Public Report on Basic Education in India

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: I have read quite a few materials on education related issues in India. Most of the literature is either quite dry or full of anecdotes and no data, or focused on specific area/issues. The PROBE report is different.

It is an easy to read, lively presentation of the current knowledge and understanding of issues relating to children's education in India. The authors examine the problem as a whole: ie. what does it take to educate a whole population? What has been done so far? What is education? What are the key challenges? How well are the teachers trained? Do rural parents actually value education?

The primary source is a survey of the BIMARU states (Bihar, MP, Rajasthan & UP) and Himachal Pradesh. But it also includes insights from a range of sources such as dissertations (Nidhi Mehrotra) to leading social workers (Mrs. Shantha Sinha) to NGOs (Eklavya in MP) to governement officials. To understand why some states (eg. Himachal) are succeeding, while others are not, they compare the story of Himachal Pradesh with those of BIMARU states. Key factors that lead to positive results are identified.

A must read for anyone intersted in basic education.

Rating:
Summary: A superb account, and a timely call to action
Review: The Public Report on Basic Education in India (PROBE Report) must be the best and most genuine overall account of the state of basic education in the BIMARU states (Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, & UP) of India. The Report is based on a field-survey carried out by a team of investigators in the last few months of 1996. Simply put, I believe it is an absolute must for anybody interested in India's educational backwardness, and indeed anybody interested in the problem of development generally. The Report gives substance to a lot of what most people vaguely 'know' about the problems with rural elementary education. It ends up making a strong and very valid plea for, among other things: forming an effective lobby for rural and basic education; raising state investment in basic education; raising the awareness & improving the attitude of urban elites and middle classes and (ironically enough) the media to basic education issues; increasing the accountability of teachers; drastically improving school infrastructure; changing pedagogical styles; recognizing and overturning the elite bias of school curricula; making students less alienated from the educational environment; making basic education a participatory process between the students, their families, the teachers, and the community; and giving more value to the work of teachers and helping them overcome the manifold frustrations they face in their work. One thing the Report stresses is the benefits of making basic education a Fundamental Right rather than merely a constitutional directive.

A mere summary will not do justice to the Report - reading it is important because it not only provides detailed information, but it also hits one hard. However, here I will just point out some facts and myths about elementary education, as mentioned in chapter 2.

Fact 1: Low Achievements: Half the country's population (61% males, 36% females) cannot read or write. Less than 30% of adults have completed 8 years of schooling. Female literacy rates in India are much lower than in sub-Saharan Africa.

Fact 2: High disparities: By region, class, caste, gender (an extreme eg: literacy rates for an urban male from Kerala is 96%, and literacy rates for rural SC females in Rajasthan is 5%). Only 5 countries have higher male-female literacy gap than India - and Rajasthan alone has a larger population than these countries combined.

Fact 3: Slow progress: The increase of literacy rates is so slow that the absolute number of illiterate persons is still rising with each year.

Fact 4: State inertia

Myth 1: Parents are not interested; Myth 2: Child labor is the main obstacle; Myth 3: Elementary education is free; Myth 4: Schools are available.

One final word about the Report: it combines reasonable academic rigor with personal narratives, so that it is pitched at both the academic and the layman.

Rating:
Summary: Getting kids to learn: What really makes the difference?
Review: This is a highly unusual and readable report. It comes from India,researched and written by Indians who evidently care deeply about how their country fares and how their children do. But what it says it applies to the universal issues of basic education that are asked just about anywhere in the world. So anyone who wants to move beyond the "oh isn't it terrible?" mode to the "how to fix it?" mode will find this book worth reading. The report is really well researched for the five states of India which are its focus: Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh. But its power is not in its numbers, nor in the rehash of what "we know". Many other documents, such as World Bank documents, might do a more complete job of that. Its power is in the freshness and the passion coming out of the field investigations. Indias poor "shine through". We hear them speak in their own voice. And it is not just a keening about problems. It is a focussed and powerful statement of where the solutions are and how to get at them. It looks intensely at pockets of success and really asks, "why is that so?". This approach works in this report.