While the latest ASER report on rural education has both good and bad news, it unequivocally shows the government needs to move away from the infrastructure-linked education policy to one focused on learning outcomes. Enrolment rates across all age groups have improved, as have the availability of toilets (this was 68.7% in 2016 as compared to 65.2% in 2014) and access to mid-day meal scheme (87.1% in 2016 from 85.1% in 2014). The progress on learning has been mixed. There were some gains to be seen in lower classes, but there has been a marginal decline in the performance of the higher classes—considering the base was pretty poor to begin with, that’s not a happy state to be in.
The number of students in Class 3 who could read a Class 2 text rose from 19.6% in 2010 to 23.6% in 2014 and to 25.2% in 2016—the difference between government and private schools is around half, with just 19.3% of government-school children falling in this category versus 38% in private schools. In the case of Class 8 students, the number who could read a Class 2 text fell from 83.5% to 74.7% in 2014 (presumably the result of the no-detention policy brought in as part of the Right to Education) and further to 73.1% in 2016. In the case of maths, 68.4% of children in Class 8 could divide a 3-digit number by a 1-digit one in 2010, this collapsed to 44.2% in 2014 and then further to 43.3% in 2016. For English reading, there were some gains for Class V students from 2014, but at 24.5% it was still lower than the high of 28% it touched in 2008. But in the case of Class VII students’ ability to read simple sentences, the number came down from 53.8% in 2007 to 38.2% in 2016, which was lower than the 38.8% achieved in 2014.
With the government now talking about scrapping the no-detention policy, there could be some gains in future years. But with the levels of learning continuing to fall, the government simply has to move to a system linking teacher salaries to learning outcomes—if this is not possible, moving to much lower-paid para-teachers will at least save considerable sums of money that can be used for computer-aided learning—just 8.1% of children used computers in 2016, down from 9.3% in 2012. Also, with the gap between private and government schools worsening over time, considering scrapping government schools and replacing them with education vouchers for private schools has to be considered.