Box 2: The Dakar Framework for Action and Millennium Development Goals

Education For All Dakar Goals

1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children

2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality

3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes

4. Achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults

5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to (and achievement in) basic education of good quality

6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognised and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills

Millennium Development Goals

Goal 2. Achieve universal primary education

Target 3: Ensure that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Target 4: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels of education no later than 2015

Source: UNESCO

Bhutan’s Status on Enrolment

Enrolment is the measurable indicator of progress toward UPE. In 2006-2007, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) in primary education were 105 percent and 83 percent respectively. What does this imply?

• A total of 105 percent GER is not necessarily a sign of progress toward UPE, although it indicates that the school system has the quantitative capacity to enroll all children at the official age; some schools are resorting to a “shift system” to accommodate the increased numbers. Even so, in many Bhutanese schools – particularly in rural areas – it appears that strong moves will be necessary for UPE to be achieved: 65 percent of enrolment is concentrated in urban and semi-urban areas, which comprise only 35 percent of schools.

• Meanwhile, an NER at or near 100 percent implies UPE; thus, an NER of 83 percent may give an impression that the country is on track toward this goal. However, a progression from 83 percent to 100 percent is not straightforward, since the last 15 to 20 percent of school-age cohorts usually include the hardest-to-reach children. Moreover, their background characteristics are such that they require specifically prepared polices and programmes to attract and retain them in school. Ironically, Bhutan’s relatively high and stable NER since 2001-2002 is actually a sign of how difficult it is proving to enrol this category of children. In other words, even in purely quantitative terms, achieving UPE requires “out-of-the-box” initiatives.

Out-of-School Children

The enrolment figure for 2007 shows that 16.3 percent, or 16,500, primary-age children (612 years) are out of formal schooling. (Some of these children could be studying in monistic institutes or in school abroad. Some of them may join the formal schooling after the officially prescribed age) As noted above, the background characteristics and needs of these children are different:

• Even when primary education is “free,” according to a UNICEF survey, families have to bear costs over a six-month period of Nu.1,729 per pupil for uniforms, school food, fees and other contributions. These expenses can and do act as a major deterrent for poor households in enrolling or retaining children in primary education.

• Similarly, “economic compulsion” was found by the report Toward a Pro-Poor Development Strategy for Bhutan 2005 as a key reason why “Bhutan is still some way behind the goal of universal primary education.” This report added: “… persistent poverty of the household, rather than access to schooling facilities, now remains the major stumbling block toward achieving the goal of universal primary education.”

• Lastly, UPE’s central concern is equity in learning outcomes, access and retentions but it is not enough to simply bring education services closer to the doorstep of the hardest-to-reach. Instead, it requires initiating targeted polices and programmes that can rescue families, many of them rural, who are caught in an intergenerational poverty trap. “Children born in poor families cannot always avail of the educational opportunities open to them,” researchers found. “And lack of education condemns them to a life of poverty for themselves and their own children in future.”(Toward a Pro-Poor Development Strategy for Bhutan 2005)

CHAPTER IV: Status of Primary Education

Bhutan’s status and quality of primary education have been assessed through the key determinants of retention, grade repetition and learners’ academic achievements.

Retention

Based on data for the last six years (2001-2002 through 2006-2007), the following characterises the situation regarding primary school dropouts:

• On average, the primary school dropout rate (during the six year period) was 2.87 percent per grade annually. As many as 3,621 children did not complete five years of schooling. This adds to the illiterate population of the country, given that the Royal Government has declared that “five years of education is required to ensure literacy and numeracy. Children leaving earlier are still illiterate.” 3

• More than 2,240 children drop out (during the six year period) after reaching the last primary grade, and cohort completion rates are lower than survival rates. Thus, the number of years of schooling is a practically useful but conceptually dubious proxy for the processes that take place there and the outcomes that result. Consequently, the latter provides a better way of judging the condition of primary education.

• Returns may be insignificant for children who drop out after, for example, a couple of unsuccessful years of school attendance, compared with those that a complete primary education would bring. Reducing drop out rates is, therefore, crucial.

Grade Repetition

Grade repetition appears a hallmark of the primary education system, in spite of a nondetention directive by the Ministry of Education and anecdotal evidence suggesting overly lenient awarding of marks under the Continuous Assessment system. This is mirrored in the repetition status for 2001-2002 through 2006-2007:

• The repetition rate, on average, stood at 8.5 percent per grade annually, indicating the proportion of children who are not mastering the curriculum. A high level of grade repetition is a sign of a dysfunctional school system, exacerbating the dropout and resulting in overcrowded schools.

• In primary education, Grade IV has had the highest repetition rate every year since 2001-2002. As will be discussed below, this could be due to a low level of overall “learning gain.” signal that ECCE for children younger than 6 has not been given the attention it merits.

• Surprisingly, even in PP the repetition rate is 10.3 percent per year, in large part because many young children are being enrolled in PP before they are age 6. This results in a highly “uneven” age group of PP pupils. It also represents a further 3 MoE, General Statistics 2007. All data in this chapter are from MoE General Statistics 2006 and 2007.

• The rate of grade repetition is one indicator for measuring the efficiency of the education system, given that repetition is equivalent to an additional year of participation per child. Accordingly, where grade repetition is high some improvements in quality may be largely self-financing, simply by reducing the average time completers spend in school.

Academic Achievement

A major objective of all educational systems is learners’ cognitive development, and the degree to which a system actually achieves this is one indicator of quality. An important measure of the latter is represented by test scores, which helps to assess learners’ achievements.

Bearing this in mind, the following summarises the findings of (a) the 2003 National Education Assessment (NEA) in the core subjects of English (literacy) and numeracy for Class VI, and (b) a 2007 World Bank education quality survey of primary schools in Bhutan (Classes II and IV):

A. NEA Findings:

1. The mean test scores were 23.08 out of 50 in numeracy and 26 out of 50 in literacy.

2. Boys outperformed girls in numeracy (see below). In addition, those who liked mathematics tended to do well in the subject.

3. The performance of students on a geometry sub-test appeared very poor: 38 percent of students got 0 out of 9 marks and another 40 percent got only 1 mark out of 9.

4. Similarly, the performance of students on an algebra sub-test also appeared very poor: 31 percent of students got 0 out of 5 marks and about 36 percent got only 1 mark out of 5.

5. Girls outperformed boys in literacy

6. English teachers needed more help in teaching grammar.

7. Both English and mathematics teachers relied heavily on textbooks as a teaching resource.

8. Teachers in general have relatively little in-service education to update their own skills and refresh and enhance professional knowledge.

9. Urban students outperformed semi-urban, rural and remote students in all cases.

10. The shorter the distance a pupil travelled every day to school, the better the performance.

11. Very little professional support appeared to be provided to schools from the dzongkhags.

12. Major constraints to teachers’ professional duties included too many school activities, class size and lack of resources.

B. Findings of World Bank’s Bhutan Learning Quality Survey (the Learning Quality Survey):

1. Except for Dzongkha, community schools record the lowest scores in English and Mathematics.

2. The overall rate of learning is low.

• Average learning ability in Class IV is higher than expected learning competency in Class II by only half a standard deviation.

• Alarmingly, this implies that at the current rate of learning, it will take the average student in Class II another year to reach the average competency for that grade.

C. Outcomes of the Findings:

• NEA findings show that achievement levels of learners in core subjects, particularly mathematics, at the end of primary education are disappointingly low (see Boxes 3 and 4). Such learning levels clearly indicate the poor quality of teaching/learning in classrooms.

• Given current dropout rates from primary school, NEA tests show that even academically better-off children are performing poorly, particularly in mathematics.

• Alarmingly, the overall “learning gain” is slow: one additional year per grade is required to reach the average competency for that grade. This implies that children are not mastering the curriculum within the prescribed time, resulting in high primary school grade repetition. Achievement levels tend to decline as children move along from PP to Class IV. Apparently, this decline is worst in Class IV, which consistently had the highest overall primary education repetition rate for 2001/2002-2006/2007, at 11.8 percent. Even among those children who get through Class IV, a significant number either repeat or drop out in Class V and /or Class VI. It can be surmised that a high proportion of children are completing the primary cycle without acquiring basic skills in reading, writing and numeracy.

• Most children substandard mastery in core subjects indicates a major gap in levels of understanding. If children do not acquire competencies at primary level, particularly

• in English and maths, they will encounter serious learning challenges later. This also is demonstrated by results that Class VII had one of the highest secondary education repetition rates (10.9 percent) and dropout rates (7.15 percent) in the six-year period studied.

• NEA, designed to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the education system as a whole, uses assessments that are curriculum-based and subject-oriented, generally covering Dzongkha, English and numeracy. So far, the assessment does not cover other aspects of learning, such as creativity and critical thinking (as assessed under some international testing systems). It is equally important, however, to incorporate an assessment of creativity and critical thinking in order to have a complete view of learning.

• Especially worryingly, because urban students performed best in all cases under the NEA, this means that the education system has not been effective in contributing to greater equity in educational opportunities. Yet “educational attainment is one, if not the major, determinant of life chances and the opportunity to escape poverty.” (World Bank 2005 and National Human Development Report, UNDP 2005).

Conclusion

1. Urgent and significant efforts need to be made to achieve UPE by 2015

2. Learners’ achievement in Bhutan is very low, and the most important challenge for primary education is to improve educational outcomes of children

Box 3. Teaching mathematics

“The fear of maths sets in early, mostly because the introduction to the subject has been faulty, thanks to inconsiderate maths teachers and parents,” The Times of India reported recently on the continuing issue of maths phobia (5 August 2007).

Following a study in 2000-2002, the Indian National Council of Education and Training (NCERT) had recommended the abolition of rushing through mathematical steps on a blackboard. Instead, it urged that maths be taught via lab experiments. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has already introduced maths labs and made them part of board exams. Yet as one principal noted in The Times of India report: “Maths deals with abstract values and numbers which, taken out of context in a sum, don’t mean anything – and it is this incomprehensible nature of the subject that drives in the fear.”

While no studies have so far been conducted in Bhutan to identify the causes of low maths scores, it may be assumed that for many, the fear of maths and the methods employed (memorisation and chalk-and-board methods, taught out of context) constitute the main reasons. To be sure, the NEA survey revealed that more than 1 in 3 students – a high 35.9 percent – disliked maths as a subject. While changing teaching methods and improving quality and standards of mathematics represent long-term solutions, Bhutan should be open to sharing best practices resulting from empirical studies in the region. We also should not shy way from enlisting the help of countries and organisations that have expertise in teaching maths; JICA, for example, has projects in Strengthening Mathematics and Science in Secondary Schools (SMASSE), which emphasises a paradigm shift to activity-based teaching and student-focused learning through small-scale experiments and improvisations. An inservice education and training programme trains teachers to focus on strategies that demystify maths and science by relating the subjects to students’ real-life experiences, providing them with opportunities to develop key competencies such as problem solving.

Box 4. Teaching English

Bhutan should take pride in the fact that we are a linguistically rich nation, with 19 languages and dialects. Yet understanding and appreciating this unique Bhutanese asset, one will also immediately empathise with a 6-year-old child’s experience on the first day of school: It can be bewildering, placed in a new environment and suddenly exposed to new languages, Dzongkha and English.

A general consensus exists that the quality of English instruction and learning in Bhutan leaves much to be desired, with ongoing debates in various forums and individual concerns frequently expressed. These are justifiable, considering that the medium of instruction in our schools is English, which also is a language of administration – and thus, Bhutan should have comparative mastery and a linguistic advantage. Many Bhutanese have a talent for multilingualism, speaking their mother tongue, Dzongkha, English, Hindi, Nepali and others; thus, English is often the second if not third language for most, although it is often taught as a first language. Yet extensive research has shown that children who begin their education in their mother tongue make a better start, and continue to perform better, than those for whom school introduces a new language. At the same time, without some level of competency in the pre-eminent international language, Bhutan will lose out in the international arena.

In order to help the Ministry of Education focus on improving the standard of English in the country, the Ministry’s Policy and Planning Division turned to the UNDP-sponsored Solution Exchange forum, inviting “ideas and best practices on feasible ways to improve the English standard of our students within the next three to five years.” Some of the comments and suggestions were as follows:

Language familiarisation before regular school: Ideally, children have to be familiarised with new languages for at least a year in pre-primary school, before they come to primary school. If the provision of independent pre-primary schools is not within the MoE mandate for the time being, existing primary schools may have to add a year of pre-primary as an autonomous but affiliated part of school. The pre-primary school should be more of a play school, where the children are gently exposed to the new languages and the idea of school.

Teacher quality to ensure quality build-up of language capacity: Teachers must be competent and proficient. At education colleges, make competency in the English language the most important criteria for achievement for teacher trainees. Design of standard, internationally accepted English tests for all Bhutanese and expatriate teachers also may be considered. In addition, teachers should be specially trained to teach English as a second language. Teachers’ professional skills need constant updating.

Make English-language learning appealing, fun, interactive and innovative: The practice of rote learning – teaching from the textbook and “teaching for tests” – should be replaced by learning based on inquiry/curiosity, in teacher training colleges as well as schools.