The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Whither secondary schooling?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 25, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Whither secondary schooling?

Vani Doraisamy

Chennai: The reach of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan scheme may have taken care of the primary education needs of the country to some extent but on the secondary schooling front, India, along with a cluster of other developing nations, appears to lag way behind the global benchmark.

The indictment of the country's not-so-adequate annual spend on education, especially in secondary schooling, has come from the World Bank which, in its recently released World Development Report 2007 on `Development and the Next Generation', paints a not-so-favourable picture of the country's commitment to total literacy by 2020.

Making a strong case for increasing education funding in all developing nations, the report — through statistics compiled by interviews with 3,000 young people across 30 nations, apart from policy makers, government servants and other stakeholders — says that there are not enough young Indians in secondary schools, though primary schooling is on par, thanks to government initiative. The report was released as part of the proceedings of the annual World Bank-International Monetary Fund meet in Singapore.

The report is likely to be a determinant in the pattern of WB funding to development initiatives in India. "Even among those in secondary school, the profile is very urban and more boys. Also, the curriculum adopted leaves a lot to be desired. Though the budgetary spend [by India] is better compared to that of a few other developing nations, so few students get through secondary schooling that the resources are wasted," Mamta Murthi, lead economist of the report, told The Hindu Education Plus. Ms. Murthi was transiting through Chennai on her way to Singapore to release the report.

The Mexican model in giving financial incentives to young school, conditional on their attending schoolgoers, had proved quite successful.

On the brighter side, as far higher education went, students in south Asian countries, particularly India, had expressed happiness over technology-enabled education.

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