Ensuring Universal Basic Education:

The India Experience

Dr. Venita Kaul,Senior Education Specialist

The World Bank

Global HR Forum, November 4-6, 2008, Seoul, South Korea

The Presentation

• Global development and the role of education-- international commitments

• The India story in 1990s and 2000’s

• Changing role of development aid and its value addition

• Progress over the decade

• Remaining challenges

Global development-essentials

• Global development requires both economic and human development

ØA growth promoting macro economic environment -across countries

ØA critical mass of educated, skilled population to meet the relevant labor needs

Ø Both are interdependent

Global development -role of education

Global Evidence affirms significant returns of investment in basic education in terms of accumulation of human capital -----with returns higher if :

• Started at the right age : net enrolment

• System Efficiency is high –primary completion rate

• System quality is good –high learning levels in terms of cognitive and non cognitive skills.

Global potential to be ‘tapped’ - Demographicchanges and interdependence across countries

• Asia --more ‘youth power’ compared to the west --- Europe having one third population above 65 years!

• Developed countries will be more ‘Rainbowcountries’ with increasing immigration

• Globalisation and shrinking distances --particularly with IT

• Therefore demand for skilled manpower is global–eg BPOs, nurses, doctors, teachers etc

International commitments thus reflect global needs

Education for All Goals( EFA) –Jomtien (1990) &-Dhakar(2000)

• ECCE• Universal access & primary education completion of good quality-

literacy, numeracy and life skills

Millennium Dev. Goals (MDG) ( 2000 &2008) - 8 goals adopted by 189 nations to be fulfilled by 2015

• Achieve universal primary education • Promote gender equality and empower women

As outcome, External Assistance to primary education enhanced since 1990’s

TheThe India StoryIndia Story

• India has 28 states and 7 union territories and 15 official languages

• India’s population over a billion-almost 20 percent of world’s population!!

• It’s economy is growing with 7-8 percent growth rate; and yet 1/3 of world’s poor are in India

• Overall literacy rate is 61 percent but female literacy is only 47.8 percent

• Huge diversity in educational outputs and outcomes , spatially and across social groups

• Yet, there is significant progress!!

Schooling efficiency indicators - Overall

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

total primary completed(among those ever enrolled)

total primary completed +currently primary attending

among ever enrolled

Of those who ever enrolled,attending above primary now

42nd rd: 1986/87 52nd rd: 1995/96 61st rd: 2004/05

Upper primary completion and transition rates

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

total primary completed(among ever enrolled)

total middle completed(among ever enrolled)

Of those who everenrolled, attending

secondary

42nd rd: 1986/87 52nd rd: 1995/96 61st rd: 2004/05

Source: Sankar, D (2007)

India’ story : ‘80s - now

What is the story behind What is the story behind this progress? this progress?

India in 1990’s --Role of Development Aid

Ø Post Jomtien-- External Aid –WB; DFID; EC; Netherlands---- multiple projects; parallel financing with 80 percent external funds.

Ø Some innovative projects:• Lok Jumbish ---micro planning and school mapping • Shiksha karmi -- para teachers• District Primary Education program(DPEP) -7 projects ØUnder DPEP each DP had own rules and disbursement

procedures but supervision was joint with GOI.

How did this Development Aid add value?

• Main value added was innovations and contextualisation

Ø Primary education came center stage

Ø Girls education became priority

Ø Decentralised planning introduced

Ø Curricular innovations led to ‘child centered’ textbooks

Ø Participatory methods of training emerged

Ø Innovative approaches –alternative schooling contextualisedto reach specific ‘hard to reach’ groups

Ø On -site support provided through decentralised academic resource centers

INDIA in 2000s: INDIA in 2000s: Sarva Shiksha Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA) Abhiyan(SSA)

• SSA (2001-2010) –GoI ‘s Flagship Program

• Constitutional Amendment (2002) to make 8 years of elementary education a fundamental right for all children between 6-14 years

• Targets:

Øall children in school by 2003

Øall children complete grade 5 by 2007

Øall children complete grade 8 by 2010

Ø education to be of satisfactory quality

Coverage /challenge

• SSA a centrally/federally sponsored program while states have major responsibility for education.

• Covers entire country with 35 states and union territories.

• Allocations to elementary education stepped up manifold

• In 2002 there were 160 million children enrolled and 25 million out of school.

• Wide disparities across provinces , social groups—gender, caste and religious minorities

DPDP’’s Partnerships Partnership

• IDA: $500 Million (14.3%)

• EC: $200 Million (5.7%)

• DFID: $346 Million (10%)

• Central Govt: $1.58 Billion (45%)

• States: $875 Million (25%)

• Total: $3.5 Billion June 2004-Dec 2007

• 2008 onwards- second phase

INDIAINDIA in in 20002000’’ss——DP mode of support changedDP mode of support changed

• Moved from ring fenced to SWAp approach -Paris Declaration on harmonisation of support

• Moved to Supporting GOI’s program (not Bank project) which has full govt. ownership & comprehensive framework

• Moved to providing a slice of total outlay with major funding from GOI and states –only 10 percent from DPs.

• Moved towards accepting GOI’s fiduciary procedures andstrengthening, instead of imposing DPs own procedures.

• Moved towards making DPs support more complementary and focused and reducing administrative costs through complete harmonisation of DPs disbursement and monitoring /supervision procedures.

DP’s support –where did it add value? • Brought in greater ‘outcome’ focus and a common

results monitoring framework for center and states.• Monitoring rigor enhanced in both fiduciary and

sectoral aspects—EMIS and PMIS.• More active partnership with govt. through Joint

Review Missions which were govt. led.• A MOU between partners for better coordination-a

best practice• International knowledge and technical support

brought in .

What has been achieved since 2003/04 under SSA ?

• Credit disbursed 15 months in advance of closing date !!

• Enrollments reached 94% or 187 million• Number of out of school children dropped from 25 to

7.4 million; much beyond target.• Drop out reduced by 7.6 percentage points • Equity gaps narrowed with increased gender parity in

particular• Improvement in transition rates from primary to

upper primary.• Learning levels..???

Remaining challenges• Reducing drop out and increasing attendance rates

–factors related to quality largely, and beyond. • Enhancing Learning levels- ensuring quality across

the system–addressing classroom pedagogy, learning asessment; governance environments, teacher capacity and motivation at scale

• Bringing in ‘Hardest to reach’ who are still out. • Shifting stress from Rote memorization to ‘higher

order cognitive skills’ and ‘socio-emotional skills’which requires shift in pedagogy.

• Meeting demand for English as a link language –addressing inadequate facilities.

Some Lessons Learned for EFAOverall

• To achieve universal primary completion access and quality need to be addressed together & not sequentially—interdependence of both.

• Challenges of ‘inclusion’ require addressing contextual and social diversities and needs –a multi sectoral approach –health, nutrition, family income, etc.

• Ensuring effective service delivery at scale requires involving and empowering the community /parents, service providers and local CBOsin participatory planning, and overseeing the school management

• Peer learning most effective stimulus for reform through sharing of experiences across states/districts under projects.

• DPs harmonisation with common focus and procedures most effective modality for results, provided govt. is in the driving seat! Brings in outcome focus and rigor in monitoring, both sectoral and fiduciary aspects

Access with equity

Access is more than just NER-attendance and completion are important. This requires:

• Basic learning conditions and some standardization of facilities.

• Convergence of interventions to meet the diverse, multi dimensional needs of the hardest to reach and special focus groups eg. Poverty, health, nutrition, clothes, security etc.

• Quality of service delivery --Perceived ‘value’ in community of schooling/education.

• Easy access to next level of schooling.

Quality reform requires a comprehensive approach with

• Complementary administrative and pedagogical reform• Administrative reformØ Conducive governance environment which addresses

teacher motivation and accountability ØA supportive system of supervision and management

of teacher cadreØ Continuous professional development and on site

support mechanisms aligned to defined teachers standards.

Ø Empowering of Parent teacher committees with some financial devolution and facilitation and providingthem a key role in school management.

Pedagogical reform• A school readiness program ( ECCE) for first generation learners

particularly to compensate for home deprivation • Ensuring not only basic learning conditions but a sensitive and

competent teacher to address diversities in the classroom and • handle creative, constructivist and open-ended activity based

pedagogical approaches to engage children and develop higher order mental skills

• Child friendly currriculum and graded learning materials to stimulate and sustain children’s interest and provide forindividual paced learning

• A system of classroom and systemic assessment of learning levelswith some remediation integral to the learning cycle.

Current areasCurrent areas of of WBWB’’ss supportsupport

• Second phase of support to SSA by DP consortium.• Supporting downward and upward linkages:

Ø Early Childhood Care and Education for children below 6 years through a quality improvement project under ‘Integrated Child Development Services’.

Ø Secondary education : In dialogue with GOI for supporting their new centrally -sponsored initiative, given demand created after SSA

Ø Vocational Education: Supporting 500 Industrial Technical Institutes towards making design and delivery of training more labour market responsive.

Ø Technical Education : Supporting reforms in technical education provided by professional institutions on a competitive basis.

Thank You Thank You