Why government-run institutions are still struggling to achieve 100 percent results?

The education department is always on its toes to revolutionize the education system and has been spending a large amount of money to bring the education system back on track. Since the system had been derailed owing to certain disruptions and uncertainties; in the past, the valley often witnessed the closure of schools and the students used to suffer a lot thereby affecting their studies badly. But from the past decade since the schools start functioning smoothly without that much disruption, there had been a considerable amount of improvement in the overall educational standard of both government as well as private institutions and in comparison the government-run institutions have improved a lot when it comes to overall achievements.
We know that certain factors determine the success of an institution. The more the peaceful environment, the better the school improves its functioning. The location of a school has a big role to play in the academic achievement of students at the school. Akinyale (2011) stated that the immediate environment of a child plays a major role in his socialization. According to him, the area in which a school is located can affect the academic achievement of a student. Infrastructure is one more factor which determines how successful an institution is. Infrastructure includes the school building, furniture for students, teaching-learning materials, library, laboratory, games material, playground, etc. Besides, the classrooms must be well-ventilated, good looking and attractive with the proper seating arrangement. A playground is a must for conducting curricular as well as co-curricular activities. Several kinds of research have proved that good infrastructure encourages kids to attend school more regularly than the ones without good facilities. It also makes students more attentive during the teaching-learning process thereby making learning comfortable. Moreover, it allows space for talent development. The strength of staff also determines how much successful an institution is. It includes both quantity as well as quality. The number of staff members must be in synchronization with the total enrolment as well as the number of classes. The staff must be dedicated, versatile, efficient and above all experienced. “Effective teachers can contribute up to 50 percentile difference in student achievement as compared to less effective teachers.” Scander& Rivers 1996.
Teachers play an important role in building a child’s success in their first years of school. One more factor is Curriculum which includes all the activities that are performed in an institution whether it be curricular or co-curricular. It must cater to the needs, aspirations and levels of the students and must be inclusive in nature. A curriculum lays down a blueprint for different aspects of students’ and teachers’ life including student’s learning tools, time available for class, duration of a session, lesson plan, assessments and methods to evaluate students. So it plays an important role in the development of the student. Clearly, the curriculum is instrumental in the development of students in school. Teaching Learning Process is also an important factor that determines the success of an institution. The more the TLP learner centred the better is the outcome. Individual attention is an essential step to making TLP inclusive. It fulfils the aspirations of the learners and makes up for individual differences. Since education is a tri-polar process and it is based on three main pillars i.e. learner, Teacher and Parent. Unless and until all three build rapport with each other, it is impossible to get 100 percent results. A teacher needs support from the parent and vice versa, to get the desired results. If any of the two shows negligence in one way or the other then the education of the learner gets badly affected. Similarly, community involvement is also part and parcel of education. It results in increased academic achievement and improved classroom behaviour. It has an overall impact on a child’s personality and encourages children to be more involved in many activities. Accountability of teachers also adds to the improved results. Lastly, it is a strong foundation that determines the success of an institution. The more strong the foundation of an institution, the more is the success rate.
Keeping in view the prerequisites mentioned above, government-run institutions fulfil many but still lag in certain factors which act as an obstacle to their progress.
Unfortunately, a general perception has been developed in our society that government schools are inferior to private ones in many ways. It is said that their standard of education is not at par with private institutions. The question is why this notion is developed in our society. Is it actually true or simply a false belief?
No doubt government institutions are in essence the carrier of quality education. The staff in government institutions have got a lot of expertise and are well-equipped with modern trends and techniques. I strongly believe that in comparison better educational standard is offered by these institutions. But the matter of fact is that these institutions lack a strong foundation. Since Primary education forms the basic building block of the educational set-up and we know that a solid foundation is the key to success. When the foundation is weak, how come we expect better results? Having a close look at the primary department of government schools, they usually function in a single building with only three classrooms for six classes and only two teachers at most places and schools with three teachers are an exception. The teachers here are bound to teach three classes at a time. Will he/she be able to attain the desired learning outcome? In addition to teaching, there are certain assignments within the school for the teachers that are supposed to be completed on a daily basis. On the contrary primary department of private institutions is far better in each and every respect, be it staff strength, accommodation, infrastructure, parental care and support and whatnot.
Ignoring primary schools has hampered the overall progress of government-run institutions. When the same student reaches the secondary stage of education the concerned subject teachers feel desperate on finding the students lacking basic competencies and it becomes an uphill task for them to develop the competencies of secondary level among the students when they lack the basics. Thus the required learning outcome is not achieved. At the same time when a student of a private school enters the secondary stage, teachers find it easy to achieve the desired learning outcomes as they have already developed the set competencies up to that stage. Thus it is clear that the lack of sufficient teaching staff, accommodation, infrastructure etc at the primary stage is the main reason that government-run institutions are still lagging behind. So the need is to strengthen the foundation i.e. primary education system.
One more reason is the lack of desired parental care. Once the child is admitted to a government institution the parents feel that they have less responsibility on their shoulders to look after him/her which eventually results in weak academic achievements.
Here it is in place to mention that National Education Policy has laid special emphasis on primary education and Early Child Care and Education. Certain initiatives like FLN (Foundational Literacy and Numeracy) under the NIPUN Bharat programme ( National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy Bharat Programme ) and other such initiatives will definitely bring a revolution in the primary sector of government institutions and days are not too far when we see these institutions progressing in leaps and bounds and people will prefer to admit their wards in government institutions.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

Nisar Hussain Hajam