Why Does India Refuse to Participate in Global Education Rankings?
India’s troubling record on education won’t go away by
boycotting PISA.
For
the third time, students from East Asian countries have outperformed their
peers in the rest of the world in science, math, and reading in the 2015
Global Education International Triennial Survey. Popularly known as PISA
(Program for International Student Assessment), the survey is conducted by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to test education systems
by comparing the test performance of 15-year-old pupils.
The
two-hour test not only evaluates the cognitive skills of students in science,
math, and reading, but also assesses their ability to solve problems in new and
unfamiliar conditions. The approach of PISA, according to the OECD’s director
of education, “reflects the fact that modern economies reward individuals
not for what they know, but for what they can do with what they know.”
The
latest results show that students from Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam,
and China (Hong Kong, Macao, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Jiangsu
province) were among the top performers. Over 540,000 students, from 70
countries, participated in the tests.
How
did India rank? We’ll never know. For some reason, India refused to participate
in the global survey.
India’s
refusal to participate in PISA is hard to understand and also defies logic. In
the 2009 survey, students from two Indian states, Tamil Nadu and Himachal
Pradesh, participated; India placed 72nd among the 74 participating countries.
Since then the Human Resource Development Ministry in India has chosen not to
participate in PISA, as they perceived that there was a socio-cultural disconnect between the questions and
Indian students, because of India’s peculiar “socio-cultural milieu.” Although
India’s concerns have been backed by educational experts, that doesn’t change
the fact that the PISA results can help in assessing standards of education in
India, especially at the primary level.
Study
after study has shown that the true indicator of economic development in a
country is the education and wellbeing of its people. Although, India has made
rapid economic progress over the last three decades, one area that has not
received enough attention is the quality of primary education. In fact, the
former vice chancellor of the Delhi University bemoaned the fact that a large
majority of students in the university were unemployable because of their
inability to apply their knowledge in real-life situations. This is because of
a poor foundation in schools, where the emphasis is more on rote learning,
rather than testing a student’s creative skills.
According
to Pratham’s
Annual Status of Education 2013 report, close to 78 percent of Indian
children in Standard III and about 50 percent of children in Standard V cannot
yet read Standard II texts. Arithmetic is also a cause for concern as only 26
percent students in Standard V can do a division problem. There has been
little attempt by educators in the country to improve rural education, where
the motivation among children to attend class is low because of such factors as
negative parental pressure, poor facilities, and uninspired teaching.
In
their book An Uncertain Glory: India and its
Contradictions, Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze, quoting from an
ASER survey conducted in 2011 in rural areas, commented that only 58 percent of
children enrolled in classes three to five could read a class one text. Less
than half (47 percent) were able to do simple two-digit subtraction. And only
half of the children in classes five to eight could use a calendar. They were
not found proficient in even basic skills; about two-thirds of the students in
class four could not master the measurement of the length of the pencil with a
ruler.
The
students’ knowledge of India’s “socio-cultural milieu” was no better. According
to the authors, “only a third of these ‘top school’ students in class four knew
who was the alive person [sic] in a list of four: Mahatma Gandhi, Indira
Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi (a small number thought, interestingly
enough, that it was Mahatma Gandhi who was still alive).”
As
per UNESCO data, India has one of the lowest public expenditure rates on
education per student, especially compared to other Asian countries like China.
India spends $264 per student per year compared to $1,800 spent by China. The
World Bank report on its worldwide survey of public spending on education
stated that India spent a meager 11 percent of public expenditure on
education, compared to 20 percent in China.
Education
in most schools is one dimensional, with an obsessive focus on marks. Added to
this is the lack of availability of trained teachers at all levels. Quality
teachers are the missing link in the Indian education system. Although pockets
of excellence exist, the quality of teaching, especially in government schools,
does not meet the standards. Quality teachers are exploring avenues in the
United States and other countries, where there is a great demand for science
and math teachers.
One
crude fact about India’s education sector is that 282 million Indians are
illiterate. With a literacy rate of 77 percent, India lags behind other BRICS nations, which have
literacy rates above 90 percent. All these countries have better
student-teacher ratios. So not only does India grapple with poor quality
teachers, it also has fewer total teachers in comparison with other countries
that do a better job at education.
There
is no gainsaying that the education is the most neglected sector in
India. If India wants to achieve its vision of becoming an economic power
by 2020, the government has to allocate more resources to education. The
allocation of resources in the educational sector should be increased from
3 percent to at least 4.5 percent of GDP for a period of
five years to improve the quality of education at the primary level.
Moreover, there is also an urgent need to improve teaching standards in
government-aided schools in order to reduce the gap between public and
private schools. This will help create a level playing field for all students,
especially for disadvantaged students in the rural areas. If proper and timely
steps are not taken, students from China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore
will leave Indian students far behind.
It
is hoped that the Human Resource Development Ministry would encourage schools
across India to take part in future tests conducted by OECD. Doing so will not
only help India benchmark its progress with international standards, but
will also force the ministry to constantly improve the standard of education
based on tangible results. If suitable steps are taken, the performance of
Indian students could compare with the best in the world.
K.S.
Venkatachalam is an independent columnist and political commentator.
Source | http://thediplomat.com/2017/01/why-does-india-refuse-to-participate-in-global-education-rankings/
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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