Giving Compass' Take:

• Martin Haus and Rakesh Kumar Rajak argue that gaps in achievement between private and government schools in India do not mean that government schools are less worthwhile. 

• How can funders help to clarify the real gaps between private and government schools? What combination of improvements are needed to lift up India's education system? 

• Learn more about the role of parents in improving learning outcomes. 

The ASER report paints a grim picture of what is (not) happening in Bihar’s schools. Only around 24% percent of children in Class III can read a Class II text. A little more than half the enrolled children are present on any given day. More than half of the children in government schools take private tuition. Something is seriously wrong.

Yet, the media’s coverage of the ASER report conjures a binary that does not exist. The tables show absolute learning levels of children in governmental vs private schools–and they show a big gap.

For instance, the ability of Class III children to read a Class II text is very different depending on the type of school: in government schools, the figure is as low as 12%, in private schools it is 62%. Many commentators jump to conclusions and decry the state of public education (rightly so), but they make a fundamental analytical mistake. This builds to a misleading narrative, fueling a privatisation trend that is counterproductive to solving the learning crisis.

Children in government and private schools are different: So different that the entire gap between government and private schools can in many states be explained only by students’ family backgrounds, not the value added by the school. This was pointed out by the director of the ASER Centre in their 2014 report.

The 2018 ASER report also shows, for instance, that private tuition patterns differ between children attending government and private schools. Private school children receive more expensive tuition.

Even so, learning levels in private schools are far from satisfactory. Almost four in ten Class III children in private schools cannot read a Class II text, even though they come from an environment much more susceptible to education.

We need a sober view of the education sector and to accept a few evident truths. There are no silver bullets. We have to get beyond this idea.

Read the full article about governmnet schools by Martin Haus and Rakesh Kumar Rajak at India Development Review.