Money cannot teach children

This years budget saw the finance minister increase the funding towards education by 34%.And although it it works out to just under 4 % of GDP , the increased focus is a welcome step.But does increased spending always give results?China has a literacy rate of 91% even when it spends 2.87% of its GDP on education as compared to India's literacy of 59.5%.

As a result of education programs during the 8th five year plan, by the end of 2000, 94% of India's rural population had primary schools within one km and 84% had upper primary schools within 3 km.So the main problem that plagues the primary education system is not accessibility.The major reason , which has been well pointed out by the government itself, is the high drop-out rate.Only 47 out of 100 children enrolled in class I reach class VIII.And this drop out rate increases with the level of education.So the increased enrollment in primary schools does not translate into increased educated population.It also negates the impact of the spending on secondary education as those benefits could have been available to a larger number of students.

The recent budget proposed a scholarship scheme to stem the drop-out rates and help students who leave school due to financial burdens.There is a possibility that most parents of children who get these scholarships may opt for private schools.And that brings us to the second problem - that of quality.Leave alone scholarship winning students- even some of poorer students have started opting for low-budget private schools.In fact, more than 80% of government-school teachers send their own children to a private school.Naveen Mandava points this 'Unknown Education Revolution' in his post.The government had come up with the Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan to universalise education.The signs of lack of accountability and transparency inherent in most government schemes are already showing with its underperformance.Add to it the fact that there has been diversion of funds and financial irregularities in some states and it presents a sad story.The result of poor quality is that majority of students who pass out cannot spell even basic words and do standard math.This results in degraded performance in secondary education.In contrast students from even sub-standard private schools do well.

Another problem with primary education is teacher absenteeism.To offset it the budget promises that 2 lakh more teachers will be employed.A necessary supplement to this should be strict action against irregular teachers.Swaminathan Aiyar points out in this excellent article how teacher unionism and their political clout affects the education system.He rightly points out that teacher salaries eat up a substantial portion(almost 90%) of the allocation (quite contrary to higher education) leaving little for anything else.The other day , CNN-IBN showed the dismal state of a government school in Bihar- a one room school with 5 classes simultaneously running with a drain and a handpump competing for space.The school system needs a massive boost as far as infrastructure is needed and its high time that the primary school system is de-regulated and private participation allowed along with increased accountability on the part of government.

Primary education forms the base for future development.Its necessary to upgrade it if India wants to improve its pathetic Human Development Index(ranked 127th).

A weak foundation is a disaster waiting to happen.