THE CUL DE SAC OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN INDIA

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) enjoined upon the developing economies to ensure universal access to education for all its citizens and avoid gender discrimination. India has largely achieved these goals. However, it's saddled with an inexplicable unconcern for the quality dimension. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), documents how both in terms of numeracy skill and fluency in English, the private schools score fare far better than government run schools, triggering an increasing migration to these private institutions. This paper encapsulates the concerns raised by such independent surveys and also the distressing learning outcomes during secondary schooling as per the latest ASER report. The paper documents the learning trends amongst standard III and standard V student's in the urban habitat of the capital city of Odisha. It reconfirms the poor learning outcomes of the government funded primary schools. The private international schools in contrast, show much better learning outcomes. The paper brings out the strong correlation between Human Development Index (HDI) and per capita allocation on health & education. Quite clearly India's poor development record as compared to its promising growth story brings out the irony of public policy apathy towards the merit goods. Primary, secondary and higher education constitute a continuum where primary education is the basic foundation for a student to achieve good employability in the future. The free market approach like educational vouchers to the poor would certainly not bolster the quality dimension in primary education. The Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) must be provided with adequate financial support and mandated with the responsibility of ensuring quality primary education. The paper makes a strong pitch for Public Private Partnership (PPP), greater attention towards the quality public schooling at the grassroots, and adequate allocation so that the youth can realistically achieve their aspiration of an inclusive India and be part of employment opportunity that globalisation offers.