Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 57th Convocation of IIT Delhi, where he presented top honours to the institute’s most meritorious students and addressed the graduating students. PM Modi urged greater participation and representation of women in academics, while highlighting the important role of India’s youth in building a Viksit Bharat.

PM Modi said India’s future capabilities depend heavily on its young population and highlighted how government policies are opening new sectors and creating opportunities for young Indians. He pointed to the transformation of India’s space sector, noting that areas once largely handled by the government are now creating opportunities for thousands of young people.

The Prime Minister encouraged IIT Delhi graduates to contribute to nation-building and stressed that a stronger youth population will lead to a stronger India. His remarks focused on youth empowerment, innovation, education, women’s participation in academia and India’s development journey.

PM Modi at IIT Delhi Convocation | Urges Youth to Lead India’s Viksit Bharat Journey

India's education system is under fresh scrutiny after the Central Government revealed that more than 1 lakh schools across the country are functioning with just one teacher. Responding to a question in Parliament, the Ministry of Education disclosed that 1,08,043 schools currently operate with only a single teacher, highlighting the scale of teacher shortages in several states.

According to the official data, Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of single-teacher schools, followed by Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh. At the other end of the spectrum, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Ladakh, Sikkim, Nagaland, and Kerala reported the fewest such schools.

Teacher Shortage Exposed: Over 1 Lakh Schools Run by a Single Teacher

Growing emphasis on education in India, a increase in enrollment for primary education is all witnessed in India. To know more about the status of education in India, watch the video.

India: Growing emphasis on education in India

Indian education tech giant Byju's has reportedly decided to lay off around 2,500 of its employees as it struggles to improve its finances and book profits.

In a statement on Wednesday, the $22 million valued start-up said that the layoffs are a step to cut costs and achieve overall profitability.

In May, the online learning platform had reported a&nbsp;loss&nbsp;of 45.64 billion rupees ($554.77 million) for fiscal 2021 due to higher promotion and employee expenses.

"To avoid redundancies and duplication of roles, and by leveraging technology better, around five per cent of BYJU’S 50,000-strong workforce is expected to be rationalised across product, content, media, and technology teams in a phased manner," the statement said,&nbsp;according to Moneycontrol.com.

The employees who have been sacked are from its subsidiary units like Toppr, and WhiteHat Jr, apart from the core team of sales and marketing, operations, content and design teams.

Moreover, they have consolidated its subsidiaries like Toppr, Meritnation, TutorVista, Scholar, and HashLearn, into a single business unit, while Aakash and Great Learning will function as separate organisations.

According to reports, Toppr alone has seen the maximum number of layoffs with 350, while another 300 employees are being asked to put in their papers, .

They have been told that their salaries for about 1-1.5 months would be withheld if they fail to hand in their resignation.

Moreover, 600 contractual employees have been asked to leave. However, the company said it would add 10,000 teachers in 2023 to its current strength of 20,000.

The decision to retrench employees comes in the wake of dwindling demand for Byju's services, which had reached its peak during the Covid lockdown when schools were closed for several months.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Indian education tech giant Byju's has reportedly decided to lay off around 2,500 of its employees as it struggles to improve its finances and book profits. In a statement on Wednesday, the $22 million valued start-up said that the layoffs are a step to cut costs and achieve overall profitability.

Indian education tech giant Byju's has reportedly decided to lay off around 2,500 of its employees as it struggles to improve its finances and book profits. In a statement on Wednesday, the $22 million valued start-up said that the layoffs are a step to cut costs and achieve overall profitability. In May, the online learning platform had reported a loss of 45.64 billion rupees ($554.77 million) for fiscal 2021 due to higher promotion and employee expenses. "To avoid redundancies and duplication of roles, and by leveraging technology better, around five per cent of BYJU’S 50,000-strong workforce is expected to be rationalised across product, content, media, and technology teams in a phased manner," the statement said, according to Moneycontrol.com. The employees who have been sacked are from its subsidiary units like Toppr, and WhiteHat Jr, apart from the core team of sales and marketing, operations, content and design teams. Moreover, they have consolidated its subsidiaries like Toppr, Meritnation, TutorVista, Scholar, and HashLearn, into a single business unit, while Aakash and Great Learning will function as separate organisations. According to reports, Toppr alone has seen the maximum number of layoffs with 350, while another 300 employees are being asked to put in their papers, . They have been told that their salaries for about 1-1.5 months would be withheld if they fail to hand in their resignation. Moreover, 600 contractual employees have been asked to leave. However, the company said it would add 10,000 teachers in 2023 to its current strength of 20,000. The decision to retrench employees comes in the wake of dwindling demand for Byju's services, which had reached its peak during the Covid lockdown when schools were closed for several months.

Indian edtech giant Byju's lays off 2,500 employees to cut costs, improve profitability

Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, Secretary Higher education Amit Khare and Secretary School education Anita Karwal held a press conference at 4 pm to talk about NEP, which was set up in 1968 and was last updated in 1992.

India gets new education policy after 34 years | Explainer | MHRD

Completing formal school education from a school-based in rural areas can feel like a 12-15-year-long hurdle race! These hurdles spare no student.&nbsp;

The cultural, social, and economic factors make special provisions for female students. They have to move past additional hurdles in the presence of more restrictions and safety concerns. Most of the times, these additional hurdles disqualify them from the race to complete their education.&nbsp;

Lack of Motivation and Awareness: There is a lack of motivation amongst many students and their families in ensuring any form of education. The importance of education is not perceived as a priority by many families. They believe that the children have to ultimately join the farmlands and will not get a job after completing school education, so there is little value in it. Providing education, thus, seems like an unnecessary and expensive step to take – or even a risk. They rather prefer getting some help from their children at their farmlands or at homes. Veerni, my host organisation, provides free and safe educational and boarding facility to the underprivileged girls of Rajasthan. Despite Veerni’s support and facilities, almost every year 1-2 students drop out due to family and economic pressures.&nbsp;

Inaccessibility: Even if the students and their families value the importance of education, inaccessibility of resources becomes a hurdle. These hurdles include the absence of schools in villages, the absence of secondary schools in villages, bad economic conditions, remote locations of schools, the absence of basic facilities (such as clean drinking water, toilets, and benches) and motor vehicles for schools located in remote areas. There are multiple schemes and programmes run by the central and the state governments. However, many of these remain unknown by the majority of people. Before Veerni’s intervention through secondary education, there were several villages in which completion of education was a far-fetched dream.&nbsp;

Compromised State of Teaching Staff: Factors like teacher absenteeism, lack of adequate teaching staff, poor quality of the teaching, lack of regular training sessions, and lack of accountability compromise the quality of education. While teaching spoken and written English at Veerni to the students of class 6 to class 9, I witnessed first-hand the unfortunate state of education at public schools in villages. Students who were learning English grammar struggled to understand the difference between small letters, cursive writing, numerical values in words, basic spellings, and elementary conversational words.&nbsp;

Social Factors: Earlier, girls were not allowed to complete education as the society would then deem them as unfit and unsuitable wives and daughters-in-law. This thought has been changing due to the increasing demand of educated females by the semi-educated or educated males. Caste and communal issues also lead to dropouts. A few years ago, several students belonging to the lower castes were forced by the upper castes of the same village to leave Veerni. To shed light on this: ‘Under the Adarsh Scheme , the merging of the schools has forced the children to drop out. It becomes difficult for Dalit children to attend school when educational institutions in their neighbourhood are merged with those in upper-caste localities. Many female students from conservative families also drop out when girls schools are merged with co-ed ones.

To a large extent, these issues can be resolved with the help of non-governmental organisations, governmental organisations, and civic bodies. These problems can be controlled in the following three foundational ways:&nbsp;

Infrastructure and Capacity Building: These organisations can focus on capacity building of the existing infrastructure and construct additional schools in the areas where there is an absence of schools or secondary schools. The 2019-20 budgetary provision of Rs 1,581 crores for education in Rajasthan under the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan School Infrastructure Scheme would be utilised for construction of over 14,000 classrooms, laboratories and libraries and 23 new school buildings as well as the renovation of 83 buildings.

The Rajasthan state government with the help of the Boston Consulting Group, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Central Square Foundation, implemented the Rajasthan Adarsh Yojana in 2014. 
 
Under this scheme, more than 12,000 elementary and secondary schools have been merged to create 'Adarsh' schools which will be properly staffed and equipped with sufficient resources to provide quality education.[5] However, these schemes shouldn’t be considered as a straight-jacket solution. These issues require transformation from below and steps should be taken considering the social and cultural standing of the community.&nbsp;

Safe Boarding and Educational Facility:  Another change can be brought by establishing safe boarding and educational facilities for students. Motivation can be drawn from the Veerni Institute, SMART Academy of Tech Mahindra Foundation and others. In this way, they can provide quality education, reduce student-teacher absenteeism, ensure a proper student-teacher ratio, support physical and mental health and development, and prepare them for higher education.&nbsp;

Outsourcing: In the due process of making arrangements for the above two solutions or in case of unavailability of the resources, external resources can be utilised temporarily. The government, the non-governmental organisations, schools and civic bodies can collaborate with individuals or organisations that can provide their services on a temporary basis to provide interim healing.&nbsp;

These services can be of spoken and written English, physical education, arts, vocational training, self-defence and career counselling. They can be delivered either through an offline medium or an online medium. These structural issues shouldn’t become a reason for hampering the education, growth and development of millions of students studying in the rural areas of the country.

Lastly, there are certain issues especially socio-cultural issues which will keep increasing the hurdles in the race to a complete education. This will require the stakeholders to contribute years of effort to revolutionise the ground reality.&nbsp;

Consistent efforts, cultural understanding, awareness campaigns amongst others will play a significant role in transforming the current reality. Veerni Institute is an inspirational example.&nbsp; 
 
*A previous version of this article was <a href="https://aif.org/a-hurdle-race-education-in-rural-areas/ ">originally published</a> by the American India Foundation 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;

Completing formal school education from a school-based in rural areas can feel like a 12-15-year-long hurdle race! These hurdles spare no student. The cultural, social, and economic factors make special provisions for female students.

Completing formal school education from a school-based in rural areas can feel like a 12-15-year-long hurdle race! These hurdles spare no student. The cultural, social, and economic factors make special provisions for female students. They have to move past additional hurdles in the presence of more restrictions and safety concerns. Most of the times, these additional hurdles disqualify them from the race to complete their education. Lack of Motivation and Awareness: There is a lack of motivation amongst many students and their families in ensuring any form of education. The importance of education is not perceived as a priority by many families. They believe that the children have to ultimately join the farmlands and will not get a job after completing school education, so there is little value in it. Providing education, thus, seems like an unnecessary and expensive step to take – or even a risk. They rather prefer getting some help from their children at their farmlands or at homes. Veerni, my host organisation, provides free and safe educational and boarding facility to the underprivileged girls of Rajasthan. Despite Veerni’s support and facilities, almost every year 1-2 students drop out due to family and economic pressures. Inaccessibility: Even if the students and their families value the importance of education, inaccessibility of resources becomes a hurdle. These hurdles include the absence of schools in villages, the absence of secondary schools in villages, bad economic conditions, remote locations of schools, the absence of basic facilities (such as clean drinking water, toilets, and benches) and motor vehicles for schools located in remote areas. There are multiple schemes and programmes run by the central and the state governments. However, many of these remain unknown by the majority of people. Before Veerni’s intervention through secondary education, there were several villages in which completion of education was a far-fetched dream. Compromised State of Teaching Staff: Factors like teacher absenteeism, lack of adequate teaching staff, poor quality of the teaching, lack of regular training sessions, and lack of accountability compromise the quality of education. While teaching spoken and written English at Veerni to the students of class 6 to class 9, I witnessed first-hand the unfortunate state of education at public schools in villages. Students who were learning English grammar struggled to understand the difference between small letters, cursive writing, numerical values in words, basic spellings, and elementary conversational words. Social Factors: Earlier, girls were not allowed to complete education as the society would then deem them as unfit and unsuitable wives and daughters-in-law. This thought has been changing due to the increasing demand of educated females by the semi-educated or educated males. Caste and communal issues also lead to dropouts. A few years ago, several students belonging to the lower castes were forced by the upper castes of the same village to leave Veerni. To shed light on this: ‘Under the Adarsh Scheme , the merging of the schools has forced the children to drop out. It becomes difficult for Dalit children to attend school when educational institutions in their neighbourhood are merged with those in upper-caste localities. Many female students from conservative families also drop out when girls schools are merged with co-ed ones. To a large extent, these issues can be resolved with the help of non-governmental organisations, governmental organisations, and civic bodies. These problems can be controlled in the following three foundational ways: Infrastructure and Capacity Building: These organisations can focus on capacity building of the existing infrastructure and construct additional schools in the areas where there is an absence of schools or secondary schools. The 2019-20 budgetary provision of Rs 1,581 crores for education in Rajasthan under the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan School Infrastructure Scheme would be utilised for construction of over 14,000 classrooms, laboratories and libraries and 23 new school buildings as well as the renovation of 83 buildings. The Rajasthan state government with the help of the Boston Consulting Group, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Central Square Foundation, implemented the Rajasthan Adarsh Yojana in 2014. Under this scheme, more than 12,000 elementary and secondary schools have been merged to create 'Adarsh' schools which will be properly staffed and equipped with sufficient resources to provide quality education.[5] However, these schemes shouldn’t be considered as a straight-jacket solution. These issues require transformation from below and steps should be taken considering the social and cultural standing of the community. Safe Boarding and Educational Facility:  Another change can be brought by establishing safe boarding and educational facilities for students. Motivation can be drawn from the Veerni Institute, SMART Academy of Tech Mahindra Foundation and others. In this way, they can provide quality education, reduce student-teacher absenteeism, ensure a proper student-teacher ratio, support physical and mental health and development, and prepare them for higher education. Outsourcing: In the due process of making arrangements for the above two solutions or in case of unavailability of the resources, external resources can be utilised temporarily. The government, the non-governmental organisations, schools and civic bodies can collaborate with individuals or organisations that can provide their services on a temporary basis to provide interim healing. These services can be of spoken and written English, physical education, arts, vocational training, self-defence and career counselling. They can be delivered either through an offline medium or an online medium. These structural issues shouldn’t become a reason for hampering the education, growth and development of millions of students studying in the rural areas of the country. Lastly, there are certain issues especially socio-cultural issues which will keep increasing the hurdles in the race to a complete education. This will require the stakeholders to contribute years of effort to revolutionise the ground reality. Consistent efforts, cultural understanding, awareness campaigns amongst others will play a significant role in transforming the current reality. Veerni Institute is an inspirational example. *A previous version of this article was originally published by the American India Foundation (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

A hurdle race: Education in rural areas

The World Bank has warned of a learning crisis in global education particularly in low and middle-income countries like India, underlining that schooling without learning is not just a wasted development opportunity, but also a great injustice to children worldwide.

The Bank in a latest report yesterday noted that millions of young students in these countries face the prospect of lost opportunity and lower wages in later life because their primary and secondary schools are failing to educate them to succeed in life.

According to the World Development Report 2018, &quot;Learning to Realise Education&#39;s Promise&quot;, released on Tuesday, India ranks second after Malawi in a list of 12 countries wherein a grade two student could not read a single word of a short text.

India also tops the list of seven countries in which a grade two student could not perform two-digit subtraction.

&quot;In rural India, just under three-quarters of students in grade 3 could not solve a two-digit subtraction such as 46 - 17, and by grade 5 half could still not do so,&quot; the World Bank said.

The report argued that without learning, education will fail to deliver on its promise to eliminate extreme poverty and create shared opportunity and prosperity for all.

&quot;Even after several years in school, millions of children cannot read, write or do basic math. This learning crisis is widening social gaps instead of narrowing them,&quot; it said.

Young students who are already disadvantaged by poverty, conflict, gender or disability reach young adulthood without even the most basic life skills, it said.

&quot;This learning crisis is a moral and economic crisis,&quot; World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said.

&quot;When delivered well, education promises young people employment, better earnings, good health, and a life without poverty,&quot; he added.

&quot;For communities, education spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion. But these benefits depend on learning, and schooling without learning is a wasted opportunity. More than that, it&#39;s a great injustice, the children whom societies fail the most are the ones who are most in need of a good education to succeed in life,&quot; the Bank president said.

In rural India in 2016, only half of grade 5 students could fluently read a text at the level of the grade 2 curriculum, which included sentences (in the local language) such as &#39;It was the month of rains&#39; and &quot;There were black clouds in the sky&quot;.

&quot;These severe shortfalls constitute a learning crisis,&quot; the Bank report said.

According to the report, in Andhra Pradesh in 2010, low-performing students in grade 5 were no more likely to answer a grade 1 question correctly than those in grade 2.

&quot;Even the average student in grade 5 had about a 50 per cent chance of answering a grade 1 question correctly, compared with about 40 per cent in grade 2,&quot; the report said.

An experiment in Andhra Pradesh, that rewarded teachers for gains in measured learning in math and language led to more learning not just in those subjects, but also in science and social studies, even though there were no rewards for the latter.

&quot;This outcome makes sense after all, literacy and numeracy are gateways to education more generally,&quot; the report said.

Further, a computer-assisted learning program in Gujarat, improved learning when it added to teaching and learning time, especially for the poorest-performing students, it said.

The report recommends concrete policy steps to help developing countries resolve this dire learning crisis in the areas of stronger learning assessments, using evidence of what works and what does not to guide education decision-making,&nbsp;and mobilising a strong social movement to push for education changes that champion &quot;learning for all&quot;. &nbsp;

According to the 'World Development Report 2018, 'Learning to Realise Education's Promise', India ranks second after Malawi in a list of 12 countries

The World Bank has warned of a learning crisis in global education particularly in low and middle-income countries like India, underlining that schooling without learning is not just a wasted development opportunity, but also a great injustice to children worldwide. The Bank in a latest report yesterday noted that millions of young students in these countries face the prospect of lost opportunity and lower wages in later life because their primary and secondary schools are failing to educate them to succeed in life. According to the World Development Report 2018, "Learning to Realise Education's Promise", released on Tuesday, India ranks second after Malawi in a list of 12 countries wherein a grade two student could not read a single word of a short text. India also tops the list of seven countries in which a grade two student could not perform two-digit subtraction. "In rural India, just under three-quarters of students in grade 3 could not solve a two-digit subtraction such as 46 - 17, and by grade 5 half could still not do so," the World Bank said. The report argued that without learning, education will fail to deliver on its promise to eliminate extreme poverty and create shared opportunity and prosperity for all. "Even after several years in school, millions of children cannot read, write or do basic math. This learning crisis is widening social gaps instead of narrowing them," it said. Young students who are already disadvantaged by poverty, conflict, gender or disability reach young adulthood without even the most basic life skills, it said. "This learning crisis is a moral and economic crisis," World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. "When delivered well, education promises young people employment, better earnings, good health, and a life without poverty," he added. "For communities, education spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion. But these benefits depend on learning, and schooling without learning is a wasted opportunity. More than that, it's a great injustice, the children whom societies fail the most are the ones who are most in need of a good education to succeed in life," the Bank president said. In rural India in 2016, only half of grade 5 students could fluently read a text at the level of the grade 2 curriculum, which included sentences (in the local language) such as 'It was the month of rains' and "There were black clouds in the sky". "These severe shortfalls constitute a learning crisis," the Bank report said. According to the report, in Andhra Pradesh in 2010, low-performing students in grade 5 were no more likely to answer a grade 1 question correctly than those in grade 2. "Even the average student in grade 5 had about a 50 per cent chance of answering a grade 1 question correctly, compared with about 40 per cent in grade 2," the report said. An experiment in Andhra Pradesh, that rewarded teachers for gains in measured learning in math and language led to more learning not just in those subjects, but also in science and social studies, even though there were no rewards for the latter. "This outcome makes sense after all, literacy and numeracy are gateways to education more generally," the report said. Further, a computer-assisted learning program in Gujarat, improved learning when it added to teaching and learning time, especially for the poorest-performing students, it said. The report recommends concrete policy steps to help developing countries resolve this dire learning crisis in the areas of stronger learning assessments, using evidence of what works and what does not to guide education decision-making, and mobilising a strong social movement to push for education changes that champion "learning for all".

World Bank warns of learning crisis in countries like India

As one enters a slum in eastern Delhi, the scene is what you might expect. Packed dwellings, narrow lanes, loud voices, people everywhere.

Geeta, a 39-year-old housemaid, lives in this slum. She is a single mother and works in the nearby Patparganj area. As we enter Geeta&rsquo;s home, she is busy doing her daily chores.

What&rsquo;s unusual about Geeta is the fact that she has chosen to send her son to a private school, despite the fact that she is the sole breadwinner of the house and her monthly income is just 7,000-8,000 rupees ($100-120 US).

When asked why she made that decision, Geeta tells WION, &ldquo;Kids in my locality going to government schools cannot even speak English. My son, Rahul, can read and write English.&rdquo;

A 2014 report by Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ACER) shows that only 41 per cent of children in the age group of 6-14 can read a standard two&nbsp;text.

Despite the increase in government expenditure on education over the years, the learning levels have declined during the same period.

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Government school data (WION)
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Speaking to WION, Prashant Narang, advocate at Centre For Civil Society, says, &ldquo;Often government funding to schools is not well rationalised&rdquo;.

&ldquo;One of the schools in Himachal&nbsp;Pradesh has only one student in the entire school and the government&rsquo;s spending on that school is Rs 13 lakhs,&rdquo; he adds.

The question, therefore, is not just about the amount invested in education, but also the allocation and utilisation of funds.

According to the District Information System for Education (DISE), between 2007 and 2013, enrollment in government primary schools declined by about 11.7 million. In contrast, the enrollment in private schools went up by 27 million during the same period.

In his former school (a government school), Rahul says nobody ever paid attention to the students or bothered to even check their homework.&nbsp;&ldquo;Half the students in my class would just mark their attendance and leave,&rdquo; he says.

WION visited another family in the same slum. Jyoti is a 12th grade student who goes to a government school. She could barely read simple sentences in English.

When asked what was the reason behind that, she says, &ldquo;In our school, English was never emphasised on&rdquo;. She says she would love to go to a private school if given a chance or choice.

A 2011 study by ACER found that school expenses, including tuition fees, have gone up from Rs 60,000 a year in 2005 to Rs 150,000 per annum per child in 2011.

Until government schools can get their act together, parents like Geeta are deprived of choices; private schooling being the only alternative.

&nbsp;

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A 2014 report by Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ACER) shows that only 41 per cent of children in the age group of 6-14 can read a standard two text (WION)
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&nbsp;

(WION)

 
&nbsp;

The question is not just about the amount invested in education, but also the allocation and utilisation of funds

As one enters a slum in eastern Delhi, the scene is what you might expect. Packed dwellings, narrow lanes, loud voices, people everywhere. Geeta, a 39-year-old housemaid, lives in this slum. She is a single mother and works in the nearby Patparganj area. As we enter Geeta’s home, she is busy doing her daily chores. What’s unusual about Geeta is the fact that she has chosen to send her son to a private school, despite the fact that she is the sole breadwinner of the house and her monthly income is just 7,000-8,000 rupees ($100-120 US). When asked why she made that decision, Geeta tells WION, “Kids in my locality going to government schools cannot even speak English. My son, Rahul, can read and write English.” A 2014 report by Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ACER) shows that only 41 per cent of children in the age group of 6-14 can read a standard two text. Despite the increase in government expenditure on education over the years, the learning levels have declined during the same period. Government school data (WION) × Speaking to WION, Prashant Narang, advocate at Centre For Civil Society, says, “Often government funding to schools is not well rationalised”. “One of the schools in Himachal Pradesh has only one student in the entire school and the government’s spending on that school is Rs 13 lakhs,” he adds. The question, therefore, is not just about the amount invested in education, but also the allocation and utilisation of funds. According to the District Information System for Education (DISE), between 2007 and 2013, enrollment in government primary schools declined by about 11.7 million. In contrast, the enrollment in private schools went up by 27 million during the same period. In his former school (a government school), Rahul says nobody ever paid attention to the students or bothered to even check their homework. “Half the students in my class would just mark their attendance and leave,” he says. WION visited another family in the same slum. Jyoti is a 12th grade student who goes to a government school. She could barely read simple sentences in English. When asked what was the reason behind that, she says, “In our school, English was never emphasised on”. She says she would love to go to a private school if given a chance or choice. A 2011 study by ACER found that school expenses, including tuition fees, have gone up from Rs 60,000 a year in 2005 to Rs 150,000 per annum per child in 2011. Until government schools can get their act together, parents like Geeta are deprived of choices; private schooling being the only alternative. A 2014 report by Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ACER) shows that only 41 per cent of children in the age group of 6-14 can read a standard two text (WION) × (WION)

Quality education still a far cry in India?s government schools