What are we doing with our children?

The development of the Kargil Education Strategy (KES) document has now entered the final stage. After many months of hard work beginning from March this year, we are now in a position to present our key findings and suggest ways forward in order to improve the education we provide for our children in the coming years. While we are very excited about sharing what all we have found with the people of Kargil, we are also very disturbed with many of our findings. These have often angered and frustrated us. Sometimes, we have also been puzzled as to why things are the way they are. Of course, there has been no shortage of explanations – we have our own theories to explain what we have found!

A key aspect that attracts a lot of attention in children’s education is their achievement on some agreed upon indicators – through these parameters, we would like to find out what children have learnt after a few years of schooling. Some indicators are universally recognized – go to any country, and you will find many a person interested in education, discussing them -- the so called ‘achievement’ indicators which test children’s abilities in basic arithmetic and language. For me, these indicators are not the only things which tell us if our education system is functioning well. Still, they are an important part of what children should achieve after a few years of schooling.

As part of the field studies in 24 villages all over Kargil district, we investigated various aspects that determine children’s education. One of these was the testing of children’s abilities in arithmetic and language. We tested 99 grade 5 children (29 boys and 70 girls, i.e., all grade 5 children from these 24 villages) for elementary arithmetic and oral, reading and writing skills. Please note that the tests were all pitched at grade 2 and grade 3. We have summarized the results of the arithmetic test for you. In a nutshell, this is how the results look:

Addition -- 76% boys and 65% girls could do the addition sums
Subtraction -- 63% boys and 55% girls could do the subtraction problems
Multiplication -- 55% boys and 44% girls could solve simple multiplication sums
Division -- 31% boys and 31% girls only could correctly solve division problems

I would leave you to understand the figures we have obtained. You can do your own analysis and put forward your own explanations. Still, let me leave you with some thoughts and questions. Firstly, what are we doing with our children? Why are these results the way they are? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? What worries me is that after five years of schooling, grade 5 children are not able to solve the most elementary grade 2 or grade 3 level arithmetic problems. I would be tempted to say that we are cheating them and wasting their time in school! What would the results have been like if we had administered a grade 5 level test, instead?

On the whole, the difference between boys and girls is not as high as one would have expected. There are significant inter-block variations, though, like in Kargil, Taisuru and Zanskar blocks, for example. The only block where girls outsmart boys is in Drass. The figures for Drass bring some respectability within the overall % for girls. Otherwise, the overall differences would have been stark. One more point – we should do an ‘error analysis’ to find out what are the kinds of mistakes children are committing, and identify the reasons for the same. The teaching and understanding of place value, for instance, seems to be one of the key problems.

One last comment – notice the huge difference in the number of boys and girls in grade 5 in these 24 government schools. There were 29 boys and 70 girls at the time of the test. Where are the rest of the boys? My guess is that they flood the private fee-charging schools. This shows clearly where parents are putting their money to educate their children. Of course, this demands another article.

Do write in, and tell me your reactions.