Group2_B | SDG 4 : Quality Education
SDG 4: Quality Education
Introduction
“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”
Such
is the impact which education has on an individual. Ensuring quality education
to the citizens of a country should be one of the major responsibilities of any
government. Considering its humongous implication, United Nations has included Quality
Education as the fourth Sustainable Development Goal in the 2030 agenda for
Sustainable Development, which talks about ensuring inclusive and equitable
quality education and promoting lifelong learning for all. This goal primarily
ensures that all eligible people complete their primary and secondary education
by 2030. Apart from this, Quality education also focuses on providing equal
access to vocational training, eliminate gender and wealth disparities and
achieve universal access to quality higher education. In this context, India
has made education mandatory till the age of 14 through its Right to Education
Act, 2010 [1]. According to a report by UNES
CO [2], “each additional year in school
increases the average national GDP by 0.37% and individual income by an average
of 10%”. According to UN, “children from economically backward families are 4
times more likely to be out of school as compared to children from wealthy
families”. This divide has ben further exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemic which
is touted to have wiped out 20 years of education gains. Globally, an
additional 101 million or 9% of children in primary and middle school fell
below minimum reading proficiency levels in 2020. In India, school closures
have affected around 320 million students out of which roughly 37.6 million
students were able to continue their education through online and other modes.
A survey by Save the Children has reported that the discontinuation of
education of children was as high as 67% in rural and 55% in urban India. In
addition to this, the mid-day meal scheme was largely impacted which has been
playing a crucial role in increasing enrolment and attendance of students in
primary and middle school. The pandemic also caused a shift in budgetary
allocation for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan [3], wherein the allocation was reduced from
45,934 Cr to 38,750 Cr. India quickly tried to adopt the online mode of
education, but this led to a further digital divide and learning inequality.
While 24% Indians own a smartphone, only 11% of households possess any form of
computers and only 24% Indian households have internet connection. Shifting to
digital mode of education has led to a blow to providing equitable and
inclusive education.
Relevance in the Indian Context
Having a
rich demographic dividend of young people, India has immense potential to
harness its human capital by investing in Quality Education.
The
Ministry of Human Resource Development along with NITI Aayog have set targets
for 2030 on 11 parameters tracking the state of quality education impartment in
India. With approval of New Education Policy of India 2020 (NEP 2020) by the
Union Cabinet, the education system is slated to undergo a transformation which
will help India to achieve the targets of SDG 4.
An analysis of the state-wise performance from NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index Dashboard reveals that most of the states in Central and Western India fall into the category of Performers. Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, and Tamil Nadu are categorized as Front Runners where the metrics of Quality Education are high. Most of the Eastern and North-Eastern States fall into the category of Aspirant where the literacy rates and other parameters are low. Overall, the distribution of Index scores is negatively skewed and shows that a major effort is required from all the stakeholders to achieve the targets of SDG 4 for India.
One of the
important parameters used by the Index is the Adjusted Net Enrolment Ratio
which tracks the number of students who complete elementary education (class
1-8) in India. As of 2018-19, the adjusted NER for India is 87.26%. [6] The
targeted adjusted NER is 100% by 2030 as mentioned in NEP 2020. Policies like Sarva
Siksha Abhiyan and Mid-Day Meal Program have resulted in significant
improvement in literacy and enrolment rates in primary education over the past
2 decades. [7]
Gross
Enrolment Ratio(GER) indicates
the ratio of students who complete higher education in India. As of 2018-19,
only 26.3% students in India complete higher education. Post-Covid, the
enrolment rates are expected to have gone further. Even the allocation of
budget to Ministry of Education has reduced by 14% because of higher allocation
towards fiscal stimulus and relief packages. The government has set a target of
achieving 50% GER by 2030.
The Gender
Parity Index for higher education (18-23) for India is 1. This is in line
with the target GPI of 1 by 2030. A deeper analysis of state-wise data however
indicates that the GPI is highly skewed between the Aspirant and Front
Runner states. The Front Runner states fare well in the GPI whereas
the Aspirant states are lagging. This indicates that there is a strong
correlation between the overall Index score and the Gender Parity Index. This
provides strong impetus to schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao which strive
to increase the literacy and education rates of girls.
Percentage
of Schools with access to basic infrastructure like electricity and drinking
water is currently 84.76%. To achieve the target of 100% by 2030, the
government needs to allocate more budget towards infrastructure development in
schools. With Covid being an aberration year, experts believe that budget will
be improved significantly in the next fiscal year for Education.
The Pupil
Teacher Ratio (PTR) is currently at 21 with the target being 30 by 2030. In
most of the states, the ratio is significantly less than 30 which indicates low
enrolment ratio of students. Although this means that there are enough teachers
in India, the Index does not measure the quality of education being imparted by
the teachers. Policy measures to improve the quality of teaching along with and
improvement in PTR is needed to achieve the goals of SDG 4.
Business
Implications and Responses
P&G
P&G has long been running it’s “Shiksha” CSR program in India. The
initiative started in 2005 and has 3 main aims:
- Improving Education Infrastructure
- Empowering Marginalized Girls Through Education
- Improving Learning outcomes [8]
The Shiksha program is largely supported by P&G’s consumers itself.
Through conversations and advertisements, the company promotes how we as
consumers can contribute towards the education of underprivileged children
simply by our brand choices. Every time we purchase a P&G product, a part
of the revenue goes towards building a school for enabling ease of access to
education especially in the rural areas.
So far, collaborating with various NGOs, P&G has been successful in
building and supporting 2300 schools that has positively impacted 20 lakh+
children across India. [8]
Video: P&G's girl child empowerment program
1. For very young
children, their mothers were encouraged to engage the children in simple
hands-on activities.
2. For grades
1-8, interactive learning content was developed partnering with Mindspark
software for all major subjects.
Girish Kalyanaraman, VP marketing operations of P&G mentions,” Education is critical, now more than ever, given the prolonged closure of schools and the impact on children due to the pandemic. During this challenging time, we upgraded P&G Shiksha with online education so that thousands of children could continue learning from home.” [9]
ITC
ITC’s Primary education Programme focuses on betterment of educational
infrastructure facilities for underprivileged students studying in government
primary schools
Key Initiatives
- Creating a child-friendly, supportive school environment
This includes provision of desks and chairs, lights and fans, classrooms and other structural improvements, textbooks and notebooks, sports kits, etc. Healthy sanitation habits also are a key focus. This includes building separate toilets for boys and girls, drinking water and handwashing stations. [10]
- Improving Learning Outcomes
ITC has partnered with Pratham NGO to implement Read India Plus which focuses on 5 key competencies: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Doing through innovative and unique teaching styles.
- Supporting children to keep up & return to regular schools
To help weak students continue with their education and prevent dropouts, ITC sets ups coaching in Supplementary Learning Centres in villages.
Tata Motors
TATA Motors covers broader areas under its
umbrella for CSR initiatives for promoting education. “Vidyadhanam” has
initiatives for students at all levels of education.
TML-Avanti, Jawahar Navoldaya Vidyalaya (JNV) IIT-JEE Coaching Program
To get into the best engineering and medical colleges in India, students need to crack one of the toughest exams: NEET and JEE. The coaching for these exams is very expensive and out of reach for certain underprivileged sections of the society. Due to this they lose out on the opportunity of getting the best higher education. Thus, to prevent this from happening and developing ground for equal opportunity, TATA motors introduced TML-Avanti, JNV IIT-JEE coaching program. This program aids students with this preparation.
Special Coaching classes
In association with Global Education Trust,
this program has been successful in improving the pass percentage of BMC
schools from 55% in 2014 to 74% in 2018 [11] by providing free supplementary
tutorials for core subjects. The main aim is to encourage students in classes
8th-10th to pursue higher education.
Asha Kiran School for Special Children and START
This is a school for special or
differently-abled children with an aim to recognise each of their individual
talents and also sensitize the society about their needs. The children are
taught life-skills till they attain the age of 20, after which they become
capable of undertaking a vocational skill training at skilling centre START (Society
for Technical Assistance and Remedial Teaching) and support their livelihood.
Analysis and Way forward
As of now,
we have already witnessed the gaps in ensuring quality education and how
governments and corporate houses are doing their bit to cover these gaps.
However, much more needs to be done to ensure that the target is met by the end
of this decade. We have enlisted few measures that can be taken additionally-
1. Enhancing budgetary allocation for
education- During FY 2020, India spent 3.1% of its GDP towards education, which
is way below the global standards of 6%. Lowering of allocation has deeply
affected the grassroots education system and has pushed families under poverty
line. States like Kerala and UTs like Delhi have been spending 16.4% and 25% of
their state GDPs respectively towards education and the results could be seen.
Literacy rates in Kerala and Delhi [12] are 94% and 86.21% respectively, which is
way above the national average of 74.04%. However, the New Education Policy
seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel. This scheme envisages to
increase budgetary allocation to 6% by 2030. [13]
2. Peer teacher learning- This focuses
on improving the quality of teachers in school. According to a report by The
Indian Express [14], “there is a severe learning crisis wherein almost half of the
school students in grade 5 cannot solve a two-digit subtraction problem, while
67% of children in grade 8 in public schools score less than 50% in
competency-based assessments in mathematics”. There are 17000 odd Teacher
Education Institutes (TEI) in India but the Act establishing the National
Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) [15] provides disproportionate power to the regional
bodies. Revamping the present system should be done at the earliest. In
addition to this, the decade-old teaching methodology for teaching staffs
should be updated to bring it to the global standards. In this context,
teachers could be made to work towards a common goal in a collaborative
approach and support each other to succeed in their individual goals. Also,
they can be made to assess each other’s progress.
3. Applied learning at middle and secondary schools- Our education system needs to get over the rote learning system and progress towards learning more practical applications of the subjects. Pedagogical reforms are the need of the hour. The government’s newly launched Atal Innovation Mission [16] is targeted to solve that problem. This mission envisages to develop students’ thinking process and make them to challenge the existing educational structure. In addition, the newly drafted New Education Policy talks about vocational training and computer literacy for middle school students.
References
[1] https://vikaspedia.in/education/policies-and-schemes/right-to-education/right-of-children-to-free-and-compulsory-education-act-2009-right-to-education-act
[2] https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/quality-education-in-india-sdg-4
[3] https://www.cbgaindia.org/policy-brief/impact-covid-19-school-education-india-budgetary-implications/
[4] https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/quality-education-in-india-sdg-4/
[5] https://sdgindiaindex.niti.gov.in/#/ranking
[6] https://www.niti.gov.in/overview-sustainable-development-goals
[7] https://educationforallinindia.com/sustainable-development-goal-4-quality-education-2020-21-india/
[8] https://pgshiksha.com/about
[9] https://www.campaignindia.in/video/pg-shiksha-narrates-the-story-of-munni-and-vidya-emphasises-importance-of-educa/470182
[10] https://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/primary-education-programme.aspx
[11] https://www.tatamotors.com/programs/education/
[12] https://www.indiacensus.net/literacy-rate.php
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-budget-2021-rs-16377-crore-allocated-for-education/articleshow/81410719.cms
[13] https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/economy/national-education-policy-nep-2020-one-year-steady-reforms-miles-to-go-7242741.html
[14] https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/government-schools-education-teacher-qualification-exam-hrd-ministry-6297802/
[15] https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/government-schools-education-teacher-qualification-exam-hrd-ministry-6297802/
[16] https://vikaspedia.in/education/policies-and-schemes/atal-innovation-mission
Authored By
BJ21083 Garima
BJ21093 Nalin Nehra
BJ21105 Roshny Munshi
BJ21111 Shoumik Das
BJ21112 Shreejita Chaudhuri
BJ21113 Shubham Chatterjee
BJ21120 Vedant Matta
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