Universal education, minimal learning

Tripura claims to have achieved the goal of universalisation of elementary education, with almost 100 per cent enrolment, 90 per cent retention and average attendance rates of 80 per cent for primary schools and 77 per cent for upper primary schools. Does that mean that on any random day, if you show up at an elementary school, you are going to find all the children in 6-14 years age group attending school?

Unlikely. A recently tabled CAG audit report that reviewed the performance of elementary education in the state during 2006-2011 shows that there is considerable mismatch between enrolment, attendance, etc. as enumerated in DISE (District Information System for Education) and actual percentages recorded in 60 schools where checks were carried out. On the day of inspection, average attendance was found to be 57 per cent. Not only is this significantly less than what DISE data claims, it was also less than the number present in the previous academic session's attendance registers.
Hidden behind the 'average' figures that paint a rosy picture of universalisation, retention and attendance are stark local variations. Thirty nine per cent of schools in Tripura show attendance rates below 50 per cent. In Dhalai district, with a high proportion of Scheduled Tribes, the attendance figures are quite worrisome.

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But in case one thinks the joint inspection team merely compared statistics in registers and DISE - a very common perception about auditors - you are in for a surprise. CAG's performance audit report spans across 33 pages and tells us that audit teams also held long interviews with teachers to gauge the reasons for low attendance and were told that such low attendance was due to 'less awareness of parents'.

The audit teams attempted to probe the reasons for low attendance and their relationship to learning outcomes, by examining the data more finely. They found that only two schools reported more than 80 per cent attendance and 50 per cent of students securing more than 80 per cent marks. Another 13 schools reported attendance ranging between 50 to 80 per cent and 25 to 50 per cent of students securing more than 80 per cent marks. As many as 45 schools, on the other hand, (75 per cent of the number sampled) showed poor attendance figures and poor learning outcomes.

The auditors also observed that except two schools, all the others had received teaching grants, but during inspection they did not appear to be using the teaching aids in classrooms. Fourteen out of 60 sampled schools didn't receive the Teaching Learning Equipment they were supposed to get as per SSA norms during the last five years. In Dhalai district, most of the children in schools were first generation learners, but none of the schools had provided any special attention to teach slow/weak learners. Thirty four schools did not have a regular head teacher, which meant that teachers had to attend to tasks related to school management, affecting their teaching duties.

The problem of schools not having a regular head teacher is wide-spread. Of the 4386 schools in Tripura, 2810 (64 per cent) do not have regular head teachers. The state needs to urgently promote more teachers into higher positions of responsibility as head teachers. This should not be too difficult, since Tripura has very positive Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) - in 2006 the state had a teacher for every 22 students and in 2011 it improved this ratio by having a teacher for every 18 students.

Impressive numbers on teacher recruitments also come along with poor school infrastructure, deficient training infrastructure, a depressingly low number of teacher educators, and uneven distribution of teachers. In many places, primary and upper primary schools are run in the same building, in morning and afternoon shifts. Thus, each of the schools on average functions for 22 hours a week for 100 to 284 days in an academic session. This is only half the time prescribed as working hours for teachers as per RTE norms viz. 45 hours a week (although the higher figure includes time that teachers have to spend in preparing for class as well).

While recruitment numbers are good, they are also highly uneven. The state has 11 schools where there is only one teacher for more than 100 students. There are also another 105 schools where there is one teacher for 50 to 100 students. Any intervention aiming to bring the PTR closer to the state average in these schools is constrained by policy hurdles. For instance, teachers recruited under SSA can't be transferred. Similarly as the Principal Secretary, Education suggested in a conference to discuss the audit findings, female teachers and teachers with health concerns can't be transferred either.

There is a need to identify schools/locations that have consistently reported adverse PTRs in the last ten years, and find the reasons that de-motivate teachers from accepting postings in these. That will help plan the incentives needed to overcome the hurdles.

Teacher quality remains an area of concern, despite continuous recruitment. As many as 71 per cent of the teachers do not possess the minimum qualifications mandated by the National Council of Teachers' Education. Only 22 per cent of the teachers are properly trained. Lack of Science and Maths teachers is a huge concern in many schools. 783 Upper Primary schools didn't have even a single Maths or Science teacher, and 1149 more didn't have a Maths teacher. In Dhalai, the shortage of teachers was particularly acute - Maths at 66 per cent, and Science at 50 per cent. This has affected learning outcomes in these subjects.

The state government has responded to the audit observations by stating that it is in the final stage of engaging 1000 Science teachers, but there is no word on addressing the shortage of Mathematics teachers. And even where there are teachers, problems eventually crop up; the poor training infrastructure and shortages of teacher educators deny a large number of teachers any in-service training to improve themselves.

On the whole, the education system in the State looks like one that is at best filling up numbers on a checklist, without much attention to any learning outcomes. And even this limited exercise appears incomplete in many places. One can only hope that this performance review triggers a discussion among educationists in the state, and an effort to address the bottlenecks to learning.

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Tamilnadu's striking progress in welfare

Tamilnadu's achievements in the provision of public services are reasonably well established. Could it be possible that as many people with "voice" remain invested in these public services, be it education or health or the PDS, that has prevented the collapse of these services in TN?

As someone who had not visited rural areas south of Maharashtra in the capacity of a researcher, my first trip to a few villages in Tamilnadu left me wondering if that field visit wasn?t a dream. We were looking at the state of public services in rural areas and were pleasantly surprised at the existence and quality of these services ? be it government schools, primary health care, or last (but not trivial at all) bus services - compared to what I had observed in the north Indian states.

This comparative qualification is important. If readers in Tamilnadu react to this article by protesting or by bringing to my notice the many failings of the system there, I will not be surprised. In fact, the high standards that they set are an important part of the Tamilnadu story (more on this later).

Seeing is Believing: Education and Health Services

The better education and health outcome indicators in the southern states (especially Kerala and to some extent Tamilnadu), compared to the north, has been acknowledged for a long time. And yet to see it with one?s own eyes really drives home the point.

An anganwadi in Villupuram district. Pic: Reetika Khera

Government schools in rural areas resemble what one imagines schools should look like: a school compound, with a boundary wall, classrooms, an office, a playground; teachers for (almost) each class, teaching activity using text books and blackboards.

Another impressive aspect was the mid-day meal (MDM) programme. The MDM is one programme which has found roots in the north Indian states as well and yet there are several issues with its implementation: the complaints include irregularity, menu not being followed, quality of the food, that it takes away from teaching time since teachers get involved in some aspect of the MDM (e.g., record-keeping). However, it was easy to see that Tamilnadu is still years ahead of many of the north Indian states that are taking this programme seriously: the question of the meal not being served on any particular day does not arise here; children get more nutritious food, including eggs thrice a week (and sprouted chana, we were told, on the other three days); further, the Tamilnadu MDM programme also has a health check-up which includes ?injections? (as one child told us in Maamandur village), measuring of height and weight of children, eye testing and a dental examination.

In Sicko, a film on healthcare, Michael Moore starts by documenting the difficulties of individuals in the US who are at the mercy of private health insurance companies. Then, he visits countries that have a decent public health system based on a strong commitment to free and universal health care. Starting with Canada, he visits the United Kingdom, France and ultimately, Cuba. I felt in December 2009, that the film should have ended in Tamilnadu. A primary health care centre in Chintalpalli, Dharmapuri district confirms that what I saw in Villupuram was not a dream. Pic: Reetika Khera

The most striking contrast between public services in northern states and in Tamilnadu was the provision of free primary health care (which includes immunisation, ante-natal care, post-natal care, eye care), with a noticeable emphasis on preventive health care. PHCs were well-equipped and functioned well. Amongst the ones we visited was the Iruvelpattu Block PHC (Villupuram district, TN), which provides 24-hour service (each Block, we were told, has one 24-hour PHC). It had a 30-bed hospital, an operation theatre, x-ray machine, a TB unit, an AIDS unit, a pharmacy which provides free medicines to everyone, facilities for blood and urine tests and colour-coded dustbins for segregating medical waste. Not unimportantly, the toilets had running water supply, a bucket and tumbler and soap.

The staff at this PHC was equally impressive: four doctors (including two female doctors) one of whom was a surgeon; five nurses, a lab technician, a pharmacist, two drivers for the two ambulances and other support staff. The staff are highly motivated and are courteous to the patients seeking treatment at the PHC. (When we visited, we were also received courteously, but patients were given priority over us - as they should - in sharp contrast to visits to government offices in northern states, where routine activities sometimes come to a standstill in order to attend to us.)

There is pride and joy in doing their work which was hard to miss amongst other government staff as well (whether it?s the time-keeper at the bus stand, or the anganwadi helper/worker, or the panchayat clerk or the school teacher). At the Tiruvannainallur PHC (Villupuram district, TN), we met a nurse who had quit her Apollo Hospital job in order to "give back" to the state that had made her education possible.

Lessons from Tamilnadu

The functioning of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in Tamilnadu has already been written about. And it provides some insights into why things work there but are in shambles in large parts elsewhere in the country. In 1997, when other states in the country were forced to move to a "targeted" PDS, the Tamilnadu government was forced to reverse its decision within a few days under public pressure (Srinivasan, 2010). As mentioned in the opening paragraph, continuous public pressure has been an important part of Tamilnadu's "success".

Everyone was entitled to subsidised foodgrains from the PDS at Re. 1/kg. (Now it is free.) The PDS is not a source of just foodgrains in TN. Ration shops in TN, we were told, provide seventeen items (including sugar, salt, spices, soap, semolina, edible oil, kerosene). Unlike the north, where the opening of the ration shop remains a bit of an occasion, in TN these shops seem to open at least once a week. It is not uncommon to see people carrying large bags full of groceries from the ration shop.

Whether providing rice at Re. 1/kilo (or free) is required or sustainable is debatable, but there is no doubt that the inclusion (in the PDS) of those with ?voice? has certainly played a role in preventing a collapse of the system in TN.

Similar remarks apply to other government services. We found that gram panchayat officials and elected representatives reside in the village and access the same facilities as the most disadvantaged (including Dalits and other marginalised groups). When the children of the "thalaivar" (panchayat president), the organiser of the MDM, of the panchayat clerk go to the same school as the children of the NREGA labourers (this still happens in some places we visited, though private school enrolment is far from negligible in Tamilnadu), it is in everyone?s interest to make the schools work.

In Pratapgarh (Uttar Pradesh), on the other hand, the husband of a government school teacher told us that their children went to a private school (not to the government school that his wife taught at) because the government school was no good!

The fact that at least some people with voice have remained "loyal" to the government system in Tamilnadu (to some extent), appeared to have a visible impact on the quality of government schools as well. When we asked the panchayat clerk (Villupuram, TN), how it was that teachers were always on time and teaching in government schools, he found it hard to comprehend our question; finally he said that if the teacher were to come an hour late, there would be four parents at the school demanding to know why he/she had come late.

In response to our question as to why things worked in TN, we were often told that there was a strong monitoring system which prevented theft, or slack. However, people weren?t able to tell us why the monitoring system had not fallen prey to corruption and collusion in TN, to the extent that it had in the north.

Rosy as all this might sound, one should not assume that there is no corruption there: we were told of a lab technician charging Rs. 5 to make an x-ray in the general hospital; the noon meal organizer said that it was possible to pilfer a little from the stocks that come for school children (but not too much); a thalaivar told us very candidly that he had to spend lakhs for his election campaign and equally openly told us that this money was spent on buying votes by distribution of ?sarees, shirts and drinks?.

In a situation where the Panchayat President is not paid any salary, it is not hard to guess how this money is recovered. The real mystery is how, in spite of the existence of corruption, public services in Tamilnadu remain functional in a way that few other Indian states have managed.

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IIM-Bangalore is India's No. 1 in business management research: Stanford Study

BANGALORE: A Stanford study of Indian universities, colleges and institutes puts the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) on top in the Business and Management Research category. Four other Bangalore institutes figure in the list.

The study was done by Prof Sharique Hasan of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

He based the rankings of Indian institutes on productivity in social science research. The universities were ranked in these categories: sociology, demography and family studies, economics, psychology, and business and management.

The grading is based on the number of peer-reviewed articles produced by an institute and the number of citations these articles received. IIT-Delhi, IIM-Calcutta and Indian School of Business follow IIM-B in the top league.

While the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is ranked No. 10, the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore, is at No. 27.

The Institute of Social and Economic Change and National Institute of Advanced Studies, both from Bangalore, are ranked 16th and 31st in the Sociology, Demography and Family Studies category.

Prof Devanath Tirupati, director in charge, IIM-B, said: "The survey certainly reflects IIM-B's higher priority to research."

"The survey presents a comprehensive picture of where social science researchers in India are publishing. IIM-B's lead over others, within the Business and Management Research category, is an interesting quantification of the research being carried out in a wide number of areas within the institute," said Arnab Mukherji, assistant professor at IIM-B.

According to the researcher, raw data includes any article published in one of the 3,015 social science journals indexed by ISI. The author should be affiliated to a university or institute located in India, and should have published the article between 2000 and 2010.

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CAT 2013: IIM Indore sending scores of 700 students for verification and validation in batches

Shreya Biswas, ET Bureau Jan 24, 2014, 03.04PM IST

KOLKATA: Common Admission Test (CAT) scores of nearly 700 examinees for admission into the country's management institutes are being sent for verification and validation to Prometric, which conducts the tests, even as protests against a discrepancy in scores gain steam across the country.

Candidates across Indore, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Ranchi are preparing to file public interest litigations against the scores. They have already met the CAT convenor in Indore and some 20 CAT takers protested at IIM Ranchi on Monday.

A few days ago, MBA aspirants filed an online petition calling for a revaluation of scores, which they believe have discrepancies because of a skewed normalisation process. The country's premier management institutes, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), released the scores on January 14.

IIM aspirants' petition filed by Abhishek Leel and signed by 5000 candidates, addressed to IIM Indore on online forum Change.org, said many test takers got unexpectedly low scores in two sections, particularly in verbal ability. Some candidates found they secured more than 90 percentile in the quantitative aptitude section, but only around 30 percentile in the verbal ability section.

The petition also claims there are people who have regularly been scoring over 95 percentile for the past three years in CAT, but this year, their score has not even crossed 80 percentile. This would waste a full year for them as 80 percentile is not enough for admission to any institute.

CAT 2013 convenor, Rohit Kapoor, however, insists that the results are in order. "Though there is no provision for such verification and validation of scores, we are doing it only to help examines," he says. He also refuted the claim that 5,000 candidates have signed the online petition, claiming that the number of cases received through emails with unique registration numbers is 700.

Candidates also point to a case where a candidate has got an overall score of 55 percentile despite not attempting a single question which means that over 50per cent of CAT candidates have scored in the negative.

The way it works is, for 30 questions, each correct answer fetches a candidate three marks while an incorrect answer gets him or her -1. The raw scores are then normalised -- equated from different papers of various difficulty level based on a formula.

Kapoor says this is possible. "CAT was quite tough this year because we wanted only good people to come into the system. There were lot of complaints from people over the past few years that the difficulty level has gone down, so we worked on that," he says.

But Abhijeet Chandak, a CAT 2013 candidate, refutes this claim. "This time, I was much more confident that I will go past 90 in verbal ability and logical reasoning as the paper was not that difficult," says Chandak, a graduate engineer trainee in Gammon who scored 92.90 percentile in verbal ability and logical reasoning (VA & LR, section-II) in 2011 and 98.71 percentile in 2012 but his score dropped to 30.36 percentile in 2013.

  Kapoor, however, says in mock tests, the candidate pool is limited and question samples are fixed, whereas CAT is conducted over multiple days, with multiple sets of question papers. "To be fair to everybody, no one knows which question will come when," he says, adding, "Students are saying there is a calculation error but a computerised algorithm can't be wrong."

"It may be possible theoretically that over 50per cent candidates get scores in the negative. This can only happen if the difficulty level has gone up drastically this year," says Gautam Puri, co founder, Career Launcher, who has been taking the tests himself -- a common practice amongst caching institutes. But the normalisation process needs to be explained more clearly, he says.

Historically, CAT has had five to six errors in papers every year for the past 10 to 15 years, "which they have never accepted except in 2006," says Puri. "In GMAT, a test similar to CAT, you know at the end of the paper how many answers are right and how many wrong, while in CAT you can only know how many you have attempted," he says.

Prometric too denies any anomalies in the results. "For CAT 2013, we have conducted additional quality control to verify that 100per cent of our reporting is accurate and our methodology is fair, reliable and determines the right scores according to candidate performance," says Soumitra Roy, general manager, Prometric India.

As per IIM direction, it was the company's job to heighten the exam's difficulty, he says, adding, "As a consequence, only the best performing test takers earned the highest scores."

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