This document discusses strategies to enhance primary education quality in India. It notes that India's literacy rate is only 65% despite the global rate being 80%. Several issues are identified including poverty, population growth, poor infrastructure, gender bias, and backward thinking. Solutions proposed include increasing teacher recruitment and training, improving content and infrastructure, focusing on disadvantaged groups, providing mid-day meals, subsidies for families sending children to school, and implementing a school voucher system to give parents more choice. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of quality education for national development and dignity.

1. Stepping Stones: Enhancing the
quality of primary education
TEAM DETAILS:
TEAM AMBASSADOR: Tanu Kumari Gupta
TEAM MEMBERS: Ayush Vardhan Singh Rajawat, Ajay Kumar,
Snehal Deshbharta, Monica Gaikwad,
Strategies to Achieve Universalization of
Elementary Education

2. Shocking state of India’s primary education
• A QUICK GLANCE OVER THE FIGURES
 India’s literacy rate is 65% inspite of world
literacy rate being 80%.
 35 million out of 192 million children
between 6-14 are enrolled.
 15 million out of enrolled are absentees.
 31% of total enrolled complete schooling till
grade 10.
 7 out of 15 million in grade 5 can’t read and
write.
 Pupil-teacher ratios have fallen by nearly 20%.
 India spends 3.4%of GDP on education i.e.
approx 1000/- per child per month.
 To lift literacy rate from 25% to 35% by the
end of 2017, at lest 15 million people need
to be educated annually. But we educate
hardly 7 million per year.
 Literacy rate directly affects GDP of a
country.

3. Reasons revealed
1 . Poverty: 29.8%population lies below the
National Poverty Line which do not have
access to food and water. Education is a
luxury to them.
2 . Population Explosion: India is the
second most populated nation.
Population is growing at a rate of 1.2%
per annum. Existing schools are
overflowing with students and they also
lack the infrastructure to take in more.
3.Poor infrastructure and governence:
The administration has not been able to
provide adequate facilities for education,
particularly in villages including proper
teachers, quality mid day Meals etc.
4.Social Evils and gender bias: Child labour,
child marriage, untouchability girl child
discrimination and the caste system are
strong causes of a large percentage of
Indian children being denied even basic
primary school education.
Malnourishement is another issue.2/3rd of
indian females are devoid of education.
5.Backward Thinking: A section of our society
rejects modern education as a threat to
their beliefs and way of life. Families of poor
financial standing often discourage studying
in their households as they wish to engage
the children in work as soon as possible to
expand their collective remuneration.

4. Impacts Of Illiteracy On Society
• For individuals:
• Limited ability to obtain and understand
essential information
• Unemployment
– The unemployment rate is 2–4 times
higher among those with little schooling
than among those with Bachelor’s
degrees.
• Lower income
• Lower-quality jobs
• Reduced access to lifelong learning and
professional development
• Poverty
• The value of education and reading is not
conveyed to children, and this leads to
intergenerational transmission of illiteracy
• Low self-esteem, often leading to isolation
• Impact on health
– Illiterate individuals have more workplace
accidents, take longer to recover and more
often misuse medication through
ignorance of health care resources and
because they have trouble reading and
understanding the relevant information
(warnings, dosage, contraindications, etc.).
For society:
• Literacy is an essential tool for individuals and
states to be competitive in the new global
knowledge economy
• The higher the proportion of adults with low
literacy proficiency is, the slower the overall
long-term GDP growth rate is
• The level of community involvement and civic
participation is lower
• Without the basic tools necessary for achieving
their goals, individuals without an adequate
level of literacy cannot be full-fledged members
of society and cannot be involved fully and on a
completely equal basis in social and political
discourse.

5. Solutions proposed
AREAS OF FOCUS:
• Increase in teacher appointments and
training
• Improvement in elementary education
content and techniques
• Provision of teaching materials
• Improvements in infrastructure
• Education for disadvantaged groups: girls,
disadvantaged castes, and the disabled
THE VARIOUS STEPS TAKEN TO ACCELERATE THE
UNIVERSALIZATION:
1. Renewed Political Commitment;
2. Increased Allocation Of Funds;
3. Priority To Backward States And Areas;
4. Provision Of Non-formal Education;
5. Provision Of Compensatory Pre-school
Education;
6. Provision Of Mid-day Meals;
7. Provision Of Free Supply Of Clothing And
Reading And Writing Materials;
8. Improvement Of Physical Facilities In
Schools;
9. Unesco/Unicef-assisted Projects;
10. Improvement Of Teacher Competence
11. Improvement Of Administrative And
Supervisory Machinery; And
12. Education Of Parents.

6. SOLUTION 1
• 58.7 million students complete their
graduation every year in india.
• This huge human resource can be
utilised for the repicturing of primary
school scene.
• Rules must be implemented to include
primary school teaching experience in
academic curriculum of under
graduation / post graduation program.
• The teaching duration to be decided
according to the courses by the degree
issuing university
• Essential part of the solution is the
feedback of teaching team from school
children, Marks representing
performance.
TEACHING IN
PRIMARY
SCHOOLS AS A
MANDATORY
PART OF
CURRICULUM
IN UNDER -
GRADUATION.

7. SOLUTION 2
• Government must provide existing
subsidies only to the parents who are
able to generate their children’s current
school marksheet
• The subsidies must be on the survival
essentials like
 PDS shops
 Agricultural goods – manures,
seeds, special irrigation facilities,
relaxation on electricity bills
• Strict attitude towards the parents who
encourage child labor rather then
sending their child to school by
devoiding them to take the benefits of
subsidy
• Definitely this compulsion on subsidy is
successful in attracting more children in
schools
SUBSIDY
BENEFITS TO
PARENTS ON
SCHOOL
MARKSHEET
OF THEIR
CHILDREN

8. SOLUTION 3
• School Voucher is a special scholarship that
empowers the poor with choice. It is a
coupon of a specific amount that can be
used to fund a child’s education at any
school chosen by the parent.
• Under the voucher system, money follows
the student. To get the voucher, schools –
government or private-have to compete and
satisfy the parent. If the parents don’t like
the school, that can take their child (and the
voucher) to another school. Parents decide
and parents choose, not the government.
• The school Voucher provides :
 Choice for students:
 Competition among schools
 Performance based payment
 Win-Win outcome
VOUCHER
SYSTEM –
INNOVATIVE
APPROACH

9. SOME REFORMATIONS IN EXISTING
SCHEMES
A. Provision of Good Quality Mid-day
Meals:
Mid-day meals programmes are in
operation in selected areas and in
selected schools of the country through
C.A.R.E. and through various
governmental agencies. The
largest programme is in operation in Tamil
Nadu State.
The State of Andhra Pradesh has started a
similar programme
in a smaller scale. Besides, there are a few
residential
schools meant for tribal children and
physically handicapped
children where mid-day meals are
provided
B. Alternative Channels of Education
such as the Non-Formal Education
(NFE) System
Non-formal education has become an
accepted alternative channel of education
for children who cannot attend full-time
schools due to various socio-economic
constraints. To reach this large segment of
marginalised children, we in India have
been running, since 1979-80, a
programme of NFE for children in the 6-14
age group, who have remained outside
the formal system. These include drop-
outs from formal schools, children from
habitations without schools, working
children, children who have to remain at
home to do domestic chores, and girls
who are unable to attend formal schools
for a variety of reasons.

10. CONCLUSION
As a nation we have the responsibility to enhance the dignity of all
our citizens. This can be achieved only through quality education. Real
education enhances the dignity of a human being and increases his or her
self-respect. If only the real sense of education could be realized by each
individual, and carried forward in every field of human activity the world
will be so much a better place to live in.
Globally, it is estimated that up to dollar the sign 10 billion per
year additional external support will be required to universalize primary
education. Voucher System has been in practice in many countries and
there is enough evidence to demonstrate that it is working effectively and
could bring a change within a very short span of time resulting in quality
output in the education system. We need to implement this system in
INDIA without any further delay so as to achieve the aim of
universalization of Primary Education.

11. REFRENCES
1. President Address at the 38th International Literacy Day on 08-09-2004 at Vigyan
Bhavan, New
Delhi.
2. http://www.education.nic.in
3. http://www.shikshanic.in
4. Economic Survey 2003-2004, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India.
5. Year Book (CS) 2002
6. http://www.unesco.org
7. Poverty and Human Development in India: Getting Priorities Right" UNDP, by A K
Shiva Kumar.
8. http://www.censusindia.net
9. Azim Premji Address at the Inauguration of the “National Conference on Enhancing
Learning in
Elementary School”.
10. http://www.ccsindia.org
11. http://www.schoolchoince.in
12. Milton Friedman, "Public Schools: Make Them Private," 1995
12. Stiglitz, Joseph E. Economics of the Public Sector, 3rd, Stanford University