Needed, education data that engages the poor parent

News: In recent years, datasets such as Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT’s) National Achievement Survey (NAS) have captured various types of data related to education sector in India.

But, is data enough for bringing in a transformative change?

The case of Rajasthan’s education situation

According to the ASER 2019 data, Rajasthan was among the bottom five States in learning levels. However, according to the NAS 2017, Rajasthan was among the top performers.

Importance of data on school education

Data on school education is collected to measure and monitor, fix flaws and reward achievements at the State and the national levels.

Its end users are school administrators, government agencies, researchers, and civil society activists.

Is data enough to inspire transformative change?

The data is not used by the ultimate end-user of a government school, i.e. the parent. For example, the parents are one of the key constituencies of school data. However, the data has been rarely used by poor parents.

Simply data on school infrastructure at the district level, or learning levels at the State level cannot galvanise the masses.

At present, there is no vision of education below the national level. It means at the level of the State, district and local levels.

The district and school development plans such as the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) have largely remained administrative practices.

These education programs lacked representations from the parents and school. For example, community-based consultative bodies such as the school management committees and parent-teacher committees could not become platforms to facilitate this.

Presently, our school education is de-politicised, except for a few politics at the national level such as history curriculum, language of instruction and so on.

Way Forward

Intense efforts should be undertaken to disseminate data among all the stakeholders including parents.

To inspire transformation, data has to be linked with a vision of school education. It should be actionable at the level of governance.

The national-level policy should encompass the vision of school education of the people at the national, State, district and local levels. Such a vision must exist in both policy and non-policy forms.

A locally rooted education vision should emerge from social and political consensus.

The vision of schooling should have objectives like reading, writing as well as livelihood relevant skills and knowledge. Further, it should also include long term and abstract objectives such as peer connections, negotiating social diversity, and curiosity for new knowledge and experiences.

The visions of schooling should be beyond basic livelihood. It should include art and culture. The local politicians and politics should uphold such a vision and ensure its implementation through contestation.

There should be participation of the local people. This participation has to be simple, intuitive and energetic.

Source: The post is based on an article “Needed, education data that engages the poor parent” published in the “The Hindu” on 31^st May 2022.