Description
A lot of activities could be observed in recent years to improve primary education in the country. This includes the enactment of Right to Education Act in 2009, imposition of specific tax – education cess. Therefore in terms of resource allocation there has been a manifold increase especially for primary education. But the big question being asked is if these resources are being spent judiciously? In other words as Lant Prichet puts it that fragile States usually suffer from what he termed as ‘capability trap’ as the State implicitly assumes (erroneously) the creation of apparatus would necessarily result in the functional efficiency also. If the approach does not work it amounts to a huge west. Unfortunately the Annual Status of Educational Report (ASER) – 2010 point to very poor outcome in terms of quality as far as the primary education is concerned. Present paper seeks to find explanation as to what went wrong in this sector and what could possibly be the way out from this ‘big stuck’. The data we analyzed point to the fact there has occurred gradual decline in the social monitoring of this sector, resulting in near disappearance of accountability of those who are entrusted with the task of manning the system – educators and administrators. Inability of democratic institutions to stem the rot has also been observed.
What Ails Primary Education in India?A Critique of Public Policy
A lot of activities could be observed in recent years to improve primary education in the country. This includes the enactment of Right to Education Act in 2009, imposition of specific tax – education cess. Therefore in terms of resource allocation there has been a manifold increase especially for primary education. But the big question being asked is if these resources are being spent judiciously? In other words as Lant Prichet puts it that fragile States usually suffer from what he termed as ‘capability trap’ as the State implicitly assumes (erroneously) the creation of apparatus would necessarily result in the functional efficiency also. If the approach does not work it amounts to a huge west. Unfortunately the Annual Status of Educational Report (ASER) – 2010 point to very poor outcome in terms of quality as far as the primary education is concerned. Present paper seeks to find explanation as to what went wrong in this sector and what could possibly be the way out from this ‘big stuck’. The data we analyzed point to the fact there has occurred gradual decline in the social monitoring of this sector, resulting in near disappearance of accountability of those who are entrusted with the task of manning the system – educators and administrators. Inability of democratic institutions to stem the rot has also been observed.