International literacy day: How efficient is India’s education system and its literacy?
Literacy in India has increased six times since its Independence but even after the huge surge in literacy rates from 12 percent in the pre-independence era to 74 percent in 2011, India has the largest population of illiterate adults. Even after considering the fact that India has come a long way since 2011, and is the most populous democracy of the world, the concerns on how substantial and legitimate the data on “literacy rates” is, still stands. Even before the pandemic, the quality of education and its legitimacy was a question, a question that only grew when schools went in a complete lockdown for almost two years and were shifted online.
India has seen a steady march and an increase in literacy rates since its independence, but what is “literacy” for the surveys and census? Literacy rates are measured by calculating the number of literates in a set age-range by corresponding age-range population and finally multiplying the result by 100. But what criteria does one need to pass to be qualified as a “literate” in a survey?
As per Census, a person aged seven and above who can both read and write with understanding in any language, is treated as literate. A person, who can only read but cannot write, is not literate. In the Censuses prior to 1991, children below 5 years of age were treated as illiterates. It was decided at the 1991 Census that all children in the age group 0–6, would be treated as illiterate by definition and the population aged seven years and above only would be classified as literate or illiterate. The same criterion has been retained in the Censuses of 2001 and 2011. Further, a person need not receive any formal education or acquire any minimum qualification to be treated as literate.
In developed nations governments and scholars often indulge in debates on who qualifies as “literate”. In the United States, the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association have added “visually representing” to the list of communicative competencies that are considered to constitute literacy. Similarly, in Scotland, literacy has been defined as: “The ability to read and write and use numeracy, to handle information, to express ideas and opinions, to make decisions and solve problems, as family members, workers, citizens and lifelong learners.” These definitions of literacy are not universally accepted, for definitions vary region to region on the basis of the culture, economy and political context. Many scholars speak of literacy in terms of the ability to “read, write, spell, listen, and speak.”
The most concerning problem for the country’s authorities right now should be the fact that even with one of the most basic definitions and criteria's of “literacy” in place, India is yet to attain a population of adults who can read, write and comprehend in at least one language. Something to consider here though, is the fact that some people falling under the umbrella of the term “illiterate” are middle aged or elderly, which is not a very productive age group in terms of learning in the country, especially those belonging to the rural population.
Education: The beginning of economic divide and disparity
- Pre pandemic
The elite and the middle classes residing in urban settings would never send their wards to a public government run schools, reasons quite in front of the eyes but yet too far.
Except for some selective states, all the Indian states have poor educational statistics. With the help of many schemes like that of the mid-day meal program and others, more children go to school than ever before, but the quality of government schools has sunk to spectacularly low levels. The children in these schools come from the lowest tier of the society; economically and socially marginalized and away from the eyes of authorities and the mainstream. Those who cannot afford to send away their wards to private school, unlike the middle and elite classes of the country.
Just an increase in the number of children going to schools is not enough for the fulfillment of their educational and overall development. A survey in 2007 which was conducted across 16,000 villages, found that while many more children were sitting in class, vast numbers of them could not read, write or perform basic arithmetic, to say nothing of those who were not in school at all.
If going down to trace the reasons for such disparity, answers are many. There is an acute shortage of teachers in the country, especially in the rural areas even with decent wages. Parents and guardians of the children are not concerned about the child’s education and co-curricular development. In many cases, their reasons for sending their wards to schools are often because of the same midday meals which increased the enrollment ratio but failed to improve the quality of education. There is longstanding neglect in the maintenance of the infrastructure of schools, basic amenities like water and electricity are not provided. Oftentimes the governments just tend to build schools and educational institutions with no staff in place, and a lot of times even with faculty in place, their own education qualifications and poor treatment of children by them does not take us anywhere near to the goal of why actually schools are built.
2. Education during the pandemic
While many states have started reopening schools and colleges and there is a huge population which is attending school offline, the damage has already been done. When the pandemic hit and schools shifted online, privileged kids like myself who could easily afford gadgets and a secure internet connection faced no real problems, apart from some discomfort due the change. On the other hand, when it comes to Online Education or E-Learning, the rural population is not completely equipped with utilities like fast internet, uninterrupted power supply and electronic devices. There have been improvements regarding basic infrastructural facilities but many rural areas in India are still grappling with these challenges to make education completely digital or online.
The infrastructural facilities in rural areas have not developed to become at par with what online learning requires. Steady flow of electricity and lack of high speed internet still pose major problems for the rural population. Not a lot of people in rural India have access to personal laptops or computers and many live without any gadgets in reach, and phone screens are not conducive to long learning hours. Also, data packs and their costs can be a big deterrent both for teachers as well as learners, especially for live classes. Many students either don’t have personal laptops/smartphones or they are available for a limited time. Hence, the learning remains restricted with the limited availability of technological devices.
Unlike the privileged urban India, not many teachers and students in rural India are tech savvy. Teachers as well as students require proper training and more user-friendly platforms to make them familiar with digital technology so that they can be comfortable teaching/learning using them.
Apart from these prevalent problems, the teacher-student ratio is very unbalanced in the country. The gap between the number of students and the number of teachers qualified to teach and willing to teach is huge. This ratio needs to be improved and a large number of skilled and well-trained teachers are required so that each and every student receives complete attention even during an online class.
Loopholes and problems in rural education are many, and without substantial steps and base level executions of the solutions on the ground, there is nothing much one could do about the obstacles coming between quality education for the underprivileged and their overall development.
