It is important to examine what the “demographic dividend” is. In what way are we absorbing a potentially more ready set of young people not just in the workforce but also in other aspects of life? Ten years ago, you had about 12 million children getting up to Standard VIII; today that number is 22 million. So whether they are able to read and do maths or not, they have had the experience of eight years of schooling.
If I look back, I don’t remember the maths that I learnt but I remember many other things which presumably have gone into shaping who I am. Reading and maths are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s important to convert this eight-year experience into a useful experience--socially, emotionally and academically. Definitely, a student who has had eight years of schooling is different from a student who has had four. We would like that exposure to translate into many things.
So I look at the demographic dividend in this way: how prepared are young children? ASER tells us one story but there may be much more to it. Data don’t capture some of it, which is explored in our short film. They are quite articulate about their hopes, their dreams, the challenges they face. I assume that 10 years ago, those that didn’t make it that far [up to Grade VIII] may have not been that articulate. We have to figure out what these kids can do, what they are able to think about and what they would do given certain opportunities. Are we as a society, as an economy, able to create those opportunities?
Another thing ASER 2017 shows is that large numbers of kids are working while still in school and they are working usually in their family enterprise or farm. Now, that’s not what they want to do; they want to do something else. The fact is: if a relevant opportunity were to show itself, they would probably find time while they are going to school to actually do that. To utilise these young people’s potential, are we able to provide that kind of opportunity for them to learn something new?
Have you analysed how household characteristics affect learning outcomes?
Yes, our director, Wilima Wadhwa, has used ASER’s data to explore how students perform in government and private schools depending on household characteristics. She has found that there is no difference between students’ performance in government and private schools if you control for household characteristics.
However, we find it’s important to leave the main ASER report as straightforward as possible, otherwise people impute all kinds of motives. For instance, an article in the Economic & Political Weekly said the covert purpose of ASER is to run down government schools and bring in privatisation.
One study showed that children from poorer families working as shopkeepers in informal markets, who might perform well below their grade-level expected performance, are able to solve basic arithmetic problems, because their job requires that on a daily basis. Other research has also shown children perform better in natural settings than in classrooms.
In such settings, the question is how can we get them to do the normal maths. But even better is how does one bring the school curriculum into that context.
We have been working with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a global impact evaluation centre, in Delhi. What we are asking is that if you have been exposed to certain kinds of maths games in pre-school age or even in the first couple of years in school, does that enable you to do maths better later?
To Be Continue - part-3
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