Reforming Childhood Education in India

Bryan McNamara

International Human Services

Dr. Susan Grossman
October 22, 2013

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Introduction
Historically, education in India has developed out of the British system and has been
heavily influenced by the caste system. As the head of the independence movement, Mohandas
Gandhi developed educational policies that reflected Nai Talim, also known as Basic Education
for all. This principle was used as a source to guide young minds away from traditional British
policies and initiate a revival of educational purpose in the 1930s. Although education was
declared a fundamental right of all individuals in India, Gandhis policy was forgotten by the end
of the twentieth century. In recent years, India has shown a decline in the importance they place
on childhood education. With the initiation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act in 2009, the government took another step in achieving universal education; yet,
this policy caused many unintended consequences that need to continue to be addressed.
Furthermore, many key contributors in combatting the oppressive conditions of both early
childhood, primary, and secondary education in India have appeared with the assistance of
numerous non-profit and non-governmental organizations. Despite unwavering governmental
assistance during the past few years, the quality and success of childhood education in India has
not made significant progress, therefore making the individual efforts of the voluntary sector a
valuable factor in achieving universal education.
Overview and issues surrounding childhood education in India
With any institution, regardless of the country of origin, there are going to be problems
that prevent it from flourishing. Unfortunately, there have been numerous reoccurring issues that
have prevented India from reaching its full potential in the realm of academia, specifically in
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), primary schooling, and secondary schooling.
Education in India operates similarly to that of the United States, in which students spend a

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certain number of years in each level of schooling. Hence, Indian children spend ten years in
primary school, two years in high secondary school, and three years in college. Under the control
of both the national and state government, schools continue to fail to provide children with
necessary and beneficial educational environments. Although in the past few years there have
been numerous improvements, there continues to be a need for ongoing assistance from both the
government and voluntary sector. There are many problems within India that seemingly enhance
the need for structural reform within the educational institution.
Both qualitatively and quantitatively, teachers have been one of the main problems
throughout schools in India. Over the past few years, there has been a shortage of teachers
throughout the country. According to the National Education Association, the average studentteacher ratio in public schools in the United States is 16:1.1 Comparatively, many public schools
in India have upwards of a 40:1 student-teacher ratio.2 Without the proper amount of teachers,
students are unable to receive the necessary individual attention they need to develop
intellectually. Also, the overall quality of the teachers in primary and secondary schools has not
been superior throughout history. According to UNICEF, approximately 20% of primary school
teachers have not met the minimum academic qualification in order to become a teacher.3
Therefore, a stronger emphasis must be placed on proper training for all teachers. The overall
quality of a teacher is reflected in the knowledge and environment they provide for their
students. Without the necessary training or schools, teachers in India are unable to provide a
stable education for the children. As a result, the small percentage of students who are able to

1 Rankings of the States 2012 and Estimates of School Statistics 2013 (National Education
Association, Dec. 2013).
2 UIS Statistics in Brief: Education (all levels) profile India (UNESCO, 2013).
3 Indian Education (UNICEF, 2013).

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complete their years of school oftentimes come out undereducated and unprepared for the adult
world.
Another consistent problem resulting from Indian education is a low literacy rate, even among
many adults. According to a census taken in 2011, the national literacy rate in India was 66%.
Although this percent has significantly increased since the 52% in 1991 and the 62% in 1997,
there are still a large amount of the adults, as well as children, who cannot read proficiently.4
Literacy is the area in which many of the problems already addressed, as well as many others,
begin to intertwine. For example, one of the main causes of such low literacy rates among
children is the quality of teachers. Without proper training in literary comprehension and
instruction, teachers are unable to provide adequate lessons for their students. Also, with such a
low percentage of adults that are able to read, many parents are unable to help fill this learning
gap caused by an underqualified teacher. Many parents are unable to provide any additional
assistance in learning how to read because they had never been properly taught how while they
were in school, or rather not in school.
One of the other major problems that India has faced is the inaccessibility of education for
certain groups of people. There are many groups in India who simply are unable to go to school
for various reasons, such as gender or socioeconomic status. Currently, many female children
are still unable to go to school. There is a clear, yet ever-diminishing, gender gap that appears in
the enrollment rates. There are various reasons that have resulted in the low percentage. With
concepts of virginity and purity at the center of the Hindu belief, many parents are worried about
sending their daughters to far away schools where they would be unable to protect their
daughters from the heavily male dominated society and schools. Additionally, many girls are
unable to attend school because of the general perception in India that their main responsibility
4 The Right to Education Act: An Overview (Indian Streams Research Journal, 2012), 3.

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to the family is domestic duties. This belief still holds true in many villages today. Child laborers
have also had limited access to schooling. According to the national census in 2001, there were
12.7 million Indian children, ages 5 to 14 years old, who were actively working under jobs with
hazardous conditions.5 Because many families live far below the poverty line, their children must
work, instead of go to school, in order to provide for the family.
With the emergence of such statistics regarding early, primary, and secondary education, the
Indian government eventually began to take notice. With the installment of the Right of Children
to Free and Compulsory Education in 2009, the government began to take steps that improved
the overall condition of education on many levels.
Attempts of reform by the government
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, also known as RTE, was
added under Article 21a of the Indian Constitution on August 4, 2009. The basic premise of this
legislation is that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the
age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.6 This law can
be divided into two basic requirements: free and compulsory. Providing free education
means that none of the costs associated with sending children to school, including uniforms,
books and other supplies, and transportation, are the responsibility of the child. Compulsory
education means that sending all children to school is the shared obligation of both the national
and state government. In other words, every child is entitled to receive a quality education and
the state is required to fulfill this obligation through strict enforcement of its own policies.
The Act institutes several policies that seek improvement in many of the areas previously
discussed. Under the RTE, the government seeks to reduce the student-teacher ratio from 40:1 to
5 Ibid., 3.
6 Ibid., 1.

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30:1.7 Although not quite as low as the average student-teacher ratio in the United States, the
reduced ratio will have a positive effect on the classroom environment and the attention students
receive. Not only are there going be more teachers in every school, but these teachers must
undergo specific training. As a result of RTE, teachers are going to attend school regularly and
punctually, complete curriculum instruction, assess learning abilities and hold regular parentteacher meetings and the number of teachers shall be based on the number of students rather
than by grade.8 Also, there is a requirement that teachers will now need to seek a professional
degree in their respective field within five years otherwise they will lose their job. With an
increased focused on teacher improvement, the students will also become more actively involved
in their learning.
Students are also impacted by many of these policies, especially regarding the successful
completion of all years of schooling for all children. Much emphasis is placed on the
disadvantaged, or marginalized, groups of children that have previously had minimum access to
education. According to RTE, private schools must provide a 25% reservation for children of
economically disadvantaged communities.9 In other words, not only public schools, but also
private schools must make an effort to provide education to poor children by providing
scholarships and other forms of financial assistance. Another important policy is that no child
shall be held back, expelled, or required to pass a board examination until completion of
elementary education.10 It is important that standards become a valuable part of the education of
students and the successful completion of one grade to the next. The Indian government has
never initiated any sort of national standardized test or set of guidelines that enable a student to
7 Indian Education (UNICEF, 2013).
8 Ibid.
9 The Right to Education Act: An Overview, 2.
10 Ibid., 2.

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complete each successive year of schooling. Without certain requirements for each year of
schooling, there is no way to indicate whether or not the child is properly prepared for the next
grade. Lastly, the government states, A child who completes elementary education shall be
awarded a certificate. Certification, along with examinations, will increase the motivation of
students. Providing them with incentives will increase their desire to come to school and become
more actively involved in their own learning.
Another major document released by the Indian government is the Five Year Plans, beginning
with the First Plan in 1951. Initially written as a national economic program, the Five Year Plans
increasingly developed as an educational program too. Through the development of the twelve
plans, economic stimulation in India has become directly associated with the success, or failure,
of education. While early plans focused solely on the idea of child welfare and rights, the focus
eventually shifted to the importance of child development, including areas of education. One of
the most recent plans, the Eleventh, focused on a significant area of development that the RTE
did not address: Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). ECCE simply refers to the to
early stage of development among children, approximately from birth to 6 years old, in which
programs have been most recently set up. Previously not even considered among government
officials in the education of children, this age range most recently became of utmost importance.
Therefore, the government began to develop some programs that focused on the early years of
childhood.
One of several government-sponsored programs in India is Integrated Child Development
Services (ICDS). Mainly covering smaller rural areas, the program offers health, nutrition, and
pre-school education services to children under the age of six. Health has become an important
factor in the growth and development of babies in India because there is a high rate of poor

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environmental health conditions and malnutrition. According to the UNESCO Institute for
Statistics, the infant mortality rate, which means children under the age of one year old, is
currently at 4.7%.11 With an increase in funding for programs such as ICDS, the government has
tried to broaden its concept and deliver educational benefits to a previously ignored group. Yet,
since then, there has not been any progress in the area of early childhood development.
Although the Indian government has made attempts to reach out to children of all ages, their
latest focus has seemed to be more shifted toward university students. The Twelfth Five-Year
Plan, also known as The Inclusive and Qualitative Expansion of Higher Education, focuses
mostly on the success of post-secondary education in the years of 2012 to 2017. As previously
stated, the Five-Year Plans in India have had a history of implementing strategies and goals for
primary and secondary education; yet, there is no sign of such objectives in the Twelfth Plan. In
the opening statement, it says, The 12th FYP shall focus on utilizing this historic opportunity of
expansion for deepening excellence and achieving equal access to quality higher education.12
Although higher education is an important opportunity for children in India, they need to first
successfully complete earlier years of school. With many young children still not in school, it is
necessary to focus more heavily on early, primary, and secondary education in order to better
prepare children for a future in universities.
Despite efforts to initiate a variety of programs and legislation, the Indian government has failed
to actually quantitate concrete improvements in performance. The government has taken
necessary steps in the past few years in order to address the problems that exist; yet, there are
still many areas that need direct attention. There have been many non-profit, as well as nongovernmental and individual contributions that have begun to address these areas of need.
11 UIS Statistics in Brief: Education (all levels) profile India.
12 "Inclusive and Qualitative Expansion of Higher Education: 12th Five-Year Plan, 2012-17"
(University Grants Commission, 2012).

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Assistance of the voluntary sector
One of the largest contributors to the educational movement in India has been Plan India.
Plan India is an India-based non-governmental organization, or NGO, that was established in
1979 and is a branch of Plan International, one of the worlds largest community development
organizations. The fundamental success of this organization stems from their idea of child
centered community development, which means, sustainable development of disadvantaged
communities can be achieved only if childrens best interests are at the heart of everything we do
and if children themselves actively participate in the process.13 Plan India works in 11 states
throughout the country to ensure children access to various rights, including the right to
protection from abuse and exploitation, right to optimal health, and right to quality education. As
for the right to education, there are two clear program objectives. Plan India seeks to improve
holistic care for the development of children between 0-6 years and ensure their school
readiness as well as ensure all girls and boys complete 10 years of quality education in
government schools.14 With a focus on ECCE, primary, and secondary schooling, this
organization has been able to reach over a million children across 5000 communities.
One of Plan Indias most successful programs has been the Model School Programme, which
was developed in January 2010, and focuses on improving the education in 117 primary and
middle schools in Uttarakhand in northern India. Through this program, Plan India seeks to
provide a quality education by improving the overall quality of these schools. With an emphasis
on community ownership, one of the other goals of the program is to work simultaneously with
both the government and the childrens parents in order to assure the quality of education
achieved in these schools. Therefore, Plan India hopes to work together in order to form a model
13 Our Work (Plan India, 2013).
14 Ibid.

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of education that can develop in sync with the Right to Education Act and become a model for
other schools to follow.
Regardless of the work that can be achieved by a collective group of people, Babar Ali
has proven that individual contributions to the mission of universal childhood education can be
equally beneficial. At the age of 16 years old, Babar Ali realized that many children within his
own village were being deprived of education. In late 2009, the same year that the RTE was
established, Ali addressed the issue at hand by creating a school in his own backyard. During the
day, he would go to school then return home to share his knowledge with numerous children in a
makeshift classroom in his own backyard. He said, "In the beginning I was just play-acting,
teaching my friends, but then I realized these children will never learn to read and write if they
don't have proper lessons. It's my duty to educate them, to help our country build a better
future.15 Babar Ali recognized that what his government had done was not enough. In a selfless
act of giving, Ali believes that it is his duty to provide education for these children. Regardless
of the impact the government was making on his country, Ali realized that he could initiate
change by himself. With the addition of ten more volunteers, Alis backyard classroom became a
school for approximately 800 local village children who were finally given the opportunity to
receive an education.
Continuing need to address issues
Despite both governmental and voluntary action, many of the issues still exist today. On May 6,
2013, a group of well-informed panelists met at the Brookings Institution, a American think tank
based in Washington, D.C. to discuss the continue need for improvements for education and
learning outcomes in India. A group of four panelists, as well as the moderator, met to discuss the
15 "Hungry to Learn Across the World" (BBC News, 2009).

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continual need for reform, despite the installment of the RTE. Although the panelists do not deny
the valuable achievements of the past several years, they believe there are three major issues that
need to be addressed in order to achieve a satisfactory education system: equity, quality, and
relevance. First of all, they believe all children of India need to be given fair access to education
and equal treatment while in the classroom. Secondly, the panelists agree that there needs to be a
continued mission of presenting children with a quality education, which includes teacher
training as well as resources. Lastly, the material presented to students in schools needs to be
more relevant.
According to Urvashi Sanhi, founder and President of the Study Hall Foundation, the
quality of education, or lack thereof, falls heavily under the responsibility of the teachers.
Recently, education in primary and secondary schools in India have focused on rote learning,
which is the process of memorizing a concept or fact by constant repetition. Yet, quality
education should not focus on the simple repetition of knowledge; rather, education and learning
should be looked at in terms of life outcomes. Similar to the community aspect prescribed by
Plan Indias Model School Programme, it is important that all teachers incorporate a sense of
community with their classrooms. Sanhi believes that in teacher training it is important to
emphasize the concept of putting systems in place where you have a continuous community
engagement and building accountability system.16 These initiatives include both gender-specific
and empowerment education as necessary components in the classroom. It is important for all
children, regardless of age, gender, or any other marginalizing factors, to be able to receive a
quality education with a focus on shaping the individual and realizing the potential in ones
future education and career.
16 Ackerman, Xanthe, "Improving Education and Learning Outcomes in India" (The Brookings
Institution, May 2013), 19.

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Another key issue that was addressed during the meeting is the necessity of specific guidelines or
tests in schools. Ashish Dhawan, Chief Executive Officer for the Central Square Foundation,
believes that there needs to be some sort of measurement tool used to assess students progress.
Recently, students from India participated in the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA), which is a worldwide test consisting of sections on mathematics, science,
and reading. According to Dhawan, 80 percent of children in India placed into the lowest two
levels, which means 80 percent of the 240 million children in our K-12 system are being failed
by the system.17 In other words, the current system in place is not working. New modes of
teaching instruction as well as a strong emphasis on assessment-based learning needs to start to
develop in all schools, both public and private.
Although the panelists do validate the recent improvements within childhood schooling in India,
there is always a sense of doubt in their voices. Xanthe Ackerman, the director of Center for
Universal Education, said, Between 2005 and 2009 alone, the number of out-of-school children
dropped by 40 percent and that has continued such that now there is less than 5 percent out,
although this is still 3.1 million children.18 In other words, although India is continuing to place
more children in schools, there are still many who are unable to attend due to the various factors
that have been previously discussed. Overall, the government needs to further address these
issues and develop more successful programs and policies that will benefit both the teachers and
the students.
Conclusion
Education is not only a fundamental factor in the development of all children, but also a
universal right of life. In order to improve the conditions of the childhood education system in
17 Ibid., 13.
18 Ibid., 5.

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Indian, the government needs to begin working simultaneously with those non-governmental and
non-profit organizations that have begun to see significant improvements in their respective areas
of work. Similar to the mission of Plan India, the focus should be on promoting a sense of
community not only within the classroom but also in the planning process. Although these
organizations have made vast improvements in schools throughout India, they can only reach a
limited number of children. By instituting more policies and programs that work directly with the
government, they will be to provide benefits for more schools and a greater range of children. In
other words, these organizations and the India government need to collaborate in order to initiate
meaningful and effective reform. By collectively addressing the current issues within the system,
both the government and the voluntary sector can work together to provide universal education
for all ages and groups of children in India.

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