriate certification” (p. 37, para 11.9). This proclamation has tremendous implications for the organization and nature of UG education, the largest segment of HE in India (All India Survey on HE in India, GoI, 2019). Since 79.8% of students are enrolled in UG programmes, this decision is therefore significant as it will impact and influence their experience of HE in the country.

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The NEP 2020 imagines undergraduate education through a three-tier structure, from a short-cycle certification, to an assemblage of credits leading up to a degree, to a further differentiation of those who would go on to complete and foster a purely academic trajectory, that is the four-year research and scholarly direction. As a policy prescription, it is evident that the ground narrative of past two decades as enunciated through the National Knowledge Commission’s report has informed the inclusion of this strategy as a policy norm for higher education institutions (HEIs). The idea of a four-year degree is thus not new or unprecedented. Universities like FLAME, Symbiosis, Shiv Nadar and Ambedkar University Delhi were already offering a kind of four-year liberal arts degree but it was University of Delhi (DU)’s Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) with multiple exit options launched in 2013 that gained attention on account of the politics that unfolded during its implementation. That decision was seen as an institutional experiment and was vehemently opposed by students, teachers and faculty association of DU alike. There were debates over implications of normalizing exit, the layers of inequity that were arguably camouflaged in the charity of “certification,” the lack of evidence that four year was “better” than the three year “honours” or even the sanctity of the variable of “time” as a factor in learning. The structure that the NEP now legitimizes had thus been given to us as preview through the DU’s FYUP. India of 2014 is perhaps very distinct from India of 2020, from the confidence and boldness with which the state intervenes and mediates in all walks of life, and yet no considerable progress can be seen in terms of material and infrastructural advancements in education. The challenges that the critics of FYUP pointed towards during 2013–14 remain the same. The debates on academic reforms and nature of undergraduate degree and equity were somehow scuttled, in view of the government support to the opposition of FYUP, which resulted in the rollback of the programme in June 2014. It has been six years since DU went through the chaos of FYUP rollback. The individuals and groups opposing DU’s FYUP had feared that the experiment would lead the way to becoming a policy norm, and the rollback perhaps signalled a pause, as we can see now. University autonomy had been compromised by the very visible MHRD intervention in university affairs during FYUP. And yet, it is the same dispensation that has legitimized the abandoned proposal today. As Manoranjan Mohanty (2018, pp. 19–20) argues, this current restructuring of the undergraduate programme seems one step ahead in the direction of the revaluation of the undergraduate degree. Like the poverty eradication programmes that gave temporary relief, or at best short-term gains to the below-poverty-line population,

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expansion of higher education provided a bloated sense of doing B.A. when the degree was actually getting devalued. (p. 19) The meaning and worth of the certification and diploma as part of a loosely coupled UG programme seem naturalized exit points for the most vulnerable and marginalized. In the context of FYUP, the DU teachers’ association had pointed towards this challenge and pressed the claim that an educational experiment which was not aligned to the existing educational policy was against the law of the land. The administration however had argued that the policy was not prescriptive, and university had the autonomy to explore new directions aligned with the future vision for HE in the country. The formative discourse that defined the University of Delhi’s enthusiasm to take a lead in projecting the change as an institutional innovation has finally taken root six years later. What have we, as an academic community, lost in the six years of DU being forced to abandon the FYUP experiment? The NEP 2020 has acknowledged the need to review the CBCS framework of UGC as it pursues the project of transforming the Indian HE. It is not very clear whether the lessons from the CBCS implementation experience have been assimilated within the policy framework. This reform was introduced by a fiat. The UGC’s emphasis on supplying a syllabus for over 80 undergraduate programmes clearly undermined the core philosophy of the Credit-Modular system. There seemed perhaps, at the policy level, a lack of understanding but much more significantly, an absence of recognition of the need to be prepared for the impact of adopting credit-based modularity on resource management, staffing, employment contracts, facilities’ management, student enrolment, guidance and academic support. It is not clear how the impact of transitioning to the newly restructured undergraduate degree system-wide has been accounted for.

Discussion India is gradually moving along the path of thinking about, if not HE for all, then HE for many. As greater percentage of eligible population completes school, the numbers aspiring for HE are likely to increase. The infrastructure, however, is not likely to increase or augment in the same proportion. It makes sense from the political perspective to anticipate the discontent with public machinery if affordable HE is going to remain outside the reach of masses. The decoupling of the undergraduate degree into three trajectories, as proposed by the NEP 2020, which may very likely end up as being its dismantling, can achieve a lot on that front for the state. What would a certificate of doing six-seven foundation-level courses in Bachelor of Arts programme signify for an employer? While recognizing the time and effort 260

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spent at an academic institution, the signalling effect of such a certificate is likely to remain ambiguous and indeed irrelevant, unless qualification frameworks are juxtaposed against graduate attributes and outcomes, and these are indeed translated into something concrete in practice. This is exactly what the UGC has been working on for the last three years. On paper, a lot will happen to indicate a transformation in HE in the country. The changes envisaged through NEP 2020 are examples of a centrally conceptualised and induced changes that will alter the HE institutional landscape and, as research on policy implementation shows (Cerych and Sabatier, 1986), may be successfully implemented as well. The key concern, however, remains around how this academic restructuring exercise is likely to camouflage the deep-seated questions of equity in access and quality of education. The resistance over and within one university’s academic exploration with academic restructuring and its discontinuation has disabled key institutional insights to inform the policy-making as well as policy implementation. The experience of a large public university like DU could have informed the policy and educational community about possible areas of focused interventions and analysis of academic trajectories mapped against student profile. We are operating in a context where universities constantly struggle with and complain about the lack of capacity for critical and original thinking that students carry from school education. Further, given the social context that colleges provide for “unlearning,” there is a need to critically engage with the implications of the now naturalized transactional relationship that credit accumulation discourses hold for the aims of HE within the Indian context. Research within a public university context, aligned with policy process, could have helped in understanding how the distinction between the threeyear track and the four-year research track unfolds along class and affordability lines. There is also a need to recognize that integrity of an academic programme is not simply a sum of its parts, not an algorithm! If it were, we could have successfully cloned the AIIMS, IIM, IITs and even JNUs4 easily in this country. The fact remains that policy requires a context, context requires institutions, and institutions are about people and contingencies. Educational organizations are about unique contexts, people and circumstances coming together to foster an environment in which learning becomes meaningful. They are not simply places of transaction, where certain enrolment numbers blip out after year 1, year 2 or year 3. Large-scale changes, steered centrally, as in the case of CBCS, and as several case studies of educational reforms around the world demonstrate, may appear “successful” by getting assimilated in the system or visibly altering the system. The larger questions which the academic community and the civil society would have to constantly remind themselves of are about the new age “academic migrants” who will move from one virtual door to 261

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another in search of learning and knowledge – one that actually counts – as well as in pursuit of their intellectual aspirations and social mobility. If one gets a certificate and 32 credits stamped from DU and another 24 stamped from IGNOU and maybe another few from JNU, what is going to be the sum total of academic experience that this person carries in the name of HE? What is the social capital that a college promises to a first-generation academic aspirant that the new policy may end up debilitating and put out of reach? HEIs and educators need to recognize and engage with the challenges that this conception of HE, as equivalent to credit scores on an academic passbook, will pose equity concerns and relevance of the UG education in the country. The challenge of undergraduate education reforms remains in reconciling the narrative of “skilling” and quantifiable education with the promise of education within a liberal democracy.

Notes 1 Total enrolment in higher education has been estimated to be 36.6 million with 19.2 million boys and 17.4 million girls. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education in India, calculated for 18–23 years of age group, is estimated to be 25.8per cent (MHRD, 2018; AISHE, 2017–18). About 79.2per cent of the students are enrolled in undergraduate programmes; maximum numbers of students are enrolled in B.A. programme followed by B.Sc. and B.Com. programmes; about 1,26,451 students enrolled in Ph.D. programmes constitute less than 0.4per cent of the total student enrolment. Only ten programmes out of approximately 188 cover 81.2per cent of the total students enrolled in higher education (AISHE, 2017–18). 2 The Concurrent List or List-III (Seventh Schedule) is a list of 52 items given in the  Seventh Schedule  to the  Constitution of India. It includes the power to be considered by both the union and state governments. The 42nd amendment Act 1976 shifted education (along with four other subjects) from the State list to the Concurrent List. 3 The UGC set up a Committee on Academic and Administrative Reforms, with Professor A. Gnanam as convenor, and comprising several eminent educationists from a diverse range of disciplines. The Committee submitted a comprehensive report and an action plan for phase-wise introduction of substantive academic and administrative reforms in the institutions of higher education in the country in the form of University Grants Commission Action Plan for Academic & Administrative Reforms. 4 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Indian Institute of Management (IIM).

References Arun, T.K. (2015): “Why the Choice-based Credit System Proposed by the UGC Is Obtuse and Destructive”, Economic Times, June 3. https://blogs.economictimes. indiatimes.com/cursor/why-the-choice-based-credit-system-proposed-by-the-ugcis-obtuse-and-destructive/

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Bauer, M., and Henkel, M. (1997):“Responses of Academe to Quality Reforms in Higher Education: A Comparative Study of England and Sweden”, Tertiary Education and Management, 3(3), pp. 211–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1358388 3.1997.9966924 Betts, M., and Smith, R. (1998): Developing the Credit-based Modular System in Higher Education. London: Falmer Press. Bleiklie, I. (2002):“Explaining Change in Higher Education Policy”, in Trowler, P.R. (ed.), Higher Education Policy and Institutional Change: Intentions and Outcomes in Turbulent Environments. Buckingham, Philadelphia: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, pp. 24–45. Cerych, L. (1984):“The Policy Perspective”, in Clark, B.R. (ed.), Perspective on Higher Education: Eight Disciplinary Views. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, pp. 233–255. Cerych, L., and Sabatier, P. (1986): Great Expectations and Mixed Performance: The Implementation of Higher Education Reforms in Europe. Trentham: Trentham Books. Chitnis, S. (1993):“Gearing a Colonial System of Education and Take Independent India towards Development”, Higher Education, 26(1), pp. 22–41. Ensor, P. (2004):“Contesting Discourses in Higher Education Curriculum Restructuring in South Africa”, Higher Education, 48, pp.  339–359. https://doi. org/10.1023/B:HIGH.0000035544.96309.f1 GoI (2000): A Policy Framework of Reforms in Education. New Delhi: Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry, Government of India. www.nic.in/ pmcouncils/reports/education GoI (2006a): Report of the Working Group on Undergraduate Education. New Delhi: National Knowledge Commission (NKC), Government of India. http://doc share.tips/higher-education_5896828cb6d87fcdad8b50b8.html GoI (2006b): Report of the Steering Committee on Science and Technology for Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007–12). New Delhi: Planning Commission, Government of India. GoI (2009a): A Report to the Nation (2006–2009). New Delhi: National Knowledge Commission, Government of India. GoI (2009b): Report of ‘The Committee to Advise on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education’. (Yashpal Committee Report). New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. GoI (2012): The Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012–17): Social Sectors, Volume 3. New Delhi: Planning Commission, Government of India. http://planningcommission. gov.in/plans/planrel/12thplan/pdf/vol_3.pdf GoI (2018): All India Survey on Higher Education 2017–18. New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Department of Higher Education, Government of India. GoI (2019): All India Survey on HE in India 2018–19. New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Department of Higher Education, Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (2020): National Education Policy 2020. New Delhi: Government of India. Mohanty, M. (2018): The Poor BA Student: Crisis of Undergraduate Education in India.Twelfth Foundation Day Lecture. New Delhi: NIEPA. http://niepa.ac.in/ download/Foundation%20day/Twelfth_Foundation_Day_Lecture_NIEPA.pdf

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Stensaker, B., Valimaa, J., and Sarrico, C.S. (2015): Managing Reforms in Universities: The Dynamics of Culture, Identity and Organisational Change. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Trowler, P.R. (1998): Academics Responding to Change: New Higher Education Frameworks and Academic Cultures. Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press. University Grants Commission (UGC) (2010): Annual Report 2009–10. New Delhi: UGC. Varghese, N.V. (2009):“Institutional Restructuring of Higher Education in Asia: An Overview”, in Varghese, N.V. (ed.), Higher Education Reforms: Institutional Restructuring in Asia. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO, pp. 23–52. Zachariah, M. (1993):“Examination Reforms in Traditional Universities: A  Few Steps Forward and Many Steps Back”, in Chitnis, S., and Altbach, P. (eds.), Higher Education Reforms in India: Experience and Perspectives. New Delhi: Sage, pp. 155–206.

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16 LOOKING AT EDUCATION THROUGH A BINARY LENS Challenges and Alternatives Disha Nawani1

Introduction Education is an interesting space as it offers itself as both site of reflection and action. Sometimes, the need to act or address the problem is so strong that it completely overwhelms the need to reflect. This often gives rise to a tendency to look at the educational problems and their solutions in terms of binaries. Binaries such as traditional versus progressive; teacher-centred versus child-centred; board examination versus continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE) and even intellectual versus practitioner are fairly popular. More recently, debate between offline versus online learning has got aggravated during the pandemic spurred by the coronavirus. While these categories are essentially ideal types and serve important functions, any discussion using them as critical lenses tilt towards either extreme. While this often simplifies the task, it also veils several inter-connections, which if examined beyond the binary framework, would reveal the complexity of the issue at hand. The objective of this chapter is to examine a few such binaries, with respect to some ideas/issues, show how they are often used, point out their limitations and propose alternative ways of looking at the education problems. The chapter has two sub-sections. Section 1 discusses three popular binaries around different dimensions of learning and shows the manner in which the issue of “learning” gets distorted and pulled in either/or directions. It highlights how joy, assessment or mode of pedagogic transaction takes precedence over the meaning and form of learning. Section 2 focuses on India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and illustrates how it gets caught in the binary framework, which leads to a tendency whereby most critics take an either/or position, that is either completely celebrating or rejecting it. This section not only systematically identifies principles on the basis of which any policy can be examined but also explains them. DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-21 

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I. The Binaries Joyful Versus Joyless Learning The Indian education system is fraught with several limitations as has been pointed out by a number of reports and research studies (Yashpal Committee Report, 1993; PROBE, 1999). What has been highlighted in the traditional educational context is the didactic, rote-based learning system with little autonomy to the teacher and student, and most importantly, bereft of any joy. [B]oth the teacher and the child have lost the sense of joy in being involved in an educational process. Teaching and learning have both become a chore for a great number-of teachers and children. Barring those studying in reputed or exceptional institutions, the majority of our school-going children are made to view learning at school as a boring, even unpleasant and bitter experience. (Learning without Burden Report, 1993, pp. 3–4) Though the Yashpal Committee Report (1993) had unpacked the idea of joy, most policies and programmes in schools have a distorted understanding of joy. This means that joy is associated more with the process of learning rather than its outcome. However, it’s important to understand that it is the outcome of learning that should give the child an aha experience or joy, and not necessarily the process. To explain it further, attempts at making the process joyful need to be valued, but not at the cost of compromising learning itself. Most often, over-emphasis on physical activity, making and displaying teaching learning resources (TLRs) and facial expressions of teachers are thought to make the process of learning joyful, but this often happens at the cost of learning itself. What gets focused is the frills around learning which seemingly look joyful but may actually be banal. For example, let us understand how the notion of activity in school is understood. Any physical movement doesn’t constitute activity, and an activity devoid of any mental engagement does not add value as it does not lead to any learning. Similarly, TLRs such as worksheets, posters and games have great pedagogic value, but often because of the way they are conceptualized and used are reduced to being ends in themselves. Likewise, physical movement alone cannot be celebrated just because it is imagined opposite, which is devoid of any physical movement and is a characteristic feature of most traditional classrooms. This interpretation of joy substitutes “joy in learning” with “joy of learning.” This means that the process of learning is given more weightage than the learning itself. On the one hand it is possible that the process may give joy to the learner, but not lead to any learning, and on the other, the process 266

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may be dull and mentally taxing, but one which leads to joy of learning. Looking at learning through this binary of learning with or without joy therefore considers a frivolous understanding of joy to be superior to learning per se. Rather than looking for presence or absence of joy, what is more important therefore is to engage with the following, such as:   i. Examine the meaning of both learning and joy, and the relationship between them essentially from a child’s point of view. For instance, in solving a math problem, what is more important is not necessarily a simplification of the process, but to contextualize it in a way the child understands the demands of the task at hand. Therefore, it is possible that teaching some concepts across subjects may not require elaborate space, resources, colourful walls or particular seating arrangement etc. but an engaged relationship between the teacher and the student and the nature of the task which puts the student at ease and motivates them to learn. ii. Understand the connection between joy of learning and number of students in the class. There can be no joy in a class which is overcrowded and where children get lost amidst the huge pupil teacher ratio (PTR). It is often noticed that teachers carry a bag of tricks which they have probably learnt in the teacher education programmes and unreflectively apply them to all situations without keeping the specificity of the context in mind. For example, teacher interns and teachers may assume that a circular seating arrangement of students in class is more democratic as compared to a traditional face-to-face arrangement where all students face the teacher where she is also seated on a higher pedestal. But it is possible that a task requires teacher to collectively address all the students at one time. In that case, a circular arrangement may not necessarily work. More than focusing on a particular seating arrangement in the class, it is important that each child gets attention, time and support from the teacher in a non-threatening and non-rushed manner. iii. Acknowledge that while joy is an important concern, it can’t be misunderstood for a mechanical reduction of syllabus/textbook chapters. Less is not necessarily joyful. For instance, a text which uses less number of words may not ease off pressure from a child, but becomes more dense and difficult to comprehend if a lot of complex ideas are cramped in limited space. Let’s examine this point in more detail. To understand the relationship between “text length” and “burden,” it is important to revisit “readability formulas” (Dale and Chall, 1949) evolved in the 1940s. These formulas considered the difficulty level of the text by looking at the number of syllables in a word or number of words in a sentence along with the age of a child, with the assumption that the lesser or shorter the word or a sentence, the more readable it would be. 267

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  Several textbook publishers in the west started mechanically tampering with the textbook content in order to arrive at a perfect readability formula to get their books approved. In the process, however, meaning got compromised and the books became difficult to comprehend, making it more difficult for children to make sense of cryptic sentences and oversimplified words (Nawani, 2019). The NCERT has also often adopted this approach. Lessening the content or over-simplification has another implication to it; it robs away the joy of engaging with the complex and holistic task. These are a few indicators and by no means exhaustive. Others, such as an inclusive and democratic learning environment, respecting the agency of both teacher and student, and ensuring that diverse student voices get heard and acknowledged in the classroom, could be added. These simply show that there are parameters which are far more important from a learning point of view, which are likely to get lost if educational issues are seen from the lens of either/or binary. Assessment of Learning Versus Assessment for Learning Assessment of students’ learning has been an important concern in education discourse in India. However, it is always looked at in isolation where disproportionate emphasis is placed on the mechanics or techniques of assessment rather than examining the relationship between assessment, curriculum and pedagogy. In a formal system of education, curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation are integrally linked to each other in myriad ways and therefore have to be understood with respect to each other. Board exams in classes 10 and 12 have been the bane of students’ life in the Indian education system. Despite finding attention in the various policies and documents, they continue to rule the roost. The binary in this context is assessment of learning versus assessment for learning. While the former focuses on learning outputs in the form of scores and grades, the latter treats assessment as a process to enhance students’ learning. Formative and summative assessments are terms used to measure assessment for learning and assessment of learning, respectively, but most often they are used rather mechanically. More than the separation in technique, it is important how the learning results are used. For instance, CCE is a term used for students’ comprehensive growth, results of which are nonthreatening and do not determine any punitive measures. In principle, it is a way to ensure that all students learn and learn optimally. It also brings back the teacher to the centre stage, where it is imperative that the teacher knows students well to be able to assess their learning and guide them in their future growth. This places heavy demand on the teacher’s time, competence and even motivation to walk that extra mile, as

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compared to a traditional end-of-the-term exam. The latter is far simpler to execute because it is based on ideas of reliability, objectivity and validity so as to compare students’ performances across schools, cities/villages and countries. It may not be wrong to say that no one technique is superior to the other and they serve different purposes, which may be of value depending on the context and the objective. For instance, if the objective is to select students for some awards, then the nature of assignment will be such that it eliminates a large number of students. Rather than looking for any fundamental difference between the two and treating them as diametrically opposed, attention must be focused on ensuring that learning takes place and assessment is well integrated with curricular and pedagogic processes. For any form of meaningful assessment, certain principles need to be adhered to such as:  i. Develop a nuanced understanding of learning and its relationship with assessment and how it is linked to curriculum and pedagogy at one level and cognition, observation and interpretation at another. To explain further, curriculum (valid knowledge), pedagogy (valid transaction of that knowledge) and assessment (valid realization of that knowledge) are important pillars of a formal education system and can be best understood only in relation to each other (Bernstein, 1971). Any assessment practice will have a theory of learning (cognition), a situation or a task where that learning can get captured (observation) and making sense or inferring from that data (interpretation) (Pelligrino et al., 2001). ii. Recognize that assessment results cannot be singularly used to assess teachers’ level of proficiency and commitment. This explains why CCE, a policy sound in principle, failed to support children’s learning as it began to be used to keep track of teachers’ work. As a result, teachers spend most of their time in maintaining records, portfolio etc. at the cost of spending time with children in the class. iii. Acknowledge that any in-depth and comprehensive analysis of students’ learning requires a reasonable PTR, trust in the teachers and sufficient time and space to do so.  iv. Most importantly, understand the fact that students’ learning is of utmost importance and assessment is not a goal per se but a means to further a student’s learning. CCE in India, despite being pedagogically sound in principle, was both conceptualized and implemented in haste and therefore led to creating more problems rather than addressing existing ones. This was essentially because it was being conceptualized and executed as a binary, in complete contrast to the earlier system, which was not actually the case.

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Online Versus Offline Teaching-Learning In the context of the pandemic, one of the most contentious issues with respect to formal education system is perhaps the mode of the pedagogic transaction – the debate between online and offline teaching. Since the pandemic required social distancing norms to be maintained and protect the child from the virus, students could not go to school. Online teaching was seen as the solution to schools being temporarily shut. However, this idea had its fair share of criticism as obstacles such as lack of access to gadgets, Internet connectivity, unfamiliarity with technology, the impersonal and alienating nature of this mode were highlighted. There is no denying the fact that these were genuine concerns from the perspectives of both teachers and students. It is also true that the offline mode is not without its challenges. Face-toface classrooms do suffer from their own challenges. Research in this space shows the contested nature of the classrooms as sites which are far from being democratic and secular, reproducing and maintaining inequalities based on gender, caste, class, religion etc. (Ramachandran, 2013). To pitch one against the other is neither appropriate nor desirable. Moreover, what is of importance here is that the meaning and nature of learning, which is the most crucial aspect of school education, gets lost and the mode somehow supersedes it. Learning in the traditional mode is also confined to memorizing school textbooks with teachers delivering the text to their maximum ability and students’ rote learning to reproduce verbatim in the exams. The online medium, extreme form and use of which proposes even the replacement of the teacher, does threaten the role and agency of teachers in a traditional classroom set-up. Since visibility of the students and sometimes even of the teacher gets impacted due to the impersonal nature of the Internet, most students either are forced to mute their audio-video and somewhere along the line or become mute spectators and listeners. Also unfortunately, the fundamental meaning of learning remains almost similar between online and offline modes. In both scenarios, content rules the roost. If in an offline mode, the dominant pedagogy is about transacting the textbook content, in an online mode, the emphasis still remains on textbook content transacted through PPTs etc. There is a change in the delivery of content, and not on the meaning of learning. Therefore, rather than confining oneself to the debate between online and offline, one should perhaps concentrate on the following:   i. Examine the meaning and nature of learning objectives, curriculum and pedagogy and see the ways in which they are connected irrespective of the offline or online context. ii. Recognize the role and agency of both the teacher and the student in creating a democratic learning space where different voices are heard and the teacher and student jointly construct knowledge. 270

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iii. Understand that technology is simply a means and provides a medium to transact or construct knowledge, just like a classroom space which also needs to be utilized both physically and metaphorically in a certain manner. Therefore, both technology and classroom are simply modes, and both have their strengths and limitations. Rather than condemning one and condoning the other, attention must be paid both to the agency of the teacher and to the use of virtual or face-to-face platforms to create a space where students and teachers jointly construct learning.

II. India’s New Education Policy 2020 in the Binary Trap This section discusses the debate around the New Education Policy (NEP) which was released by the Government of India in 2020. The policy is being compared with the earlier education policy of 1986, using the binary of old versus new. Added to this is also the fact that the previous education policy (referred to as the “old”) and the new policy were enunciated under two different political regimes – the former under a secular coalition of political formation and latter under a right-wing government. Since NEP 2020 came after a gap of almost 34  years, it deliberately positioned itself as a “new” policy unconnected to the past, in terms of proposing new/radical solutions. This led to either wholesale acceptance or rejection of the policy by people, sharply dividing them into two mutually antagonistic camps of supporters versus critics. While the supporters hail almost everything about it, the critics condemned it in toto. Those taking unilinear positions are likely to miss  the continuity between policies, something which a nuanced framework would reveal. It would be naïve to assume that the new policy addresses all existing educational problems as much as believing in the claim that it marks a sharp discontinuity from our past or present and proposes radical solutions. So, if not binaries, how then should one look at it? One way perhaps is to identify central principles or questions and seek its answers, without necessarily using a comparative lens to examine the policy. For example, • What is the vision of society envisaged by the policy, and what is the broad ethical framework within which it is situated? • How does the policy state its commitment to strengthening public education system (PES)? • How is learning understood in the policy? • How does it look at its teachers and students? This list is not exhaustive, but simply indicative, as one can add more dimensions to it. With respect to the policy, the focus is to address these questions independently and find answers. 271

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Vision of Society The policy proposes a revamping “to create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st century education while remaining consistent with India’s traditions and value systems” (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2020, p. 3). It envisions an education system that is rooted in Indian ethos and contributes to transforming India into a vibrant knowledge society within that framework. It promotes values such as cultural awareness and empathy, perseverance and courage, teamwork and leadership, service and sacrifice, courtesy and sensitivity, cleanliness and spirit of service rather than constitutional values. If the latter was the guiding framework, that would call for the need to build a secular and democratic society rather than replace constitutional values with individualized ones. State and Schooling Regarding the concern of the State’s commitment to strengthening the public education system, though the policy makes a commitment, there is no mention of the funds required for the same. In fact, at one level, it supports the idea of volunteers pitching in wherever there are gaps in general and inadequate teachers in particular, and at another level it promotes the idea of public philanthropic partnership. To examine the implications of these two ideas, we need to read between the lines. The policy glorifies the commitment and passion of community volunteers and calls upon them to reach out to children who may not be learning for multiple reasons. It proposes ideas of “peer-tutoring and trained volunteers” as “voluntary and joyful activity” (NEP, 2020, p. 10), to support teachers to impart foundational literacy and numeracy skills to children in need of such skills. It also promotes engagement of senior citizens, school alumni, local community members and for maintaining databases of literate volunteers, retired scientists, alumni and educators for the same purpose. None of these measures have any cost implications. While such efforts may be applauded, they cannot be regarded as substitutes of the formal state apparatus. Such a view also de-legitimizes the teaching professionassociated qualifications and the training mandated by the State for people to become teachers. In the name of passion and commitment, salaries and working conditions of the local community, most of whom are unemployed youth and women, are often compromised. This is exploitation and needless to say, it also impacts the quality of education for the poor (Nawani, 2021a). Simultaneously, the NEP also advocates partnerships between public and philanthropic bodies, which rests on the belief that the dysfunctionality of PES can be tackled by infusing them with managerial principles of choice, efficiency and accountability (Nawani, 2021b). 272

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Assumptions About Learning In terms of how learning is conceptualized, the NEP2020 underscores the importance of foundational skills as being central to a child’s schooling. In the present context, which seeks to demonstrate, measure and quantify learning, learning outcomes (LOs) have become a fetish with policymakers and textbook developers, an idea popularized by large-scale assessment surveys, such as the Annual Status of Education Reports (ASER) in India. LO essentially refers to grade-appropriate, basic competencies in numeracy and literacy, which school going children are supposed to acquire. There is no denying the fact that children going to school should be able to read, write and understand numbers, for that is foundational to learn further in a formal education setup. However, the problem is that learning in schools for the poor unfortunately gets confined to just this, that is knowing the basics. The crux of the concern is that while principles of equity and social justice are ignored, parity is sought amongst children from deprived backgrounds with the aim of providing an education that is most often minimalist. The assumption is that it will be “relevant” for them. This singular and narrow focus on LO and its linkage with teacher accountability puts pressure on the teachers to teach to the test (teach content which will be evaluated) because her job may now depend on the performance of students in the test. In such a situation, the larger educational goals are obviously forgotten (Nawani, 2021). Position of Teachers and Students Students and teachers are, for obvious reasons, the most important participants in school education. Therefore, it is important to understand the manner in which the NEP acknowledges their role and agency. It reiterates the importance of teachers and aspires for outstanding students to choose the teaching profession. Several measures are suggested for the same, including scholarships, housing, ensuring “decent and pleasant” (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2020, p.  22) conditions in school and providing opportunities for their continuous professional development (CPD). The measures are good and need to be carried out. However, there are three key assumptions in the section on teachers which must be examined (Nawani, 2020). The first that outstanding candidates, if attracted to the teaching profession, will enhance the quality of education. While one may agree with this assumption, the measures suggested in the NEP, to attract “outstanding” talent, are not convincing. Minimal conditions for teachers to work in are suggested and can hardly be seen as making any value addition to their professional lives. In fact, security of tenure and salary of a government school teacher is a definite attraction for most people, but in the neo-liberal regime, that seems to be under threat. So 273

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why would “outstanding” youngsters be interested in making such a career choice? Second, it proposes a comprehensive system of teacher assessment that it believes will lead to greater efficiency and accountability on the part of teachers. There is value in developing a system of assessment which will be used to reward some teachers and motivate others but would it be fair to assess (based on peer reviews, attendance, commitment, hours of service to CPD and other forms of service to the school and community) all teachers by the same yardstick when they are working in starkly varying conditions? None of the parameters listed take cognizance of the backgrounds of children they teach. For example, teachers of students equipped with social and cultural capital will do well even with minimal inputs from the teachers and vice versa. Moreover, to entirely discredit the experience gained by teachers, which comes with years of service, may not be appropriate. A third assumption is that good teacher education programmes would prepare good teachers. One can hardly contest this, but the question is whether that alone will ensure effective teaching and meaningful learning in the classroom. For example, an outstanding teacher could crumble under pressure if her class has a huge number of students. Similarly, a teacher trained in a rigorous programme may also excessively depend on one textbook, if the externally designed student-assessment system is tightly tied to that book (Nawani, 2020). This means that the teacher from a sound teacher education programme would also need support from the environment and should not be expected to bring change all by herself with existing structural constraints. Besides these factors, Ramachandran (2020) states that the NEP 2020 pays lip service to the importance of teachers and shows no clarity in terms of their working conditions or on the salaries of “local” teachers. Neither does it take a position on terminating the practice of hiring contract teachers or addressing the huge gap of teacher shortage. With reference to the positioning of students in the policy, it views all children from a single lens. Policy recommendations must take cognizance of children’s differing socio-cultural and geographical settings, those from marginalized and deprived backgrounds versus from the affluent classes and the differing nature/quality of education they have access to. The NEP is silent on these and its recommendations treat all children alike. Reflections By engaging with the above parameters, we are perhaps in a better position to look at a policy in an unbiased and critical manner. Further, analysing the NEP 2020 from an either-or lens may be both inappropriate and undesirable. As has been discussed, at some level there is a continuity between what existed in the past and what is being proposed in the policy, for example 274

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a layered education system, contractualization of teachers, privatization of schooling, state shying away from acknowledging financial implications and varying quality of education across schools. To blame the NEP 2020 alone for privatization may therefore not be a valid criticism. Even though Kothari Commission (1964–66) talks about the common school system, it still remains an idea on paper and similarly the NPE 1986 offered nonformal education as an alternative to formal education for child labour and potential drop-outs. However, the new policy is also characterized by the presence and absence of certain important ideas which don’t show any continuity with the past and are deeply problematic. For example, it is conspicuous by the absence of a constitutional value framework and values like secularism do not find a mention in the policy. Then there is excessive glorification of culture and civilization of ancient India, eulogizing privatization, blatant undermining of the importance of Right to Education Act, 2009, ignoring the contribution of National Curriculum Framework, 2005, and replacement of Constitutional values with ideas such as seva (service), ahimsa (non-violence), swacchta (cleanliness), sacrifice, courtesy and forgiveness have also not gone unnoticed.

Conclusion This article endeavours to critically examine the framework entailing the use of binaries to either address or resolve a problem. Binaries such as the ones discussed earlier serve useful functions by concentrating features of a similar type at both extremes. This homogenizes all variations among them at either end. However, this very characteristic of binaries poses a problem because binaries exist more as ideal types on paper perhaps, but not in reality. Locating the issues in a spectrum will perhaps be more meaningful rather than imagining a deep divide between them. In other words, the difference could be in degrees rather than types of approaches. To reiterate, the binary framework has an inherent appeal for researchers and policy makers looking for hasty solutions. Given the complexity of education as a site of practice in an equally if not more complex society, it is useful to examine and analyse the problem rather than identifying quickfix solutions which the binary frameworks offer. There is no doubt about the fact that issues in education need to get resolved and no amount of theorizing can dismiss that need. There is both impatience and a missionary zeal associated with finding solutions to educational problems which may be important in a country like India, which has still not been able to provide equitable and quality education to all its children. But for that to happen, problems need to be understood contextually and analytically. It is the nuanced understanding of problems that can lead to more nuanced solutions. 275

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Note 1 The author would like to acknowledge inputs from Shinjini Sanyal, a research scholar at School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

References Bernstein, B. (1971): “On the Classification and Framing of Educational Knowledge”, in Young, M.F.D. (ed.), Knowledge and Control, New Directions for the Sociology of Education. London: Collier-Macmillan, pp. 46–69. Dale, E., and Chall, J. (1949): “The Concept of Readability”, Elementary English, 26(1), pp. 19–26. www.jstor.org/stable/41383594, accessed 30 May 2021 Ministry of Human Resource Development (1993): “Learning Without Burden” Yashpal Committee Report. New Delhi: Government of India. Ministry of Human Resource Development (2020): National Education Policy 2020. New Delhi: Government of India. Nawani, D. (2019): “Unburdening the Child”, Economic and Political Weekly, 54(16), pp. 17–19. Nawani, D. (2020): “NEP 2020 Comes Short on Providing an Enabling Milieu for Teachers”, The Indian Express, August  19. https://indianexpress.com/article/ opinion/columns/new-policy-old-mindset-6560315/ Nawani, D. (2021a): “Decreased Allocations for Education, Reluctance to Recognise Pandemic Fallout Will Sharpen Educational Divide”, The Indian Express, February  13. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/nep-education-budgetallocation-covid-pandemic-rte-7186364/ Nawani, D. (2021b): “Indian Education System Must Stop Chasing ‘Learning Outcomes’ ”, The Indian Express, March 31. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/ columns/indian-education-system-learning-outcomes-ncert-aser-7251898/ Pelligrino, J.W., Chudowsky, N., and Glaser, R. (2001): “The Nature of Assessment and Reasoning From Evidence”, in Pelligrino, J.W., Chudowsky, N., and Glaser, R. (eds.), Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment. Washington, DC: National Research Council, and National Academy Press, pp. 36–54. https://doi.org/10.17226/10019 The PROBE Team (1999): Public Report on Basic Education in India (PROBE). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Ramachandran, V. (2020): “School Teachers in NEP 2020: Contradictory Messages and Silence on Critical Issues”, The India Forum, October 2. www.theindiaforum. in/article/teachers-nep-2020 Ramachandran, V., and Naorem, T. (2013): “What It Means to Be a Dalit or Tribal Child in Our Schools – A Synthesis of a Six-State Qualitative Study”, Economic and Political Weekly, 48(44), pp. 43–52.

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Section 5 CULTURAL IMPERATIVES IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

17 CULTURAL DILEMMA AND HOW IT AFFECTS EDUCATION A Personal Journey Kai-ming Cheng

Prologue I came to know Govinda in 1989, when he was doing a large-scale study on the quality of basic education on India (Govinda and Varghese, 1993), and I was his counterpart doing a similar one on China. It was an unusual and comprehensive study of systems that moved away from pure statistical data. It covered five research sites with ten schools in each country, and included students, teachers, principals, parents and local leaders, and involved quantitative as well as qualitative components. It was the most thorough study of the process of basic education I have ever been engaged in. It was prepared for the Education for All Conference in Jomtien in 1990, now a milestone in the history of education development. Only when both reports were published did I realize that my study on China followed the protocols which had been designed by Govinda.1 I cannot remember when we met face to face for the first time. Perhaps a meeting where I was invited to join a discussion on education reform in India, hosted by a prominent journalist. In that meeting I  recall Govinda explaining to me the meaning of secondary colleges under Indian universities, which had dramatically absorbed the massive number of young people and quenched their thirsts for education. At first, I  found it quite difficult to follow his quick speech in English. However, after several encounters, I gradually found his thoughts interesting. This was in the late 1990s when I started to teach a course on culture and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. While I found Govinda’s observations on education deep-rooted in the Indian culture, yet he was able to articulate with ease issues on India to audiences of foreign cultures. My excitement about education and the Indian culture was further reinforced when I later got the opportunity to research in various sites in rural India. DOI: 10.4324/9781003394730-23 

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China and India are steeped in their respective cultures. They both share the tension between the local perceptions about education and the way education is perceived in a western framework. Govinda, with his strong Indian cultural background, was still able to cross cultures, not only to explain the Indian reality but also to distil his Indigenous observations to enlighten educators of other cultures. This is what I now understand as the real meaning of globalization. In my association with Govinda, there are episodes that have left imprints on my memory. The first episode relates to a meeting in which we were together, at the invitation of a French institute. The theme was about ideas on education in Asia. We were listening to either archaic or misleading messages about Asian cultures. Govinda and I, in a private conversation, concurred that being latecomers in cultural awareness, there was a lot to do to make westerners understand the diversity and the deep roots of cultures in Asia. The second episode was around 2015 or 2016. I  invited Govinda to attend a summit on higher education, which was part of a Summer Institute where over 40 university leaders from various Asian countries were attending. Govinda at that time was the Vice-Chancellor of the (deemed to be) National University of Educational Planning and Administration, NUEPA (NIEPA2). His intervention was brief, but led to a large number of questions from those who had never heard about higher education in India. The participants began to appreciate that India’s higher education system was much more sophisticated than one could have imagined, yet with resources much less than many other systems. Another episode that I  recall was in New Delhi when I  was there for a conference. During lunch, more than half of the local professors chose to use their fingers to eat. I  asked Govinda his views about using fingers despite the availability of knives and forks. His first answer was “It tastes different!” This was not surprising. I have heard the same from my Southeast Asian and African friends. Then he became a bit serious, “Eating is an interaction between human beings and the nature. Why should we separate us from the nature by metals?” I found it philosophical. It was only years later that I realized that the invention of knife and fork was indeed relatively recent even in the western culture, and it was invented for the noble ladies in order not to soil their fingers. Rather unnatural and hypocritical, if I can be cynical! Although we have not had too many interactions, the few valuable opportunities we did have made us trustworthy friends. I am glad that both of us, of similar ages, are still with a growing mind. I must however confess that I have yet to learn more from Govinda to understand the Indian culture. My association with this volume that is being brought out in honour of Govinda has inspired me to trace my journey on culture in my study of education. In this journey, I have acquired a deeper understanding of my own Chinese culture, possible only because I could see alternative cultures, and 280

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India’s education is an essential mirror for me to understand my culture. The following is my narrative on this journey.

Culture and Education: How I Started I obtained my doctoral degree from the London Institute of Education after 15 years as a school teacher. The study opened my mind to plurality, that people might have different interpretations and explanations towards the same phenomenon. It was the first time I encountered the concept of “multiple perspectives.” I  began to understand that there was no one correct answer for questions, that there can be many explanations, to the same phenomenon, and all deserving of respect. Influenced by this, I used two totally different perspectives to analyse a particular policymaking process in Hong Kong. That also led me into qualitative research methodology with an ethnographic underpinning and paved my appreciation of culture in education. The doctoral study also transformed me from a student of mathematics into a qualitative researcher. The ethnographic nature of qualitative research is one where the entire purpose is to understand the perceptions of the object of research, rather than testing my own framework (hypothesis) among the people being researched. This is a powerful tool that allows me to keep as much as possible an “ignorant” and open my mind to local interpretations of what people do and think. In hindsight, that has shaped my paradigm and passion to understand different cultures. After the completion of my doctoral study, I  received my first research commission from UNICEF3 to understand China’s education at the grassroots levels (county, township and village) after a major reform for decentralization.4 The reform started in 1985 and my project was in 1987. Following the qualitative approach I adopted in my doctoral thesis, I visited two sites, one rich and one poor in Liaoning, a north-eastern province in China (Cheng, 1991a). It was there that I first encountered the significance of culture. A few issues struck me. Among others, there was a question about attendance in poor villages. One would expect that attendance ratios would depend on the GDP of the locality, as is happening around the world. This did not happen in the China cases, even when we asked for statistics in the larger region. This was a year China was just opening up, in the aftermath of the disastrous Cultural Revolution (1966–67), and schools began to open as well. There was an immediate rush for schooling, regardless of the poverty level of the locality. There must be some explanations to this, other than economic analysis. Interviews with parents and teachers rendered the same kind of explanations of why they would send their children to schools – “Only if they have schooling, they can leave the rural villages and have a bright future.” Data demonstrated that while the richer parents might take schooling for granted as a “must,” the poorer parents were even more eager to send their children to 281

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schools, “because only then they might have better lives than their parents.” I attributed that to culture, at that time only a vague notion, to explain the inexplicable. This was also reported to the Indian audience during the 50th Anniversary of India’s independence, hosted by NIEPA (Cheng, 1998a). I could not help paying attention to the influence of China’s ancient civil examination, which started in AD 603 and ended only in 1905. It was a systematic way to select civil servants, which spread to Japan, Korea and Vietnam in the 7th century. It was not quite on the basis of education but only a means of screening and selection of civil servants. However, because the mechanism involved only examinations, which in effect required reading and writing, it was often interpreted as “education” in ancient China. The “beauty” of the Civil Examinations was that there were no “entrance requirements” – regardless of your family back ground and innate ability, you succeeded if you worked hard. This belief became a folklore in novels, poems and operas. It represented a dream and a hope (Cheng, 2011). And, it is still a powerful assumption in contemporary Chinese communities across the globe – only if you work hard, you will succeed in examinations. Such a belief encapsulated an aspiration for education – not for learning but for social mobility. This explains the nation-wide thirst for schooling that exists to this day. Universities entrance tests have become the modern substitute for the Civil Examinations. That may also explain the rapid expansion of schooling as soon as the Cultural Revolution came to an end. Hence, similar to other Chinese communities,5 as well as Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese communities,6 parents require no prompt to send their children to schools. This also explains the subsequent local donations almost everywhere in the 1980s, to build schools, where local communities collected a large number of small sums for the purpose. However, the thirst for schooling, perhaps with the rather distorted motives, has also caused the serious adverse effects of the belief in examinations, hence the cult for scores and credentials. These have hindered the progress and reform of the education system, while there is the urgent need to change the aims of education from credentials to authentic learning. I have no intention to go into more details about the pros and cons of the Chinese beliefs in education, but the above suffices to demonstrate how I started my attention to culture. I began to write cultural aspects of education, initially comparing education systems in East Asia (Cheng, 1990, 1991b, 1994), and underlining that culture is a neglected dimension in discussing education in general (Cheng, 1992, 2000b).

Cultural Difference: India and China My experience with international organizations took me to the poorest villages in China. This was at a time when China was eager to receive 282

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international aid, and international organizations were also keen to move into China. The villages I visited were all that where foreign assistance was most needed. At almost the same time, UNICEF, under the leadership of Manzoor Ahmed, launched a comparative study on rural basic education in China and India (Ahmed et al., 1991). I was involved in the design of the Chinese part. What intrigued me were the exchange visits after the study, between the Indian and the Chinese research teams. These visits proved eye-opening for both teams. Interestingly their perceptions about the other’s system were almost the opposite. The Indian team was amazed by the resources committed to schools in poor villages in China. The target goals for China were “one ‘should-not’ and two ‘shoulds’ ” – there should be no dilapidated building for any school, there should be a classroom for every class and desk and chair for every student. This was in the context that there had been cases of students injured or killed by falling buildings, and there was a severe shortage of classrooms, desks and chairs. The Indian team saw the appalling conditions, but was amazed, for example by the local donations towards the target goals. The reaction from the Chinese team was quite different. They were amazed by the “Operation Blackboard,” which was the major reform goal for Indian schools at the time. They saw classrooms with only two walls, and most students sat on the floors. However, they also understood that some of these schools were among the best, and they had brought up brilliant graduates who shone in their careers. “See how they best exploit the limited resources,” the Chinese researchers exclaimed. The Chinese team was also impressed by the contribution of the NGOs, which was widespread in India, but still rather foreign to China at that time. It may be noted that the target goals (mentioned in the above paragraphs) of both countries were announced by the respective governments in 1986, at the time when resources available to both the Indian and Chinese villages were comparable but scarce. The exchange visits impressed me and made me realize that people in different cultures see things differently, and therefore act differently, although the overall objective is the same. The contrast between the two research teams, in countries they had never visited, inspired me to further develop my understanding of cultures. I was drawn to Edgar Schein’s (1992) definition of culture, although he was originally referring to organizational cultures. To Schein, culture is, a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems. 283

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I have been using this as a working definition in all my courses about culture. It points to the fact that different societies may face the same problems, but may resolve them in rather different ways. Such ways have become taken for granted as the correct way of doing things, and have been passed on from generation to generation. Geographic separations contributed to cultural differences, unknown to one another.

Cultural Perspective: China Then came the four-country comparison I mentioned earlier, where Govinda and I were counterparts in India and China, respectively. I went through six counties7 in the Zhejiang Province in China (Cheng 1996), which was not a poor province, but was chosen because of the huge disparity among the counties. We indeed chose the sites according to the distribution of GDPs and used statistical data, which were collected as secondary data from local authorities. We did our own survey among local leaders, teachers and a good sample of parents (one in ten). We conducted tests designed to be a proxy for “quality” of primary schooling. When we compared test results for primary classes 4 and 6, the mathematics results were basically comparable, but the language results demonstrated a widened gap between villages and amongst students. Teachers explained that this was because the language environments differed, and children from poor families suffered. This brought me to the attention of the context beyond classrooms, the mini-culture of the families. However, the most telling were the interviews and focus groups discussions that followed. Two incidents left deep impressions on my mind. In the first case, I  interviewed peasants in a village of low GDP. “Why do you send your child to school?” He could not answer, looked puzzled. “Very simple, just tell me why do you send your child to school.” Still no answer. He appeared embarrassed, perhaps because he could not think of a reason. One of them even turned to the accompanying teacher: “How should I answer?” When we compared notes among other members of the research team, this was quite common almost in all villages. After some discussions, instead of putting down “No answer” as a response, we realized that this indeed demonstrated the nature of a culture – education is taken for granted. Children going to schools is something beyond question. I learnt, only later, about Robert LeVine (1984), who has given perhaps the most insightful description about the properties of a culture. LeVine has identified what he calls the “multiplexity of culture” – culture is difficult to articulate, it is protected from challenge, it is not reducible to explicit descriptions and it is not reducible to rational explanations. Culture to people is like water to fish – “Fish is the last to discover water.” The other incident occurred when I was doing a focus group discussion among parents in an urbanized township. The question was “What is the 284

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most important thing that education would bring to your child?” An almost consensual view was expressed by the group that it was most important for their children to become good individuals who maintained good relations with people. It surprised me that they did not consider knowledge or skills as the most important. I probed, “What if they could not read the street sign?” “They can always ask any passer-by politely.” I further probed, “What if they don’t even know how to change an electric bulb?” “They can always ask some neighbour to help, that is why they should be in good relations with their neighbour.” This explains explicitly when the “moral” dimension of education always comes on top among the five dimensions of traditional education in China.8 Moral is here taken in the broadest sense to include all matters related to human relations. Later, I  found that this also echoes Howard Gardner’s article (1984) which was seldom quoted.9 He observed three different kinds of emphases in respective cultures – on the physical world, on man-made artefacts and on the social world. The emphasis in Chinese communities is obviously on the social world, inherited from the Confucian legacy of social orders. My understanding of the Chinese culture, as viewed from an educational perspective, is further confirmed by Gardner’s classification. Meanwhile, I found similarities of such cultural views in Korean and Japanese societies, the “chopstick cultures.” My understanding of the Chinese culture on education was further reinforced and enriched during a World Bank project for the poor provinces in 1989. The study was on two provinces, Guizhou and Shaanxi. It took several trips, each about six weeks, in each province. Shaanxi, whose capital is the famous city of Xi’an, is historically a province steeped in culture though economically backward at that time of the field study. We visited 85 sites doing ethnographic investigations to interpret the survey data that we had collected prior to the visits. Guizhou is a province of minorities. We stayed in two particular prefectures of the ethnic minority communities and focussed mainly on qualitative investigations. It was eye-opener for me. Things that were seen to be impossible or insensible were, in practice, a local tradition. For example, in northern Shaanxi, the poorest part of the province, schools were typically found in sets of three caves – classroom in the middle, teacher’s home and storage room (mainly coal for heating) on the sides. What shocked us was teachers did not receive salaries. Instead, they were invited to different homes for meals, known as “Hundred-Family Meals.” This was introduced to us with great pride and smiles – a tradition since ancient times. In Guizhou, in the village of the Miao minorities, we found extremely low attendance of girls. Against all conventional theoretical analyses, home visits revealed that embroidery was an essential skill for girls to master, symbolizing their talents, and for good marriage. Compulsory schooling would 285

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only block the girls from acquiring such an important social capital. These were reported in Cheng (1997) and Cheng (2000a). Almost at the same time, there was an awakening in the west, to look at education from a culture lens. Such perspectives had not been absent, but rather weak. One book, The Learning Gap (Stevenson and Stigler, 1992), came up as the New York Times’ bestseller in consecutive weeks, in 1993. It compares parents’ perceptions about education in the United States, China and Japan, hinges on the thoughts about the dichotomy about innate ability and efforts – the nature-nurture dilemma. Meanwhile, an academic piece, based on comparative empirical data, convincingly argued that education and learning in China had a specific cultural underpinning (Biggs, 1996). Another endeavour which again compares the United States, China and Japan was Pre-schools in Three Cultures (Tobin et al.) that compared Japan, China and the United States by doing a one-day case study, in one kindergarten in each of the three countries. The study was recorded by video and explained in writing. The differences in practices were striking. The explanations for such practices by the local teachers, and the comments made by teachers in the other two cultures, were even more striking. For example, the Japanese teacher, hosting a class of 30 children, was puzzled by the question why smaller classes would be better. Another example, again in the Japanese kindergarten, was of one boy who was seriously bullied by another boy during the recess. The teacher did not interfere, “Kids should have a way to revolve among themselves.” The practices, explanations and comments are very good illustrations of how culture matters in education. They echo very well LeVine’s exposition of culture (LeVine, 1984).

Cultural Shocks: India It was only in the early 1990s that I was given opportunities to visit Indian rural schools at the invitation of my colleague Nirmala Rao,10 a development psychologist who is from India. I am familiar with China and a policy person. That made a perfect match. We were in two projects, one comparing primary schools in China and India, and the other one studying early childhood facilities in Hyderabad, Bangalore and other cities (Rao, 2013; Cheng et al., 2003). These visits allowed me to witness and confirm the comparisons between India and China made by the Chinese research team earlier. In particular, in the first project, our Rao’s team made a large number of videos recording classes in both places, which enriched my understanding of the cultures beyond direct observations. The physical conditions of the classes in India were the first that attracted my attention. In one extreme case, in a small classroom of about 6 sqm, some 20–30 very young students sat on the ground. There were no chairs and desks. This would be inconceivable elsewhere. However, we understood that some of the schools’ graduates had become prominent persons 286

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in society, including professors. Later on, I realized from my Buddhist colleagues that sitting cross-legged was in fact the healthiest position. Being “modern” did not mean it was better. I was also amazed to see the widespread existence and participation of NGOs during different visits. I was impressed by the Mothers’ Committees, where the mothers competed to tell us the success of channelling funding through mothers rather than through government bureaux. Once the discussion went into late evening until it was completely dark, with no lighting, but the mothers were still passionately telling us about their achievements. It was almost miraculous to see anganwadi workers (AWWs) in the governmentrun early childhood centres, designing innovative educative games, and using available resources for enhancing children’s nutrition levels. We also witnessed the emergence of computers in poor village schools, supported by NGOs at the grassroots. I must confess that my knowledge of India’s education is limited. However, I can feel the strong cultural heritage that keeps its society going. I have not been in Indian rural schools for a long time. The most recent visit was to an elite school which joined an international group (of which I was its advisory committee member). I  am equally impressed by how much the local culture is preserved, in terms of costume, food and music, yet mastering advanced technologies.

Teaching About Culture: Harvard In 1996, I  was invited to the Harvard Graduate School of Education by John Willett. John was one year my senior when I did my Masters in Education at the University of Hong Kong. We were both Physics teachers in the Hong Kong schools. John had become a renowned professor in quantitative analysis after his doctoral study at Stanford. Due to various reasons, there was a shortage of teachers in the realm of international education at Harvard. I accepted the invitation and taught there for a full year, and subsequently for nine more years each Spring. Apart from teaching the required course on Education and Development, I created a course on Cultural Perspectives in Educational Studies. This was a turning point of my academic interest in culture. On the one hand, I had the opportunity to look into the literature on culture and tried to explore its relevance to education. Two categories attracted me the most – Geert Hofstede’s writings11 about work-related values and organizational culture in the workplace, and books on cultural psychology, of which I took Robert LeVine as the champion. In particular, LeVine (1982), in his analysis of socialization, points to a way of analysing education in a cultural context. On the other hand, I  had a class of 50–60 students, often from 20–30 nationalities, many of them with cross-cultural experiences. It was a very interactive class, and I  learnt a lot from the students. Discussions started 287

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from very simple things like greetings and apologies, wedding and initiation and musicology and went into practices in education, engaging in a deeper analysis of the individual-society relationship. While cultures may be distinct, LeVine observed that cultures are “organized,” or comprehensive, and that all part of society and all walks of life share the same cultural elements. The practices as well as the thinking are organized; they are intertwined. There is a wholesomeness in culture. I came up with a classification about culture, which is still my basic framework in the further understanding of culture. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Language and artefacts Rituals and ceremonies Heroes and metaphors Behavioural norms Shared values Basic assumptions General methodology

The seven layers go from the more perceivable to the more abstract. Numbers 1–3 are largely in the literature of arts and humanities; 4–6 are derived from the management literature, about organizational culture. The last one was my own addition. It was only then I had the opportunity of looking back into the Chinese culture and examine education from a more fundamental level. In a nutshell, the Chinese heritage has not only given communities an edge over other cultures in their formal education, but also caused fundamental barriers to education development because of the pure aspiration for social mobility using education as the sole ladder. There is no intention to elaborate on my understanding of the Chinese culture of education, which will take a book to carry. However, I  would like to share some of my observations on interactions across cultures using education as a window, but looking beyond – for instance, cross-cultural influences in the academe. First, a culture being a culture works. That is, despite the marked differences in terms of thinking and practices among cultures, they all serve their intended purposes in the respective cultures. For instance, despite the cultural difference between India and China, and despite criticisms from a western framework, both systems produce superb professionals and academics who shine in the international arena. Second, cultures are parallel. Cultures are equal in a sense that there is no good culture and bad culture, and no culture could claim better than other cultures. The diversity in cultures is a human beauty (Cheng, 2012). As a corollary, passing judgements on other people’s culture is insensitive, if not stupid.12 And, no culture could claim superiority over any other culture. It 288

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is difficult to judge whether one system of education is better than the other. One may compare about resources, but difficult to compare about outcomes. Third, as observed by LeVine, culture is comprehensive; hence, borrowing from any particular segment of the culture is not sensible and will not yield any good effects. I asked the question “Can cultural values be borrowed?” (Cheng, 1998b). This is perhaps witnessed in attempts in the United States to imitate Chinese practices after Shanghai exhibited its superior results in PISA 2009. Fourth, since culture is based on values and assumptions, it is not easily changed by political interventions or administrative measures. Such values and assumptions are handed down as heritage from generation to generation. Compared with the legacy of traditions, governments are but shortlived. This is perhaps why in China efforts at trying to reduce the adverse pressures due to public examinations seldom work. In short, culture cannot be engineered (Cheng, 1997). Fifth, because of the long history of geographical separation, people in a culture do not know other cultures, because their values would never be challenged, and assumptions never questioned. Within a culture, beliefs and practices are simply taken for granted. Only when they were exposed to other cultures, they would understand the characteristics of their own culture. Globalization has facilitated such exposures. That perhaps explains why cultural comparisons have emerged in recent decades. This also points to the importance of cross-cultural studies, the importance of which is gaining some recognition in the international arena of education. Sixth, for people in the business sector, they have to work with people of diverse cultural backgrounds; they have to deal with partners or competitors from other cultures; they have to move into markets in foreign cultures. Hence to them, crossing cultures is a necessity. Accepting cultural differences is a matter of reality. However, education systems, school systems in particular, are closed systems, all the way and the significance of culture is not easily felt within a local education system. Seventh, compared to people in the business sector, politicians mainly serve local interests, and by nature are rather parochial. It is easier for them to become blind to cultural differences, either within a nation or across nations. They have to serve national if not sectorial interests, including commercial, political, ethnic and religious sectors. In a way, around the world, it might be unfair to expect politicians to look across cultures. Eighth, the academic community, which thrives in an international arena, is caught in a contradiction. Academics feel obliged to open their minds to the unexplored, including foreign cultures, which is inevitable in the process of globalization of higher education. However, meanwhile, their academic protocols, developed over the years, very much follow methods influenced by western cultures, often the Anglo-Saxon. This has come to be defined as the one and only narrative of an “academic culture.” Such an academic 289

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culture prevails over all nations, unchallenged and unquestioned, taken for granted and as the only pathway to academic advancement. This then is accepted globally as the unique set of protocols that allows almost no cultural variations. I would not go as far as saying that this is academic hegemony, but indeed almost all systems of education are compelled to value academic merits by counting, for instance publications in the English language. If we continue to follow such an “academic culture,” the academic community in many societies will continue to suffer, where publications in local languages are seen as second class, and alternative paradigms in academic pursuance are not respected. Earlier, I perceived this as a North-South paradigm in the process of globalization (Cheng, 1991b), but now I would say the detriments to the academe is suffocating but irresistible. Govinda is among the few who is able to see through such a prevailing culture. I have high hopes that many like Govinda, who are respected by the international academic community, would emerge from their more established cultures, like India and China, to speak their minds with academic integrity, honesty and courage.

Notes 1 Two more country cases were added later, Mexico in Latin America (Schmelkes et al., 1996) and Guinea in Africa (Martin and Chau, 1993), in order to represent more continents and smaller developing countries. 2 National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration. 3 United Nations Children’s Fund. 4 China launched a major exercise on decentralization of basic education so that local governments (at county and township levels) became responsible for the finance and administration of schools. This was supported by a parallel decentralization of finance, where local tax revenues would be retained by the locality, but required to channel into basic education. 5 Including the Chinese communities, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and overseas smaller communities in various countries. 6 Later on, I coined the term “chopsticks culture,” representing these communities – the only ones on earth that use chopsticks. 7 One county was abandoned in the end, because it was the county town centre where most of the population were government officials. 8 The traditional five dimensions in education in China are moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic. In contemporary Mainland China, it is reduced to moral, intellectual and physical. 9 Howard Gardner is more often quoted for his “Multiple Intelligences.” 10 Nirmala Rao, Chair Professor of Child Development and Education at the University of Hong Kong, a reputed scholar in early childhood education. 11 The original editions of Hofstede et al. (2010) and Hofstede (2001). I used these extensively in my teaching. 12 This reminds us of a famous US TV host who commented once that Indians were still using fingers for eating!

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References Ahmed, M. with Cheng, K.M., Jalaluddin, A.K., and Ramachandran, K. (1991): Basic Education and National Development: Lessons From China and India. New York: UNICEF. Biggs, J.J. (1996): “Western Misinterpretation of the Confucian-heritage Learning Culture”, in Watkins, D.A., and Biggs, J.B. (eds.), The Chinese Learners: Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences. Hong Kong and Melbourne: Comparative Education Research Centre/The Australian Council for Educational Research, pp. 45–67. Cheng, K.M. (1990): “The Culture of Schooling in East Asia”, in Entwistle, N. (ed.), Handbook of Educational Ideas and Practices. London: Routledge, pp. 163–173. Cheng, K.M. (1991a): Planning Basic Education in China: A  Case Study of Two Counties in the Province of Liaoning. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning. Cheng, K.M. (1991b): “Challenging the North-South Paradigm: Educational Research in East Asia”, in International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris and Institute of International Education, Stockholm (eds.), Strengthening Educational Research in Developing Countries. Paris: IIEP and Stockholm: Institute of International Education, pp. 135–140. Cheng, K.M. (1992): “The Neglected Dimension: Cultural Comparison in Educational Administration”. Key-note presented at the 7th Regional Conference of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration, August  17–21, 1992, Hong Kong. Collected in Wong, A.K.C., and Cheng, K.M. (eds.) (1995), Educational Leadership and Change: An International Perspective. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp. 87–104. Cheng, K.M. (1994): “Quality of Education as Perceived in the Chinese Culture”, in Takala, T. (ed.), Quality of Education in the Context of Culture in Developing Countries. Tampere: Tampere University Press, pp. 67–84. Cheng, K.M. (1996): The Quality of Primary Education: A Case Study of Zhejiang Province, China. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning. Cheng, K.M. (1997): “Engineering Values – Education Policies and Values Transmission”, in Montgomery, J.D. (ed.), Values in Education: Social Capital Formation in Asia and the Pacific. Soka University of America, pp. 173–186. Cheng, K.M. (1998a): “Planning of Education in China: Culture’s Implications”, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, 7(4), pp. 387–401. Cheng, K.M. (1998b): “Can Cultual Values Be Borrowed? Looking into Cultural Differences”, Peabody Journal of Education, 73(2), pp. 11–30. Cheng, K.M. (2000a): “Understanding Basic Education Policies in China: What Ethnographic Research Can Tell”, in Ross, H., and Liu, J. (eds.), Education in China: The Ethnographic Eye. New York: Garland Press, pp. 29–50. Cheng, K.M. (2000b): “Education and Development: The Neglected Dimension of Cross-cultural Studies”, in Alexander, R., Osborn, M., and Philips, D. (eds.), Learning from Comparing: New Directions in Comparative Educational Research, Vol 2: Policy, Professionals and Development. Oxford: Symposium Books, pp. 81–92. Cheng, K.M. (2011): “Education in Confucius Society”, in Banks, J. (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Diversity in Education. Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 439–441.

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Cheng, K.M. (2012): “Foreword: Diversity of Diversity”, in Allen, W.R., Teranishi, R.T., and Bonous-Hammarth, M. (eds.), As the World Turns: Implications of Global Shifts in Higher Education for Theory, Research and Practice. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. xiii–xvii. Cheng, K.M., Rao, N., and Narain, K. (2003): “Primary Schooling in China and India: Understanding how Socio-contextual Factors Moderate the Role of the State”, International Review of Education, 49(1–2), pp.  153–176. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Gardner, H. (1984): “The Development of Competence in Culturally Defined Domains: A Preliminary Framework”, in Shweder, R.A., and LeVine, R.A. (eds.), Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 257–275. Govinda, R., and Varghese, N.V. (1993): Quality of Primary Education in India: A  Case Study of Madhya Pradesh. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning; New Delhi: National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration. Hofstede, G. (2001): Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations, 2nd edition. Netherlands: Sage Publications. Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G.J., and Minkov, M. (2010): Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind – Inter-cultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival, 3rd edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. LeVine, R.A. (1982): “Concepts of Socialization”, Ch 4 in Culture, Behavior and Personality, 2nd edition. New York: Aldine, pp. 61–68. LeVine, R.A. (1984): “Properties of Culture: An Ethnographic View”, in Shweder, R.A., and LeVine, R.A. (eds.), Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 67–87. Martin, J.Y., and Chau, T.N. (1993): La qualité de l’école primaire en Guinée: Une étude de cas. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning. Rao, N., Pearson, E., and Cheng, K.M. (2013): Teaching in Primary Schools in China and India. London and New York: Routledge. Schein, E.H. (1992): Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: JosseyBass, pp. 3–27. Stevenson, H.W., and Stigler, J.W. (1992): The Learning Gap: Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn From Japanese and Chinese Education. New York: Summit Books. Tobin, J.J., Wu, D.Y.H., and Davison, D.H. (1989, new edition – 2009): Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China and the United States. New Haven: Yale University Press.

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Section 6 EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE A Window Onto Prof. Govinda’s Tryst With Education

This short piece offers an insight into the life and work of Prof. R. Govinda. As a non-exhaustive account, it traces his early life and education, his career trajectory and his key contributions to the field of Indian education, with personal tributes from some of his close friends and collaborators. Prof. Govinda was born in Mysore in August 1947, five days after India won its independence from British colonial rule. He completed his schooling in 1963, from one of the two government high schools in Mysore in those days. He then pursued a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics at Yuvaraja College, a constituent of Mysore University and followed it up with an M.Sc. in Mathematics. Subsequently, he enrolled into the B.Ed. (Bachelor in Education) programme at the Institute of Education (affiliated to Mysore University) and emerged a gold medallist in 1971. He went on to pursue M.Ed. (Master in Education) at Manasagangotri, also affiliated to Mysore University, topping the course and bagging yet another gold. Prof. Govinda was part-time lecturer at the Institute of Education for a period of two months before joining the Siddhartha College in Tumkur, Karnataka, as a fulltime lecturer in 1972. He was quite a popular teacher at Siddhartha College. However, keen to pursue research, he moved to join a fully funded doctoral programme at Maharaja Sayajirao University’s (MSU’s) Centre for Advanced Studies in Education (CASE) in Baroda, Gujarat, under Prof. M.S. Yadav in 1973 which he completed within a short span of two years. He worked on the use of the experimental method in teaching that involved programmed instruction. MSU/CASE, under the leadership of Prof. Buch,1 was regarded as a lead institution in education. It provided an appropriate niche that Prof. Govinda was seeking. It was to endow him with a rich exposure to educational research and experience, well beyond his doctoral work. This was the time when the very first Survey of Research in Education was being conducted under Prof. Buch’s stewardship.2 It was an exciting though monumental task, that too, to be undertaken with very little resources. Prof. Govinda worked closely with Prof. Buch and others on this.

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In 1975, Prof. Govinda went on to join the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore, as a lecturer. In the four years that he was at ISEC, he had the opportunity to work closely with Prof. V.K.R.V. Rao,3 who introduced him to inter-disciplinary research and fieldwork in rural areas. He gleaned rich insights from this experience. He returned to CASE as Reader in 1977, where he taught both Philosophy of Education and Psychology of Learning. He developed a deeper insight into science and mathematics education and carried out research on adult and non-formal education as also on teaching and learning. He was involved in mathematics textbook writing at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Delhi. At a time when no journals on education were being published from India, he launched Perspectives in Education, conceived as a journal of international standard but with Indian perspectives together with professors Buch and Shyam Menon.4 In 1987, Prof. Govinda joined the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) as Professor. Coming to NIEPA exposed him to the world of policy-making in ways he had not conceived earlier. From this point on began his long association with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), in particular with Anil Bordia.5 He got closely involved with parliamentary consultative committees and with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on matters of education. Together with N.V. Varghese, his research on quality of primary schooling in India broke the mould in which NIEPA had been cast until then, of using only secondary and macro-level data and focussing primarily on educational planning and administration. Their study was the first of such in NIEPA in which they went to the field themselves – a trend that many others have emulated since at NIEPA. In 1993, Prof. Govinda went on lien to the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), UNESCO, Paris. Working at IIEP offered him an immense international exposure especially through his travels to various African, West Asian and South East Asian countries. He was helming the Institute’s work on Education for All (EFA) and decentralization of education. He returned to NIEPA in 1995 and went on to conduct a study on school mapping in Lok Jumbish6 in Rajasthan, which went on to become a widely cited study on the use of participatory methods. From 2003 to 2005, he was Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, London, UK. In 2009, he was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of NUEPA (by this time NIEPA had become a deemed-to-be University), the only one in the country offering postgraduate and doctoral programmes in educational planning and administration, which he served until 2015. Under his leadership, NUEPA underwent a decisive transformation from an Institute towards institution building of a future university. Known for 296

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building productive teams, he established a number of centres of excellence within NUEPA. All these centres continue to thrive in NIEPA today. He also held additional charge as Director, NCERT, during the period 2010–11. This was also the year when the institution was completing its 50 years. He mobilized the NCERT team to commemorate the institution’s achievements in a grand manner. There is much that could be said and celebrated about Prof. Govinda’s contribution to NUEPA and even during his brief spell at NCERT. However, the focus of this piece is essentially on his academic journey and his intellectual contributions. For nearly three decades, starting from 1987, Prof. Govinda’s career as an academic was primarily linked to NIEPA/NUEPA. Neither an account of the institution’s pioneering role in policymaking nor Prof. Govinda’s significant contribution to the field of Indian education would be complete without a discussion of the work on the Right to Education (RTE). Whilst the RTE was discussed extensively during the drafting of the Indian Constitution, it was not until the 1990s that the RTE movement gained momentum. The RTE legislation was tailored into existence only in the period following the passage of the 86th Constitutional Amendment in 2002, which declared education as a fundamental right of all children in the age group of 6–14 years. Prof. Govinda played an active role alongside Vinod Raina7 and A.K. Sharma8 in the sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), and later with Anita Kaul9 was tasked with the formulation of the RTE Act. His colleagues at NUEPA had also worked hard to provide, among other things, an estimate of the finances required to implement it. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was passed by the Indian Parliament in 2009 and came into force in April of 2010. This was the first time in the history of independent India that a fundamental right was added to the Constitution. Upon his retirement from NUEPA in 2015, Prof. Govinda became a distinguished professor at the Council for Social Development (CSD) and a National Fellow of the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR). He embarked on the task of writing on RTE, human rights and democracy in India, with a view to offering an insider’s perspective. This has now turned into a substantive manuscript (in progress) which traces the journey of primary education in India – from compulsion to fundamental right through the last 75  years of its colonial rule in India as well as the first 75 years since independence. Prof. Govinda’s intellectual contribution to educational development, in particular educational policy and planning, has been formidable and vast – commencing from his years of teaching and research during his time at MSU and ISEC, to his intense involvement with educational policymaking at the international, national and state levels during his time at IIEP and NUEPA. His professional expertise and advice were actively sought by agencies such as the UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, SIDA, the Aga Khan Foundation 297

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and MHRD. Being able to speak and write about Indian education with an authenticity and insight that few others possess is borne by his work with state governments, in particular the State Government of Karnataka while remaining actively involved, including as member of the board of trustees of leading grassroots organizations in India such as Doosra Dashak (Rajasthan), Pratham (Delhi Chapter) and Katha (New Delhi). Those who have closely engaged with his scholarship would know that the issue he has consistently sought to address through his research, often adopting a retrospective approach, is how cumulative change (and improvement) takes place in the field of education. In addition to his work on RTE and EFA, the key areas in which he has led projects and contributed to include adult and non-formal education, decentralization of educational governance, urban primary education and community participation. He has also worked on teacher education, exclusion and inequality in school education, and policy reforms in school education. Prof. Govinda has never shied away from articulating bold ideas (see Govinda, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2011). However, he has also firmly believed in a collaborative approach to writing and research. Over a career spanning nearly 50 years, his writing collaborations have been with M.S. Yadav (1979) on educational evaluation; M.B. Buch (1990) on teacher education; N.V. Varghese (1993) and Manzoor Ahmed (2010) on primary education in India and South Asia, respectively; Cream Wright (1993), I. Lorfing and R. Govinda (1995), and Mona Sedwal (2017 and forthcoming) on decentralization of educational governance in India and on education for all; I. Lorfing and R. Govinda (1995), Jessica Ball et al. (2015) on literacy and numeracy skills among children in developing countries; Madhumita Bandyopadhyay (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2018) on universal primary education, on inequality and exclusion in Indian education; Rashmi Diwan (2003) on community participation; A. Mathew (1991, 2013, 2018 and 2020) on national policy on education, on adult education and on school reform; Josephine (2005) on para-teachers; Nitya Rao (2004) and K. Biswal (2005a and 2005b) on literacy campaigns and school education; S. Homchoudhari (2002) on the role of headmasters in school education; Anton De Grauwe and Gabriel Carron (1998) and Shahjahan Tapan (1999) on school-based supervision and support; Sheldon Shaeffer (1998) on innovations in school-based management; Harry Black, Florence Kiragu and Marion Devine (1993) on school improvement; Poornima M. (2020) on the social sector and sustainable development goals in India. Rather than engage in discursive debates, Prof. Govinda’s reflections and writings are guided by the field and empirical research he has conducted himself or overseen. Many of his writings – individual and collaborative – have emerged from projects that he has conceived, led and/or been actively involved in. These have been large projects with the exception being the Lok Jumbish study (1997–98). Most notable among these are his study 298

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on primary education in Madhya Pradesh with N.V. Varghese (1991–92), his project on decentralization of education in South Asia (1993–95) and his project with Gabriel Carron (1996–97) under the auspices of the Asian Network of Training and Research Institutions in Educational Planning (ANTRIEP) that the two of them were instrumental in setting up in 1995. Other significant contributions that feature in this list are two EFA projects (2000–01 and 2014–16) as well as the project led with Madhumita Bandyopadhyay (2006–11) as part of the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE), which involved Angela W. Little and Keith M. Lewin from the Institute of Education (University of London) and Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex), respectively. Also worth mentioning here are three other projects which Prof. Govinda conceived and whose execution he oversaw – a study on Operation Blackboard led by Kuldeep Kumar, a study on District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) led by Neelam Sood and a project on training and capacity building in educational planning in Nepal led by Najma Akhtar. Prof. Govinda’s professional association and friendship with a number of people have shaped and sustained him in his long and illustrious career. Some friends shared their personal tributes which have been reproduced below. I have known Dr. Govinda since 1968, when he was doing his master’s in education at Manasagangotri, University of Mysore, after completing M.Sc. in mathematics. I subsequently enjoyed a highly fruitful, rich, meaningful, and productive relationship with him once he joined ISEC as faculty in 1975. Way back in 1978, the education unit at ISEC was entrusted with an evaluation of the values of education for rural development in Karnataka. The study had been sponsored by the Government of Karnataka. Govind helped me immensely in completing a pilot study in the village of Channarayapatna/Hassan district and Gudibande taluk (block) of Kolar district. Those were difficult times for fieldwork for research projects. Bus facilities from taluq headquarters to villages were few and far between and even minimal transport services were non-existent. Both Govind and I had to hire bicycles for visiting sample households to canvas questionaries in the sample villages. Fieldwork used to stretch into late evenings as the respondent agricultural workers/laborers would return home late from work. I remember when once we had started off from Dindigur village, 13 kms from Channarayapatna taluk, we discovered that our bicycles had no headlights. It was pitch dark all the way and the headlight from four/ two-wheelers in the opposite direction were dazzling our eyes. We had only one protection against this bizarre experience – prayers to the unknown, as we cycled back to our inspection bungalow. This was a 299

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horrifying experience but both of us were young, full of commitment and had each other’s company too! Prof. V.K.R.V. Rao, our then Director of ISEC, was very fond of Govind, leaving others green-eyed at times! He would encourage Govind to raise questions especially when distinguished guest speakers would address the ISEC faculty and students, and would refer to his questions when following up, adding his own comments. He would always address young Govind with fondness. Govind and I shared the same faculty room and also our lunch which we used to get from our homes. Our close association continued even through his stay at Vadodra and later, in Delhi. It extended to our families and enriched our lives. We have pleasant memories of our association which will continue and last a lifetime. A.S. Seetharamu, August 19, 2021 Professor R Govinda (Dr Govind, to me) is the first among a new generation of educationists who graduated from the Centre of Advanced Study in Education (CASE), Baroda in the 1970s, in what is recognized in retrospect, as CASE’s golden era under the nurturance of Professor MB Buch. Like all first-borns, Dr Govind carries with him the best of both generations, in the cusp between which his location is firm and unchallenged. Being a polymath, it comes naturally to him to define his practice of education on the solid foundation of philosophy and at the same time reach out with ease to areas like curriculum and learning. The years that Dr Govind served on the faculty of Professor V.K.R.V. Rao’s Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore gave him a deep and intense exposure to policy and planning perspectives, so unusual for an educationist. I came in contact with Dr Govind when he returned to Baroda in 1979 and joined the faculty there. I was a research fellow at that time. It was my good fortune that Dr Govind and I soon got into a study circle mode of reading texts together. Our common interests were mostly in epistemology and sociology of knowledge. Dr Govind of course had also other interests. Linguistics was one of them. He even successfully completed a postgraduate diploma programme in Linguistics. It was in 1984 that we got together in the starting of a journal Perspectives in Education with Professor Buch as its Chief Editor with both Dr Govind and I as Editors. For me, editing the journal and managing the editorial office along with Professor Buch and Dr Govind was an invaluable learning experience. Our association continued when in close succession Dr Govind and I moved to Delhi in 1987, he to the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, and I to the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Although we never worked in the same institution thereafter, we continued to take interest in and associate with each other’s activities a great deal. 300

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I have had a ring-side view of Dr Govind’s brilliant professional trajectory. He has a remarkable ability to traverse seamlessly across several fields of practice and domains of knowledge. What I  have admired in him most is the prolific nature of his writing and an impressively large body of published work that he has created over the years. His forthcoming volume on the history of compulsory primary education in India promises to be a masterpiece – one of the most comprehensive and well-researched works in this area. The Festschrift in honour of Professor Govinda is a fitting tribute to his monumental work in terms of scholarship, institution building and to the significant role he has played in education policy. However, his best works are still in the making. There is much more to come from him! Shyam Menon, August 25, 2021 I first had an opportunity to interact with Govinda in the early 1990s, when after five years working with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), organising beedi workers in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, I came to Delhi and was looking for work. I was invited to join the newly formed National Institute of Adult Education (NIAE), but was worried about joining a quasi-governmental institution and asked for his advice. Having been at NIEPA for many years, he assured me that it was possible to create space for innovative work, if one had the ideas and the motivation. He also emphasized to me the importance of having an institutional base, for innovative work to have a larger impact. As NIAE had been specially created to support the National Literacy Mission, a priority for the government at that time, interesting approaches could be institutionalised within the state system, with potential for replication or adaptation. After a few years, we came together to organise a workshop to reflect on the lessons from the literacy campaigns. While he was at that time focusing more on primary and basic education, the ease with which he was able to speak, in depth, on adult literacy across contexts and scales, was really inspiring. We ended up co-authoring an introductory chapter to the book that brought together these case studies, critically unpacking the lessons from six Indian districts seen as most ‘successful’ in their campaigns for ‘total literacy’. I was not trained in educational research, my primary research focus being development studies, with a particular focus on understanding the gendered nature of work, of assets, and indeed power relations. Yet my approach to research has drawn on principles of adult education, using participatory and empowering approaches, especially in working with women. Govinda did not mind this, in fact, he liked having discussions and debates on education, from different disciplinary perspectives. He encouraged people like me to engage with the 301

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field of education, demanding only new energy and ideas, and the willingness to experiment with action, even if not always successful. A key piece of advice from Govinda, that has stayed with me through my educational journey, was the need to think ‘big’, for scale, and for institutionalisation of innovative approaches and lessons learned. Working at a University, I have been able to bring my research and practice into my teaching; however, more recently, I have been collaborating with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to develop a 4-credit open access course on community participation and empowerment for sustainable development, soon to be launched on the government’s SWAYAM platform. While I have not worked closely with Govinda on joint projects since the late 1990s, at moments like this, I acknowledge his deep insights and wise counsel. Nitya Rao, August 30, 2021 The professional heights that Prof. Govinda has reached have not been without the strength of his closely knit family – his wife, Amita, and their daughter, Radhika, both academics in their own right. Prof. Govinda’s most generative personal and intellectual collaboration has been with Amita. Both have not only stood by each other through their highs and lows as life partners but have also been each other’s dedicated listeners and interlocutors on ideas big and small. Radhika considers her father most influential and inspiring in her own intellectual journey though now there are also others with whom she must vie with – her life partner Shishir and their child Krishna, to have time with her father! Those close to Prof. Govinda would know the beautiful balance both he and Amita have been able to achieve between family, friends and colleagues and a steadfast commitment to academic pursuits. The publications listed later are not exhaustive but provide a window into some of his collaborative works amongst others.

Notes 1 The father of Survey of Research in Education and an institutional force in building strong teams of educational researchers at CASE/MSU whose alumni became prominent educationists and educators in the country. Dr. Buch was a passionate teacher, an innovator in education and a humanist. 2 With no previous history of an organized database, the Survey of Research in Education was the first of its kind in the country. It was later institutionalized and taken over by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). 3 V.K.R.V. Rao served as a Union Minister for the Education in 1971, an Indian economist, politician, educator and an institution builder who established three noted institutions in Social Science research in India: Delhi School of Economics,  Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi  and the  Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore amongst others.

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4 Shyam Menon is Professor, Central Institute of Education, University of Delhi and former Vice-Chancellor, Ambedkar University Delhi. 5 Anil Bordia was a former civil servant and Secretary of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, widely respected for his deep interest in, and contribution to Indian education. 6 Lok Jumbish, or  Peoples Movement for Education for All, was launched in June 1992 jointly by Governments of India and of Rajasthan, with support from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). It began with the basic aim of universalizing primary education in Rajasthan. 7 Vinod Raina worked on education reforms in India. He was one of the co-founders of the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti and the All-India People’s Science Network. 8 A.K. Sharma is a former director of NCERT, New Delhi. 9 Anita Kaul was a civil servant, best known for her contributions to Indian education, in particular, the Right to Education Act.

Select Publications Ahmed, M., and Govinda, R. (eds.) (2010):“Towards Universal Primary Education in South Asia: Bridging Inequalities”, Special Issue, Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, 40(3), pp. 307–415. Ball, J., Paris, S.G., and Govinda, R. (2015):“Literacy and Numeracy Skills Among Children in Developing Countries”, in Wagner, D. (ed.), Learning and Education in Developing Countries Research and Policy for the Post-2015 UN Development Goals. New York: Palgrave Pivot. Black, H., Govinda, R., Kiragu, F., and Devine, M. (1993): School Improvement in the Developing World: An Evaluation of the Aga Khan Foundation Programme. Glasgow: GNP Booth. Carron, G., De Grauwe, A., and Govinda, R. (1998): Supervision and Support Services in Asia. A  Comparative Analysis. Trends in School Supervision. Paris: UNESCO. Govinda, R. (1995): Status of Primary Education of the Urban Poor in India: An Analytical Review. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO. Govinda, R. (2000): Reaching the Unreached Through Participatory Planning: A Study of School Mapping in Lok Jumbish. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO. Govinda, R. (ed.) (2002): India Education Report: A  Profile of Basic Education. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Govinda, R. (ed.) (2011): Who Goes to School? Exploring Exclusion in Indian Education. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2006): “Decentralisation of Educational Governance in India: Trends and Issues”, in Bjork, C. (ed.), Educational Decentralization. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 159–176. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2008): “Access to Elementary Education in India: Country Analytical Review”, Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE). https://www.semanticscholar. org/paper/Access-to-Elementary-Education-in-India-Govinda-Bandyopadhyay/ cf7c6584c1006e41cb54bf9d03b844a8586ae40a

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Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2010): “Social Exclusion and School Participation in India: Expanding Access With Equity”, Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, 40(3), pp. 337–354. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2012): “Achieving Universal Elementary Education: Expanding Access with Equity”, in Sleeter, C., Upadhyay, S.B., Mishra, A.K., and Kumar, S. (eds.), School Education, Pluralism and Marginality: Comparative Perspectives. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan. Govinda, R., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (2018): “Exclusion and Inequality in Indian Education”, in Haque, T., and Reddy, D.N. (eds.), India Social Development Report: Rising Inequalities in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Govinda, R., and Biswal, K. (2005a): “Mapping Literacy in India: Who Are the Illiterates and Where Do We Find Them?”, Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006, Literacy for Life. Paris: UNESCO. Govinda, R., and Biswal, K. (2005b):“EFA in South and West Asia: An Overview of Progress since Dakar”, Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2006, Literacy for Life. Paris: UNESCO. Govinda, R., and Buch, M.B. (1990):“Indian Research in Teacher Education: A Review”, in Tisher, R.P., and Wideen, M.F. (eds.), Research in Teacher Education: International Perspectives. London: Falmer Press. Govinda, R., and Diwan, R. (2003): Community Participation and Empowerment in Primary Education: Indian Experience. New Delhi: Sage. Govinda, R., and Homchoudhari, S. (2002): Role of Head Teachers in School Management in India, Report. NIEPA and European Commission. Govinda, R., and Josephine, Y. (2005): “Para-teachers in India: A Review”, Contemporary Education Dialogue, 2(2), pp. 193–224. Govinda, R., and Mathew, A. (1991): “What Went Wrong With National Policy on Education?” Education and Society, 1(1), pp. 2–14. Govinda, R., and Mathew, A. (2013): “Right to Education of Children of Lesser Gods: Non-Formal Education in India”, Indian Journal of Adult Education, 74(3), pp. 97–130. Govinda, R., and Mathew, A. (2018): “Universalisation of Elementary Education in India: Story of Missed Targets and Unkept Promises”, Working Paper. New Delhi: Council for Social Development. Govinda, R., and Mathew, A. (2020): “Politics of School Location in Post-Reform India: The Exclusion and Inequality”, in Varghese, N.V., and Bandyopadhyay, M. (eds.), Education, Democracy and Development: Issues Relating to Equity and Inclusion. New Delhi: Shipra Publications, pp. 222–236. Govinda, R., and Poornima, M. (eds.) (2020): India’s Social Sector and SDGs: Problems and Prospects. New Delhi: Routledge. Govinda, R., and Rao, N. (2004): “Evaluating Literacy Campaigns: Issues and Prospects”, in Karlekar, M. (ed.), Paradigms of Learning: The Total Literacy Campaign in India. New Delhi: Sage. Govinda, R., and Sedwal, M. (eds.) (2017): India Education Report: Progress of Basic Education. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Govinda, R., and Sedwal, M. (forthcoming): Education for All in India: Thirty Years After Jomtien. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

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Govinda, R., and Tapan, S. (1999): “Quality Education through School-based Supervision and Support: The Case for GSS Primary Schools in Bangladesh”, Working Document in the Series: Trends in School Supervision. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO. Govinda, R., and Varghese, N.V. (1993): Quality of Primary Schools in India: A Case Study of Madhya Pradesh. Paris: IIEP and New Delhi: NIEPA. Lorfing, I., and Govinda, R. (1995): Development Since Jomtien: EFA in the Middle East and North Africa. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO. Shaeffer, S., and Govinda, R. (1998): Towards a New Framework for School Management: Creating Common Ground Among School, Community and Local Education Authorities, Report. Jakarta: PT Hickingling. Wright, C., and Govinda, R. (eds.) (1993): Three Years after Jomtien: EFA in the Eastern and Southern African Region. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO. Yadav, M.S., and Govinda, R. (1979): “Evolution of an Instructional Strategy for Teacher Educational Evaluation”, Programmed Learning and Educational Technology, 16(3), pp. 200–209.

Book Tobin, J.J., Wu, D.Y.H., and Davison, D.H. (1989, new edition – 2009): Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China and the United States. New Haven: Yale University Press.

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75th NSS 99, 102 Aangan Trust 54 – 55 Academic City Authority (ACA) 240 academic culture 289 – 290 academic leadership 182 – 183 Accelerated Development Plan (ADP) 218 access and learning, equity in: conclusion 136 – 137; demographic transition and enrolment projection 122 – 124; inequality and household affordability 129 – 130; issues arising 133 – 135; patterns of enrolment in secondary school 118 – 122; school location 127 – 129; school size 124 – 127; for secondary education in India 117 – 118; sustainable public financing 130 – 133 administrative drivers 228 adolescent children: Aangan Trust 54 – 55; aspiration for education 50 – 51; conclusion 56; definition 46; Doosra Dashak 53 – 54; MV Foundation 55; out-of-school children and school dropouts 51 – 53; school dropouts and aspiration for education 46 – 47; and secondary school education 47 – 50; Udaan 54 adult learning and education (ALE): challenges for 60; conclusion 73; context 59 – 60; for inclusive and sustainable development 62; physical and ICT-enabled infrastructure for 65 – 66; programmes during and post COVID-19 60 – 73; revisiting theories of 63 – 64 adult literacy 61

ahimsa 275 Ahmed, Manzoor 283 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) 242 – 243 All-India Educational Conference 210 Ambani-Birla Committee Report 251 – 252 Andhra Pradesh: HE policy in 234 – 236; Primary Education Project 227 anganwadis 83, 113 anganwadi workers (AWWs) 287 Annual Percentage Rate (APR) 130 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) surveys 22, 40, 83, 273 area-based approach 55 Asian Network of Training and Research Institutions in Educational Planning (ANTRIEP) 299 aspiration for education 50 – 51 assessment of learning vs. assessment for learning 268 – 270 autonomous model 61 Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam: exposure to learning and education 206 – 210; introduction 205 – 206; national system of education, building 210 – 215 Bangladesh: education policymaking 18 – 19; NEP 2010, education policymaking 19 – 21 Belém Framework for Action of 2010 62; meeting learning needs of all adults 65 below the poverty line (BPL) 135 binary lens, education through: assessment of learning vs. assessment

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for learning 268 – 270; conclusion 275; introduction 265; joyful vs. joyless learning 266 – 268; New Education Policy 2020 in 271 – 275; online vs. offline teaching-learning 270 – 271 Bordia, Anil 15 CABE Committee 49 CARE India 54 caste-based educational complexes 236 Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) 174 – 175, 225, 297 Centre for Advanced Studies in Education (CASE) 295 Centre for Civil Society (CCS) 26 Chand, Kishan 207 child labour 180 child marriages 60 child trafficking 60 China 282 – 284; cultural difference 282 – 284; cultural perspective in 284 – 286 Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) 250, 256 – 258 civil society groups, in India 227 – 228 collaborative learning 63 colonial model of education 205 common service centres (CSCs) 66 Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE) 218, 299 Consumer Price Index (CPI) 146 context-specific leadership action 180 continuation school 219 continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE) 268 – 269 continuous professional development (CPD) 273 contract teachers, in government school: gender-based differences 162 – 164; in government-managed schools 161; journey of 153 – 154; location of 164 – 170; origins of the concept of 156 – 157; Ramesar, story of 154 – 156; vs. regular teachers 170 – 171; in residential government schools 164; in specific types of government schools 163; statewise percentage of 160; trends over time 157 – 162; vacancies and nonavailability of subject teachers 157

Coombs, Philip 15 Council of the Advisory Board for Education (CABE) 117 COVID-19: adult learning and education during and post (see adult learning and education (ALE)); leadership challenge 183; low-cost private schools, impact on 90 credit-based modular system 249 Credit-Modular system 257 cultural dilemma: cultural perspective in China 284 – 286; cultural shocks in India 286 – 287; and education 281 – 282; in India and China 282 – 284; prologue 279 – 281; teaching about 287 – 290 Cultural Perspectives in Educational Studies 287 Cultural Revolution 281 curriculum: diversification 219; planning and review 258 decentralisation 187; decision-making 190; and delegation 27 decentralized-centralized government, in India 226 decision-making, politics of 25 – 26 demographic dividend 52, 53 demographic transition 122 – 124 District Five-Year Rolling Plans 136 District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) 299 District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) 107, 156, 227 Division of Labour 195 – 196 Doosra Dashak organization 53 – 54 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) 242 – 243 Dzobo Committee Report 219 – 220 economic decline, in Ghana 220 Economically Weaker Section (EWS) 43, 136 Education Act of 1961 218, 223 educational leadership 24 educationally weak sections (EWS) 22 Education Commission 14 Education for All (EFA) 187; Ghana, policy change and implementation 218 – 225; India, policy change and implementation 225 – 229; movement

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1; policy change and implementation 217 – 218 education policymaking: Bangladesh 18 – 19; Bangladesh NEP 2010 19 – 21; India 15 – 18 education reform, technical and political imperatives of 221 effective school management, framework for: desired outcomes and achieving them 190 – 196; formula for adopting new 196 – 200; lessons for policy and practice 200 – 202; overview of 188; prologue 187 – 188; shift in focus 189 – 190 Eleventh Five-year Plan 49 elusive triangle 3, 13 – 15 empirical researches in Indian context 176 – 178 empowerment 64 English language 13 English medium schooling: arguments for the right of the disadvantaged to 82 – 83; attendance in 79; for disadvantaged Muslims and its delusionary advantages 88 – 89; major limitation in official data 78 – 79; Muslims heavily invested in 82; and other MOI schools 77 – 78; poor standards of teaching and learning in low-cost 83 – 84; post-1990s’ rise of the English tsunami 79 – 82; response of state governments to 83 enrolment: gender gap in 98 – 101; projection 122 – 124; in schools having all teachers on contract 169; in secondary school, pattern of 118 – 122 experiential learning 63 fee free education 143 – 145 Fee Reimbursement Scheme (FRS) 236 feminists 64 Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana (FAST) 236 formal schooling, range of reforms for 76 formative assessments 268 Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) 258 – 260 free, compulsory and universal basic education (FCUBE) programme 222 free education for all 144 – 145 free-willed individuals 52

Freire, Paulo 61 full cost of study 144 functional literacy 61 Gandhi, Rajiv 16, 226 gender: differences among regular and contract teachers 162 – 164; discrimination 96 – 97; equity in primary education 106 – 114; gap in enrolment 98 – 101; teachers on contract, disaggregated by 165 Gender Parity Index (GPI) 100; interstate disparity 105 – 106 General Rawlings 220, 222 Ghana: Education Service Council 223; and India 229 – 231; policy change, drivers of 218 – 223; policy implementation, drivers and inhibitors of 223 – 225 Ghosh, J.C. 205 Global Campaign for Education (GCE) 25 Global Education Meet (GEM) 240 globalization 289 Gnanam Committee 255 Govinda, R. 8; tryst with education 295 – 302 grade 3 stage 31 grade 5 stage 31 grade 8 stage 31 grade 10 stage 31 grade-wise structure 17 gram panchayats 53 grant-in-aid (GIA) 237; exit from 238 Gross Attendance Rate (GAR) 99; and Net Attendance Rate 100 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 146 gross enrolment rates (GERs) 99, 118; increased consistently over last 20 years 119 Harvard Graduate School of Education 279, 287 – 290 higher education (HE): in Andhra Pradesh 234 – 236; conclusion 147 – 148; conclusion 244; cost sharing in 145; education-politics nexus in Maharashtra’s 241 – 242; equity, expansion and quality in 142 – 143; fee free education for all 143 – 145; in Karnataka 236 – 239; Kerala duel to stem 239 – 240;

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International Higher Academic Zones (IHAZs) 240 International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) 187, 296 international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) 39 Internet 270 interstate disparity 105 – 106

modelling funding equity 146 – 147; overview of policy shifts 141 – 142; as private and public good 145 – 146; privatization and commercialization of 234; in Tamil Nadu 242 – 244 Higher Education Council 17 higher education institutions (HEIs): policy norm for 259 high fee-charging 80 – 82 High-level Committee on Education and Employment (HLCEE) 240 Hofstede, Geert 287 home-grown assessments 25 Hundred-Family Meals 285

joyful vs. joyless learning 266 – 268 justiciable legislation 227

ICT-based learning 24 ideological model 61 Ikhvelos 53 immediate policy context 251 – 255 India: adult education programmes 65; contract teachers in government schools of 153 – 171; cultural difference 282 – 284; cultural shocks in 286 – 287; education policymaking 15 – 18; educational management structure 27 – 28; and Ghana 229 – 231; mapping gender in school education at primary level in 95 – 114; policy change, drivers of 225 – 228; policy implementation, drivers and inhibitors of 228 – 229; secondary school development in 134 – 135 Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) 254 Indian Council for Social Science Research 15 Indian Education Commission 174 Indian education system 266 Indian National Science Academy (INSA) 254 inequality, in education 1 inequality and household affordability 129 – 130 influencing process 178 informal learning 62 information and communication technologies (ICTs) 68 – 69 Infosys 82 Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) 296 institutional continuity 224 instructional leadership 182 – 183 intentional influence 179

Karnataka, HE policy in: aims and objectives 237; autonomy to colleges 237 – 238; evolution of 236 – 237; exit from grants-in-aid burden 238; expansion 237; governance of universities 237; grants-in-aid burden 238; private aided and un-aided colleges 238 – 239; restructuring and revision of curriculum and contents 238 Karnataka University Review Commission (KURC) 236 – 237 Kerala, HE policy in 239 – 240 Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) 240 Kerala University Commission (KUC) 240 Khan, Maulana Asadullah 207 Kothari Education Commission 16, 174, 225 – 226, 275 Kovalam Declaration 240 Kumar, Kuldeep 299 Kwapong Committee 219 layered education system 275 learning, assessment of 24 – 25 The Learning Gap 286 learning outcomes (LOs) 273 learning poverty, concept of 21 learning strategies 68 left democratic frong (LDF) 239 LeVine, Robert 284 lifelong learning programme, policy for 72 – 73 literacy 23; campaign 19; for life, shaping future agendas 60; lifelong learning framework, concept of 61 – 62; and livelihood programmes 67; models of 61; social dimension of 61

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mrityu-bhoj 53 multiple literacies 61 – 62 multiple perspectives 281 multiplexity of culture 284 Muslims: attractions of English medium schooling for disadvantaged 88 – 89; decline of Urdu medium schooling 85 – 86; disadvantaged, regional medium schooling for 86 – 87; in English medium schooling 82; marginalized, regional medium schools for 88 – 89 MV Foundation (MVF) 50, 55

literacy/adult education instructor 67 – 68; improving quality of training 70 – 71 localized school management: building capacity in performing new roles 198 – 199; desired outcomes of more 190 – 192; implications for existing distribution of power 197; number of potential partners 193; redefining relationships among partners 193 – 195; sharing and networking 195 location-allocation analysis 127 Lok Jumbish project 227 Macaulayan system 209 Maharaja Sayajirao University’s (MSU’s) 295 Maharashtra, education-politics nexus in 241 – 242 Maharashtra Higher Education Authority (MAHED) 242 Maharashtra Public University Act 241, 242 Mahila Samakhya programme 64 Mahila Samooh 53 mapping gender in school education: attainment 101 – 105; enrolment 98 – 101; factors affecting 106 – 114; interstate disparity 105 – 106; issues and challenges pertaining to achieving 96 – 97; out-of-school children 98; policy perspectives 95 – 96; at primary level in India 95 mass scale failures 48 medium of instruction (MOI) 3; and ground realities 76; introduction 75 – 76; objective and brief outline 77; unsuitability of Urdu medium as an 88 meta-analysis of political economy 26 mid-day meals 177 military coup, in Ghana 219 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 217 ministry of education, objectives of 214 Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) 17, 117, 296 Model Education Code 175 Mohanty, Manoranjan 259 – 260 monitoring and evaluation system, complexities of evolving 71 – 72

Naidu, Chandrababu 235 Naik, J.P. 13, 228 National Achievement Survey (NAS) 118; conclusion 41 – 43; importance of 31 – 33; in light of NEP 2020 33; overview of 30 – 31, 32; students’ performance in 2017 34 – 39; testing of 39 – 41 National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) 156 National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) 15, 33, 268, 296 National Curriculum Framework 72 National Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) 183 National Education Forum, of Ghana 220 National Education Policy (NEP) 2, 33, 75, 114, 251 National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) 183 National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) 8, 15, 296 National Knowledge Commission (NKC) 251, 257 – 258; diversity in college types 253; on Undergraduate Education 252 national learning assessment data 21 National Policy Context 250 – 251 National Policy on Education 1986 15, 16 National Skill Mission 255 National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) 143

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national system of education, building 210 – 215 National Teaching Service Corps 24 National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) 280 Nehruvian era, lapses of 215 Net Attendance Rate (NAR) 99 Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) 99 new education governance paradigm 26 – 28 New Education Policy (NEP) 271 – 275 NFHS 4 national survey 104 Nirantar 66 – 67 Nkrumah, Kwame 218 no-fee schools 22 non-formal education 19, 62; concept of 61 non-selective basic education 221 Nxasana, Sizwe 146 one-way ANOVA 37 online vs. offline teaching-learning 270 – 271 Operation Blackboard scheme 228, 283 out-of-school children 51 – 53, 98; nonavailability of female teachers 113; UNESCO estimation 59 pedagogic technology 20 performance of students in 2017 34 – 35; on different learning outcomes 36; gender and location, terms of 35; in grade 5 mathematics 36; in grade 8 science 36; secondary analysis of NAS data 38 – 39; statistical significance 37; over the cycles of NAS 36 – 37 performing at grade 22 perspective transformation 63 plus2 48 policy change: in Ghana 218 – 225; in India 225 – 229 policy implementation 217 – 218; in Ghana 218 – 225; in India 225 – 229 political independence: in Ghana 218 – 219; in India 225 post-independence period 95, 97 principal’s leadership role: conclusion 183 – 184; in context of school improvement 178 – 180; empirical researches in Indian

context 176 – 178; exploring complementarities 173 – 174; instructional and academic leadership 182 – 183; policy pronouncements 174 – 176; and school improvement, linkages between 180 – 182 private education 25 private unaided schools 80 – 82; reasons for deficits in 84 problem of poverty 141 – 142 problem of riches 142 Professional Learning Community (PLC) 183 Programme of Action 226 – 227 Programme on International Student Assessment (PISA) 25, 30, 118 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 25, 30 Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) 220 – 221 public examinations 33 public-private partnership (PPP) model 49 Pune University Act 241; Section 77 of 241 – 242 pupil questionnaire (PQ) 32 pupil teacher ratios (PTRs) 125, 156, 267 purposeful leadership 182 qualitative improvement 14; in tertiary education 19 – 20 qualitative research, in education 8 quality, inclusion and equality, in education: elusive triangle 13 – 15; learning outcomes 21 – 23; new education governance paradigm 26 – 28; policymaking 15 – 21; politics of decision-making and state capacity 25 – 26; quality with equity 23 – 25 quality with equity 23 – 25 Qudrat-i-Khuda Education Commission Report of 1974 19 Quranic concepts 206 Radhakrishnan Commission 215 Rahman, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur 19 Ramaphosa, Cyril 146 Rao, Nirmala 286 Rao, V.K.R.V. 296 Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) 4, 96, 117; challenge for

311

INDEX

133 – 135; cost per student profile 125, 126; first critical issue for 120; secondary school within 5 km 127 – 129 readability formulas 267 Reddy, Y.S. Rajasekhara 235 redistributive model 145 regional medium schooling: advantages of 86 – 87; disadvantages of 87; for marginalized Muslims 89 Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 9, 175 Right to Education (RTE) Act 5, 18, 95 – 96, 275, 297 Right to Education Bill 228 Samagra Shiksha (SS) 96 Sargent Plan 225 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) 30, 96, 119, 227, 228 scheduled castes (SCs) 75; disadvantage and inequality 109 – 110 scheduled tribes (STs) 75; disadvantage and inequality 109 – 110 scholarships 51 School Based Assessment (SBA) 33 school-based management: adequately financed 198; difficulties in 192 school dropouts 51 – 53 School Education Quality Index (SEQI) 40 school improvement, context of 178 – 179; effectiveness of 180; evolving leadership practices specific to 179 – 180; team building 179; vision setting 179 school management committees (SMCs) 18 school quality, improvement of 196 school questionnaire (SQ) 32 school supervisor, role of 193 Secondary Education Commission Report 174 secondary school education, adolescent children and 47 – 50 self-financing (SF) mode 239 separation of powers 27 seva 275 Shah, Parth 26

shift in focus: five assumptions 189 – 190; system to the individual school 190 Shiksha Karmi Programme (SKP) 156, 227 Shishu Shiksha Karmasuchi 162 socio-economic status, higher 42 South Africa: fairness and equality of opportunity 143; highest returns on higher education in 145; low expenditure on higher education 142; redistributive model 145; relieving funding pressures 143 starvation diet 142 state capacity, politics of 25 – 26 State-level Achievement Survey (SAS) 31 stimulate participation 190 student-teacher ratio 224 – 225 summative assessments 268 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 65, 72, 175, 217 sustainable public financing 130 – 133 swacchta 275 Swartz, Derrick 146 Tamil Nadu, HE policy in 242 – 244 Tarjuman-Ul-Quran 206 Task Force on Higher Education 237 Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) 155 Teacher Recruitment and Development Commission 20 Teacher Workforce study 157 teachers’ questionnaire (TQ) 32 teaching learning resources (TLRs) 266 technology-based community learning centres 66 Telugu Desam Party (TDP) 235 test-centric preparation 40 test taker’s motivation 41 transformation theory 63 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 25, 30 Udaan organization 54 undergraduate degree: discussion 260 – 262; experience and emergent issues 256 – 260; immediate policy context 251 – 255; national policy context 250 – 251; rethinking 249 – 250

312

INDEX

UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning (UIL) 69 UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) 23 universalization of elementary education (UEE) 8, 30, 95 University Education Report 215 University Grants Commission (UGC) 237, 249 Urdu medium schooling: decline of 85 – 86; extremely low attendance and enrolment rates of 84 – 85; limitations in the quality and outcomes of 86 Usual Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (UMPCE) 100

Varghese, N.V. 296 vocationalisation 17 volunteer-based programmes 69 – 70 Willett, John 287 Working Group 252; for academic change 252 – 253 World Bank 21 Yashpal Committee Report 266 Yuva Manch 53 Zakaullah, Munshi 213

313