Free & Quality Education for all.. A possibility!!!!

Andhra Pradesh is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the south-eastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad. The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third among all states in India. The State has the second-longest coastline of 972 km (604 mi) among all the States in India. The primary official language of Andhra Pradesh is Telugu and Urdu is the secondary official language in some places, while other languages spoken in Andhra Pradesh are Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, and Oriya.

Andhra comprises of 23 districts or blocks. These districts cover over 1124 mandals. In all, there are 26,613 villages in Andhra Pradesh.

I happened to work in the education system in Andhra Pradesh thanks to an internship that I carried out with Society for elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), an independent society under the Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. Of Andhra Pradesh. I got an opportunity to visit a number of schools especially in tribal Andhra Pradesh. After visiting the schools and interactions with a number of households, parents, teachers, government officials, NGO’s etc.

Common Observations at most schools

• Most of the schools visited lacked basic infrastructure like benches, tables, electricity, good buildings, toilets etc.
• The teachers and Head Teacher at many places are hardly X^th or intermediate cleared makes many of the schools sub standard and incompetent.
• Only one teacher is present for a school of 45- 120 students. Rest of the teacher positions is either vacant or the teacher is absent at many places
• Students roamed around or kept playing even during the school hours
• Parents at some places complain of being abused by the teachers when they raise voices against sub standard teaching
• There is minimal accountability on the part of teachers
• There is no evaluation mechanism for teachers
• Herd rearing was the major reason for dropout of male child and wedding or handling family chores was prime reason for girl child dropouts.
• Male children were given preference for education
• There is no attendance at many places, or there is fake attendance.
• Hygiene levels at school premises is extremely low
• Some public schools are efficiently functioning and churning out great results
• Some public schools have adopted private modes of school marketing like putting up hoardings, distributing pamphlets, holding seminars etc. They also provide career counseling to students and are extremely competent. This is in areas where private schools are quite prominent.
• Private schools are highly preferred by the rural families
• Private schools are beyond the financial capabilities of majority of tribal families
• Most families aspire to send their wards to private schools
• ICT infrastructure available in many private schools
• Teacher accountability in private schools is very high
• Parents are constantly updated of the progress of their children
• Quality education is provided very cheaply at many private schools
• Hoardings of private schools put up at prominent places
• Special training targeting IIT’s carried out by some schools
• Many private schools although do not have necessary recognitions
• Community Resource Persons were substantially able to bring down the dropout rates

To overcome this, I propose an education model which can turn Andhra Pradesh in to a literate state with Best Quality education.

Few assumptions are:

• ·        Schools are present in all the villages
• ·        Mid day meal is served in all schools
• ·       All schools receive the grant for books and scholarships, maintenance, teaching aids etc. earmarked for them
• ·         There is atleast a teacher or proxy teacher in every school
• ·         Government machinery provides full support to the program
• ·         SERP promoted SHG network is prevalent or people are acquaint with the concept

There are 2 options. These can be carried out independently or simultaneously.

Education via DTH

Satellite based DTH is widely penetrated throughout Andhra Pradesh. The key players in DTH are SUN TV, Tata Sky, among others. 2 Televisions with DTH sets can be set up in every school in every village. Through DTH, sessions shall be delivered simultaneously to all schools. Timings for every class would be pre fixed. Or, Multi Grade Multi Learning form of education can be delivered wherein joint lectures of multiple classes can be simultaneously delivered. Multi grade multi learning system has proved to be very successful at many places. The lectures shall be highly standardized and formalized designed on state standards. Regular awareness movies can also be transmitted through DTH. The DTH sessions will be complemented with necessary activity worksheets, quiz papers, etc. Which the teacher will ensure gets completed on time. The teachers shall be provided with a toll free helpline number to clear her doubts. This mode will reduce the dependency on teachers, bring standardization and improve the overall quality of education in state by using the existing infrastructure. Also, the remotest villages could be accessible to quality education. The model could also lead to electrification of many schools. The above model could be made purely market driven by charging for advertisements which would be delivered through that channel straight to rural masses.

Education via DVD’s

This model will be very similar to education via DTH. But, the mode of delivery will be in form of DVD’s which shall be standardized. All the schools shall receive the DVD’s containing lectures at the beginning of the month/ year along with necessary activity sheets, worksheets, quiz papers etc. The advantage of this model over DTH could be that the lectures could be viewed repeatedly at comfortable timings. Advertisements can be displayed through these too to make a healthy source of income.

  

The cost heads for the above Project are:

1. Content Development & Helpline Creation: Content Development shall be one time expenditure. Content in local dialects can be prepared with the help of experts. New & innovative methods of learning can be employed. Content can be pre developed for all standards, and as per state standards. Content especially of higher classes shall be developed in such a way that even the students with minimal understanding for that level can cope up. Or additional sessions as remedial for that standard can be carried out before school starts.
   
   An additional toll free helpline shall also be created wherein teachers or students with any doubts, questions, etc can get their solutions just by a simple phone call.The cost of Content Development along with Helpline Creation is estimated to be 2 crore rupees.
   
2. DTH with television or television with DVD player: 2 television sets with DTH and/ or DVD players need to be purchased for every village school. These units would be the chief mode of delivery of lectures. 2 units would be set up in every school. These units can be used for primary and secondary sections and at different times of the day. Cost of each television with DTH/ DVD is assumed to be Rs. 16,000. 
   
3. Infrastructure Upgradation: Most government schools in Andhra Pradesh lack proper infrastructure like benches, electricity, water etc. This fund shall help in providing these basic amenities. This fund would be in addition to what government already spends. A fund of 1 lakh rupees for every school is earmarked for this purpose.
   
4. UPS with solar panel: Most schools in Andhra Pradesh lack electricity. The chief necessity for the success of this project is electricity. Hence, a solar PV cell charged inverter battery shall be installed at schools to produce enough electricity to run fans, lights and televisions. A fund of 25000 Rupees per school is earmarked for this purpose.
   
5. Teacher & Community Resource Person Training: A chief reason for substandard education is lack of efficient teachers. Teachers to undergo a vigorous short term training course to better handle the doubts of children ensure high learning of students with the proposed model and improve teaching standards.
   
   SERP has an initiative wherein they appoint Community Resource Person (CRP). CRP is an educated person from the community. He looks after the education status, reduce the dropouts, and ascertain the causes of dropouts, community motivation etc... He can also be trained to run the school along with some more locals in absence of teacher. This is done because teachers in school have a huge backlog of government delegated work, which renders them incapable of running schools. These resource persons can run the DVD’s/ DTH at pre scheduled times to avoid loss of student hours due to unavailable teacher.A fund of 20,000 has been earmarked for this purpose.
   
6. Miscellaneous: There can be several other costs. Roughly Rs. 10000 are earmarked for every school anticipating unexpected expenses.

Additional Features:

• Schools to be run by village level Self Help Groups. These groups ensure smooth functioning of school. 
• These SHG’s would also encourage fixed monthly savings from all the parents. These savings would be deposited in the bank in account name of the student. Students can use the fund, or use it as collateral to fund his/ her higher studies. 
• These SHG’s are run by women. Hence, it will encourage girl education.
• Student already get Mid day meal, books, bags, uniform etc from government.
• Additional schemes like a rupee a day incentive for every student attending the school can be laid out to attract and retain students
• Child Labour abolishment rule should be implemented more strictly to avoid losing children to labour. This should also be complemented by providing of jobs under MGREGA or other employment schemes.
• Parents should be equally involved in child education by way of regular Parents Teachers meetings, report cards to parents, etc. SHG and CRP can ensure this. This shall also make the parents more hopeful of bright future of children.
•  Extra sessions on demand can also be organised at nights for students who missed the earlier session or some session. Also, night schools can be run by SHG to teach the illiterate of the village of basic arithmetic to ensure that moneylenders and traders do not fool them. Basic sciences can be imparted to dispel myths and superstitions.
•  Community harmony video, movies promoting social cause, social awareness videos, children movies etc. can be screened at regular intervals.

Financials:

Heads	Per School	Schools in 26613 villages	Shared between 2 villages	Shared between 3 villages
DTH with television x 2	32,000	85,16,16,000	42,58,24,000	28,38,72,000
Teacher Training	20,000	53,22,60,000	26,61,40,000	17,74,20,000
UPS with solar panel	25,000	66,53,25,000	33,26,75,000	22,17,75,000
Infrastructure Upgradation	1,00,000	2,66,13,00,000	1,33,07,00,000	88,71,00,000
Miscellaneous	10,000	26,61,30,000	13,30,70,000	8,87,10,000
Total	1,87,000	4,97,66,31,000	2,48,84,09,000	1,65,88,77,000
Content and Hepline (One time)		2,00,00,000	2,00,00,000	2,00,00,000
Net		4,99,66,31,000	2,50,84,09,000	1,67,88,77,000

In effect, best quality education can be delivered to every student in less than 500 crore rupees. This includes upgradation of infrastructure, teacher training and Best quality education in local dialects for the students. Additional benefits include night schools, increased social awareness, etc.

The new infrastructure can be created in every villages, or can be shared between 2 or 3 villages.

The budget of Andhra Pradesh Government for the year 2010-11 is a staggering 3155 crores. The face of education in Andhra Pradesh can instead be changed forever at less than one sixth of annual state budget!

Further, I have few suggestions as to how to make the entire project free of cost to the state exchequer!

Major Heads of expenditure in the project are:

• DTH/ DVD with television
• Teacher training
• UPS with solar panel
• Infrastructure Upgradation

a.      For DTH/ DVD with television

• DTH/ DVD with television as well as UPS with solar panel can be provided to every school on loan. Loan amount can be payed by the schools in the following ways:
• Savings of parents. Parents pay a minimum amount to school every year to ensure their interest in the school
• Solar PV panels for electricity can save huge carbon emissions. CER’s or VER’s can be issued and encashed in the market to pay for the debt.
• Subsidy schemes of central government on Solar panels can be utilized to bring down the costs
• Advertisements can be broadcasted through DTH or DVD’s. These advertisements reaching to everyone at BoP can command huge premiums. The returns from these advertisements can be used to pay off the debt. After clearance of debt, the money generated through advertisements can be used in development of school.

b.     For teacher Training

Just as pharma companies do, teacher trainings can be carried out by getting the entire event sponsored by one or many private education providers in Andhra Pradesh. These education providers in turn get wide scale publicity and acknowledgement for their contribution.

c.      For Infrastructure Upgradation:

This is slightly difficult. But, donations from NGO’s, donor agencies, CSR’s etc can be called for. This can be further incentivised by selling the naming rights of schools for a fixed tenure recognizing the contribution of the donor. Donors can also be thanked by displaying their name on website, newspaper advertisment by state thanking them, etc. Besides, the upgradation can also be sponsored by the advertisement revenues generated by DTH/ DVD’s.

Only thing needed for making the entire state of Andhra Pradesh literate with high standards of uniform education is Government willingness, support from SERP and a good project management team!

Advantages in Brief:

• Every village can have a well developed school with latest infrastruture
• Uniform education provided to everyone 
•  Universal Primary Education can be ensured by 2015
• Entire project covering whole India can be done in 12000 crores, which further can be made free of cost by free market economics
• It would be a one time investment. For all the following years, the schools shall generate its own revenues. This money can be used for maintenence and covering day to day costs of school
• Schools can run even without a teacher, by a trained local; as local person has just to play the right session to the students
• It can lay a foundation for secondary education also     
• Good quality primary education would further usher in private companies to invest heavily in schools and education. This would further boost the education system.

It is amazing and confusing how merely one time investment of Rs. 500 crores can be sufficient to educate an entire state and 12,000 crore to educate an entire nation with best quality education. But, government, over the years spending crores and crores of rupees every year have not been able to produce even a fraction of desired output!

Arpit H Shah.

Email: arpithshah99@gmail.com
Mob: +91-9821211381