Starting Off on the Left Wrong Foot

The 2009-2010 year for government schools officially started on July 1, 2009. However, this being India, no date is official unless it’s a holiday; hence, many schools generally aren’t operational until August.

To try to understand the problem, I’ve found that the issue can be traced to both “the top” and “the bottom.”

“The Top” (The Government): Governments everywhere are known for dragging their feet, but this is ridiculous.

The state (UP Board) curriculum hasn’t changed much from year to year (for better or for worse), and textbooks are usually updated only with incremental changes. This year, however, the curriculum has been completely revamped; for example, English has been incorporated into the curriculum earlier (Class 1 vs. Class 3). It’s almost a month into the school year and many of the new textbooks have yet to be released. Such circumstances can demoralize even the well-intentioned teachers, and provide little more than excuses for the less well-intentioned ones.

“The Bottom” (The Students): Student attendance is abhorrently low in this first month. In the weeks leading up to the new school year, teachers are expected to visit the villages to (1) remind families that school will be starting up again soon, and (2) recruit new students. Even with these efforts (if they are indeed undertaken), teachers have to either spend the first few weeks of the new year corralling students and bringing them to school, or wait out the storm.

Regular attendance will finally pick up in August, but at that point festivals and holidays will force schools to close. Of the first 15 days in August, the school will be open for only about half of them, once again causing the recurring low student attendance.

Without government support, the educational system in India will continue to be muddled with such basic problems. The intent to overhaul and “beef up” the paltry curriculum is a good start, but the delays are costing both students and teachers valuable school time. The outrageous number of government-mandated holidays also undermine efforts to provide students with a consistent education, and sends mixed messages about the importance of education.

To borrow a quote from Derek Zoolander, “How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read if they can't even fit inside the building?”