1. STEPPING STONE
ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF PRIMARY EDUCATION
Ankit Kumar
Ashutosh Deshpande
Ashish Saurav
Avinash Kumar
Rachit Gupta
Students of IIFT Kolkata

2. PRIMARY EDUCATION RIGHT NOW
• To provide equal
opportunity and create
conditions in which even
the disadvantaged
sections of the society can
attend school
• However, what has
increased is ONLY the
intake of teachers and
government expenditure,
NOT the student
enrolment or retention or
the quality of throughput
• Twin objective of
improving health and
education of poor
children; however, India
today lags in both -
malnutrition and quality
• As a matter of fact,
reading level, simple
arithmetic (basic
subtraction & division )
standard and overall
quality of students are all
witnessing a downward
slope
• Budgeted Expenditure on
Education (1,12,250 Cr.,
i.e. 1.6% of GDP in 2010-
11) has seen more than
three-fold increase in a
decade (34,000 Cr. In
2000-01)
• However, rate of
enrolment in govt. schools
is decreasing in
comparison to private
schools

3. CURRENT MALAISE AFFECTING THE SYSTEM
Paucity of teachers and quality of training facilities currently available for them
Absenteeism of poor governance and oversight to monitor performance of existing
teachers
Socio-cultural factors like discrimination against the girl child, prevalence of child
labor and cast differences play a major role in hindering the access to quality primary
education
95.2% of schools do not meet the RTE infrastructure indicators
Less than 10% government schools have a girl’s toilet in place

4. THE CURRENT STATE
• Reading levels: More than half of all children in Standard V are at least three grade levels behind where they
should be. For Standard V in government schools, the percentage of children unable to read Standard II level
text has increased from 49.3% in 2010 to 58.3% in 2012, whereas the percentage of all children enrolled in
Standard III who cannot read a Standard I level text has increased from 57.6% in 2010 to 67.7% in 2012.
• Inference: Children were promoted to higher standards even when they did not cater to the basic skills
required.
• Possible Solution: Hence examinations should be taken seriously and students should be given adequate
training before they are promoted to the next standard.
• Basic arithmetic skills: 2012 was the year of mathematics. But it has been a bad year for basic arithmetic for
children in India. In 2010, of all children enrolled in Standard V, 29.1% could not solve simple two-digit
subtraction problems with borrowing. This proportion increased to 46.5% in 2012. The proportion of all
children enrolled in Standard V who could not do division problems has increased from 63.8% in 2010 to
75.2% in 2012. In rural India as a whole, few years ago, about two-thirds of all children in Standard V could
not do simple division; this is now at three-fourths.
• Inference: Mathematics skills of Indian children is extremely poor and need special emphasis and training
• Possible Solution: Special emphasis should be given to impart training in mathematics, which is the most
important subject taught in the school, be it by arranging extra lectures or inculcating innovative ways for
teaching mathematical concepts (using toys, chocolates).

5. PUBLIC - PRIVATE DIVIDE
• Private school enrolment: At the all-India level, private school enrolment has been rising since 2006. The
percentage of 6- to 14-year-olds enrolled in private schools rose from 18.7% in 2006 to 28.3% in 2012. The
increase is almost equal in primary (Standard I-V) and upper primary (Standard VI-VIII) classes. Since 2009, private
school enrolment in rural areas has been rising at an annual rate of about 10%. If this trend continues, by 2018,
India will have 50% children in rural areas enrolled in private schools.
• Inference: Private institutions have a qualitative
edge because of the monetary advantage they have.
Hence public schools need to be equipped with the
right infrastructure so as to make them competitive
and change the perception that private schools can
only provide holistic development of the child.
• A better approach: The government must bring in
policies favouring public schools and teachers.
India faces a crunch of 6.89 lacs teachers.
This gap can be filled by qualified yet unemployed
youth of rural and semi-urban areas. The pool of teachers
could be taken from the 20 lacs unemployed graduates in the country.
0
1000000
2000000
3000000
4000000
5000000
6000000
7000000
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
AxisTitle
Enrollment in Govt. & Private Schools: Std 1-7
Govt. School Private Schools

6. CAPITALIZING ON THIS PUBLIC-PRIVATE DIVIDE
• Solution Proposed - IMPROVING PRIMARY EDUCATION THROUGH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
WHY
• Students shifting towards private schools gradually
• India undergoing urbanization at the rate of 2.5%
How
• Instead of injecting funds to govt. schools and ‘forcing’ bad
schools on to the students, try taking help from private players
• Using private school as mentors for government ones
What
• This will improve accountability, quality and net output-worth
• Scholarship and other incentives will keep the students
motivated

7. PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
 Public Private Partnership – involve reputed and
known players
 Government should reduce the spending on
govt schools and instead redirect these funds to
private schools
 Each govt school be assigned a private mentor
 Improve the reach of private schools to remote
areas
Public
Private
Partnership
Assign a
private mentor
to each
government
school
Optimum
batch size
Scope of
accountability
increases
Provide
incentives to
such schools
• Optimize the batch size of the primary students – A teacher should
not be overloaded with students. Not more than 40 students in a
class. More number of students reduces the efficiency of a teacher
• The extra responsibilities of election duty, population count ,etc
dilutes the focus of a teacher and results in inefficiency.
Pedagogy focus – Only
Teaching

8. Public Private Mentorship Model for Rural Areas
GOV.
Private
School
+
Competitive
Gov.
School
(KVs)
GOV.
SCHOOL1
GOV.
SCHOOL2
GOV.
SCHOOL3
GOV.
SCHOOL4
Retired
School
Teacher
Headmaster
NGOs
Village
Pradhan
VILLAGES
of
INDIA
District
Education
Authority
State
Education
Minister
Classrooms & Library
Girl’s Toilet
Trained Teacher
Top Talent
Infrastructure
Exams
Talent Pool
Quality
Education
Fair Scholarships
I&B
Ministry
MAA
Chetna
Abhiyan
LOKPAL
MODEL
Grading Mechanism
Door to Door
Awareness
Educational
Campaign
Incentive
Competitions
Reduce Dropout

9. MODUS OPERANDI PUBLIC PRIVATE MENTORSHIP MODEL
o Government to identify good private (as well as competitive govt. like Kendriya Vidyalays) schools and to
assign them responsibility to mentor government schools
o Above identified schools will look into the infrastructure (only 10, quality of education being imparted,
examination module and identification of local talent pool
o The ‘lokpal’ model adopted brings good citizens (retired teachers, head masters, NGOs in education sector)
under the umbrella of this mentorship model; their prime task will comprise creating awareness (through
door-to-door campaigns) and motivating parents to send their wards into school
o Another important task of such above said citizens will be to supervise, audit & prepare an exhaustive list of
improvements/feedbacks required for smooth & better functioning of the schools – this will keep a check on
the system; in turn, the government will be providing remuneration
o ‘Maa Chetna abhiyaan’ should be run by the I&B ministry to make mothers educated and aware so tht she
can impart sound basic knowledge to her kids as a mother is the first teacher for a child
o Under this abhiyaan educational & awareness programmes will be telecasted 24*7 on ‘Gyan Darshan’ (a new,
separate channel of DD) for the mothers

10. PUBLIC PRIVATE MENTORSHIP MODEL FOR URBAN AREAS
GOV.
Private
School
+
Competitive
Gov.
School
(KVs)
GOV.
SCHOOL1
GOV.
SCHOOL2
GOV.
SCHOOL3
GOV.
SCHOOL4
Urban
Areas
Classrooms & Library
Girl’s Toilet
Trained Teacher
Top Talent
Infrastructure
Exams
Talent Pool
Quality
Education
Fair Scholarships
Grading Mechanism
 In urban areas, majority
of students are already in
private schools
 Hence mentoring
government schools here is
not that cumbersome for
private schools
 The ‘lokpal’ model is
really not required here
 Besides, at the present
rate of urbanization, more &
more good schools are
coming up

11. REAPING THE BENEFITS – working out the financials
 Cost benefit
– Currently gov. spent Rs. 1,12,250 crore annually on elementary education in 2010-11
– Enrolment of student in gov. school= 74,22,000 per year
– Avg. fee of a Private School for primary education: Rs 2000/ month
– Basic amenities ( bags, books, uniform, food) – 2000 approx/ month
– Educational officer ( for disbursement of funds from govt to private schools) – 1 educator officer for 500 students
Salary given to him/her = 50,000 per month
Per month cost / student for disbursement of funds = 100
– Other expenses(Miscellaneous) = 1000/ month
– Total cost = 5100 rs/ month
– Annual cost of scholarship needed to send 74,22,000 students to private schools= 74,22,000*5100*12=4542 crore
– Even giving scholarship till 10th std will cost 10*4542 crore = 45420 crore < 1,12,250 crore (the money spent by the gov.)
– Government should only focus on spending and let private schools manage the education (by mentoring government
schools)
– Cost difference = current govt spending – Calculated cost = 112250 crore – 45420 crore = 66830 crore
– Remaining 66830 crores can be used to build new infrastructures and renovate existing govt infrastructures and for
overhead and unknown expenses
 To create awareness among the parents about the importance of education, endorsement by a celebrity can be done (
Amitabh Bachchan for Polio Eradication)
 Generally poor children don’t get any help from their uneducated parents at the home, learning programmes can be aired
through Doordharshan in the evening (check penetration of TV )

12. CHALLENGES AND THE WAY FORWARD
• Penetration of private schools in rural areas
• Possible Solution: The model shall be implemented in urbal areas on experimental basis and if successsful can be
replicated in rural areas. Rapid rate of urbanisation (avg 2.5 % yearly) would also speed up the cause. Also the
government can target Affordable private schools ( APS) for improving the level of elementary education
• Efficient educational officer
• Possible Solution: The educational officer should be such that he is neither affiliated to any government body nor
should be anointed from the private school. The work can be delegated to a private organization for better
management.

13. REFERENCES
• www.agastya.org
• www.livemint.com
• annual stats of education report (aser) -2012
• financial express - editorials
• azeem premji foundation
• www.idfc.com
• indianstat.com
• E&Y report on Indian education sector
• Ministry of HRD
• www.pratham.org