Education for all

EDUCATION FOR ALL

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The gains achieved since the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2000 are undeniable: great strides have been made towards universal primary education, increased participation in secondary and tertiary education and, in many countries, gender equality. More widely, there have been improvements in overcoming hunger, poverty, and child and maternal mortality.

The global financial crisis could radically change all this. Reaching the marginalized demonstrates that declining government revenue and rising unemployment now pose a serious threat to progress in all areas of human development. Government budgets are under even greater pressure and funding for education is especially vulnerable. So are poor households. Rising poverty levels mean that the challenge of meeting basic human needs is a daily struggle. Lessons from the past teach us that children are often the first to suffer—as is their chance to go to school.

Global Monitoring Report, 2010, underscores that there is a long way to travel. There are still at least 72 million children worldwide who are missing out on their right to education because of the simple fact of where they are born or who their family is. Millions of youths leave school without the skills they need to succeed in the workforce and one in six adults is denied the right to literacy.

The 2010 Report is a call to action. We must reach the marginalized. Only inclusive education systems have the potential to harness the skills needed to build the knowledge societies of the twenty-first century.

The international community needs to identify the threat to education posed by the economic crisis and the rise in global food prices. Human development indicators are deteriorating. An estimated 125 million additional people could be pushed into malnutrition and 90 million into poverty in 2010.

With poverty rising, unemployment growing and remittances diminishing, many poor and vulnerable households are being forced to cut back on education spending or withdraw their children from school. National budgets in poor countries are under pressure. Sub-Saharan Africa faces a potential loss of around US$4.6 billion annually in financing for education in 2009 and 2010, equivalent to a 10% reduction in spending per primary-school pupil.

As part of an effective response, it is need of the hour to provide sustained and predictable aid to counteract revenue losses, protect priority social spending and support progress in education.

The situation is not hopeless everywhere, though. Some countries have achieved extraordinary advances. Benin started out in 1999 with one of the world’s lowest net enrolment ratios but may now be on track for universal primary education by 2015. The share of girls out of school has declined from 58% to 54%, and the gender gap in primary education is narrowing in many countries. Between 1985–1994 and 2000–2007, the adult literacy rate increased by 10%, to its current level of 84%. The number of adult female literates has increased at a faster pace than that of males.

However, much need to be done. Malnutrition affects around 175 million young children each year and is a health and an education emergency. There were 72 million children out of school in 2007. Business as usual would leave 56 million children out of school in 2015.

Around 54% of children out of school are girls. In sub-Saharan Africa, almost 12 million girls may never enrol. In Yemen, nearly 80% of girls out of school are unlikely ever to enrol, compared with 36% of boys. Literacy remains among the most neglected of all education goals, with about 759 million adults lacking literacy skills today. Two-thirds are women.

Millions of children are leaving school without having acquired basic skills. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, young adults with five years of education had a 40% probability of being illiterate. In the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guatemala, fewer than half of grade 3 students had more than very basic reading skills. Some 1.9 million new teacher posts will be required to meet universal primary education by 2015.

The urgent international measures required include: increased concessional financial support through bilateral aid and the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), with a commitment to increase IDA replenishment from US$42 billion to US$60 billion; a review of the implications of the global economic downturn for the financing of development targets in advance of the 2010 Millennium Development Goals summit; an emergency pledging conference during 2010 to mobilize additional aid for education; budget monitoring to pick up early warning signs of fiscal adjustments that threaten education financing, with UNESCO coordinating an international programme to these ends; revision of the IMF’s loan conditions to ensure consistency with national poverty reduction and Education for All priorities.

Education Quality

The ultimate measure of any education system is not how many children are in school, but what – and how well – they learn. There is growing evidence that the world is moving more quickly to get children into school than to improve the quality of the education offered.

Learning achievement deficits are evident at many levels. International assessment exercises point consistently towards severe global disparities. The 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) found that average students in several developing countries, including Ghana, Indonesia and Morocco, performed below the poorest-performing students in countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea. Inequalities within countries, linked to household disadvantage and the learning environment, are also marked. The problem is not just one of relative achievement. Absolute levels of learning are desperately low in many countries.

Evidence from South and West Asia and from sub-Saharan Africa suggests that many children are failing to master basic literacy and numeracy skills, even when they complete a full cycle of primary education. Low learning achievement stems from many factors. Schools in many developing countries are in a poor state and teachers are in short supply. By 2015, the poorest countries will need to recruit some 1.9 million additional primary school teachers, including 1.2 million in sub-Saharan Africa, to create a good learning environment for all children. More equitable teacher deployment is also vital: all too often, the poorest regions and most disadvantaged schools have the fewest and least-qualified teachers. Several countries, including Brazil and Mexico, have introduced programmes targeting schools serving disadvantaged communities. Governments can also raise standards by spotting problems early, using constant monitoring and early-grade reading assessments.

Education for all Development Index (EDI)

While each of the six Education for All goals adopted in 2000 matters in its own right, the commitment undertaken by governments at the World Education Forum in Dakar was to sustain advances on all fronts. The Education for All Development Index (EDI) provides a composite measure of progress, encompassing access, equity and quality. Because of data availability constraints, it includes only the four most easily quantifiable goals, attaching an equal weight to each: (1) universal primary education, measured by the primary adjusted net enrolment ratio (ANER); (2) adult literacy, measured by the literacy rate for those aged 15 and above; (3) gender parity and equality, measured by the gender-specific EFA index (GEI), an average of the gender parity indexes of the primary and secondary gross enrolment ratios and of the adult literacy rate; (4) quality of education, measured by the survival rate to grade 5.

The EDI value for a given country is the arithmetic mean of the four proxy indicators. It falls between 0 and 1, with 1 representing full EFA achievement.

India is ranked 105 on the EDI index. On top of the list is Norway, followed by Japan and Germany.

Education Scenario of India

Literacy in India has made remarkable strides since Independence. This has been further confirmed by the results of the Census 2001. The literacy rate has increased from 18.33% in 1951 to 64.84% in 2001. This is despite the fact that during the major part of the last five decades there has been exponential growth of the population at nearly 2% per annum.

The Indian Constitution resolves to provide quality education to all and, in an effort to fulfil the educational needs of the country, specifically for the diverse societies and cultures of the country, the government has chalked out different educational categories: elementary education, secondary education, higher education, adult education, technical and vocational education. Free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of fourteen years is now a constitutional commitment in India. Despite serious handicaps of means and resources, the country has built up during the last 50 years a very large system of education, and has created a vast body of men and women equipped with a high order of scientific and technological capabilities, robust humanist and philosophical thought and creativity.

The government of India has initiated a number of programmes to achieve the goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE), from among which the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), launched in 2001, is the most recent one. It aimed at achieving universal elementary education of satisfactory quality by 2010. The SSA is expected to generate demand for secondary education in view of which the government of India has recently launched the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) to improve universal access and quality at the Secondary and Higher Secondary stages of education.

For successful implementation of any educational programme, effective monitoring and an efficient information system are essential. While the monitoring framework for the SSA is developed separately, concerted efforts have been made towards strengthening the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) for the elementary level of education. The District Elementary Education Plans (DEEP) across the country are being developed primarily based on the data generated though the information system developed for the SSA, i.e. the District Information System for Education (DISE).

The elementary education system of India has expanded into one of the largest in the world. Number of primary schools increased from 2.15 lakhs in 1950-51 to 6.1 lakhs in 1997-98; the corresponding increase in upper primary schools was from 0.14 lakhs to 1.85 lakhs. These 8.17 lakh schools together enrolled 1,110 lakh children as compared to 192 lakh in 1951.

Universal provision of education has been substantially achieved at the primary stage (classes I-V). An estimated 95 percent of the rural population living in 8,26,000 habitations has a primary school within a walking distance of one km and about 85 percent of the rural population has an upper primary school within a walking distance of three km. More than 150 million children are currently enrolled covering around 90 percent of the children in the age group of 6-14 years. Recent surveys on literacy rates indicate a phenomenal progress in the nineties and indicate a significant rise in the literacy level.

Despite such significant achievements in the recent years, it is realized that there are serious problems of gender, regional, sectional and caste disparities in UEE. A significant proportion of children continue to drop out due to socioeconomic and cultural factors as also due to lack of adequate infrastructure, shortage of teachers and unsatisfactory quality of education provided.

The country has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of illiterates and out of school children in the world—30% of the world’s adult illiterates (300 million) and 21.87 percent of out-of-school children. At least 24 million children in the age group 6-14 are out of school of whom about 60% are girls; about 121.3 million are adult illiterates in the age group 15.35 of whom about 62 percent are women. Given the demographic pressures the numbers are likely to increase further. Universalisation of elementary education thus, poses a formidable challenge to India: the numbers of children dropping out, not attending school regularly and never enrolled are immense. Quality of education is poor; teachers are inadequately trained and have lack of motivation.

A major concern is to improve the skills and motivation of teachers, promoting the participation of communities in the running of schools and enrolling/retaining girls/working children of urban poor and children with special needs in schools. Also, in India, a large universe of working children exists such as the street children, neglected and destitute children, children of sex workers and children practising as sex workers. Many of these have been targeted through non-formal initiatives but never main-streamed. Besides, along with access and retention, the quality of education provided to them is questionable.

India has significant requirements and goals set for it, which will enable it to possess self-equipped citizens holding a key to the progress and development in all spheres. This implies that all the provisions stated in the NPE must be realized by 2025. To begin with, it is important to understand the quantitative requirements of the sector concerning issues of enrolment, school infrastructure, and teacher availability etc. Thereafter, it will be logical to analyse the scenario that will exist in the year 2025, with respect to the attainment of the requirements.

Given the requirements in purely quantitative terms it is important to understand the non-negotiables for their achievement by 2025. It will be critical to have at least a growth rate of 9-10 per cent per year in the economic sphere, necessitating the requirement for human skills, especially the research skills. There will have to be no compromise with respect to enrolment and retention of children in schools. For this there has to be 100 per cent literacy and 100 per cent enrolment at primary, secondary and technical levels. The problem of drop-outs will need to be main-streamed together with the quality of education at the primary, secondary and technical levels and for this the rural sector will have to be mobilized and encouraged in the cause of education.

Economic development of our country is built around educational development. There is considerable data which shows that education is based on economic development and vice versa. This aspect has also been realised by the community at large and education is now being considered important. This is even highlighted by the analysis of household income versus expenditure, which shows that investment in education in even the poorest households is high. People have understood the economic value of education and are now ready to invest. This is also seen in the fact that many youths are opting out of labour force and are spending larger period on education.

However, the government’s capacity to pay for education is limited. Thus, there is a need to explore private and other investments. It has been established beyond doubt that besides its social and cultural dimensions, education is also an economic and political investment yielding long-term benefits. It is not only justifiable but also desirable to focus on this investment in order to gain maximum benefit.

In terms of allocation for education, it needs to be underlined that the present 3.6 percent of GNP is less than: (a) the requirement of the education system to provide reasonable levels of quality education to all the students enrolled presently; (b) the requirements of the system to provide universal elementary education of eight years for every child of the age-group 6-14, and consequent growth in secondary and higher education, as universalisation of elementary education in a comprehensive sense, includes universal provision of resources. This implies that it will be important to raise money from private sources in order to ease pressure on public spending. This, of course, is not meant to release the State from its financial commitments, which have been substantial in India.

Along with the issue of investment, the quality issue also demands attention at all levels of education. In this context, the Research and Development area, which is extremely weak, has to be focused. This area is critical as it provides base to the planning process, links it up to the implementation and subsequently highlights areas for reform. A weak system endangers the life of the intervention, its sustainability and impact.

Linked to the overall issue of education is the sub-issue of value education. It is feared that the more we industrialize, greater will be the need for value education at all levels. Although, we have been led to believe that India’s values are the best, the western values are associated with progress, development, quick achievement, and hence are being readily imbibed by the students. It has to be understood that there is no particular set of values which guarantees success and that the societal values must match with the organizational values and hence, values such as wisdom, humility, rationality, intellectualism etc. will have to be inculcated in education at all levels. In this context, India’s cultural values will need to be integrated with education.