Educational Infrastructure and Learning Implications of infrastructural policy on student outcomes in underprivileged primary and upper primary schools in India
Source: Ashraf, 2014
Submitted for the degree of BA Honours Architecture and Urban Planning, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Newcastle University, 2015-2016.
Safeer Shersad 130400314 Word Count: 9935
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Abstract This dissertation seeks to understand the implications of the infrastructure requirements set out by the Indian Right to Education Act, 2009, on students in Indian Schools. It also explores the effect of infrastructure on learning. Data is collected through interviews and observation across seven schools of varying levels of educational quality, after which the data is presented and analysed thematically. The key themes which emerged are parent perception of education, student attendance, student performance, girls’ education, faculty wellbeing and infrastructure, and further options beyond the RTE Act. It is concluded that the infrastructure requirements in the RTE should be provide guidance rather than as a tool for revoking educational licenses. It is recommended that the RTE Act focuses on outcomes rather than inputs, and also take teacher wellbeing into account.
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Acknowledgements I would like to wholeheartedly thank those who have contributed and assisted me in the completion of this dissertation. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Suzanne Speak, my dissertation tutor, for her support and helpful guidance and feedback throughout the process of this dissertation. I would also like to thank all the members of staff of the visited schools who took the time out of their busy schedules to participate in interviews and also allowed me to visit and record data from their schools. This dissertation would not have been possible without you. I would also like to thank Teach For India for providing me with guidance on which schools to contact in unfamiliar cities. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friends who encouraged me and supported me throughout the course of this dissertation.
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Contents 1
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Introduction
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1.1 Context
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1.2 Infrastructure and Student Attainment
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1.3 Research Importance
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1.4 Research Questions
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1.5 Aims and Objectives
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1.6 Research Summary
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Literature Review
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2.1 Issues of access of education in India
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2.1.1
Importance of education
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2.1.2
Difficulty in access
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2.2 Right to Education Act
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2.2.1
Unrecognised schools in the RTE Act
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2.2.2
Funding through Public-Private Partnership
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2.3 Existing school facilities in urban areas
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2.4 Infrastructure Standards and effects on learning
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2.5 Infrastructure and Teacher wellbeing
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Methodology
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3.1 Research design
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3.1.1
Case Studies
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3.1.2
Qualitative Approach
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3.2 Data Collection 3.2.1
3.2.2
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Primary Data
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3.2.1.1 Semi-structured Interviews
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3.2.1.2 Participant Observation
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3.2.1.3 Sample
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3.2.1.4 Ethical Considerations
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Secondary Data
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3.2.2.1 Policy
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3.2.2.2 Publications
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3.3 Data Analysis
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3.4 Limitations
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Findings
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4.1 Case Studies
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4.1.1
Case 1: Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School
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4.1.2
Case 2: National Children’s Academy
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4.2 Thematic Analysis
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4.2.1
Parents’ perception of education
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4.2.2
Student attendance
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4.2.3
Student performance
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4.2.4
Girls’ education
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4.2.5
Faculty wellbeing and infrastructure
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4.2.6
Beyond the Right to Education Act
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Conclusion
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5.1 Chapter Introduction
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5.2 Conclusion of themes
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5.3 Recommendations
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References
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Appendices
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7.1 Appendix 1: Interview Request Email
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7.2 Appendix 2: Interview Transcript – Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School
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7.3 Appendix 3: Field Work: Photographs
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List of Figures Figure 1: Summary of research
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Figure 2: Effect of school environment on students
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Figure 3: Effect of classroom environment on students
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Figure 4: Overview of sample
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Figure 5: Newspaper headline on June 24th, 2014 about the National Children’s Academy 30 Figure 6: Temporary structure built for the NCA
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Figure 7: Interior of temporary classroom in the NCA
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Figure 8: Toilets for staff and students at NCA
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Figure 9: Main block of the Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School
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Figure 10: Hall where classes take place in Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School
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Figure 11: A grade 9 class is distracted during a lesson
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Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Context India houses 22% of the world’s population but 46% of the world’s illiterates, and is home to a high proportion of the world’s out-of-school children and youth (Kingdon, 2007). In its efforts to improve schooling participation and attainment, legislation issued may inadvertently be detrimental to providing education to children in underprivileged areas. The 2009 Right to Education Act (RTE) is one of the initiatives undertaken by the government to provide education to every child between the ages of 6 and 14. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the implications of the infrastructure requirements outlined in this act on student attainment and learning outcomes. The RTE Act outlines several infrastructure requirements based on the Education Space Criteria Handbook published by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2005, which details specific dimensions for classrooms, space for physical education, canteens, toilets and other school facilities. Section 19 of the RTE also lays out requirements for infrastructure in schools, stating that all schools must have: “All-weather building consisting of: i.
At least one class-room for very teacher and an office-cum-store-cum-Head teacher’s room
ii.
Barrier-free access
iii.
Separate toilets for boys and girls
iv.
Safe and adequate drinking water facility to all children
v.
A kitchen where mid-day meal is cooked in the school
vi.
Playground
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vii.
Arrangements for securing school building by boundary wall or fencing� (Government of India, 2010)
While these stringent criteria are beneficial for constructing new schools and developing further educational institutions, they negatively impact existing schools which are unable to meet these requirements due to budget restrictions. These institutions are often forced to close down or are demoted to the status of unrecognized education centres, which receive no government funding. This restricts children’s access to education in these areas, as parents have less trust in these centres and are therefore less likely to send their children to them. Though schools may be eventually constructed to service these underprivileged areas, this can take several years and may never happen. This leaves no option for children other than aided private schools, which vary in quality and are expensive for low income families. This calls to question the credibility of such strict minimum requirements, and whether it may be better to have schools with poor infrastructure than to have no schools at all. Furthermore, the demolition of existing school sites has caused distrust of already apprehensive parents towards government interventions, making government initiatives even more difficult to implement as they face opposition from the public. Between 35 million and 60 million children in India are not in schools (Pratham, 2014). If the number of schools comes down, as is likely due to closure of schools that do not comply with the stringent infrastructure standards, the nation’s goal of ensuring universal literacy is sure to suffer a significant setback.
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1.2 Infrastructure and Student Attainment This research dissertation also aims to explore the effect of infrastructure on learning. There is evidence that physical elements in a school environment can have discernible effects on teachers and learners (Higgins, et al., 2005). It has also been seen that the quality of school infrastructure has a significant effect on school attendance and parents’ perception of the school (Branham, 2004). While there is clear evidence that extremes of environmental elements like noise and ventilation have negative effect on students and teachers, this dissertation seeks to examine whether the Right to Education Act is an effective tool in universalising education and improving learning outcomes.
1.3 Research Importance Although India has been at the forefront of the worldwide information technology revolution driven by a substantial number of well-educated computer-science and other graduates, it was found in the 2014 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) that over half of children enrolled in Grade 5 could not read at a grade 2 level (Pratham, 2014). Grade 5 is a crucial stage in students’ learning, as reading comprehension is essential for further education. This shows that the base of India’s education pyramid is weak, which is why this dissertation focuses on primary and middle school education.
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1.4 Research Questions Main research question: What may be the positive and negative implications on access to education in India of the minimum infrastructure requirements of schools as defined in the 2009 Right to Education Act? Sub-questions: 1. What are the problems of access to education in India? 2. How does school environment and infrastructure influence learning and attendance? 3. What is the current level and standard of public school facilities? 4. What are the minimum infrastructure requirements of public schools as defined in the 2009 Right to Education Act? 5. What have been the experiences of schools trying to achieve these minimum requirements?
1.5 Aims and Objectives Aims: 1. To critically examine the legislation in place for supporting and providing education to underprivileged communities in India. 2. To examine the relationship between learning environments and learning outcomes in the context of underprivileged schools in different parts of India. Objectives: 1. To undertake a literature review collecting relevant literature that relates to the 2009 RTE Act and the effects of the learning environment on student attainment.
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2. To undertake a qualitative analysis of schools’ experiences in trying to influence learning outcomes through changes in infrastructure. 3. To examine existing publications and policy in order to answer the research questions and infer the implications of the primary data. 4. To examine the key research question by answering the corresponding sub-questions.
1.5 Summary of Research
Chapter
Chapter Summary Overview of existing literature regarding the key themes in the research questions: education in India, educational policy, and the importance of infrastructure in learning. Describes the method of research, including methods of data collection and sampling, and data analysis. Also includes a justification for the above while considering limitations and ethics.
Literature Review
Methodology
Case Studies
Provides an insight into the realities of the Indian education system.
Data Analysis
Analyses the findings of the research in order to answer remaining research questions.
Conclusion
Summarises the literature review and findings in order to answer the research questions, and provides policy recommendations based on this work. Figure 1: Summary of Research (Source: Author’s own)
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Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Issues of access to education in India 2.1.1 Importance of education Education is a key factor to measure human development, and is one of the three achievements being used by the United Nations to compute the Human Development Index (United Nations Development Programme, 1990). As Dreze & Sen (2002) point out, it contributes to well-being of individuals instrumentally by improving income and standard of living and intrinsically by raising capabilities and individual freedoms, while also improving the welfare of future generations through intergenerational transmission. 2.1.2 Difficulty in access Dubey (2010, p. 2) states that “school education is simply unavailable to the vast majority of children in the country.� This is due to several reasons, the most predominant being financial instability, poverty, and low government investment (Filmer & Pritchett, 1998; Dubey, 2010). Retention of students is also a challenge in these schools for the above reasons. Though school enrollment has been increasing in the past decade, attendance records are found to be at least 25 percent below enrolment. Moreover, dropout rates are exorbitantly high, with 61.6% of students dropping out between Grade 1 and Grade 10. The net impact of this is that as much as 30% of children in the school-age are out of school (Government of India, 2008). Agrawal (2014) notes that disparity in educational attainment between the rural and urban populations, between males and females and between social groups means that taking the average of the country into account does not give a clear picture of statistics in India and that even within urban areas, the significant wage gap leads to substantial variations in educational outcomes.
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2.2 Right to Education Act The Right to Education Act (RTE) was enacted on August 4th, 2009 to tackle India’s problems of access to education. A key feature of this Act is the granularity in its prescriptions for primary and secondary schools. These prescriptions include fixed student to teacher ratios, mandatory infrastructure requirements and a 25% reservation in private schools for students from economically weaker backgrounds. The RTE has not been without controversy. The Act’s focus on inputs to education rather than on measuring or evaluating student outcomes are considered an incomplete. While inputs such as facilities, teaching materials and enrolment provide useful metrics, they fail to measure the quality of education being imparted. In order to do so would require outlining an evaluation framework to track outputs, viz. student learning outcomes (Kingdon, 2007; Dubey, 2010). The RTE also falls short in leveraging private sector capabilities. The ambitious goals set out in the legislation would require public-private partnerships (PPPs), which are largely unsupported by the RTE (Jain & Dholakia, 2010). 2.2.1 Unrecognized schools and the Right to Education Act Unrecognised schools are defined by the India Institute (2014, p. 1) as “schools that (are) run without government license, most often because they are unable to fulfil the unrealistic infrastructure requirements and teacher salary scales that the government stipulates as prerequisites for recognition.” These schools do not receive any government aid and cater to the weaker sections of society.” The 2009 RTE Act has deemed these unrecognised private schools as illegal. This has led to nearly 4000 schools across the country to be shut down. Unrecognised schools have been largely ignored by the government because they lack official
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recognition, and the state government has made little effort to maintain records on these institutions until recently (Mehta, 2005; Ohara, 2012; Srivastava, 2008). In a report released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, however, only 2173 schools are recorded to have been closed down as the report fails to take all 28 states into account (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2014). This shows that there is a gap between official documentation in government records and experiences of families trying to achieve reach success in their families. Another critic identified in the amended SSA Report is that government schools do not require recognition, so the standard of infrastructure in certain government schools may not be on par with unrecognised schools (Government of India, 2010). Teaching standards in unrecognised schools are also comparable to government institutions, and provide children with an opportunity where there is no alternative. However, a barrier faced by students of these schools is that they limit progress to further education as they lack credibility. For this reason, there is evidence that legitimising these schools will be far more beneficial (Gouda, et al., 2013). 2.2.2 Funding through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) Luthra & Mahajan (2013) state that the ambitious goals of the RTE are unlikely to be met without gathering resources and skills from both government and non-government sectors. A Public-Private Partnership (PPP) system helps public schools receive support through private organisations. These organisations may be non-profit or for-profit. The aim of a PPP is not just to provide a source of funding, but also to seek a collaborative engagement that builds on the strengths of different stakeholders to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. PPP arrangements can range from private involvement in management, philanthropy, professional
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services such as teacher training and quality certification, and operational responsibilities (Giridhar, 2009). PPPs have different pros and cons as a mechanism for delivery of affordable education. By commercialising government education, it may seem that the government is passing on responsibility (Patrinos, et al., 2009). On the other hand, if it is more likely for education to be more effectively delivered then this may be beneficial (Jain & Dholakia, 2010). Luthra & Mahajan (2013) argue that private schools tend to exclude rather than function as inclusive institutions due to the financial burden placed on families of children from marginalised sections of society. For this reason, private schools are not sufficient in delivering education to students from all backgrounds. It is for this reason that PPPs are often used as a mechanism of providing inclusive education to children from disadvantaged communities. Patrinos, et al. (2009) argue that poorly designed PPPs make the government liable to significant financial and policy risks, and has devised a framework for designing and implementing PPPs with principles covering the definition, promotion, implementation and ethical conduct of integrating PPPs into educational policy. This framework covers the gaps of policy regarding PPPs in education. Muralidharan (2006) proposes a voucher system instead of a PPP. These vouchers would act as a means to allocate government funding to private schools. He argues that by financing students instead of institutions, it mitigates issues of class differences between students’ families.
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2.3 Existing school facilities in urban areas Gouda, et al. (2013) compared government to private primary schools with a large sample using data collected in 2005 from questionnaires administered to a nationally representative sample of 41,554 households across India. The study considered infrastructure standards, cost of schooling, teaching quality and student performance. To measure infrastructure standards, dependant variables were recorded such as availability of chairs and desks, mats, blackboard in all classrooms, library, computer for students, fan, playground, kitchen for cooked meals, cook, cook assistant, toilet facility, separate toilets for boys and girls, source of drinking water, location of drinking water, class meeting outside the classroom due to lack of infrastructure, duration of availability of electricity, frequency of failure of electricity and presence of mixed grade classroom. Out of these, core standards were selected which were outlined in the RTE Act. It was found in the above study that in urban areas, 48% of private unrecognised schools fulfilled core infrastructure standards, while just 13% of government run primary schools fulfilled the criteria to the meet requisite infrastructure standards. The study concluded that private schools imparted quality education to children across the study, and were especially popular in areas where government school performance was poor and facilities were lacking. The study also found a correlation between good infrastructure and a higher school fees, which could also account for better teaching quality. Mehrotra & Panchamukhi (2007) found that a lack of separate toilets for girls and boys discouraged female teachers to work in schools. They also found from survey conducted in the 1999-2000 academic year, that more than half the schools surveyed out of over 1000 schools surveyed in eight states did not have separate toilet facilities for members of staff.
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2.4 Infrastructure standards and effects on learning Comprehensive secondary research into the effect of different environmental metrics on students by Higgins, et al. (2005) showed that while there is a strong consistent evidence for the effect of basic physical variables on learning, once minimal standards are attained, evidence of the effect of changing basic physical variables is less significant. This literature review, which was prepared for a design council, was carried out at two levels: the built environment of the school, and the physical environment of the classroom. The findings of this literature review are summarised below in figures 2 and 3. Temperature/Air Quality
Noise
Light
Link claimed
Attainment
Poor internal air quality – low attainment
Reading scores, prereading skills, general attainment
Engagement
Air conditioning noise may distract
Attention and distraction; time lost through noise interruption; internal noise Annoyance; Learned helplessness
Affect
Attendance Well-being
Conflicting evidence Asthma; allergens; poor ventilation – build-up of pollutants, CO2, etc.
Some suggestion of other physical effects (e.g. raised blood pressure)
Colour
Other school build features Outdoor spaces, pathways; What is ‘good enough’?
Children want colour; High hopes but no coherence
Conflicting evidence on ceiling height
Eyestrain, headaches, fatigue; Perhaps weight gain, dental cavities
Figure 2: Effect of school environment on students. (Higgins, et. al, 2005, p. 16)
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Attainment
Engagement
Affect
Attendance Well-being
Furniture and equipment Comfort - better attitude attainment
Comfortable children more ontask; Might need guidance with use of ergonomic furniture Dislike of standard furniture Preferences for ergonomic furniture expressed
Arrangement and layout Arrangement affects young children’s learning; Time ontask changes, which should affect attainment Rows and time ontask; Action zone; Horseshoe arrangement – more questions Rows – fewer negative interactions with teacher – improved attitude; Beautiful room – more positive attitude, more student participation
Back ache (though other factors involved)
Display and storage
ICT Key predictor of performance (one study)
Accessibility – more learning time
Accessibility – more learning time
Display and open shelving linked to dust and allergens
Lighting and ergonomic problems with work spaces
Figure 3: Effect of classroom environment on students. (Higgins, et. al, 2005, p. 23)
Effects of infrastructure on student attainment have also been studied in different contexts. Branham (2004) conducted a study on the effect of inadequate school building infrastructure on student attendance in 226 schools in the Houston Independent School District in Houston, Texas. He found that temporary solutions to school building inadequacies were to be avoided in order to maximize attendance rates and performance. Comparable studies in different contexts studying relationships between infrastructure and student outcomes yield equivocal results which are largely dependent on the socioeconomic background of the sample. In an Indian study, Gouda et al. (2013) found that varying fees
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and, in turn, funding available to schools played an important role in student outcomes, and institutions with higher standards of infrastructure also generally had a higher school fees. It was found in a Danish study on primary and lower primary schools, that increased spending on school infrastructure had a small, but statistically significant, impact on student performance (Heinesen & Graversen, 2005). In a study reviewing evidence for the impact of educational resources on outcomes in the UK, it was found that three out of the four studies included in the sample found evidence of a positive effect on student attainment and wages in employment after minimising external variables (Levačić & Vignoles, 2002). The importance of infrastructure in education is more apparent in low-income regions. It was found that students in developing countries were more sensitive to infrastructural improvements than their counterparts in developed countries (Glewwe & Kremer, 2005; Murillo & Román, 2011) In researching a sample of 36 Kenyan schools representing nearly 600 students between the ages of 12 and 19, Lloyd, et al. (1998) found that schools of higher physical quality were better able to retain students, while students in schools with lacking infrastructure were more likely to drop out. The dropout rate amongst girls was proportionately higher than that of boys in these lacking schools. In an extensive study conducted across Latin America and the Caribbean by Murillo & Román (2011), it was concluded that there is indispensable evidence that the availability of basic services and resources had a notable impact on the performance of students.
Effects of infrastructure on teacher wellbeing Several students across the globe have proved beyond doubt that teacher quality improves student learning. A study among elementary and middle school teachers have shown that student outcomes improve as years of teaching experience increases, and this is not related to their undergraduate performance of the teachers (Harris & Sass, 2011). Empirical data exists
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to validate that teacher quality is the highest predictor of student achievement even under poor socio economic and language barriers (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Quantitative analyses indicate that measures of teacher preparation and certification are by far the strongest correlates of student achievement in reading and mathematics, both before and after controlling for student poverty and language status. State policy surveys and case study data are used to evaluate policies that influence the overall level of teacher qualifications within and across states. Stronge, et al. (2007) noted that Instruction, student assessment, classroom management and personal qualities of teachers led to improved outcomes of students. According to international studies, in ideal circumstances, the well-being of teachers depends on several factors viz. person-related, workplace related and society related. Among others, the factors related to physical and material working conditions are also cited as being important positive influences (Huberman & Vandenberghe, 1999). These factors are found to be amenable to management at the school-level. (Aelterman et al., 2007) A major study which draws on data derived from four countries viz, Australia, England, New Zealand and USA, formulated two different scales for measuring teacher well-being. Both the 10-point scale described by New Zealand and the 16- point scale derived from the US data included infrastructure as one of the valid points related to the satisfaction of teachers (Scott and Dinham, 2003). This shows that though not exclusively so, infrastructure is a valid feature of a teacher’s well being. However, there is no policy or instruction in the RTE on teacher wellbeing or even for staff rooms for teachers.
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Chapter 3 Methodology 3.1 Research Design After undertaking the literature review, primary data was collected in order to collect qualitative data to understand how policy affects end users. After descriptive case studies were provided in order to provide an overview of the education-delivery process in India, a thematic analysis was carried out in order to delineate themes which arose from collected data. Following this, secondary data such as publications and policy documents were consulted to build upon collected data within each theme. 3.1.1 Case Studies Case studies provide an insight into the topic before data is analysed. This provides a deeper understanding of the realities and challenges (Mills, et al., 2010) in providing universal, inclusive education across India. For these reasons, case study was concluded as the most appropriate method for this research as it is descriptive and realistic due to which reason this method has been extensively used for studying educational programs. The selected case studies illustrate the difficulties in bringing about change to educational mechanisms even in small scale, and also the importance of management in allocating infrastructural resources. 3.1.2 Qualitative Approach Qualitative data collected was useful to gain depth into underlying causes and motivations, and the implications of policy on the end-user. Instead of focusing on numerical representation of the education system, this approach to research ascertains the underlying causes behind issues of access to education across India. This holistic approach ensured that data collected was representative of the realities of members of staff and education-providers.
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The open-ended nature of qualitative research was also effective in following up data collection through research of secondary data.
3.2 Data collection 3.2.1 Primary Data 3.2.1.1 Semi-structured interviews Semi structured interviews of teachers and heads of school were undertaken across the sample, wherein a series of questions was prepared beforehand while there was still some latitude to ask further questions in response to what were seen as significant replies (Bryman, 2016b). This method was chosen in order to have some flexibility on subject topics in case certain topics were brought up which were not previously a part of the study. The format of each unstructured interview is seen in Appendix 1 and a transcribed interview is included in Appendix 2. 3.2.1.2 Participant observation Focused participant observations were carried out after interviewing subjects. The observation was led by information gleaned from interviews. This method was chosen in order to provide a detailed description and understanding of activities which take place within different types of schools (Kawulich, 2005). This was done in order to understand infrastructural issues which may not have been considered by the interviewees during the semi-structured interview. The use of different school spaces was observed over the course of a single working day in each case, and field notes and photographs were taken in order to record observations. This provides great insight into the lacking features of infrastructure in the visited schools.
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3.2.2.3 Sample In order to represent the overwhelming range of different types of schools and institutions in India, this sample was selected in order to provide a cross-section of schools across the country. A total of 8 schools was visited in different parts of the country, out of which 1 school withdrew permission to use collected data after the interview, so digital records were deleted and the school is not included in this study. The samples vary in size, type of management, means of funding, and amount of funding. The sample is summarised in figure 4. Schools are selected in underprivileged urban areas with administration ranging from government or public, to public-private partnership to private schools which are at risk of being unrecognized due to their inability to maintain the norms detailed in the RTE Act. Funding as a benchmarking parameter In order to compare this cross-section of schools, a standardised method has been used in order to provide a consistent benchmark (Bryman, 2016a). As the Model School, Nadakkavu is purported to be an exemplary school and receives the highest amount of funding, is given a score of 10. Out of the sample, the school with minimum funding, National Children’s Academy and therefore receives a score of 1. The remaining schools are scored relative to these two schools. As seen in the table, schools visited represent a range of funding availabilities for students.
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External Support Teach For India Cybage (PPP)
Funding (/10)
Government
TFI
1
PublicPrivate Partnership
Akanksha (PPP)
5
Kerala (South India)
Private aided
Board of trustees
7
Kannur
Kerala (South India)
Government
None
4
Nadakkavu Model School for Girls
Calicut
Kerala (South India)
Private unaided
Charitable donation
10
School 7
New Delhi
New Delhi (North India)
Government
Teach For India
5
City
State/Region
Management and Funding
Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School
Pune
Maharashtra (Central India)
Publicprivate Partnership
National Children’s Academy
Pune
School 3
Pune
School 4
Kannur
School 5
Name of school
Maharashtra (Central India) Maharashtra (Central India)
3
Figure 4: Sample Overview (Source: Author’s own)
3.2.1.4 Ethical considerations
Data has been anonymised, unless requested otherwise by the head of school.
Data has been deleted to maintain privacy.
Schools in the sample were contacted by email or by telephone in advance to request interviews so as to minimise disturbance of members of staff.
During participant observation, time spent in active classrooms was minimised so that classes were not interrupted frequently.
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3.2.2 Secondary Data 3.2.2.1 Policy The RTE 2009 and its surrounding policy documents have been referred, especially requirements placed relating to infrastructural mandates for each school. 3.2.2.2 Publications Publications including analysis and critic documents of policy, journal articles relating to design principles, and to educational quality have been consulted in order to provide a holistic view on infrastructure in schools and its effects on learning. 3.3 Data analysis Thematic Analysis The findings from each school have been analysed based on themes which emerged during thematic analysis. The findings related each of the themes are then analyses with respect to infrastructural changes instituted based on the RTE 2009 and compared with each other. Through defining emergent themes, a descriptive case analysis grounded in the sample cases is created (Mills, et al., 2010). This also helps to find relationships between different facets of collected data which may not have otherwise arisen. 3.4 Limitations 
Some heads of school were hesitant to disclose performance data of students. This was minimised by simply asking for ballpark figures rather than specific performance information.
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
Some interviewees seemed reluctant to disclose infrastructure details which do not conform to the norms of the RTE Act, for fear of repercussions from inspecting bodies.

There are other factors which come into account when measuring a change in learning outcomes, the most important of which is teacher quality. To minimize the effect of this, most schools observed had a number of Teach for India staff members, who have a largely consistent teaching ability. Sample schools had comparable teaching quality as their members of staff included fellows from Teach for India. Other schools which were not utilizing Teach For India were located in high level of education of population like Kannur and Calicut, which ensured consistency in teacher quality.
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Chapter 4: Findings 4.1 Case Studies 4.1.1 Case 1: National Children’s Academy (NCA), Wadgaon Sheri, Pune This 40-year old government school was unexpectedly demolished in a land dispute between the property owner and the management of the school in May of 2014, just before the start of the school term. Parents and staff were dissatisfied with the lethargic attitude of the school management towards improving the condition of the school and their reluctance to be
Figure 5: Newspaper headline on June 24th, 2014 about the National Children’s Academy. The photograph is taken on the rubble of the demolished school building. (Ashraf, 2014)
accountable for the situation. They also delayed the provision of funding for improvement until threatened with legal action (Pune Mirror, 2014d).
Children from this locality cannot afford to enroll in private schools, so this school is their only option for an education in the English medium (Pune Mirror, 2014a). The management of the school, along with the Pune Regional Directorate of Education, originally claimed that they would merge these students into other schools in the area (Pune Mirror, 2014b). However, this did not happen and students were left without a school until a temporary structure had been built. The management of the school eventually began to provide these
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Figure 6: The temporary structure built for national Children’s Academy. (Source: Author’s own)
temporary solutions to the severely lacking infrastructure after parents of students threatened to take legal action against the management of the school for taking away the right of their children to an education (Pune Mirror, 2014d). This structure was built in just a week, with management stating that they would construct permanent, concrete structures within four months (Pune Mirror, 2014c). As of writing this case study, these new structures have not been built and construction has not yet begun. One of the reasons cited for demolition was that the school did not meet the infrastructure requirements of the RTE, and thus a new block was to be constructed. However, a gap in communication between the management of the school and property owner led to a gap in the delivery of the new building in spite of the existing building being demolished (Pune Mirror, 2014a). The prior building lacked separate toilets for boys and girls and did not have electricity in some classrooms. Originally, classrooms were improvised out of the cheapest available materials and did not have appropriate lighting or ventilation. The buildings are constructed from corrugated steel, 31
making them very noisy and poorly ventilated. They are also subject to flooding during rain. Until June of 2015, there were no covered toilets for students or staff, and were in a poor condition. Children often used to complain about snakes and reptiles in these unsanitary, improvised areas (Pune Mirror, 2014d).
Figure 7: Interior of temporary classroom in NCA (Source: Author’s own)
Figure 8: Toilets for staff and students at NCA (Source: Author’s own)
On visiting the school in August 2015, it was found that that there were no major changes to the infrastructure of the school, although school management provided the minimum funding required to meet the norms of the RTE. The school had sufficient funding for electricity in the temporary classrooms and had rented out separate portable toilet stalls for boys and girls. Ventilation in these classrooms was also improved, albeit marginally, as windows had been cut out of the steel sheets and fans were installed. The classrooms were kept neat and tidy and were decorated by students in order to feel more personal. The principal of this school, Anjana Deshmukh, was at the forefront of the movement to improve infrastructure of the school, and worked with staff and parents of students to
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improve the situation of this school. Due to TFI intervention, parents of students had faith in teaching staff to be able to deliver an education to their children. In spite of all of the school’s infrastructural deficiencies, student performance in the school did not suffer as much as expected due to the resilience of teaching staff. Deshmukh maintained that the school’s output is still good, and the high performing students’ marks in the 2014/15 academic year were on par if not better than government schools with better infrastructure.
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4.1.2 Case 2: Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj English Medium School, Pune This school identified a gap in policy and tried to find inventive ways to provide education to students who are not covered by the RTE Act. Through the RTE Act, government funding is available until Grade 7 in this school. After this they are expected to enroll in private schools which they cannot afford, which leads to a significant
Figure 9: The main block of the Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School, Pune (Source: Author’s own)
dropout rate after Grade 7. The only options for parents are to enroll their children in private English medium schools, which can be expensive, or government Marathi medium schools, which are free until Grade 10. Through a public-private partnership with an organization called Cybage, this school was able to provide education for students from grades 8 to 10. The local district allocated one auditorium for the students of these classes, and no additional funding. Staff members for this section of the school are provided by Teach for India, a non-profit which encourages young graduates to pursue experience in the field of teaching. Cybage currently manages operational costs and salaries of teachers and headmistress. In this public-private partnership, the only accountability to the government is the space provided. However, classrooms are only available for certain hours during the day. From 7:30am12:30pm, classrooms are available to students which meet all the requirements set out by the RTE Act.
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After 12:30pm, 3 classrooms run in a hall space. In this space, there are no tables or chairs available for students, so students sit on the floor. Out of the three classes which are taking place, only two have blackboards. The space also doubles as a nursery for kindergarten students and a staff space for teachers and faculty. According to interviewed staff, no matter how well a lesson is planned or delivered, students are unable to pay attention to their lesson as there is noise and distraction from the other two classes and from the outside playground. They also said that it is difficult to engage students for 45 minutes at a time when there are no tables or chairs for the students or teachers. All staff members of this school said that students would need at least a room, tables, chairs and a blackboard to learn.
Figure 10: Hall in which classes take place in Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School (Source: Author’s Own)
Figure 11: A grade 9 class is distracted during a lesson (Source: Author’s own)
There is a stark difference between learning outcomes of classes taken in either of these environments. On comparing student mastery, which is defined as the percentage of students who raise their hand after a lesson is taught, it is seen that there is an 80% mastery in morning classes compared to 30% mastery in afternoon classes. Further, student performance in topics covered in the auditorium was noticeably lower than their performance in topics of comparable difficulty levels which were covered in classrooms.
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This also has a significant effect on attendance. Once students enter school premises, they are not allowed to leave until 4pm. Disinvested students will be dissuaded from attending school if they know that 4 hours of teaching will be difficult to study. Staff members consulted were convinced that attendance will improve once new classrooms are used. This school does not have a provision for staff rooms for teachers of the extra grades that it takes. This means that teachers have no space for rejuvenation, even during breaks. This lack of space for teachers is likely to affect students’ performance as well. This school was visited in August 2015. At the time, the new block was expected to open in October, although there was a level of uncertainty at the time. On contact with the school at the time of writing this, however, the school was still not provided with the new building. In November of 2015, another school was moved to the newly constructed building by the local education board without consulting the management of Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School. The experiences of this school are telling of how issues which are not often recognized by policymakers are tackled through the use of public-private partnerships. It also gives an insight into the real world issues faced by schools which attempt to drive change.
4.2 Thematic Analysis 4.2.1 Parents’ perception of education Of the schools visited, only interviewees at 2 schools verbally articulated that parents were invested in their children’s education. Only a small proportion of parents lack faith in schools with deficit infrastructure. As seen in the National Children’s Academy, a dispute amongst school administrators led to the demolition of a school block, which forced teachers to conduct classes in the absence of classrooms. This disruption in school infrastructure caused the parents of 10-15 students to
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withdraw their children from the school, and enrol elsewhere. However, the remaining parents had faith in the under resourced school, citing its highly motivated teachers and intervention from the NGO, Teach for India. According to this school administrator, a large proportion of parents believe that factors such as teacher quality are more important than infrastructure, even when infrastructure is highly deficient. School 7 noted that less than 10% of students’ parents were involved in their children’s education outside of scheduled parent-teacher meetings. Since they do not get involved outside parent teacher meetings, their perceptions were not considered to be necessary. However, involvement of parents is crucial in providing quality education to students outside of school hours can encourage students. It has been reported in a study conducted among US and Chinese students that parents involvement was at least partially attributed to their perception of value for the students’ achievements (Cheung & Pomerantz, 2015). In the Nadakkavu Model School, which had a high level of amenities for children, distance to be travelled from home was a factor in getting admission into a high infrastructure school. Therefore, parents competed in getting admission to their children in these schools. This indirectly shows parental interest in getting the schools with best infrastructure for their children. The physical appearance of a school directly influences its status in the community, which further influences the demand for education in the eyes of parents, who generally view schools are the first and foremost place where one acquires what is needed for advancement. This image of the school is dependent on the physical attractiveness of the school, not so much the materials used but rather the condition of the structures and degree of dilapidation (Carron & Chau, 1996). This was seen most clearly in the National Children’s Academy in Pune. Though the materials used here were of low quality due to budgetary limitations, each
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classroom was maintained well and kept tidy, which made the environment more conducive to learning. In spite of the temporary structure, a dedicated faculty who worked towards providing a comfortable environment for students to learn meant that the effect on student performance was minimal, and some of the highest scores in the state of Maharashtra were from students of this school. Poor infrastructure has knock on effects on the parents’ involvement in their children’s education. If teacher performance declines due to poorer infrastructure, there is an excessive reliance on homework. In households where parents are not educated and cannot provide an adequate support system, children fall behind on work which causes long-term effects on their performance (Infrastructure Development Finance Company, 2012). Another study has shown that parents attributed a reasonable degree of educational resilience among children, which could affect their performance. (Rautiainen & Kasanen, 2015) Even though in many schools a large proportion of parents are not invested in their children’s learning outcomes per se, it has been seen from this study that parents prefer to enrol their children in schools with better infrastructure. Parents tend to withdraw students if they believe that there is less productivity and this belief is in turn related to their perception of adequacy of infrastructure, which is in fact one of the factors leading to the lack of productivity. The RTE policy mandating minimum requirements could thus be counterproductive by publishing the shortages without giving alternatives. The parents become more dissatisfied with the schools as the inability of the schools to meet minimum requirements and they may perceive that this will jeopardise the legitimate status of the schools where their children are attending.
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Conversely, it has been seen that irrespective of the infrastructure deficiencies and the other physical shortages, if parents are invested in their children’s future, student performance is often on par with better resourced schools. 4.2.2 Student Attendance Student attendance and enrolment in schools is heavily influenced by the infrastructure of schools. Every school interviewed agreed that students would be more likely to want to attend classes if they knew that they would have appropriate infrastructure to learn. In NCA, it was noted that 10-15 students completely withdrew from the school following demolition of the school block. Similarly, in the Gadage School, it was found that even students who were usually enthusiastic were reluctant to stay in school after 12:30pm. Teachers noted that it was difficult to keep students in the classrooms after 12:30 pm when the classes were moved to a hall where the students couldn’t hear well and there was distraction from what was going on in other classes. It has been seen that students are not allowed to leave the school once they enter the school in the morning. In some schools where infrastructure is limited in the afternoon, they don’t like to stay in school till 4 pm and prefer to leave after 12:30 pm. Disinvested students will be dissuaded from attending school by their parents if they know that 4 hours of teaching will not be understood by students. Attempts have been made to cut down on attendance issues, but so far it is still not on par. The interviewee expressed hope that attendance is anticipated to improve once new classrooms are used. Poor infrastructure here discourages students from dedicating time to their education, as it makes learning inefficient. The attendance is attributed to the parents’ investment on education. In School 7, the headmistress stated that the new building improved the attendance of the students by a great extent. Though attendance was high before the change, but there was an 39
increase from 1800 to 2500 in the strength of school. In areas where motivation for learning is high among parents and faculty, and infrastructure is excellent, attendance becomes even better. Infrastructure has a very big effect on student learning and attendance. The Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School clearly demonstrated that it is difficult to engage students for 45 minutes at a time when there are no tables or chairs for the students or teachers. They need electricity, a blackboard, desks, and chairs be able to participate effectively in the classroom. It has been clearly expressed by the interviewees from both the schools in this study and from literature that attendance is very important for students to imbibe the explicit and the hidden curriculum that is being conveyed in the classroom. Only through regular attendance can students be involved in their education process holistically. Increased drop-out rates due to demolition is evidence for the need for basic infrastructure to motivate parents and children to pursue education pathway rather than learning from real world, where they will be put into real employment which will be a source of vocational skills. Since the RTE mandates compulsory education to all citizens between 6 and 14 years, it has helped to increase the enrollment, but attendance was only 71% in spite of the various direct incentive schemes it covered (Misra & Ghadai, 2015). 4.2.3 Student performance As seen in the literature review, it was found that improved infrastructure is effective in improving student performance up to a certain point. If RTE norms were met, students generally performed the same. Several heads of school said that having a motivated an enthusiastic faculty played a larger role in improving students’ learning outcomes provided
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they had basic facilities in the school. To improve student learning, it may be beneficial to improve teachers’ working conditions by providing them with staff rooms and other amenities. In excellent circumstances such as in the Nadakkavu Model School, the effect on student performance is small but discernible. Enrollment is from grade 5 and merit is not taken into account for admission, to ensure that the entire locality is evenly catered to. The main criteria for admission is thus the neighborhood which the student lives in. Specifically, students living within 2 km of the school are given the highest priority. Improved infrastructure has also encouraged a culture of cleanliness and accountability on campus. The school has achieved a 100% pass rate for students (393 students) in grade 10, which is considered exemplary given that the students come from underprivileged backgrounds and are not chosen by merit during the time of admission. The disorganisation in management of the Gadage School meant that even though there was a new, robust, multi-storey school building, they were not given approval to use it due to politics in the area, which caused a decline in student performance. In the Gadage School, there is a stark difference between learning outcomes of classes taken in the morning (with good infrastructure) as compared to classes taken in the afternoon (with suboptimal infrastructure). Lighting is of inferior quality and the students were not motivated to focus on what was being taught in class. The difference in levels of mastery between these two groups was estimated by the interviewee to be as much as 80% compared to 30% respectively. In the words of a teacher at this school, “No matter how well a lesson is planned or delivered, (students) are unable to listen properly. Noise outside, noise from other 2 teachers in the hall, noise from around 100 other students, two other classes. Mastery will definitely improve when new infrastructure does.�
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This has been corroborated by interviewees in School 7 and the National Children’s Academy as well as by recently published literature. Infrastructure which is below par tends to affect student performance as shown by some studies in the literature review. Further, it has been shown that the scores obtained by students who were in schools with sufficient infrastructure was 7-8% higher than the students in below par facilities (Priti & Kumar, 2015). The facilities which are most essential are those directly related to learning, such as space, blackboard and furniture as well as co-curricular activities (Chudgar & Shanker, 2015).
4.2.4 Girls’ education Girls’ education can be impacted by several infrastructural factors. A lack of girls’ toilets in middle and high school (grades 6-10) can discourage girls from attending schools and therefore, they are less likely to perform well in such schools. In some conservative communities, such factors can even lead to higher dropout rates amongst girls. Girls often miss school for a week every month in schools which do not have adequate girls’ toilet facilities (Nanda, 2014). Thus, lack of toilets is not only a hygiene issue but also a safety issue, if not a matter of basic human dignity. However, the schools visited were all in urban areas and show that the ratio of girls to boys is higher than the national average in all schools. 2 of 7 schools in the study are all-girl schools. Girls are also discouraged from education in general so that they may work at home and maintain the household. Amongst the schools visited in Kannur, School 4 is an all-girls school while School 5 is an all-boys school. Lack of a quality boys’ schools in the community was felt to cause a societal imbalance. While in some areas girls’ education is neglected, it is also overcompensated for 42
in others. Though meaning well, while speaking to School 5 in Kerala it was found that boys do not have anywhere to study after class 8, while girls receive aided education. The head of National Children’s Academy articulated that in spite of such conditions, ultimately the school’s output on student performance is good for boys and for girls. This is in contrast to the ASER report, likely because the report only studies the rural population, while the interviews were conducted in urban schools and therefore face a different set of local realities and a more cosmopolitan outlook towards gender balanced education at the household level (Pratham, 2014). The factors leading to increasing dropout rates in the country are predominantly due to economic issues for boys and domestic work for girls (Misra & Ghadai, 2015). According to local stakeholders interviewed for this study, gender disparity in terms of enrollment and student outcomes was not prevalent in Kerala where the literacy rate is very high, or in the nation’s capital of New Delhi. Therefore, it can be concluded that infrastructure needs to take consideration of both genders. It has been seen that the gender disparity is most visible in mid region of India, while it is less in the South and in the national capital. 4.2.5 Faculty wellbeing and infrastructure As teachers are the most important asset to a school, lack of staff rooms for teachers can be detrimental to the performance of students as teachers are likely to underperform. Every teacher and head of school consulted shared the view that if the teacher is under stress and does not have adequate facility for resting or contemplating on the next class, it will affect their performance negatively. A teacher in School 3 stated that being a teacher to middle school students needs a great deal of patience and self-resilience. This is undermined if there is no comfortable space or relaxation areas away from the classrooms for the teachers. 43
The Nadakkavu Model School has better teachers has a high impact on education for this reason. In the National Children’s Academy, the teachers noted that parents believed that student performance was a result of faculty quality more than infrastructure and that was why the retention rate was maintained despite demolition of school building. In other schools, the importance of faculty being comfortable was emphasized by parents. Faculty themselves brought up the issue of lack of staff rooms. this could undermine commitment and lead to exhaustion and discomfort, which can in turn impact student performance. The use of Teach for India fellows as teachers show that even normal graduates are able to perform well if they have the commitment to serve the society. The conduct and attitude of the teacher can positively or negatively influence student academic and social performance (Dimkpa, 2015). Studies have also shown that with experience, teachers’ ability to impact the student performance positively, is improved compared to that with teachers of less experience (Berger & Hänze, 2015). However, there is a limitation to what a faculty member can do to improve learning outcomes when basic infrastructure needs are not met. Infrastructure is a necessity even for faculty members to perform at their best. Faculty members form an important factor for learning outcomes when the baseline needs of infrastructure are met. At every level of infrastructure, faculty commitment would impact student outcomes exponentially at higher levels. Therefore, obstacles created by lack of infrastructure cannot be completely overcome by higher commitment of faculty, whose basic needs may also not be met due to the dearth of funding. RTE enforces that student facilities are met but the teachers’ staff room are not a
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requirement. This reduces the morale of the teacher who is innately committed to improving education of his/her students. This will affect learning outcomes in the long run.
4.2.6 Beyond the Right to Education Act Several schools have worked beyond the requirements of the RTE Act in order to support their students. School 4, School 5, the Nadakkavu Model School, and School 7 mentioned that the RTE requirements were being met as a matter of necessity even before the act was brought into force in 2009. Regular maintenance was carried out in these schools in order to ensure the quality of infrastructure. Nadakkavu Model School is an exemplary case in this regard, showcasing well above average infrastructure facilities including a spacious playground and well equipped science laboratories. These facilities are far above the RTE’s requirements, and were funded from a variety of sources outside the ambit of the public outlay. In the Nadakkavu Model School and School 4, heavy infrastructure expenditure was possible from charitable donations and other socially conscious private organizations. Similarly, the involvement of NGOs such as Teach for India often brought fiscal advantages to the school by directly providing teachers to the schools. Such “para-teacher” initiatives have also boosted the morale of other teachers in the school by providing free teacher training modules to the other faculty. These benefits are important to consider when evaluating the sources of overall school development and impact on student outcomes. The gaps in allocation of funding has been reported as being the lowest in Kerala at 0.6%, whereas it is 1.5% in Maharashtra and this corroborates well with our study samples from
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these states. It has been seen that the literacy rates have been improving over the last 4 decades and Kerala has remained at the highest in the country (Misra & Ghadai, 2015). It is understood by teachers and heads of schools that a top-down policy framework can only reach so far. Other initiatives to provide universal education like TFI, Model School have in fact led to greater benefits. At the grassroots level, teaching is understood to be wider than the margins covered by national and local policy such as the 2009 RTE Act. This is evident in several cases across the sample. On the other hand, School 4 and School 7 (both in Kerala) were not driven directly by such policy, but instead by private charitable donations. This phenomenon in Kerala can perhaps be traced to a higher state-wide focus on education, combined with high economic growth in the region.
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Chapter 5: Conclusion 5.1 Chapter Introduction Though the Right to Education Act aims to alleviate the difficulties in access to education in India, it is deficient on several fronts. By withdrawing government licenses from unrecognised schools, it deepens the socioeconomic divide in India and obstructs the opportunity for students to receive an education. As seen in the literature review, these institutions are often the only choice available to underprivileged populations. The gaps in funding in the RTE to revitalise these schools can be filled through innovative funding mechanisms like public-private partnerships or voucher systems. The infrastructure requirements, while useful in creating new institutions, are not a valid benchmark for existing institutions. In several instances, government schools have much poorer student attainment outcomes than schools which are at risk of being unrecognised. While basic infrastructure requirements are beneficial in improving learning outcomes, evidence that increased funding past this threshold improves learning outcomes is equivocal. The following themes arisen from primary interview data and publications are affected by infrastructure and funding allocation.
5.2 Conclusion of themes Parents perception: Parents’ lack of interest in their children’s education may be due to lack of faith in the schooling system. Interviewees also stated that less than 10% of students’ parents were involved in their children’s education outside of scheduled parent-teacher meetings. Poor infrastructure has knock on effects on the parents’ involvement in their children’s education. The RTE mandates on infrastructure requirements are detrimental to parents perceptions of schools and reduces their faith in the schooling system. 47
Attendance: Student attendance and enrolment in schools is heavily influenced by the infrastructure of schools. Every school interviewed agreed that students were more likely to want to attend classes if they knew that they would have appropriate infrastructure to learn. Poor infrastructure allocation in the Gadage School meant that parents and students were not interested in attending school during hours where classrooms were not available to students. Quality Infrastructure ensures that children are motivated to learn, and are thus less likely to drop out at an early age. Student performance: It was found that improved infrastructure is effective in improving student performance up to a certain point. If RTE norms were met, students generally performed the same. Several heads of school said that having a motivated an enthusiastic faculty played a larger role in improving students’ learning outcomes provided they had basic facilities in the school. It was found that student mastery dropped from 80% to 30% when comparing topics covered in poor conditions compared to good quality classrooms. Girls education: Girls’ education can be impacted by several infrastructural factors. A lack of girls’ toilets in middle and high school (grades 6-10) can discourage girls from attending schools as they are less likely to perform well in schools. This is not only a hygiene issue but also a safety issue. Girls often miss school for a week every month in schools which do not have adequate girls’ toilet facilities (Nanda, 2014). However, the schools visited were all in urban areas so the ratio of girls to boys is higher than the national average in all schools. 2 of 7 schools in the study are all-girl schools. Girls are also discouraged from education in general so that they may work at home and maintain the household. Faculty: As teachers are the most important asset to a school, lack of staff rooms for teachers can be detrimental to the performance of students as teachers are likely to underperform. Every teacher and head of school consulted shared the view that if the teacher is under stress
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and does not have adequate facility for resting or contemplating on the next class, it will affect their performance negatively. Similarly, it is a fact that being a teacher to middle school students needs a great deal of patience and self-resilience. This is undermined if there is no comfortable space or relaxation areas away from the classrooms for the teachers. The Right to Education Act enforces that student facilities are met but the teachers’ staff room are not a requirement. This reduces the morale of the teacher who is innately committed to improving education of his/her students. This will affect learning outcomes in the long run. Alternative means of delivering quality education: Infrastructure and other inputs into education have been seen to have an impact on student outcomes, but are not prerequisites in all circumstances. It is understood by teachers and heads of schools that a top-down policy framework can only reach so far. Other initiatives to provide universal education like TFI and at the Nadakkavu Model School have in fact led to greater benefits. Infrastructure requirements are not as important as actual funding, which goes much further. In the absence of funding to improve infrastructure, the requirements (and the corresponding penalties for not meeting the requirements) fall short of improving outcomes.
5.3 Recommendations 
The policy must use outcome-based metrics to measure the impact on the end user, and focus on the outputs of educational infrastructure requirements rather than the inputs.
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The Infrastructure requirements in the RTE should be made into recommendations so that it provides guidance for residents. Rather than creating stringent infrastructure requirements, authorities should provide guidance on means to procure funding so that all school resources can be improved.
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As teachers are one of the key elements in providing a high quality education, it is important that infrastructure guidelines include support for teacher wellbeing. Separate toilets for teachers and a staff rooms will make teaching more efficient and reduces the stress on teachers in the workplace.
The RTE Act should focus on accommodating a range of management models in order to be versatile, rather than the existing “one-size-fits-all” model of government financing. Accommodating public-private partnerships in these policies will be a step forward in universalising education and improving the quality of this education.
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Chapter 7: References
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Chapter 7: Appendices 7.1 Appendix 1: Interview Request Email Template Good afternoon sir/ma’am, I am a third year Architecture and Urban Planning student at Newcastle University, and am currently working on my undergraduate dissertation. This 10,000-word project is based around the impact of infrastructure of primary and middle schools on learning outcomes of students in India. More specifically, it aims to explore the positive and negative implications on access to education in India of the minimum requirements of public schools as defined in the 2009 Right to Education Act. A section of this project involves undertaking primary research to find out the experiences of schools trying to improve their infrastructure and how it has had an effect on child attendance and attainment. For this section, I would like to interview teachers and heads of school about this topic. The questions I am interested in are as follows: Has there been an improvement in infrastructure in your school? If so: What has been its effect, if any, on student attendance? What has been its effect, if any, on student performance? How have parents responded to improved resources? Has there been a change in budget for the school so that it can improve facilities to meet the 2009 Right to Education Act standards? What was the modernization process like? What were student attendance/performance rates during this time? If not: Do you think that improved infrastructure makes a change in students’ learning outcomes? Why or why not? Do you have any relevant experiences to share? What were your school's experiences in meeting the standards put forth by the RTE? I would appreciate any input you can contribute to this topic or if you could forward me to someone who will be able to answer these questions. Thanking you, Yours truly, Safeer Shersad Newcastle University
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7.2 Appendix 2: Interview Transcript – Headmistress, Shri Sant Gadage Maharaj School Q: Has there been a recent infrastructure change in this school? A: We started this school for students of grades 8 to 10. The government doesn’t have enough funds to support a secondary school; if you look at the government school system it’s only until 7th grade and now they are upgrading a few schools to 8th grade. But after that, students are supposed to move out and take admissions in a private school. But generally these students cannot afford to take admission in a private school so there’s a huge dropout after the 8th or 7th grade, so after that there’s nowhere else for these kids to go. So either they go to an English medium private school if their parents are invested enough, or they just go to a Marathi medium school because Marathi medium has until 10th grade. That’s the purpose of us starting this school from 8th to 10th grades, because there’s no schools for them to go to after 8th grade. Here, since government told us very clearly that we will give you the space, nothing else. Because they don’t have enough funds to give teachers or pay their salaries or anything else. This was funded by an organization called Cybage. So basically however the operational stuff that’s in the school in the school, our salaries, teachers’ salaries, everything is being paid by Cybage. This is a public-private partnership. The only accountability that the government has with us is with the space. That has not been sorted out. We are still looking for a space where we can teach our kids from 7:30 to 4:30. These are some of the issues we’re facing as a school that teaches 8th, 9th and 10th. Q: Do you think the infrastructure has an effect on learning? A: It does. The infrastructure has a lot of effect on student learning outcomes. If we don’t have benches and chairs, we cannot expect the students to listen to the teacher for a full 45 minutes. There won’t be space to sit… we need electricity, water and classrooms, we need a proper board and a proper space for them to learn. Now you will see that after lunch we shift 57
out of our classroom. From 7:30 to 12:30 we have classrooms. Post 12:30 we use the hallspace. That is three classrooms run in a hall space. So we have teachers taking the same sessions in the morning and in the afternoon for another class in the hall. There is a stark difference in learning outcomes. There is like an 80% mastery in the morning class compared to a 30% mastery in the afternoon class because there are nearly 100 students in the hall learning together. Q: What would you define as mastery? A: Mastery in the sense that in a daily classroom, if I have to see whether what I am teaching has been communicated well to the kids is just by the number of hands that go up when I ask a question. If they’re in the classrooms, you can see a considerable number of hands go up to answer a question, whereas in the sessions conducted in the hallway, you might see 3 or 4 hands go up, from enthusiastic students. That itself indicates the level of engagement in a class … and the kind of mastery. Sometimes they are not able to listen to the teacher properly, because that’s not the only sound they are hearing – they are listening to the noise outside, others teachers teaching adjacently, and so many other students surrounding them. It’s just that there is a lot of student disengagement in the class. Q: Does this have any effect on attendance as well, since they know where their classes will be conducted? A: It does, because once they enter school they are not allowed to leave school until after 4 o’ clock. So generally by 12:30 you will find that a lot of students will begin asking if they can go home for one reason or the other. The students who are very enthusiastic will come and study no matter what, but the others will easily become disinterested and even have low attendance. We try to cut down on this attendance issue we’ve been having since day 1, but some problems still persist. 58
Q: What about parents’ perceptions of the school? A: We have various kinds of parents. There are 4 or 5 parents who constantly ask about the condition of the building, and ask when we’ll get more space. But a majority of parents feel that their responsibility ends when sending their parents to school, and that’s all. If we call the parents to school, only around 10% of them show up. Most of them are not very worried about what happens when they come to school. That again comes from parents’ disinvestment in education. Q: Since this school is under the process of being modernized, do you think this would change once you move to the new school? A: I do think that a lot of things we’re struggling with will be sorted once we get our new classrooms. For example, I think the attendance will improve, and that the kind of classes and the mastery we get in classes after the lunch break will also improve. Students will actually feel that they’re coming to a secondary school. I don’t honestly think that they’ve experienced attending school from 7:30 to 4. Q: What do you think about the attendance of girl students specifically? According to the ASER Report, the attendance of girls is generally lower. They also said that the attendance in secondary schools can improve if there are toilets. Do you think this could make a difference? A: The ASER report takes data only from rural areas, and does not take the city areas. I would not say toilets are the main reason for girls not attending schools. There are more underlying factors, like maybe they want to work at home. Here, I would say that the girls’ attendance is actually higher that the boys’. We’ve never faced this issue as such, of girls not coming to school. If at all this happens it is during the first few days of their menstrual cycles, during which they might take 3 or 4 days off. Apart from that the girls are regular to school.” 59
Q: Alright thanks a lot. You’ve been very helpful. A: No problem.
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7.3 Appendix 3: Field Work: Photographs Shri Sant Gadage School
School 4
School 5
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School 7
Nadakkavu Model School
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