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ABSTRACT: Para-teachers, sometimes called ”contract teachers”, are being hired in increasing numbers in many Indian states. While hiring conditions, tenure, remuneration, and qualifications vary considerably across states, the use of para-teachers has generated debate about their impact on the quality of elementary education. Based on a critical literature review of available studies and new evidence from the SchoolTELLS survey conducted by the authors and their collaborators, this paper summarises the proof regarding the functioning and impact of para-teachers in elementary schools in India. None of the studies reviewed evaluates the causal impact of para-teachers, but they do suggest that despite poorer training, para-teachers may be more cost-effective than regular teachers. The questions of career progression and equity for teachers, nonetheless, also need to be addressed.
Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 45 No. 12
March 20 - March 26, 2010
Pages 59-67
  • The Neglected Teacher
    A symposium on the need to reform teacher training and education
    Seminar #592
    December, 2008
  • Community Caretaking and Women Volunteer Teachers in Mumbai Slums
    by Anju Saigal
    ABSTRACT: Despite increasing emphasis on civic participation in governance, how and why people participate in civil society and what meanings they ascribe to their actions have received scarce attention. Addressing the gap, this paper ethnographically investigates women’s roles as volunteer teachers in their slum localities in Mumbai. Examining the meanings of their community-based teaching roles, the paper illustrates that women interpreted their engagements as community caretaking, which was grounded in interpersonal relationships and a desire for social upliftment of the disadvantaged. Illuminating civic participation from the standpoint of disadvantaged women, it reveals women’s citizenship action as a complex and negotiated process, intersected by class and gender constructs.
    Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 43 No. 42
    October 18 - October 24, 2008
    Pages 69-75

  • Teaching Economics in Schools
    by Sukanya Bose and Arvind Sardana

    ABSTRACT:The curricular changes based on the National Curriculum Framework (2005) have enfolded Economics education at the school level. This article reviews in detail the imperative for and the main elements of the change, and argues that the issues involved merit the attention of professional economists.
    Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 43 No. 32
    August 09 - August 15, 2008
    Pages 54-60

  • An Empirical Study of the Mid-Day Meal Programme in Khurda, Orissa
    by Anima Rani Si and Naresh Kumar Sharma
    ABSTRACT: The mid-day meal programme was initiated as a means of achieving universal primary education of satisfactory quality for all schoolchildren below the age of 14 by increasing enrolment, improving attendance and retention, and simultaneously improving nutritional status. This paper attempts to investigate some of these aspects based on primary data collected from Khurda district of Orissa. Data was collected from schools as well as from a sample of households of schoolchildren. The investigation includes a study of the organisational structure of the programme and also examines the cooked meals and dry ration variants.
    Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 43 No. 25
    June 21 - June 27, 2008
    Pages 46-55
  • Science Education and Research in India
    by Gautam R Desiraju
ABSTRACT: Many aspects of the Indian scientific development are extremely unsatisfactory, lacking in both quality and quantity. Although the outreach of teaching and research programmes has increased considerably, populist political themes are favoured and special institutions have been created where research is undertaken independent of the university system. This article reviews the present scene in science education, and identifies the major problems and the challenges confronting the institutions involved in education and research. It suggests that the government should restrict itself to broad policy issues rather than be involved in day-to-day affairs and the university should be re-established as the primary agency for education and research.
June 14 - June 20, 2008
Pages 37-43

  • Experience and Science in Geography Education
    by Yemuna Sunny
ABSTRACT: By examining geography textbooks and students’ responses, an attempt is made here to substantiate a problematic of science education. The decontextualised nature of science education contradicts everyday life experiences. This situation does not enhance a dialectic relationship between science and experience. It is argued that cognition by itself cannot address the issue of science “enculturation”; instead, it needs to be addressed through some essential relationships of science. These include relations between common observations and reflections beyond appearances as well as relations of science that modify and control nature.
June 14 - June 20, 2008
Pages 45-49

  • Learning Teacher: Reviewing the Narrative of a Teacher's Journey
    by Alex M. George

    ABSTRACT: Text narratives dominate academic discussions and debates. Rarely do activities, experiments, audios, films or digital materials enter our classrooms. In the school classrooms, textbooks dominate, where again one rarely finds maginative use of illustrations, cartoons and images. In higher education, just as in academic discussions of every journal, we rely on the written word or assume that it alone can create ripples of academic discourses. It is an even rarer event to have a film being made with academics in mind. The film under review (ironically through the written word) Teacher's journey opens up and demands us to visualise the possibilities of exploring academic discourses in a distinct manner. It combines the documentation of a teacher's practice and an enabling tool for teacher educators to interact with their students.
    Contemporary Education Dialogue
    Vol.5, No.2, Spring 2008
    Pages 291 - 295

  • Growing Up Hindu and Muslim: How Early Does It Happen?
    by Latika Gupta
    ABSTRACT: This study, based on interactions with children in a school in Daryaganj, Delhi, reveals that children very early on show explicit identification and communicated prejudices towards the “other” religion practised in their neighbourhood. This has important implications for educational policy, curricular choices, pedagogy and teacher training. While the present curricular material does not acknowledge cultural identity in childhood, the new National Curriculum Framework suggests that schools engage with children’s socialisation at home and in the neighbourhood.
    Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 43 No. 06
    February 09 - February 15, 2008
    Pages 35-41

  • Enrolling and Retaining Slum Children in Formal Schools
    by Ratan Khasnabis and Tania Chatterjee
    ABSTRACT: India is yet to achieve the goal of universalisation of elementary education or 100 per cent enrolment and retention of children with schooling facilities in all habitations. Despite the government’s attempt to achieve this goal through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which has a special focus on girl children, students belonging to disadvantaged families still do not attend classes regularly. This paper examines various reasons for poor attendance behaviour of students in formal schools. On the basis of a study in the eastern slums of Kolkata, it finds that retaining the students in a formal school is far more difficult than enrolling them, particularly if the students are from very poor economic backgrounds.
    Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 42 No. 22
    June 02 - June 08, 2007
    Pages 2091-2098

  • Can Information Campaigns Raise Awareness and Local Participation in Primary Education?
    by Abhijit Banerjee , Rukmini Banerji , Esther Duflo , Rachel Glennerster , Daniel Kenniston, Stuti Khemani and Marc Shotland 

    ABSTRACT: A central plank of public policy for improving primary education services in India is the participation of village education committees, consisting of village government leaders, parents, and teachers. This paper reports the findings from a survey in a rural district in Uttar Pradesh. Rural households, parents, teachers and VEC members were surveyed on the status of education services and the extent of community participation in the public delivery of education services. Most parents do not know that a VEC exists, public participation in improving education is negligible, and large numbers of children in the villages have not acquired basic competencies of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Based on the findings of the baseline survey, this paper also describes a set of information and advocacy campaigns that have been designed to explore whether local participation can increase, and future research plans to evaluate the impact of these interventions.
    Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 42 No. 15 
    April 14 - April 20, 2007
    Pages 1365-1372

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  • The Kothari Commission and Financing of Education
    by Jandhyala B G Tilak
    ABSTRACT: The Education Commission (1964-66) chaired by D S Kothari made a valuable set of recommendations on financing education in India, many of which are still relevant for education planning but have not received much official attention. A review of the premises of the recommendations, the visionary approach adopted by the commission and their current relevance are attempted in this paper and will hopefully be useful for the preparation of the Eleventh Plan.
    Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 42 No. 10
    March 10 - March 16, 2007
    Pages 874-882

  • Crafting An Education
    A symposium on introducing craft learning in modern education
    Seminar #570
    February 2007

  • The Elusive Triangle
    A symposium on access, equity and excellence in Indian education
    Seminar #565
    September 2006

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  • Education and Livelihoods
    A symposium on relating learning to the world of work
    Seminar #563
    July 2006

  • Are we learning?
    A symposium on ensuring quality elementary education
    Seminar #536
    April 2004

  • Redesigning Curricula
    A symposium on working a framework for school education
    Seminar #493
    September 2000

  • Education for all in India with focus on Elementary education: Current status, recent initiatives and future prospects
    by Arun C. Mehta

    ABSTRACT: Free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of fourteen years is the Constitutional commitment in India. At the time of adoption of the Constitution in 1950, the aim was to achieve the goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) within the next ten years i.e. by 1960. Keeping in view the educational facilities available in the country at that time, the goal was far too ambitious to achieve within a short span of ten years. Hence, the target date was shifted a number of times. Till 1960, all efforts were focused on provision of schooling facilities. It was only after the near realization of the goal of access that other components of UEE, such as universal enrolment and retention, started receiving attention of planners and policy makers. It is the Quality of Education, which is at present in the focus in all programmes relating to elementary education in general and primary education in particular.

  • Backward and forward linkages that strengthen Primary Education
    by Vimala Ramachandran

    ABSTRACT: It is widely acknowledged that a significant proportion of children, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds and girls, either drop out of primary school or even if they attend school, learn very little. Moreover, there is a wide gap in learning achievements between government schools and private/aided schools. The active participation of children in primary education hinges on a plethora of factors. Besides access, a range of demand and supply issues influence why children choose to attend school regularly. Thus far, policy-makers and education administrators have focused mainly on the formal school system and on improving access to education. The creation of 'backward and forward' linkages is essential to creating an environment where every child not only goes to school but benefits from it.


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