Far too often we as inhabitants of a developed country take for granted the simplest of luxuries available to us. Unfortunately we easily fall victim to our routine lifestyles and fail to recognize that we have the simplest of necessities, such as clean water running from our tap while 783 million people in the world do not. Most children begrudgingly get out of bed in the morning to pack their backpacks with their books, notepads, and various assortment of pens and pencils in order to get ready for another day of school. They ride their school buses, or other means of transportation, while chatting with their friends about what snacks they have to trade during lunchtime or their excitement and plans for what games to play during recess, all the while failing to recognize how privileged they are to be granted the gift of education. We live in one of the most developed countries in the world, and while we are quite lucky to have access to the most basic necessities, we must not forget to help struggling developing countries acquire the means to provide these necessities for their citizens.
The past six years have been
relatively successful for primary school enrollment in India as it has reached and remained at 96%. According to the Brookings Institution India now has 1.4 million schools with 7.7 million teachers, with the majority of areas having a primary school located within one mile of its residencies. The country’s economic growth has certainly had a positive effect on general developmental issues, such as education, yet still faces many obstacles. India accounts for 17% of the world’s population yet has 37% of the world’s illiterates and struggles with battling with the dropout rate of its youth.
The dropout rates of children in India are high. As reported by a 2014 Human Rights Watch report, over 40% of children in India drop out before finishing the 8th grade making the country among the top five in the world for primary aged dropouts. There are many factors as to why these children drop out. Issues such as shortages of teachers, resources and materials, as well as infrastructural issues are amongst a few.
Schools in India are not equipped to handle the full population of the country’s children due to teacher shortages, which Brookings has reported to have reached up to 689,000 teachers for primary schools. The schools that have an adequate amount of teachers face problems of their own with issues such as children not being able to keep up with their grade levels.
The quality of learning in primary schools is another challenge; children are not meeting their class appropriate learning levels. The 2014 Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) revealed that only 23% of children enrolled in a third grade level and 74% of children in a fifth grade level can only read up to a second grade or higher level text, meaning only half the children enrolled in 5th grade can read at second grader’s level. The ASER survey also showed that nearly 20% of children enrolled in fifth grade can only read letters, 14% can read words but not sentence and 19% can only read sentences but not paragraphs. The percentage of children in the first and second grade who are not able to recognize letters has steadily increased since 2010 by 19%. Reading is a primary skill of the utmost importance, without the ability to read children will struggle to progress their education.
Not only do children struggle with reading at the appropriate grade level but the percentage has continuously declined and remained low since 2010. The gap between the percentage of literate children enrolled in private and public schools who are able to read at a second grade level has also increased, which shows a significant disparity between the two school sectors.
One solution in solving this educational issue can be found by rearranging children by their appropriate reading levels, instead of age, in order to efficiently and effectively help these children progress. There are 55 million children in the age group of first and second grade, teachers need to focus more on these students in order to help them improve and progress in their education. Grades three to five include 80 million children who struggle with basic skills they should have obtained in their earlier years of education. Special attentions should be paid to these children, with schools readjusting their levels and systems in order to aid in the progression of their education and working with parents in order to have a system at home that assists in their learning goals.
Infrastructural issues are also on the top of the list with 24% of school not having access to drinking water and 35% lacking fully functioning lavatories. Although the need for school infrastructural improvements are high they have improved since 2010 by 4-18%. The lack of material resources is an issue as well. Schools have insufficient funding for basic materials needed in aiding the teaching process. Children in many schools are not able to progress well due to inadequate workbooks, teaching materials and learning aids or the lack thereof.
All children have the inalienable right to a quality education, as stated and first acknowledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. While many children may have access to a quality education, UNESCO’s 2015 Education For All Global Monitoring Report has revealed that 58 million children in the world do not receive any schooling, while 100 million children do not complete their primary education. Every child deserves the right to be educated, and although some of these children have the opportunity to attend school they are consistently faced with obstacles that are beyond their ability to overcome.
You have the ability to help a child today. Profugo currently has a Student Sponsorship Program that helps students in Wayanad, India who are below the poverty line gain access to education. The program provides them with the school supplies needed for a full school year. For these students, the cost of school supplies is a real barrier to education. During the summer months, the monsoon season hits, depriving many of their families the ability to work and provide for their families. By donating $20 you can send a child to school for one year. To help make a difference please visit our Crowdrise page to donate today!
References:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002322/232205e.pdf
http://www.unicef.org/education/files/QualityEducation.PDF
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf
http://www.unwater.org/water-cooperation-2013/water-cooperation/facts-and-figures/en/
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