EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Primary education is the foundation on which the development

of every citizen and the nation as a whole built on. n recent
past, ndia has made a huge progress in terms of
increasing primary education enrolment, retention, regular
attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two
thirds of the population. ndia's improved education system is
often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic
development of ndia. At the same time, the quality of
elementary education in ndia has also been a major concern.

Free and compulsory education to all children up to the age
fourteen is constitutional commitment in ndia. The Parliament
of ndia has recently passed Right to Education Act through
which education has become fundamental right of all children of
age group 6-14 years. The country is yet to achieve the elusive
goal of Universalisation of Elementary education (UEE), which
means 100 percent enrolment and retention of children with
schooling facilities in all habitations. t is to fill this gap that the
Government has launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 2001,
one of the largest such programmes in the world.
The primary education vertical of ndia Development Gateway
is an attempt to empower the children and teachers by
providing ample resource materials to archive the goal of
Universalization of Elementary Education in ndia.
The government has also introduced RGHT TO EDUCATON
ACT in this reference.


!RESENT SCENARIO OF !RIMARY EDUCATION IN
INDIA
The present educational system of ndia is an implantation
of British rulers. Wood's Dispatch of 1854 laid the
foundation of present system of education in ndia. Before
the advent of British in ndia, education system was
private one. With the introduction of Wood's Dispatch
known as Magna Carta of ndian education, the whole
scenario changed. The main purpose of it was to prepare
ndian Clerks for running local administration. Under it the
means of school educations were the vernacular
languages while the higher education was granted in
English only. British government started giving funds to
indigenous schools in need of help and thus slowly some
of the schools became government-aided.
Today education system in ndia can be divided into many
stages:

Pre- Primary - t consists of children of 3-5 years of age
studying in nursery, lower kindergarten and upper
kindergarten. At this stage student is given knowledge
about school life and is taught to read and write some
basic words.
Primary - t includes the age group of children of 6-11
years studying in classes from first to fifth.
Middle - t consists of children studying in classes from
sixth to eighth.
Secondary - it includes students studying in classes ninth
and tenth.
Higher Secondary - ncludes students studying in eleventh
and twelfth classes.
Undergraduate - Here, a student goes through higher
education, which is completed in college. This course may
vary according to the subject pursued by the student. For
medical student this stage is of four and a half years plus
one year of compulsory internship, while a simple
graduate degree can be attained in three years.
Postgraduate - After completing graduation a student may
opt for post-graduation to further add to his qualifications.

Education Governing Bodies

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE): This is
the main governing body of education system in ndia. t has
control over the central education system. t conducts exam
and looks after the functioning of schools accredited to
central education system.
The Council of ndian School Certificate Examination
(CSCE): t is a board for Anglo ndian Studies in ndia. t
conducts two examinations 'ndian Certificate of Secondary
Education' and 'ndian School Certificate'. ndian Certificate
of secondary education is a k-10 examination for those
ndian students who have just completed class 10th and
ndian school certificate is a k-12 public examination
conducted for those studying in class 12th.
The State Government Boards: Apart from CBSE and CSCE
each state in ndia has its own State Board of education,
which looks after the educational issues.
The National Open School: t is also known as National
nstitute of Open Schooling. t was established by the
Government Of ndia in 1989. t is a ray of hope for those
students who cannot attend formal schools.
The nternational School: t controls the schools, which are
accredited to curriculum of international standard.

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

According to the Constitution of ndia, elementary education is
a fundamental right of children in the age group of 6-14 years.
ndia has about 688,000 primary schools and 110,000
secondary schools. According to statistics two third of school
going age children of ndia are enrolled in schools but the
figures are deceptive as many don't attend schools regularly. At
least half of all students from rural area drop out before
completing school. The government has rolled out many plans
to increase the percentage of elementary education. The plans
such as 'Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), District Primary
Education Program (DPEP), Operation Blackboard, Mid Day
Meal have been successful to great extent.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA)
The main goal of this program is that all children of 6-11 years
of age should complete primary education by the year 2007
and all children of 6-14 years of age should complete eight
years of schooling by 2010. This plan covers the whole country
with special emphasis on girl education and education of
Schedule Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) children and
children with special needs. The SSA centers are mainly
opened in those areas, which do not have any school or where
schools are very far off. Special girl oriented programs include:
O Girl education at elementary level.
O National Program for Education of Girls at Elementary
Level (NPEGEL)
O Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV)
O Mahila Samakhya Scheme


District !rimary Education !rogram
This program was launched in 1994 with the objective of
universalization of primary education. ts main features are
Universal Access, Universal Retention and Universal
Achievement. t aims that the primary education should be
accessible to each and every child of school going age, once a
child is enrolled in school he/ she should be retained there. The
final step is achievement of the goal of education. The main
components of this program are:
O Construction of classrooms and new schools
O Opening of non-formal schooling centers
O Setting up early childhood education centers.
O Appointment of teachers.
O Providing education to disabled children.
The program has been successful to the large extent as
1,60,000 schools and 84,000 alternative schools have been
opened under this program. And work is going on for the
construction of new buildings of 52,758 schools. 4,20,203
disabled students have been successfully enrolled into the
schools.

!ROBLEMS IN THE !RIMARY EDUCATION SYSTEM

"UALTY OF EDUCATON
"uality has always been compromised for quantity in our
education system and metrics such as quality of education and
competency have been largely ignored. nternational Evaluation
Agency (EA) has developed
achievement tests for establishment and comparison of
learning outcome of children in developed and developing
countries. One of these tests is:

O 169 Schools in Delhi surveyed
O Based on math and language competency tests
designed by NCERT

Obeservations were:

Mean score for Hindi and English medium schools are
statistically different in math

n English medium schools 38% students failed to score >
40% in math

n Hindi medium schools math score 40% < language 56%
Mean score of SC students is 8-10% < general

Girls scored < boys

Children with pre-primary education scored 8-10% more than
those without

Class scores >> Class V scores

TEACHER ABSENCE


A study was done by Unannounced visits to 3700 primary
schools in 20 states representing 98% population covering
government schools, rural private and private aided schools.
25% absence was recorded for teachers while only 45%
teachers were actively involved in teaching


CONCLUSION
We must recognize education as a critical input for human
capital development, employment/ jobs, and economic growth,
and are put major financial and technical resources into this
effort. Problems such as teacher absenteeism and quality of
education need to be addressed as demand for education far
exceeds supply, in terms of both access and quality.
Right to education act has helped the nation make tremendous
progress in terms of primary education as the key points
covered by this act are:
1. The Act makes it mandatory for every child between the
ages of 6-14 to be provided for education by the State.
This means that such child does not have to pay a single
penny as regards books, uniforms etc. too.

2. Any time of the academic year, a child can go to a school
and demand that this right be respected.


3. Private education institutions have to reserve 25% of their
seats starting from class in 2011 to disadvantaged
students.

4. Strict criteria for the qualification of teachers. There is a
requirement of a teacher student ration of 1:30 at each of
these schools that ought to be met within a given time
frame.


5. The schools need to have certain minimum facilities like
adequate teachers, playground and infrastructure. The
government will evolve some mechanism to help
marginalised schools comply with the provisions of the
Act.
6. There is anew concept of 'neighbourhood schools' that
has been devised. This is similar to the model in the
United States. This would imply that the state government
and local authorities will establish primary schools within
walking distance of one km of the neighbourhood. n case
of children for Class V to V, the school should be within
a walking distance of three km of the neighbourhood.

7. Unaided and private schools shall ensure that children
from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups shall not
be segregated from the other children in the classrooms
nor shall their classes be held at places and timings
different from the classes held for the other children.
























BIBLIOGRA!HY

1. Deshpande, Ajay, Primary education in ndia- key
problems, MT ndia reading group, 19th june 2006

2. http://www.indg.in/primary-education/,
http://www.indg.in/primary-
education/policiesandschemes/right-to-education-bill,
September 23 2011

3. Aggarwal, Yash, "uality concerns in elementary
education in ndia- Where do we stand?