The document discusses issues and proposed solutions related to primary education in India. It notes that access to primary education is critical for development but that enrollment and attendance rates are low in rural areas due to factors like poverty, traditional views, and lack of access. It also discusses challenges like untrained teachers, multigrade classrooms, and lack of resources. The document proposes solutions such as making learning more practical and engaging, providing boarding facilities in remote areas, increasing awareness of education programs, and leveraging technology for teacher training and distant learning.

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
WHY PRIMARY EDUCATION??
 Access to basic education lies at the heart of development. Lack of educational access, and
securely acquired knowledge and skill, is both a part of the definition of poverty, and a means for its
diminution. Sustained access to meaningful learning that has value is critical to long term
improvements in productivity, the reduction of inter-generational cycles of poverty, demographic
transition, preventive health care, the empowerment of women, and reductions in inequality.
 It was first legally enshrined in Article 45 of the Constitution (1950), which obligated the state ‘to
provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this constitution, for free and
compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years’.
 Struggles between the centre and state governments are characteristic of planning activities in many
areas of governance, and are especially strained due to the unequal nature of the relationships
involved. Namely, while authorities in Delhi have the power to produce policy, they must rely on
states for implementation. On the other hand, while states are largely dependent on funding dispersed
by the national government, they can – to a certain extent – determine how that funding is
applied. Struggles between the centre and state governments are.
 Investments in education contribute to aggregate economic growth and enable citizens to participate in
the growth process through improved productivity, employment, and wages, and are, therefore, a
critical component of the inclusive growth agenda of the Government of India.

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
Low
registrations
and attendance
of children in
rural primary
schools
children
who are
excluded
from pre-
schooling
children who
have never
been to
school, and
are unlikely to
do so
children who
enter primary
schooling, but
drop out
before
completing the
primary cycle
because of irregular
attendance, low
achievement, or silent
exclusion from
worthwhile learning,
drop out rates are
high.
DISSECTING THE PROBLEM

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
• In general terms, schools are located in a wide variety of
geographical locations (mountains, coast, forest, desert, plains, urban,
rural), and cater to student populations which represent
diverse religious (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and various local tribal
traditions) and linguistic (fourteen official languages, not including
Hindi and English) traditions. Teachers thus tackle a range of
challenges at the level of the classroom, and they do this with varying
levels of support and in often widely differing institutional contexts.
geographical
locations
• uneducated households, orthodox views, migratory or nomaadic
livelihood, lack of information about gov.t program all add to childre
not regitering or not attending the school. Bad financial condition also
contribute for lesser enrollments as parents prefer their children to
work and contribute to overall income rather than attending
education.
Personal
problems
• Small schools are a significant feature of the educational landscape in
India, with approximately 78% of primary schools having three or
fewer teachers to attend to all grade levels, and more than 55% with
100 or fewer students in 2005. characterised by the need for
multigrade classroom management as a result of low enrolment
and/or too few teachers, and usually face significant shortages in
terms of teaching and learning resources and basic infrastructure.
This frequently leads to poor educational quality, student
disillusionment, high rates of drop-out and low rates of retention.
Problems in
the system
GOING THROUGH THE PROBLEM

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
CASE STUDY
Adarsh Vidyamandir Bhadvan is a primary school located in Bhadvan district,
Kolhapur, Maharashtra. There are 12 teachers in the school and about 268 students
from grades 1 to 7. Most of the teachers were not computer users. Despite having a
well built computer lab, the computers were kept away, unused, in boxes. They were
not used either for teaching or for administration work, which was all done manually.
Students in this school, are primarily farmers' children so spent more time working in
the field. They were interested in their agriculture work and absenteeism was a major
issue in the school. Mr. Namdeo Mulik attended a 12 day training program in 2007 at
Pune ITA. He was quite impressed with the new teaching aids using computer
technology. So much so that he started training the other teachers on creating a lesson
plan using computer technology during weekends. With total ICT enablement in the
schools, students started enjoying the sessions even more, including difficult subjects
like mathematics and their attendance improved considerably. This solved three big
issues being faced by the school- absenteeism, lack of students' interest in learning
and optimum usage of their resources like computer laboratory.

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
DEVISING THE SOLUTION
The school
Infrastructure (typology of the
school)
School Atmosphere (discipline,
orderliness, punctuality)
Academic Emphasis
School Leadership (principal,
administrators)
The curriculum (Intended and
Implemented)
Ability to engage problem-
solving and “higher-order”
cognitive skills
Language of instruction
Teachers
Level of education
Pre-service training
In-service training
Knowledge of subject matter
Pedagogical practices (lesson prep.,
teaching style, etc.)
Motivation and job satisfaction
Professionalism, dedication and
attitude towards job
Students
Distribution by gender, age, no.
of repeaters and drop-outs9
Number per class (teacher-
student ratio)
Teaching-Learning Materials
Textbooks (quality, how they
map to curriculum, availability)
Teacher Guides
Basic school materials (exercise
books, paper/slates,
pencils/chalk)
Subsidies
Learning Time
Official time for learning
Absenteeism (teachers and
students)
TARGETING THE KEY AREAS

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
RECOMMENDED SOLUTION
I do, I understand
• Education should be more practical than theoretical for faster learning and
greater intrest.
• Lessons should be abundant in audio and visuals
• Children learn by taking in their surroundings rather than from reasoning at
primary level. So classrooms should be designed accordingly
Coming together for education
• Thoroughly analysing the landscape for population density and terrain.
Accordingly providing boarding facilities for places with scantily spread
population
• Providing clean water and other resources in places where scools have been
set up
Building awareness and harmony
• Using radio and televsion in an interactive manner to spread awareness about
government schemes for the underprivilaged regarding schools and resources
• Educating rural and relatively uneducated people out of orthodox veiws on
caste and customs hindering holistic education and development for all

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
IMPLEMENTING THE SOLUTION
RECOMMENDED CHANGES
1. Redesign the system of district level education administration and school management:-
• Redefine role and job description of school heads;
• Move towards school-based management ;
• Re-engineer supervision structure – demarcate administrative and academic supervision;
• Make inspection officers responsible for administrative supervision and Block Resource
Centres responsible for academic issues;
• Institute formal pre-service training for school heads and Inspection Officers to bolster
institutional capacity building;
• Institute supervision mechanisms reinforcing good teacher management and strengthen
accountability systems;
• Give monitoring responsibilities to local communities;
• Strengthen the role and capacity of District Training Institutes to handle the onerous task of
grassroots capacity building;
2. Institute a system of monitoring and evaluation of student learning:-
• Administer a standardized assessment to a sample of students in Standard V every 4 years to
monitor student learning progress;
• Establish a common examination paper for all Standard III - V completers;

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
RECOMMENDED CHANGES
3. Improve the efficiency of the teacher training process:-
• Use a participatory methodology in the trainings to build teachers’ capacity for improving
their teaching;
• Include multigrade instruction techniques in pre-service and in-service trainings;
• Allow Inspection Officers, school heads and teachers to give input in the content areas of
training;
4. Explore innovative options for financing the reforms:-
• Studies that assess the return on investment of incentive schemes such as free uniforms must
be conducted to determine the impact of such programs;
• In a system with scarce resources, schemes that do not have demonstrable impact should be
abandoned to mobilize funds for other more meaningful interventions that are known to have a
larger impact;
• Another option that may be explored is that of disinvestment of state-owned enterprises to
raise resources for quality;
IMPLEMENTING THE SOLUTION

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT IMPLIMENTION
USING
TECHNOLOGY
IN ITS CORE.
EFFECTIVE
MONITORING
SYSTEM.
USING BASIC
AND EFFECTIVE
PRINCIPLES AT
GRASSROOT
LEVEL.
• Extensive use of audio
visuals and motion
pictures to make learning
effective and entertaining
• Using internet for distant
learning programs solves
the unavailability of
teachers
• Making use of basic
modern age technologies
like computers and
internet to train teachers
and to make them stay
updated.
• the use of RFIDs can be
implemented to track and
check the resources meant
for schools.
• Installing a massive ERP
software for monitoring all
the data flow whether in a
district, state or the whole
country.
• Taking Active, frequent and
accurate surveys into
account from both private
government institutions
would provide for an
improved response
mechanism.
• Training programmes
for willing people with
secondary level
education to inspire and
motivate them into
teaching children up till
5th grade.
• Spreading awareness
among parents as well
through volunteering
representatives from
among themselves.

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
PROBLEMS:-
• An estimated 45 percent of the increased education budget that was dedicated to
elementary education , had been spent poorly spent.
• An average 30 percent funds remain unspent every year.
• States having highest increases in investments are also the poorest spenders
• Funds flows are extremely slow breaking the link between planning and expenditures .
• The links between school needs, plans, allocation and expenditures are weak.
SOLUTIONS:-
• Inspectors should be appointed per block for regular inspection of schools in those areas.
This would give an accurate idea of the needs of school, resources available, and funds
needed
• Projects should have strict deadlines that should be monitored by judiciary rules.
• These should be done in collaboration with local NGOs so as to cover greater area and
spend wisely
• Local budgets should be formed and discussed before and after projects to avoid resuidual
funds.
MONITORY ISSUES AND PLUGGING THE
HOLES

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N I I T U N I V E R S I T Y
APPENDIX
REFERENCE
WEB LINKS:-
• http://dise.in/Downloads/Use%20of%20Dise%20Data/Nicole%20Blum,Rashmi%20Diwa
n.pdf
• http://www.cid.harvard.edu/archive/india/pdfs/report.pdf
• http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=119
• http://www.nuepa.org/libdoc/docservices/ds/dpep.pdf
• http://www.gnu.org/education/edu-system-india.html
• http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/TLLWxKjaJG790cs99bIv2L/Challenges-to-primary-
education.html
• http://forbesindia.com/article/briefing/primary-education-in-india-needs-a-fix/35287/1
• http://www.unicef.org/india/children_2359.htm
CASE STUDY:-
https://www.microsoft.com/india/msindia/hipages/primary_school_in_bhadvan_mahrashtra_
gets_ict_enabled.aspx