A comprehensive look at the school education system in India - by UNESCO
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UNESCO State of the Education Report for India, 2021
- The story: On the World Teachers’ Day (5th October), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched its 2021 State of the Education Report (SOER) for India: “No Teacher, No Class”. The findings are based on the analysis of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data (2018-19).
- Details: It aims to serve as a reference for enhancing the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) and towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 (target 4c on teachers).
- Target 4c: By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States.
- Findings of the Report - (i) Lack of Teachers - There are nearly 1.2 lakh single-teacher schools in the country of which an overwhelming 89% are in rural areas. The report projects that India needs 11.16 lakh additional teachers to meet the current shortfall. (ii) Performance of States (Women Teachers) - Tripura has the least number of women teachers, followed by Assam, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. Chandigarh leads the chart followed by Goa, Delhi, Kerala. (iii) Increase in Number of Teachers in Private Sector - The proportion of teachers employed in the private sector grew from 21% in 2013-14 to 35% in 2018-19. The Right to Education Act stipulates that the Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) should be 30:1 in classes 1-5 and 35:1 in higher grades. (iv) Lack of Digital infra - The overall availability of computing devices (desktops or laptops) in schools is 22% for all India, with rural areas seeing much lower provisioning (18%) than urban areas (43%). (v) Increment in Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) - For elementary schools, it has increased from 81.6 in 2001 to 93.03 in 2018-19 and stands at 102.1 in 2019-2020. The GER is the number of students enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education. Overall retention is 74.6% for elementary education and 59.6% for secondary education in 2019-20.
- Statistics: The private, unaided sector accounts for 30 per cent of the teaching workforce, while the government sector employs about 50 per cent. While teacher availability has improved, pupil-teacher ratios are adverse in secondary schools. Moreover, there is no information on availability of special education, music, arts and physical education teachers. The availability and deployment of subject teachers too, is not well documented and monitored. Almost all single-teacher schools are in rural areas. There is a pronounced need to improve both availability and deployment of qualified teachers in the north-eastern states of India. In terms of basic amenities, the working conditions of teachers in the north-east and the ‘aspirational districts’ are poor. Provision of school libraries is low, information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure is very low, and there is marked rural-urban disparity. The profession is overall gender balanced, with women accounting for about 50 per cent of the teaching workforce.
- India’s primary and secondary school teaching workforce, enumerated as nearly 9.7 million in the recently published Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+) report of 2019/20, is among the largest in the world.
- The system has 1.5 million schools and 248 million students enrolled from Grade 1 to Grade 1. About 69 per cent of the schools are run by various state governments and employ about 51 per cent of teachers. 22 per cent of schools are privately managed and funded primarily through student fee (in other words, private unaided schools) and employ 37 per cent of teachers. 84 per cent schools are located in rural areas. 54 per cent of all schools are primary schools, catering to Grade 1 to Grade 5.
- The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (Government of India, 2009) – popularly referred to as the Right to Education (RTE) Act – is a facet of the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India and is intended to allow all children life with dignity.
- The act operationalizes the constitutional guarantee into eight years of compulsory education for all children aged between six and fourteen years. With considerable gains in access to school, the country has now entered the quality phase of universal elementary education. This has brought systemic focus on teachers and teaching.
- Recommendations: The report makes many recommendations.
- Increase the number of physical education, music, art, vocational education, early childhood and special education teachersx
- Increase the number of physical education, music, art, vocational education, early childhood and special education teachers
- Build teachers' career pathways
- Value the professional autonomy of teachers
- Provide teachers with meaningful Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training
- Develop teaching governance through consultative processes, based on mutual accountability
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the key aspects of the vast schooling system in India. What all is going right, what is not? (2) Why is the UNESCO publishing deatiled reports on education in India? Explain.
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