How closing schools for another year may set India back a few years

ASER data show that more students had fewer learning options, higher dropouts and a stark rich-poor divide; gender imbalance also showed in enrolments

Last week, Delhi announced that it was shutting schools until further notice, and that classes would resume only through the online mode. Delhi, however, was not the only state to order a shutdown or suspension of classes. Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, UP have all shut schools, given the rise in coronavirus infections as India battles a second wave.

Although one would expect Indian education to have become resilient to Covid-19 concerns, there are many lacunae that the government needs to address. Data from the final ASER report, released in February this year, highlights that India’s school enrolments are falling, reversing the gains achieved in recent years.

While 4 per cent of all children aged 6-16 were not enrolled in classes in the 2018 ASER survey report, the latest revision, which contains data from the survey conducted during late September last year, shows that in 2020 the 'not in school' children had increased to 5.5 per cent. Enrolments for the 15-16 age group had improved from last year, but early school enrolments for children aged 7-10 had shown a drastic decline.

In fact, historical data show that enrolments for children aged 6-14 are the lowest since 2006.

With another year getting disrupted with rising infections, more children may be out of school.

Not just enrolments, data from ASER 2020 show that quality may be suffering as well. Private schools were gaining ground over government schools on enrolments in the past few years. That trend seems to have reversed as well. In 2018, 62.8 per cent of boys and 70 per cent of girls were enrolled in government schools; the corresponding ratios were 66.4 per cent and 73 per cent, respectively, in 2020.

Although this may be due to "financial distress and/or permanent school shutdowns", as the report highlights, it shall certainly impact learning outcomes. Besides, enrolments in government schools do not necessarily mean cheaper learning, as it ends up increasing expenditure on private tuitions. NSSO data from 2014 show that government school students tend to spend 5-6 times more on tuitions than their private school counterparts. There is also a correlation between government school enrolments, learning outcomes and spending on private coaching. Children in states with the worst learning outcomes had higher government school enrolments and tended to spend more on private coaching.

In 2018, the latest year for which learning outcome data are available, only 44 per cent of children in Class 5 in government schools could read Class 2 text and just over a fifth could perform division. In contrast, 65 per cent of those enrolled in Class 5 in private schools could read a Class 2 text, and nearly 40 per cent could perform division.

Moreover, even those ratios have been declining over the years. The decline in government schools is much worse. In 2012, 53 per cent of children in government schools could read a Class 2 text, whereas in private schools 67.9 per cent could do so.

So, if more children are enrolled in government schools, more would have lower learning outcomes than before. This problem is compounded by the fact that fewer children in government schools have access to online learning modes.

ASER 2020 report shows that even though the percentage of households with smartphone increased from 36.5 per cent to 61.8 per cent between 2018 and 2020 — 11.1 per cent bought a new phone for children’s education since the lockdown began — those in private schools were 30 per cent more likely to have a smartphone than their government school counterparts.

Not only did children in private schools receive more learning material but they were also twice as likely to attend live online classes and listen to recorded lectures than children in government schools.

Yet, the percentage of relying on online lectures was limited as only 11 per cent of overall students could access online classes, and 21.5 per cent could access recorded classes. Nearly two-thirds of children did not receive learning material during this period.

Another wasted academic year could exacerbate these conditions further as more children would have fewer resources and even fewer learning modes.

Although the government did provide impetus to other modes like TV and Radio last year to fast-track learning, the Right to Education forum report shows that access to TV does not necessarily translate into access to online learning. In Bihar, despite 43 per cent of households having a TV, only 11 per cent accessed it for educational content. In Assam, the situation was much worse; despite nearly half the households having a TV, only 2 per cent used it to access educational content.

The Myths of Online Education study, carried out by Azim Premji University researchers across five states — Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand — highlights that 60 per cent of students in public schools in these states could not access online education. While the study illustrates that 70 per cent of parents were dissatisfied with online classes, the dissatisfaction among teachers was even higher. Over 80 per cent said that they could not maintain an emotional connect with students, and over 90 per cent said it was impossible to assess children’s learning.

A year of missed schooling has worsened the gender imbalance in education. ASER data show that more girls have dropped out of schools than boys. Additionally, the RTE study highlights that only 26 per cent of girls could access mobile phones, whereas 37 per cent of boys had smartphone access. Girls were more likely than boys to be engaged in household tasks as well.

Some state governments have announced that students till Class 8 would be promoted a year without exams, but this is not without consequences. ASER data after the Right to Education Act, 2009, show that learning outcomes declined as schools could not fail students until Class 8. The recent improvement in learning outcomes follows the government’s decision to discontinue the policy of passing everyone till Class 8.

A better approach would be to instead focus on education delivery to improve outcomes.

"Phase one of pandemic-induced school closure was characterised by a complete unpreparedness to handle online teaching," says Ashok Pandey, director, Ahlcon Group of Schools, and chairperson, Council for GCED.

"Learning has suffered before and will suffer even more now. A year full of experience has many lessons. Reaching out digitally, expanding the access, emotional connectivity, asynchronous component will salvage the situation. We have not exploited the potential of delivering learning material fully," he adds further. 

NCERT has been making digital books available via its platforms for over a decade now, but there is a need for gamification of education, wherein learning can become more interactive. The government can enlist Edtech platforms to make online learning more viable.