Editor’s note: This is the third of a four-part series on the state of government school education, based on the latest study by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) and CRY. The study focusses on six states – Bihar, Maharashtra, UP, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu.

Share Market Live

NSE

In the previous editions of 'Get Schooled', we highlighted the issue of severe shortage of teachers in government schools. In this part, we emphasise on improving the quality of education.

Tamil Nadu is the best performer out of the six states studied by the Centre for Budget & Governance Accountability in its latest research.

Its per child spending on school education is the highest, at almost Rs 23,000 per year, beating Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar – the other states covered in the study.

Despite that, 37 percent of the upper primary schools in Tamil Nadu don’t have subject teachers, CBGA said.

It is necessary to plug that loophole, especially since the state is veering towards conceptual learning.

“Our old system was more rote learning oriented, now we are moving towards conceptual learning that is where ICT smart classes come in. We are creating content which will help students understand concepts. We are also trying to use kits for science and maths,” said Pradeep Yadav, the school education secretary of Tamil Nadu.

The state has changed the textbooks for standards 1, 6, 9 and 11 this year.

They have introduced e-content with QR codes where students can find additional information on subjects taught in the class.

Like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu also uses the PPP method of teacher-training.

The difference is that, in Maharashtra, the private teachers were helping the government school teachers learn while in Tamil Nadu, it’s the reverse model.

“We never had untrained teachers in the Government set up but there were untrained teachers in private schools. We gave them a window on NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) where over 25,000 teachers have enrolled. Hopefully by 2019 every teacher, even in private schools will have a diploma and will be trained,” said Yadav.

The state government admits that there was skewed deployment of teachers, which they are correcting.

The number of contractual teachers is also low in Tamil Nadu. The incentives it gives teachers are working.

Asadullah, programme director, CBGA said, “Tamil Nadu has achieved the threshold of basic education. But there are several areas like the Nilgiris and coastal regions that are neglected.”

This school in a coastal area of Tamil Nadu, run by philanthropists, could be an example of providing quality education while ensuring low fees.

Financed by Maryam Salahuddin and managed by its other trustee Francis Joseph, Kannadi Vappa International School in Ramanathapuram provides low-cost education to the local Muslim students.

It hires teachers from different parts of the country because the ones in the region aren’t adequately qualified.

The principal Rajesh Kumar Krishnan, who has worked in Aurai, Raebareli and Vadodara, says the biggest challenge in running a school in a small town is that most children are first generation English speakers.

Teachers initially don’t get response in class because language is a big barrier.

“It was a big struggle for us, so we introduced a parallel curriculum,” said Krishnan.

A parallel syllabus is where students are first taught the English language through an elaborate internal curriculum.

After that, the attention is shifted to the standard subjects.

Joseph, who looks after the affairs of the school, doesn’t believe students who study in a vernacular medium are any less intelligent than the English medium students.

But he does think it would help them in their future jobs to learn other languages.

“A child asked me why he should learn Hindi and English when he spoke in Tamil at home. I called up his dad in Dubai who told me that he faced great difficulties working abroad because of not knowing English. The father said he didn’t want the same to happen to his son,” said Joseph.

The CBGA reports says the situation for subject teacher is favourable in Tamil Nadu as compared to other states.

And yet, the pupil-teacher ratio for English in the state is as high as 244:1.

The next step for Tamil Nadu is to increase the reach of its conceptual and digital learning programmes.

Albert Einstein once said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

Our system must also aim to reach the depth of every child's mind while expanding geographically.

Read and watch other stories on Get Schooled series here.

First Published:Jul 27, 2018 11:34 PM IST