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THE LATEST ANNUAL STATUS of Education Report (ASER) 2014, published by the highly respected Mumbai-based NGO Pratham and released last month — the largest voluntary data collection and assessment of primary education learning outcomes year-on-year countrywide exercise, conducted by over 30,000 field researchers who covered 577 of India’s 673 districts to test 569,229 children in 341,070 households in reading and numeracy capabilities — presents a depressing picture of primary/elementary education in rural India. However, even as reading skills and mathematical ability have stagnated or deteriorated throughout the country, in Tamil Nadu’s 37,000 rural primaries, the reading, comprehension, and math capabilities of children have shown marked improvement.
According to ASER 2014, the percentage of class V children in Tamil Nadu (pop. 72 million) who can read and understand class II textbooks has risen from 31.9 percent in 2013 to 46.9 percent in 2014. Although the reading skills of class V children measured by this metric in Himachal Pradesh (75.2 percent) and Haryana (68.1 percent) are much better, they don’t significantly differ from the year 2013, whereas reading skills in Tamil Nadu have risen by 15 percentage points over 2013. In maths too, the proportion of class V children who can divide a three-digit number by a one-digit number has risen from 14 percent in 2013 to 25.8 percent last year.
These improved learning outcomes in the state’s rural primaries have silenced critics and educationists who had cast aspersions on the effectiveness of the activity-based learning (ABL) pedagogy launched by the Tamil Nadu government in 2007 in all its 51,000 government schools.
According to state education ministry officials stung by the poor showing of children in previous ASER surveys, educationists of the ministry’s elementary education department and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme made a concerted and coordinated effort to improve reading and math skills of primary school children. According to K. Devarajan, director of school education, 40,000 additional teachers were recruited during the period 2012-2014 to focus on students with poor reading and math skills.
“We conducted statewide assessment surveys to identify academically weak students, and started monitoring implementation of ABL and advanced learning pedagogies. Moreover, we encouraged children to use maths kits and made teachers and education officers accountable by reviewing their performance,” said special project director (SSA) Pooja Kulkarni in an interview with The Hindu (January 14).
Although informed academics acknowledge that the effort invested in improving learning outcomes of children in the state’s rural primaries is commendable, they warn against complacency. ASER 2014 indicates that although a higher 32.8 percent of class III students can read words of a class I text, they can’t read entire passages, and that although a higher 56 percent of class III students can recognise numbers up to 99, they cannot do subtraction.
ASER 2014 also indicates a steady increase in private school enrolment in rural Tamil Nadu to 31.9 percent as against 29 percent in 2013. Educationists ascribe this to poor teaching-learning standards in government schools which despite the free mid-day meal scheme and other freebies provided by the state government, force a flight to private schools which offer English-medium instruction and better quality education. Moreover, almost 95 percent of students of classes I-V in government schools need private tuition to improve their learning outcomes, says ASER 2014.
“Until the past two years, teachers were concentrating on implementing ABL ritualistically rather than ensuring that children learn and understand what is taught. But now ABL pedagogy has been simplified and there is serious focus on achieving its purpose. If schools and teachers continue in this manner, Tamil Nadu will sharply improve learning outcomes in primary education in the coming years,” says Dr. Balaji Sampath, secretary, AID India and trustee of the Pratham, TN Education Initiative.
For a state which prides itself on its education outcomes particularly in science and maths, but whose schools and colleges have suffered because of reckless political interference, ASER 2014 offers some comfort that its primary schools are recovering their momentum and reputation.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)