Indian school education is in need of a radical reboot

Dissolve rigid classes based on age cohorts and ease the curricular burden on students

- ANURAG BEHAR

Our struggles with achieving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) in the nine schools that we run, despite the resources and expertise available, are significant. To begin with, let me recap my earlier column.

Children living in poverty have less, get less and experience far tougher lives. Among other things, they get inadequate nutritional content and significantly less care and supervision because adults are away all the time toiling to earn a living. They are frequently absent from school because they fall ill more and for longer, and also have to help adults with their livelihoods. Poverty and social exclusion cause significant stress and other mental-health issues. In short, the deficits and deprivations that children live with affect their educational achievement profoundly.

In general, there is a reasonable understanding of these underlying sociological and psychological factors, but an inadequate understanding of their curricular and pedagogical implications.

Most schools serving similar populations in India are far less endowed than ours. Much must be done to fix this—in at least three categories—apart from important responses outside the educational system like poverty reduction and ensuring good public health.