Human Development Report

World Bank has raised its global poverty line from $1.25 a day (in Purchasing Power Parity, or PPP, terms) to $1.90 in October.

World Bank’s data shows that India had witnessed the fastest-ever decrease in the percentage of its population below the poverty line between 2009 and 2011.

India’s Human Development Index value went from 0.462 to 0.609 between 2000 and 2014.

Reasons for improvement in India’s HDI

• improved economic growth and increase in life expectancy as a result of improved health care, and
• little improvements in educational outcomes, which have been harder to achieve, especially for women
• India’s Gross National Income more than doubled over the last 15 years, from $2,522 (PPP) to $5,497 between 2000 and 2014, putting it into middle income status.This economic growth translated into better human development outcomes as well

India Health Report: Nutrition 2015 released by the Public Health Foundation of India findings

• Child undernutrition, which had been declining slowly when data were last available in 2006, has begun to fall at historically high rates; between 2006 and 2014, stunting rates for children under five declined from 48 per cent to 39 per cent, translating into 14 million fewer stunted children, and declines in wasting translated into seven million fewer wasted children. These are extraordinary achievements.

Long road to travel

The UNDP report if India’s women were their own country, they would be 30 ranks lower on the HDI than the country as a whole is now, with far worse educational outcomes dragging them down.

• Indian women are at a particular disadvantage in the workforce; the high proportion (up to 39 per cent of GDP by one estimate) of unpaid care work that falls on women alone pushes them out of the workforce, resulting in one of the world’s lowest female labour force participation rates.
• The 2015 HDR, which is based on the theme of work, highlights just how vulnerable and ill-prepared for the future the majority of the Indian workforce is, and without a social protection blanket.
• The PHFI report shows that India’s national successes mask massive inter-State variability; moreover, gender inequalities are possibly having an impact on children’s nutritional outcomes.

Coming at a time when there is a fear of social sector budget cuts, these reports show that India must build on its human development successes with better redistributive justice.

Chaos in UP educational system

Two recent judgments of the Allahabad High Court have created chaos in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) educational system. In the first, Justice Sudhir Agarwal’s order asked the State government to create a framework to ensure that children of government employees are enrolled only in government-run primary schools. Then a three-judge full bench cancelled the appointments of 1.32 lakh Shiksha Mitras (Para Teachers) on the grounds that they had not cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), prescribed by the Right to Education Act 2010. the judgment also halted the assimilation of the remaining 40,000 Siksha Mitras.

First, for a government employee, sending his/her child to a government school is never part of the terms of employment at the time of the induction. Second, even if it is made part of the service contracts in future recruitments, it will infringe upon the rights of the child to have a free choice.

. The lure of private schools in rural areas started with the aspiration to learn English in the late 1990s when government schools did not teach the language at the primary level. In the first phase, children from the educated/affluent classes migrated to private schools. This class used to hold teachers/officials accountable for standards in government schools. With their departure, the quality of education started declining; soon the middle class followed suit in favour of private scLack of access to government schools also led to an increase in the number of private schools. Despite a substantial increase in population, the number of government schools in rural areas has not increased in the last two decades. Private schools have filled the void. The situation was aggravated by the apathy of government teachers and the administration. The bandwagon effect has been so strong that the parents who send their children to a government school now carry a sense of guilt. hools. As a result, the social profile of students in government schools has undergone a significant change with most of these schools now catering only to students from socially and economically marginalised sections.

Lack of access to government schools also led to an increase in the number of private schools. Despite a substantial increase in population, the number of government schools in rural areas has not increased in the last two decades. Private schools have filled the void. The situation was aggravated by the apathy of government teachers and the administration. The bandwagon effect has been so strong that the parents who send their children to a government school now carry a sense of guilt.

The depressing and counterintuitive aspect of this whole situation is that large-scale government hiring such as the ongoing recruitments of qualified teachers, while necessary, is not contributing to enhanced quality. The best teachers escape the exploitative conditions of private schools and become part of a dysfunctional government school system where the accountability is very low.

Systemic overhaul

Even if the UP government resolves the legal tangle, the possibility of improvement in education in government-run schools in the near future is bleak. A major systemic overhaul is required to improve standards. A voucher system could be introduced wherein every child is given a voucher/coupon of say Rs. 300 a month for the monthly fee, which can be redeemed for cash by the school. However, lack of information about the education quality in schools will continue to persist.

To overcome this challenge, the government should establish five or six affordable residential schools in each district, modelled on the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, with an intake of around 2000 to 3000 students at various levels through an entrance test. This will not only motivate students but also act as a mechanism to assess the quality of other private and government schools in the district. Schools with better results in the admission test will potentially attract more students with vouchers, which will augment their financial resources. The competition will incentivise private schools to provide quality education through better trained and dedicated teachers.

Voucher system can also be leveraged to improve accountability in government schools. The salary of government teaches should have two components; fixed and variable. Let the government schools compete with private schools for students with vouchers. A system can be created to distribute the resources generated in a government school from vouchers among the teachers.