Having tested 16,000 students from 400 schools in Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, the world?s eyes are now set on India?s results on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This was India?s first attempt at the test, which will be followed up by a nationwide assessment in 2012. But before then, it?s useful to take stock of the overall status of education in the country. According to the Assessment Status of Education Report (ASER), 2010, the Union government?s education budget has doubled between 2004-05 and 2009-10, but still stands at a measly 0.64% of GDP, much lower than the world average of 5%. The main instrument of disbursement of these funds to the states is through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. However, the states spend, on average, about 70% of their allocations?Bihar?s usage of the funds has seen a decline from 62% in 2008-09 to 51% in 2009-10. Rajasthan has come in at the top of the spending tables at 89%, and this is a 2% drop from 91% spending in the previous year.

Despite its low usage of funds, Bihar has seen a dramatic drop?to a third?in its children ?out-of-school? numbers. Only 4.4% boys and 4.6% girls are not enrolled in schools?notice the negligible difference by gender. The countrywide enrolment statistics have improved, with the number of children between ages 6 and 14 years not in school dropping by half to 3.5%, within which one of the largest drops has been for children between 11 and 14 years of age whose enrolment has increased by 3 and 5 percentage points for boys and girls, respectively. Although government schools still remain the institutions of choice for most parents, private school enrolment has increased from 16% in 2005 to 24% in 2010.

The Right to Education has laid out several guidelines on infrastructure which schools comply with, such as having an office and store in the premises of the school (74.5%), drinking water (72.2%), adequate teaching learning material for class 2 (80.4%) and midday meal (83.4%). But there was a serious deficit in the toilet facilities, with only 36.8% of girl?s toilets deemed usable. Another RTE indicator in which schools fared badly was the pupil to teacher ratio. Under the RTE, schools with between 90 and 120 students are expected to have at least 4 teachers?57.8% schools this size were not compliant with the RTE norm.

ASER found that reading ability has remained largely unchanged, i.e. poor. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan were exceptions that saw increases in the proportion of class 1 students who are able to recognise letters. The story is more painful for math ability?nationally there is a decline in the ability to do basic math. The fact that teacher attendance has dropped over the past three years from 73.7% to 63.4% may be a contributing factor. Even though student attendance is fairly high at 74%, they don?t seem to be learning everything they need to at school since a fourth of class 5 and a third of class 8 students have paid private tuitions. That 53% of class 2 students still in a classroom where class 1 through 8 are also being taught may have something to do with it.

The rigour in the Indian schooling system is lauded at premier academic institutions abroad. But those schools are the exception, not the rule, as an analysis of the ASER data has revealed. Clearly a high level of enrolment and fulfilling basic infrastructure requirements does not result in a quality academic experience. The states would do well to concentrate on improving basic reading and arithmetic scores before setting sights on international assessment tests.