Report Card from India Schools

March 28

Two surveys done in Hindi-speaking states, in 1996 and 2006, show rapid change in some areas but resilient inertia in others. Classroom activity levels have not improved. Overall, they have failed to make the schools work well.

How would you feel if half of the buses and trains supposed to be running on a particular day were canceled at random - every day of the year? And how long do you think such disruption could continue until it created an uproar in Parliament and the national media?

Yet a similar disruption in the daily lives of children has been happening quietly for years on end. In rural North India, about half of the time, there is no teaching going on in primary schools. this was one of the key findings in the "PROBE survey" conducted in 1996-97 in Hindi-speaking states. A resurvey in 2006 showed that half of the government schools still had no teaching activity when the investigators arrived. Whatever else had changed, classroom activity levels had not improved.

...to be continued