Who Will Teach the Teachers?

Via The Financial Express

Equity, innovation and public accountability have been affirmed as the core criteria for the new government. Let’s look at basic education through this prism.

With respect to equity, the case for action is even more immediate: children who don’t get basic skills will substantially miss out on gains from future growth when they enter the workforce. Inequality in education is a fundamental driver of the reproduction of inequalities of wealth and status.

And there are massive quality problems in basic education. There has indeed been a large effort in getting more resources into education, both from the centre and the states, and a big push on enrollments. But enrollment is not enough. The real problem lies in skills acquisition.

ASER 2008 finds that 97 per cent of rural 7-10 year olds are enrolled in school, but that there are shocking deficits in basic reading and maths. As just one example, almost half Standard V children can’t read a Standard II text in government schools. In private schools, attended by almost a quarter of rural children aged 6-14 in 2008, this proportion is a still over 30 per cent. And this isn’t just a problem of poor Northern States: rural children in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu actually have significantly worse reading and arithmetic skills than their Bihari counterparts, despite state incomes almost four times Bihar’s. This is a leading indicator of future exclusion in these fast-growing states.

So what’s the problem? Part of it is that many enrolled children aren’t even in school. Initial research results from one site in rural Bihar finds that only a third of enrolled children were in class in government schools visited earlier this year. In a parallel site in Uttarakhand it was better, but still only 60 per cent.

But the really big issue is having motivated teachers, with decent materials, who actually teach. The problem is well-known. The question is how much this is because of structures of remuneration that give little or no incentive to actually teach, because most teachers feel overwhelmed and disempowered, or lack of decent materials. Some observers—especially amongst my fellow economist—argue for giving up on the state system and relying on the private system solving the problem. Private schooling and tuition helps, but I just don’t see this being more than part of the solution, especially for poorer children most at risk of exclusion.

This is where public accountability comes in. The ASER report is itself a major contributor to accountability, through providing independent measures of real outcomes to shape public debate. But accountability has to work on many levels to be effective. And there’s a lot that can be done in linking performance to long-term career incentives, fostering internal work cultures and empowering teachers, without taking on the sacred cow of job security.

Read the entire article here.

Image Source : World Bank Photo Collection (© Ray Witlin / World Bank )