A tall building surrounded by fields of wheat and barley stands in the middle of a charmless plain in a small town in Bihar, the poorest state in India. The students, in uniform, hurry up the stairs to reach their classroom, giving us a big smile as we pass, sometimes curious, sometimes surprised. Our two guides, Angeli and Prem, tell us to come and see them in their classroom. The school principal, Ravi, leads us from room to room to greet the students. About twenty students per class, per level and sometimes with different ages depending on their level, the girls on one side and the boys on the other.
Many of them tell us that their favourite subject is science: one wants to become a doctor, another a biologist, another tells us that he likes science because it is concrete, it explains things he sees around him. Shanti India School welcomes more than 700 students from poor backgrounds in Bodh Gaya in Bihar. The management has to turn away children due to lack of resources at the moment: even the wealthier families want to come here for the quality of education, which is much better than that of the state’s public schools.
In parallel, there is what we read in the European press about education in India. The recent changes to the curriculum and textbooks, drastically reduced following COVID-19, are just one example among many of a government education policy that weakens public schools.
We have observed that, despite the “ Right to Education Act” of 2009 making school compulsory in India, the public education system, theoretically accessible, remains fragile. Two years of closure during the pandemic have further weakened it and opened the way to ideological drifts, disguised behind a desire for reform.
Social and educational innovations in India: context and visions of change
Faced with this, entrepreneurs and innovators are refusing the state of affairs and are rolling up their sleeves, sometimes for 10-15 years. They are imagining models of education and teaching in line with the challenges of our time and with the reality of their students’ ecosystems and cultures.
By meeting them for 5 months, we wanted to shift our focus and question our practices as teaching professionals. We had the chance to talk with men and women who are reinventing education from Ladakh to West Bengal, via Bihar and Rajasthan.
Seen from Europe , we say a priori that the comparison with our educational system is not easy and it is difficult to imagine what the Indian models would have to teach us. The needs in terms of education are, in part, different from those encountered in Europe and yet many practices, questions and innovations have echoed our work in France. Conversely, the differences that we have sometimes noted have been great sources of inspiration for us.
If we had only one goal with these articles on education in India, it would be to surprise you with the wealth of Indian initiatives and the learnings and observations that can shed different light on our own European reflections.
Understanding the educational context in India: in what breeding ground do entrepreneurs innovate?
The entrepreneurs we met are working to address the deficiencies of the public education system and most often offer innovative learning spaces in three ways:
First, improve and complete the content of the lessons so that it is more in line with the needs of children/students and the environment in which they live,
On the other hand, helping them become engaged citizens, aware of the issues in the world around them,
finally, develop the autonomy of young people to allow them to choose their path as they wish, independently of parental and societal injunctions,
This last point is a salient criterion of the projects encountered. The education system, and in particular higher education, is very disappointing for Indians who are generally over-qualified compared to the positions available on the job market, which also fuels a strong rural exodus. But paradoxically, many testimonies tell us that many Indian graduates are not properly trained compared to their supposed level of qualification or the needs of the job market.
Some students and education professionals point out that the high literacy rate and enrollment rate (achieved through the Right to Education Act of 2009) mask a low level of education in terms of basic skills. The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry reports that only 20% of the 5 million students who graduate each year find employment in India [1] .
This statistic is also corroborated by the “India Skills Report” which estimates the proportion of Indian students who are employable on the job market at 46%. Many testimonies in schools and among students highlight a major problem of pedagogy: students are encouraged to learn their lessons by heart, and exams ultimately boil down to regurgitating what has been learned. Even professional circles denounce a strong mismatch between what is taught in class and what skills are important in the world of work.
Hence, an extremely common practice in India is to apply for civil service exams even if one is overqualified for the post. In 2018, the railways exam had to manage 19 million candidates for 63,000 posts and at the beginning of 2022, thanks to the pandemic which is reinforcing the quest for stable salaried employment [2] , 35,000 open posts attracted 12.5 million candidates [3] .