India

Basic Principles: While "primary education provides the fundamentals of all formal learning" (Sharma 1997), preprimary learning may be called the foundation for both education and personal development. Little information exists on formal preprimary education in rural India, although the family and community function as a broader arena for holistic learning. In urban communities, the level of preprimary education corresponds directly to the factors of class and wealth. Only the rich and educated opt for kindergarten and Montessori schools, which abound in affluent neighborhoods, while poor, neglected, underprivileged children languish in the streets of Indian cities.

At least in terms of national priorities, primary education takes as a model a humanistic pedagogy, emphasizing the needs of the child over all means and methods of education. Neerja Sharma succinctly writes:

The buildings, school administration, teachers and personnel, syllabi and textbooks, furniture and uniforms exist because children need education. This truism has been recognized in the Program of Action of the National Policy on Education (1986) that states under its Implementation Strategies: The country's faith in its future generations will be exemplified in the system of elementary education, which will get geared around the centrality of the child (11). (1997)

A 1988 governmental reform of the primary curriculum set forth the principles that were to govern this type of education. Students were entitled to a "broad and balanced curriculum" including such diverse subjects as religious education, science, and technology. In addition, the standards for students' academic achievement were to be raised, and assessment methods were to serve "formative purposes" (Venkataiah 2000).

The implementation of these goals is somewhat confounded by the diversity of India's population and the complexity of its governance. In practice, primary education is a dilemma-ridden field where teachers, schools, communities, and states muddle through a rugged terrain without consensus. As a result, local, regional, and political influences override the foundational issues in pedagogical discourse. In particular, zealous religious groups have been divisive.

S. Venkataiah, a leader in primary and secondary education in India, argues that the legal force and the professional support, even the very goals, of the 1988 reform act created a problem of manageability: "One of the paradoxes was that there would have been no manageability problem without the principles embodied in the curriculum required by the 1988 Act" (2000). Venkataiah identifies three types of problems that arose for those charged with managing the curriculum at the school level: curriculum time allocation, teacher expertise, and resources in primary schools.

A further problem with meeting the expansive goals of the nationally determined curriculum of primary schools has been many teachers' shallow approach to education. "The dominating difficulty in the purpose of primary schools is the fact that 'knowing' is rated more highly than 'teaching,' despite the importance of the latter and its equally intimate connection with 'learning,"' writes Venkataiah (2000). Venkataiah adds:

The agency responsible for the National Curriculum advised the Government that the statutory curriculum would have to be slimmed down; the agency responsible for the national inspection arrangement reported that those schools that had nearly covered the statutory curriculum had done so only by encouraging superficial learning in their pupils. (2000)

Initiatives: Universalization of the entire educational system has been the main goal of government since independence. Formal and nonformal primary education, however, have been the main challenge to this goal. Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) is fraught with systemic and socioeconomic factors that call for massive public education and advocacy. A total-literacy campaign is underway despite numerous barriers. Even provision of textbooks in poverty-ridden areas is a challenge. A comprehensive program seeks to target "i) teachers and all those involved in education of children; ii) students and parents of students, particularly non-literate parents; and iii) community opinion leaders" (Government of India 2001).

Residential education of girls, especially from broken homes and poor families, has lately received planners' attention. A program named after Mahatma Gandhi's wife, the Kasturba Gandhi Shiksha Yojana, has been funded with Rs. 2,500 million (rupees). Other financial incentives and scholarships for poor girls have been provided. All such programs, as recorded in the NPE-1986, "pay special attention to increasing girls' enrollment, improving educational outcomes, strengthening community involvement, and improving teaching and learning materials and providing in-service teacher training" (Government of India 2001). The status of some of these initiatives is discussed below.

Operation Blackboard: According to the government of India, the number of primary schools that have been transformed under this initiative with central assistance is 523,000. The main purpose of this program is to improve the environment in schools by providing basic facilities.

Decentralization: According to the government of India, the management of elementary education, as envisioned by the NPE, has emphasized direct community involvement in the form of Village Education Committees (VECs). The 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments provide for decentralization of the local self-government institutions, called Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). PRIs have thus become pivotal in the delivery of education in rural and urban communities. The oppressed groups—women, Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and minorities—have especially found PRIs very helpful. This approach is essentially grass-roots educational policy and delivery.

Decentralization has been reinforced during the Eighth Five-Year Plan. The VECs, District Primary Education Program, and Lok Jumbish have been chiefly instrumental in this process. A Special Orientation Program for Primary Teachers has further reinforced support to primary level teachers. During 1992 to 1993 and 1995 to 1996, Rs. 8,163 million were allocated; the outlay for 1996 to 1997 was Rs. 2,910 million. More recent data is not available.

Mobilizing the village community to take responsibility for ensuring quality education for every child is the core strategy of both the Shiksha Karmi Project and Lok Jumbish and in their efforts to universalize and improve primary education. Community involvement has been crucial for the success of these projects.

Shiksha Karmi Project: The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has assisted in the implementation of the Shiksha Karmi Project. The project aims at universalization and qualitative improvement of primary education in the remote and economically disadvantaged villages of Rajasthan with a focus on girls. The Shiksha Karmi Project has constituted VECs in 2,000 villages to promote community involvement in primary education and encourage village-level planning. The role of the VEC is to mobilize resources for maintenance, repair, and construction of school infrastructures. The VEC also helps in determining the school calendar and school-daytimings in consultation with the local community and Shiksha Karmis (educational workers). Shiksha Karmis are frequently used as substitutes to compensate for teacher absenteeism.

In addition to the more formal courtyard schools (Angan Pathshalas), the Shiksha Karmi Project also runs nonformal classes called Prehar Pathshalas (schools of convenient timings). For girls' education, Angan Pathshalas are run in three blocks. As of 2001 the program covered over 150,000 students in 1,785 schools and 3,520 Prehar Pathshalas, involving over 4,271 Shiksha Karmis.

Lok Jumbish Project: Lok Jumbish is extended to 75 blocks covering a population of approximately 12 million in Rajastahan. The project involves government agencies, teachers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and elected representatives to promote universalization of primary education. The seven guiding principles of Lok Jumbish are (a) a process rather than a product approach, (b) partnerships, (c) decentralized functioning, (d) participatory learning, (e) integration with the mainstream education system, (f) flexibility of management, and (g) multiple levels of leadership.

District Primary Education Program (DPEP): The objectives of DPEP, a major program to implement UEE, are

• to provide all children with access to primary education either in the formal system or through the non-formal education (NFE) program;
• to reduce differences in enrollment, dropout rates, and learning achievement among gender and social groups to less than 5 percent;
• to reduce overall primary dropout rates for all students to less than 10 percent;
• to raise average achievement levels by at least 25 percent over measured baseline levels; and
• to ensure achievements of basic literacy and numeric competencies and a minimum of 40 percent achievement levels in other competencies by all primary school children.

The Government of India finances 85 percent of the project cost as a grant to the DPEP State Implementation Societies, and state governments provide the rest. As of 2001, the International Development Agency (IDA) of the World Bank had approved credit amounting to $260 million and $425 million under Phase I and Phase II of DPEP, respectively. The European Union is providing a grant of 150 million euros. The ODA (of the United Kingdom) is extending a grant of $80.21 million, and a grant from the Netherlands amounts to $25.8 million.

DPEP has been implemented in phases in different states beginning with 42 districts in the states of Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, and Madhya Pradesh. In the second phase, the program was launched in 80 districts of Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and in Phase I States. The main projects are summarized below to exemplify varied governmental objectives.

Bihar Education Project: The Bihar Education Project, launched in 1991, emphasized participatory planning to uplift the deprived sections of society, such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and women. A midterm review highlighted major achievements including (a) a strong Mahila Samakhya component; (b) organization of VECs and community involvement in program implementation at grassroots levels; and (c) nonformal education through NGOs.

Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Program: The government of Uttar Pradesh launched the World Bank project Education for All in June 1993. The project, operating in 12 districts as of 2001, is planned to expand its coverage to 15 districts under DPEP Phase II. It has an outlay of Rs. 7,288 million spread over 7 years. The IDA would provide a credit of $163.1 million, and the state government's share would be approximately 13 percent of the total project cost. About 40,000 teachers have been trained.

Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project: The Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project (APPEP), implemented in the south-central state of Andhra Pradesh, adopts a two-pronged strategy of improving classroom transaction by training teachers and giving a fillip to school construction activities. The Andhra Pradesh area has a female literacy rate of just 34 percent. The project has trained an estimated 80,000 teachers in 23 districts, and more than 3,000 teaching centers have become operational. The project is assisted by the UK's ODA with an estimated outlay of Rs. 1,000 million in the Eighth Five-Year Plan.

National Program of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (School Meal Program): Providing a free, nutritious cooked meal of 100 grams of food grains per school day to all children in classes I-V is an ambitious program in a country of 1 billion people. The program was launched in 1997 to 1998 to support UEE in achieving its goal of increasing enrollment, retention, and attendance in primary classes. In 1997 to 1998 the program covered nearly 110 million children in primary classes. Reportedly school enrollment and rates of retention have increased.