India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU
Vol. 15 :: No. 26 :: Dec. 19, 1998 - Jan. 01, 1999
REPORTS
A story of betrayal
The UNICEF report, The State of the World's Children 1999, highlights, among other facts, the slow pace of progress and disturbing inequalities that mark India's attempts to achieve universal primary education.
A.K. SHIVA KUMAR
THE United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released the report, The State of the World's Children 1999, on December 8. The last such report of the century - and the millennium - assesses the progress around the world in ensuring education for all, and making the right to basic education a reality for every child. All countries, with the exception of the United States of America and Somalia, have ratified the global Convention on the Rights of the Child. One of the goals of the Convention is to ensure that every child has access to basic education by the year 2000. But the report points to a global reality that is far removed from this goal.
Nearly a billion people, two-thirds of them women, will enter the 21st century without the ability to read a book or sign their names - much less use a computer or understand simple written instructions. The report draws special attention to the gross neglect of girl children. More than 130 million children of primary school age in developing countries, including 73 million girls, are growing up without access to basic education. An estimated 855 million people, or nearly one-sixth of humanity, will be functionally illiterate at the end of this century. Millions more will languish in schools where little learning takes place.
During the World Conference on Education for All held in Jomtien, Thailand, in 1990 there emerged a strong consensus that education is the single most important element in combating poverty, empowering women, protecting children from hazardous and exploitative labour practices and sexual exploitation, promoting human rights and democracy, protecting the environment and influencing population growth.
The report highlights the fact that progress since then has been disturbingly slow, and that between 1990 and 1995 girls' school enrolment rates were virtually static. The quality of education has remained very poor and has contributed to high rates of repetition and dropout. States have not paid sufficient attention to educational expansion and reform. The report also points out that "even the World Bank, one of the Jomtien convenors and now the greatest single provider of funds to the education sector, has a varied record in funding education in the 1990s. Its total lending certainly increased in the wake of Jomtien. In 1989, 4.5 per cent of the Bank's lending was allocated to education; by 1994, it was allocating 10.4 per cent of its funds to this area. But by 1997, the proportion had fallen back to 4.8 per cent."
The report emphasises that an educational revolution is absolutely essential. It identifies five key elements in such a revolution: (a) learning for life, (b) accessibility, quality and flexibility, (c) gender sensitivity and girls' education, (d) the state as a key partner, and (e) care for the young child.
LEARNING for life calls for a comprehensive approach to school education, with teachers and students relating to each other in new ways so that the classroom experience - the very process of learning - becomes a preparation for life. The report highlights the critical role of education in ending child labour. New approaches are needed to end the rigidity of conventional education systems. The report refers to several movements throughout the world. In the Philippines, for instance, 'ambulant' teachers with backpacks bring school to children living in some of the country's most rugged regions. Innovative models of teacher education are emerging in Bangladesh, Chile and Zimbabwe. The report makes a special mention of the "joyful learning" movement in India which attempts to train and empower teachers.
Girls have a fundamental right to a high-quality education, but this right is too often denied. Even girls who manage to reach classrooms find their learning process and self-esteem undermined by lessons and textbooks that are full of messages suggesting that girls are less important than boys, or by teachers who pay more attention to boys and offer them more opportunities for leadership roles. Schools need to become gender-sensitive and girl-friendly.
The report strongly emphasises the role of the state in leading the education revolution. The responsibility of the state goes beyond funding to ensuring that there is a close partnership between governments, communities and civil society in promoting universal basic education.
The report points out that learning begins at birth. There is growing evidence that the quality of a child's experience in the first two years of life - including care and stimulation as well as health nutrition - has a long-lasting effect on the development of the brain. By the age of six, when children generally start school, most of the brain's neural connections are already made. Children's ability to prosper in the education system has, to an extent, already been determined. Given this understanding of the importance of the early years, the report points out that any meaningful conception of basic education has to include programmes that promote early childhood care for child growth and development.
INDIA, unsurprisingly, features prominently among countries that have denied children the right to basic education. Elementary education is far from universal despite the constitutional promise of providing free and compulsory education for all children - by the year 1960. India's literacy performance is worse than that of sub-Saharan Africa. The adult literacy rate in India is around 52 per cent; it is 57 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 84 per cent in East Asia. The female literacy rate in India is 38 per cent; it is 47 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and 76 per cent in East Asia. Only 62 per cent of primary school entrants reach Class V in India. The proportion is 90 per cent in Indonesia, 94 per cent in China and Malawi, and 98 per cent in Sri Lanka.
Remarkably slow progress and disturbing inequalities also mark India's achievement. Educational attainments vary a great deal by State, class, caste and gender. Almost two-thirds of Indian women were illiterate in 1991. Close to 95 per cent of the people have access to a primary school within a kilometre of their dwellings. However, the situation is different in the case of upper primary schools; at this level only 57 per cent of the population have access to schools. Apart from the problem of physical distance between schools and places of residence, the problem of social distance persists. Despite the advances, the number of illiterate people (aged five and above) has gone up from 255 million in 1951 to 370 million in 1991.
Policymakers in India are aware of the problems in the field of basic education. Schools and classrooms are inadequate in number; they are also in very bad shape. Education, though technically free, is indeed expensive for the poor. Teaching aids are minimal. Single-teacher schools remain. Inside the classroom, there is the problem of an over-burdened and largely irrelevant curriculum. Teaching methods encourage rote learning and not critical thinking. Issues of teacher motivation and negligence persist. The management of the education system has several shortcomings.
But every time the country talks of improving the quality of education or universalising elementary education, it is suggested that a shortage of resources is a strong obstacle to progress. The truth is different. It is not a matter of resources but of priorities. The UNICEF report, for instance, points out that providing education for all involves an additional expenditure of $7 billion a year - less than what the the U.S. population spends annually on cosmetics and what Europe's population spends on ice cream.
Is India really so poor a country that it cannot afford to educate all its children? Take the case of Vietnam. With a per capita income of only $290, it has managed to achieve a literacy rate of 94 per cent. India with a per capita income of $390 has a literacy rate of 52 per cent. Recent estimates show that India needs Rs.40,000 crores over the next five years to achieve universal elementary education. This amounts to an additional annual expenditure of Rs.8,000 crores over the five years.
SURELY this should be possible. After all, the country is recording positive rates of economic growth, there is enormous scope for mobilising additional finances through tax reforms, and by cutting down on wasteful expenditures, streamlining public enterprises and reallocating subsidies.
India also needs to improve the efficiency of public spending on education. It spends around 3.5 per cent of its gross national product (GNP) on education - a much higher share than China and Sri Lanka - but its educational achievements are lower. Sri Lanka, which spends only 3.1 per cent of its GNP on education, has ensured that 90 per cent of adults are literate and that 98 per cent of children complete primary school. China spends only 2.3 per cent of its GNP on education, and 82 per cent of its adults are literate, while 94 per cent of those who enter school complete primary schooling.
What India lacks is public commitment to universalising primary education. Public expenditure on education declined from 4 per cent in 1991-92 to 3.27 per cent in 1995-96. The pupil-teacher ratio worsened from 43 in 1990-91 to 46 in 1995-96. And the Constitution (83rd Amendment) Bill seeking to make elementary education a fundamental right, which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in July 1997, is yet to be discussed.
There is a saying: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance; its costs are even more prohibitive." Universalising elementary education is an essential condition for achieving higher levels of human development. Urgent public action is required to ensure that every child begins to enjoy the right to basic education.
Dr. A.K. Shiva Kumar is an economist and a consultant to UNICEF.
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