Does India lack schools? May be not, but it does lack quality teachers, which is probably why the gross enrolment ratio or GER is far from satisfactory.
According to the CII–Deloitte Report on School Education, titled Yearly Status of School Education (YeSSE), even better infrastructure facilities have not helped reduce the high drop-out rate at different stages. This goes on to reflect in the low GER. In 2021-22, GER at the primary, upper primary, secondary, and higher secondary levels was 103 per cent, 95 per cent, 80 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively. The ratio is a cause for worry at the upper primary, secondary and higher secondary levels.
Lack of quality teachers in addition to lack of Low Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) at the primary and upper-primary levels and lack of Grade Appropriate Learning (GAL) across levels are the reasons for low GER.
Government school teachers are notorious for their sense of entitlement and their strong unions. But not all teachers lack the passion to teach. Many are extremely passionate about their profession, while a significant will give their all provided they receive the much-required push, encouragement and support.
When teachers fail to be included in educational reforms, they cease to sit on the fence and become totally disengaged from their work.
What is the solution?
The YeSSE report suggests embracing a balanced approach based on four areas:
1. Better recruitment process and training: The process of hiring teachers needs to be improved. The responsibility of the government does not end with just hiring the right teachers. It has to extend to training them and developing them further via various systems of handholding/support, co-teaching, projects, exposure visits and so on. This kind of training and support is required pre- and in-service. It is essential to motivate teachers so that they deliver their best and ensure good results. Opportunities to exchange their knowledge with their peers and receiving and impart mentoring should be ensured.
2. Better work environment: Teachers need to be rewarded for their efforts and hard work too. When they realise that their performance is being noticed and their hard work is being appreciated and recognised, they will put in their best efforts to teach. It is also important to ensure that they are paid decently and fairly and not bogged down by non-academic work.
3. Better involvement: The opinions of teacher should be given importance during the designing and implementation of educational reforms.
4. Better technology: Teachers should be encouraged to embrace technology. They should be provided with the tools required to teach better, help source better content, develop lesson plans, assessments and effective practices. They should be given appropriate support for creation of online/e-content and taught ways to reduce workload, build their capacity and leverage opportunities to showcase their efforts. This is where teacher-exchange platforms and networks come into play.
Students are already very tech savvy. It is more important now for teachers to embrace technology and access quality content, learn and explore new skills and so on.
There are a total of 14,89,115 schools across the country. Of these, 52.3 per cent, the largest share, are schools run by the Department of Education. They also have the highest share of student enrolment, that is, 44.1 per cent. Imagine if the teachers in all these schools are trained well and better empowered to teach the future workforce of the country! The quality of the workforce will go up manifold.
As per the YeSSE report, the five states with the highest number of schools are Uttar Pradesh with 2,58,054, that is, 17.3 per cent of the total number of schools in India, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 1,25,582 schools, that is, 8.4 per cent of the total. Maharashtra comes third with 1,09,605 schools, that is, 7.4 per cent share, followed by Rajasthan (106,373 schools and 7.1 per cent share), and West Bengal (94,744 schools and 6.4 per cent share).
These schools will only be energised if they have competent, motivated and engaged teachers who are capable of creating a better learning environment for students.