3 stepping stones for school improvement

In the new age of instant digital connectivity and globalisation, it is possible — and necessary — for educationists in vastly different geographies to identify and adapt best practices in education. In India we can make a start by implementing 3 stepping stones for school improvement to repair the severely damaged foundations of the countrys K-12 education system – Anustup Nayak It was the best of times; it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness… it was the spring of hope; it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us — Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities, 1859) Meghana Srivastava radiates understated confidence while being interviewed by a television reporter. It is not that big a deal, but I am thrilled. A student of the Step by Step School, Noida (Uttar Pradesh), she became a national celebrity after scoring 499 out of a maximum 500 marks in the class XII school-leaving exam of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Indias largest national examination board. Whats the secret of your success? the reporter asks. There is no secret. Hard work and consistency is the key, she responds. Down south in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district, another young girl (name withheld) is in the news for a very different reason. This 17-year-old is suspected to have committed suicide after she failed to do sufficiently well in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), which determines admission into all undergraduate medical colleges countrywide. Curiously in the Plus Two exam of the Tamil Nadu School Examinations Board, she had fared brilliantly aggregating 1,125 out of a maximum possible 1,200. The quality of school education in India is like Dickens tale of two cities. Indias 20,000-25,000 top-ranked (mainly private) schools are like 19th century London, enriched by the Industrial Revolution, shaping students filled with hope and possibility. The remaining 1.40 million are like Paris of the time, trapped in the chaos of the French Revolution, in which students suffer chronic anxiety and despair. A minuscule fraction of the countrys 480 million children (below age 18) like Meghana, will go on to study in 200-300 top-ranked colleges and universities and secure gainful and fulfilling employment. However, the vast majority will enter the remaining 39,000 colleges and 800 universities which dispense unmindful, obsolete higher education and eventually land low-paid clerical and shopfloor employment. A student dies by suicide every hour in India, unable to fulfil her aspirations, cope with failure, or find emotional support, according to latest data of the National Crime Records Bureau. Post-independence Indias K-12 school system has repeatedly failed to deliver its promise to the countrys 250 million in-school children, the worlds largest school-going population. Year after year, authoritative independent surveys paint a grim picture of how little children and adolescents are learning in their schools and how under-prepared they are for the future. For instance, only 40 percent of our 14-18 year-olds can calculate the price of…