The State of Education, or Education of the State

Summary: Government schools highlight the dire state of education in India. Teachers are at the heart of many of my key grievances.

As in the U.S., education in India* is complicated and interweaves a range of issues. India, however, takes these issues to a new level. In particular, government schools epitomize the disturbing in infuriating state of education here. A sampling of my personal grievances (many of these issues are intertwined):

Lack of qualified teachers: The government has made a point to build a school within 1 km of every village, as many of those students do not have any means of traveling much further. This, with the free mid-day meal, is meant to increase student attendance. A consequence of this is the dearth of qualified teachers for these schools.

Misdirected funds: Insufficient funds is not a problem for government schools; rather, misdirected funds is. This happens on two levels:

(1) Funds spent on low priority items: At one of the Chinhat schools, funds were directed toward building another kitchen, even though one was already in operation. Why not pay for books or something more useful?

(2) Unintended consequences of expenditures: Ironically, teacher training is one culprit of teacher absenteeism. As in an organization, schools use all the funds given, lest the budget get cut the following year as a result of prudent spending. When a school has excess funds at the end of the school year (as Nandpur does), one option is to send teachers to training. However, this comes at the cost of lost time in schools.

Inappropriate job description: Government school teachers are first and foremost government officials. They get paid handsomely (often significantly more than private school teachers), and are often pulled out for other official government posts such as election duty. Of course, the concept of substitute teachers does not exist yet.

High teacher salary: An unintended consequence of high salaries for government school teachers is that: (1) it often attracts the wrong crowd, and (2) psychologically speaking, it can change intrinsic motivation into extrinsic motivation. Many government teachers are overpaid and underworked.

Teachers lack accountability: Many government school teachers are at best indifferent about their jobs. Combined with lack of accountability, this often translates into teacher absenteeism. Even teachers present at schools may choose to spend their day doing anything but teaching. However, because their students need to pass the government exams for them to maintain their jobs, they help their students cheat on exams. To “succeed” in school, teachers to not have to teach and students do not have to learn.

Institutionalized rote memorization: A student’s entire future rests on his / her score on an official exam that tests how much the student has memorized. (Imagine your SAT score being the sole criteria for college admissions.) The implications of this trickle down to the primary school level, where students are tested on what they can remember rather than how critically they can think. (This also makes teaching an easier feat, as it significantly lowers the bar that is “success.”)

With so many institutionalized and intertwined issues, education can be seen as a “lost cause” to the jaded. I, on the other hand, could not disagree more. I think it is the key to India’s future; many other problems (e.g., arranged marriage of pre-pubescent females) can be solved by educating its youth. All we can do is continue to do our best and chug along, looking toward a better future for India’s youth.

* Note: I have, possibly unfairly, generalized what I’ve seen and heard about schools in Lucknow / Uttar Pradesh to the rest of India.