The Indian School Education
Like most of us here my school education was similar to urban children whose parents could afford to send them to decent Indian schools run by private organisation. My father studied in a Zilla School of his village affiliated to the State Board. I studied in an ICSE school funded and run by Tata Motors, in Jamshedpur. Schools were classrooms full of children, with different teachers for different subjects for different classes. Schools had playgrounds and had lots of classrooms, benches, desks, blackboards, labs (including computer labs), etc. Schools also organised Co Curricular activities. Textbooks and Homework and Tests made up my school life. Of course, the crush on teachers, the first girlfriend, the chuddy buddies and skewed views built about hex though back bench education and finally dad's signatures fudged on those red laced answer sheets completed the School Environment.
This was my this understanding of schooling in India and over time this was further reinforced by the friends and colleagues I met through my academic and work life after school. All from similar backgrounds. We often discussed negative impact of tuition (coaching classes), learning- by- rote and how good the education in the wonderful West was. They produced the best research and it took American Universities to get the best out of our brains.
But in 2010, through the quirk of personal stupidity, recessionary job market and helpful family and friends in the Publishing Industry, I became part of a start up School Text Book publishing house. We made two important decisions - Base ourselves in Bihar, because the Nitish had promised the moon for start ups and next concentrate on the rural market in Bihar and around adjoining states.
To understand publishing better, I went and attended a publishing course run by NBT in Delhi. The course and the way the Left Liberals dominate "A" list publishers is another story - but I learnt this about our schooling in India (RTE had not come then):
- NCERT decides the curriculum for all Indian boards ( Learning knowledge levels for a particular age group). CBSE and ICSE are two central boards. Each State board is different. However, the syllabus set out class wise by each board has to comply with the minimum standards laid out by the NCERT curriculum. The stress is on the word "Minimum".
Boards are free to set the curriculum for regional languages or subjects not covered by NCERT. The National Curriculum Framework 2005 is currently in vogue. Those interested can download the document from here
http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links ... nf2005.pdf
ICSE is an Anglo Indian run organisation with around 1800 - 2000 schools affiliated to it (2010 data). CBSE is a GOI run board with roughly 20,000 schools affiliated to it (and growing fast). By contrast just the Bihar Govt runs 72,000 schools affiliated to it for Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary schools. One of the best run State Education Boards is the Tamil Nadu Govt State Board.
There have been many attempts to amalgamate ICSE in to CBSE but so far this has not succeeded.
NCERT publishes text books which lay out the presentation for the Curriculum. NCERT never says its books are mandatory but respective boards may say so. Private Publishers are free to publish their own titles and it is left to the schools to select their text books. But this only happens in the private run schools. State Government run schools supply books purchased through tendering or those made by SCERTs or State Boards.
Why are Text Books Important - In India, in almost 99% of schools Govt or Private, the education is entirely Text Book based. Which is why most of us who studied in 80's and early 90's will remember the Gulmohur Reader from Orient Longman (Now Orient Blackswan) and the stories in it. The Text Book dictates what the Teacher teaches. Those Teachers who can go beyond the text book even in the best schools are few and far between.
Hence, the quality of text books is an essential component of quality of education. More on the text books some other time.
It should be clear by now that private affiliated schools are a small fraction of Government schools. However, there is a very large segment of private non affiliated schools. At the end of class X or class XII they have a tie up with an affiliated school for their students to take board exams with some additional fee.
On my sales tours to the far and remote (really remote enough to find the back seat of the car as the best motel in town) I visited private schools to promote our books. I saw schools run in cowsheds, in hangar like structure where a black plastic blackboard with few benches in front was one class and a few benches behind was another. One was class 2 learning English and one was class 9 learning Physics and the teacher was the same. Where were the walls? Why just one teacher? What about toilets? So, where were the labs? Where were the fans? How did 40 children fit on those benches? What, no desk?
The answers were not always readily shared, but a few school owners would. Mostly, the owner / school director would himself be the main teacher.
The short answer is - Children go to Govt school for their free Mid Day Meal. Studying is done in the private schools, where available. The paying capacity of parents is severely restricted hence running a school with higher costs is not feasible. The Director employed all the educated youth locally available and that number would rarely be greater than 10. The best teacher is the existing tuition master of the area. For us as School Text Book publishers this is the biggest market – fragmented but very big.
And this is bulk of our School Education in the hindi belt, crammed with people, poverty and potential. Most of our focus shifts to measuring our education by taking cognisance of high achievers - those who crack JEE, Medical etc. But that is not what the Normal Bell curve measures. The average product of this system is where we must concentrate our efforts.
The average student and the ones who fall between one standard deviation of the bell curve, coming out of an education system full of government schools and private schools such as the one above, will do well to read / write a single page in any language. I have personally interviewed Maths (Hons) 73%, pass with distinction, exam cleared under Lalu Raj, a product of such an education system, to come to my conclusion (this interview can be a post on its own). I have met , interviewed others and I am convinced, our present education system is barely able to extend our reach of literacy. Education will come later. Let us first get everyone in to the system. There are still many who do not get to attend even such schools.
The focus must remain on extending reach to get everyone in the Indian School System, however flawed. The improvement in the delivery of education, better teachers will continue and IMO, there will always be islands of excellence surrounded by seas of mediocrity. Coaching Classes are a reflection of Parental aspiration to give their kids a better chance and of course a reflection of what a teacher earns by just teaching at school. Good people get good salaries, throw peanuts and the monkeys surround you. There are just too many students graduating and not enough vacancies in the sought after fields.
Our schools have to be affordable and good - two things only government can do. If all State Boards are like the Tamil Nadu State board and stupidities like Lalu Raj do not happen, surely Govt schools which have the reach and numbers will best address the problem. Now, who will guarantee this? How do we reach a point where demand = supply and we start working from adequate teachers to better teachers, from adequate facilities to better facilities, etc?
Just my two paise worth
). And what I was commenting against was the demand that Modi should do some thing about it, right now. May be that is not what you meant, but I thought it was once again approaching Modi with a laundry list of problems and asking him to sit and solve it. The RTE Act can be amended to include minority institutions (which is the right way); but don't think Modi can push it through easily in the Rajya Sabha where "seculars" still hold sway. Now even if that approach, I don't think judiciary is also very favourable to Modi government. And off course the current government does not have the numbers to amend the constituition. So may be the current government has some plans on this, but may be quite lower down the priority. I understand that you are keeping the Kerala situation in mind, but I don't know if the minority educational establishments hold such one-sided privileges all across the country. After Kerala, may be in cities across India they may have advantages. 
