Improving Elementary Education in India

An arithmetic class at Government Primary School Kandoli Raipur in northern India. The school is part of an effort to improve elementary education underwritten by one of the country’s richest men, Azim H. Premji, chairman of the information technology giant Wipro.

Nine-year-old Arjun takes his turn keeping the shoes and slippers outside his classroom in order. His school, Government Primary School Nagla, is included in the Premji Foundation's efforts to overhaul the way students are taught and tested at government schools. 

Children at the Nagla school have fun acting out a poem. Students are encouraged to write stories and pursue independent projects, rather than perform rote exercises out of textbooks.  

Dhananjay, 10, sketches during a group story-telling session at the Nagla elementary school. Within India, there is widespread recognition that the country has not invested enough in education, especially at the primary and secondary levels.  

Ten-year-old Mehroon, during a math class at  Government Primary School Ramjeevanpur, a school participating in the Premji Foundation program. Only about one-third of fifth graders in India can perform simple division problems in arithmetic, and most students drop out before they reach the 10th grade.

In a math class at Government Primary School Ramjeevanpur, Jasmine, 10, offers an answer to her teacher. Education reformers in India point to success in China, where 94 percent of the population is literate, compared with 64 percent in their own country.  

Pankaj Malik teaches arithmetic using a  tool designed to develop reasoning through play. New efforts to train teachers and provide adequate equipment are under way. 

The curriculum at Government Primary School Ramjeevanpur is break from traditional public schools in India, where students have long been drilled on memorizing facts and regurgitating them in stressful year-end exams that many children fail.    

Time for home for these Ramjeevanpur schoolchildren. Mr. Premji said he hoped his foundation would eventually make a difference for tens of millions of students in India by focusing on critical educational areas like exams, curriculum and teacher training.  


Source: NYT