Focus on schooling, not on school

As the schools & government are preparing to start a new session, it is the right time to talk about our priorities on school education. There is almost a universal thinking, both at the government level and at the parents’ level, that spending more money on education will result in good education. Spending on education is an important part of the budget for both governments and parents, but simply spending money on education is not going to result in good education. It is not really helping our kids to learn, develop skills or get foundational knowledge. Our main focus is on school, not on schooling. Spending on school, whether it is on building school infrastructure, midday meal, uniform, or books counted as spending on education, but all these things are just a supportive part of the schooling, not actual schooling.

What is schooling?

Despite decades of educational expansion in rural India, the ASER Rural Report 2024 paints a disturbing picture of the state of schooling. The issue today is not merely about building more schools, but about what happens inside them. The real crisis is in schooling, not schools. Schooling refers to the organised process of instruction, carried out by trained teachers in formal institutions, aiming to impart “knowledge”, “skills”, and “values” through a structured curriculum. However, when we examine actual learning outcomes, this process appears to be failing at a foundational level. In Rajasthan, the crisis is not the lack of schools but the failure of schooling, the formal process by which trained teachers transmit knowledge and values through a structured curriculum. The ASER 2024 data shows that by Grade VI, a majority of children still cannot read a Grade II text. This signals not just an education gap, but a collapse in the very process of organised learning.

What does ASER 2024 say?

The ASER 2024 report reveals a disturbing reality about the state of foundational literacy in  Rajasthan schools. The table titled “% Children by Grade and Reading Level. All Children. 2024” presents a grade-wise distribution of children’s reading ability, showing how a vast number of students are unable to achieve even the most basic reading competencies despite spending several years in school. For example, in Standard V, 47.6% of students still cannot read a Grade II level text. Even more alarming, in Standard VI and VII, 55.2% and 63.4% of students, respectively, remain below the expected reading level. These figures sharply contrast with the assumptions often made about age-based grade progression, suggesting that schooling does not necessarily lead to learning.

The data also points to the persistence and early onset of learning deficits. In Standard I, nearly 47.4% of children cannot even recognise letters, and only 2.5% can read a Grade II level text. Although there is some improvement in reading ability in higher grades, the pace is extremely slow and uneven. By the time students reach Standard III, just 18.6% can read a Standard II level text, meaning over 80% are still behind. This highlights a fundamental problem: early learning gaps are not being addressed or remediated effectively, leading to long-term educational backlogs that compound as children move to higher grades.

What is particularly striking in this table is the inversion of grade-level expectations. One would expect that with each passing grade, most children would achieve literacy levels appropriate to their age. However, the data indicates otherwise. It is only from Standard V onward that a relatively larger proportion of children begin to meet the Standard II reading level benchmark. Even in Standard VIII, 30.9% of students are still unable to read a Standard II text. This suggests that a significant number of children are completing eight years of schooling without acquiring basic reading skills. Such findings expose deep systemic flaws in how schooling is structured and delivered.

The implications for education policy are profound. This table underscores that increased enrolment, expanded school infrastructure, and rising expenditure have not translated into improved learning outcomes. It suggests that India’s education system remains focused more on input-based measures, such as building schools or hiring teachers, than on the core objective of meaningful learning. To bridge this gap, urgent attention is needed toward foundational learning interventions in the early grades, remedial education in later grades, and assessment systems that measure actual learning rather than years spent in school. Programs such as NIPUN Bharat that target foundational literacy must be expanded and supported by continuous teacher training and curriculum reform.

The crisis is especially evident in states like Rajasthan, where systemic weaknesses in public schooling are even more pronounced. Despite major investments in new schooling schemes like Mahatma Gandhi English Medium Schools, the absence of subject-trained teachers and inadequate pedagogic support severely hamper student learning. The table serves as indirect evidence of these underlying deficiencies. A strong schooling system must go beyond attendance and infrastructure it must guarantee that children learn to read, write, and comprehend in the early years. Without this, the idea of schooling loses its meaning and becomes a ritual devoid of purpose.

ASER RURAL REPORT 2024

Table – 1

% Children by Grade and Reading Level of All Children 2024

The reading tool is a progressive tool. Each row shows the variation in children’s reading levels within a given grade. For example, among children in Std III, 11.6% cannot even read letters, 34.8% can read letters but not words or higher, 18.7% can read words but not Std I level text or higher, 16.3% can read Std I level text but not Std II level text, and 18.6% can read Std II level text. For each grade, the total of these exclusive categories is 100%.

Further ASER rural reports expose the reality of government schools; the situation is worse. The report also explains the difference between government and private schools in 2024. Only 37.7 per cent of students fifth standard can read the textbook of the second standard, but the number is 63.5 in the private schools. This data is enough to sense the future of the students who are enrolled in the government schools.

ASER RURAL REPORT 2024 

Table -2

*This is the weighted average for children in government and private schools only.

These numbers are not marginal errors. They reflect a systemic failure of our educational priorities. Children are being pushed from grade to grade without acquiring the most basic skills necessary for meaningful learning. In Rajasthan, schooling has become a matter of routine attendance and symbolic progress rather than substantive education. This disconnect between schooling as a process and education as an outcome has devastating consequences. Without basic literacy, students cannot engage with subjects like science, history, or mathematics. They fall behind, lose interest, and eventually drop out or exit the system with minimal learning. The promise of education becomes hollow.

Thus, measuring how many children are enrolled or how many schools exist is not enough. We must ask: Are children learning? Are teachers equipped and motivated to teach? Are systems holding schools accountable for learning outcomes, not just attendance and infrastructure? The ASER report demands a shift in our policy lens, from counting schools to ensuring schooling, from access to learning, and from expansion to quality. Without this shift, we risk producing a generation that is schooled but not educated.

What are our priorities? 

While the primary focus of schooling should be learning and knowledge, it seems that this is not the priority of our government and parents, at least at this level. I analysed the questions posed by members during the second session of the 16th assembly. A total of 506 questions were asked about school education. Many inquiries were related to issues such as building infrastructure, vacant teaching posts, student enrollment, and midday meals. However, not a single question addressed the quality of education, the outcomes of that education, the subjects being taught, the methods of teaching, or whether students in their classes are able to grasp the syllabus from previous years. Are students promoted to the next grade without a solid basis, simply for the sake of advancing them?

This highlights a fundamental difference between “school” and “schooling,” and both should be considered separately, with a primary focus on the latter. Confusing the two could prove detrimental to students, the state, and ultimately, the country.

“The problem is not just school infrastructure or access; it is also about the nature and quality of schooling itself.”

Here, I am not questioning the relevance or importance of the questions raised by the members. However, many of these inquiries could be submitted as applications to the public authority. The assembly should transcend merely gathering information; it should serve as a platform for policy discussions. There should be a flow of information, clear outcomes, debates on suggestions, and necessary changes to effectively address the challenges we face.

What should be our priorities?

Is there any problem if we ban uniforms in the schools for the next 5 to 10 years? It will be okay if we put two classes in one room, it will be okay if we arrange a bus for the students who come from a distance to the school, instead of building schools in every village and use that money to improve the quality of education. That will be more productive. As a civil society, we should also think about our priorities and how to pressure the policymakers, and how to support and question our representatives to change the perception from school to schooling.

Teachers are the most important to provide good education, but just hiring teachers is not going to fix the problem directly. Clear-cut responsibility and a feedback loop are important things to monitor the outcome. Are already serving teachers monitored regularly by the authorities about their contribution and their outcomes. The second point is that there is a huge scarcity of teachers, and it will take time to fill up and Corruption, paper out, delay in the exams and results, and court decisions are the reasons behind this. So there are many alternatives in this era of technology. Most of the schools have computers and teachers to teach ICT. So the subject, for that school, doesn’t have any faculty that can be taught online by an expert in that subject, and only one teacher can teach the entire state schools, but the government is not willing or serious about either of these things. Neither is there a timely completed vacancy note; they are thinking about their digital services for learning.

I am not talking here about students because most of the students from the government school are already in bad condition, and in India, we don’t care about any individual, but for the sake of our dream of becoming the 2nd or 3rd fastest or largest economy of the world I hope that we will take all this issue seriously. There are continuous protests and complaints about the vacancy for the teachers, but we never ask what they have already been appointed are really do. Are they doing their job properly, or are the schools just a job-giving program? This is a very disappointing situation.  The teaching community in Rajasthan has completely failed in performing their duty and has become a part of the burden on the educational budget of Rajasthan, not because they are getting a salary because they are not giving back.