Although Asia comprises a vast number of countries, attention will be focused on India. For several years South Africa and India have had strong ties. This began more than 150 years ago,
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when the first group of Indians arrived in South Africa. The strong relationship between these two countries is still continuing with the recent formation of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). These countries have amalgamated to form an association of five major emerging national economies. The coalescence of these countries has created strong partnerships in trade and industry. Furthermore, India and South Africa encounter similar challenges in their education systems, especially when it comes to languages in education. For more than two decades, India has demonstrated its determination to meet the EFA goals (Banerji, Bhattacharjea & Wadhwa 2014:3). Accordingly, the education system has focused on access to school. The country’s education budget has more than tripled in the last five years (Banerji et al. 2014:3). Billions of dollars had been invested by the federal and state governments to build classrooms, recruit educators, provide school lunches, and buy books (Gove & Cvelich 2010:3). With almost 90% of children having a primary school within one kilometre (Banerji et al. 2014:3), and more than 95% of all children in the 6 to 14 age group now enrolled in schools (Annual Status of Education Report 2013:69), India’s picture of an “Education for All” was beginning to come into focus in 2005 (Gove & Cvelich 2010:3).
However, when Pratham, an Indian non government organisation (NGO), conducted its first Annual Status of Education Report [ASER] in 2005, the picture was less encouraging. Bhattacharjea et al. (2011:1) emphasise that ASER, conducted each year since 2005 in all rural districts of India, shows that in 2010, 53% of Grade 5 children in rural India could read a Grade 2 level text. In 2013, Pratham analysed data from households in 550 districts out of 585 districts (Annual Status of Education Report 2013:69). Nationally, the situation has hardly changed over the eight year period for which ASER data is available. According to ASER (2013:69) in 2013 majority [47,3%] of the Grade 1 learners could not read letters, and only 4,4% of the learners could read a Grade 1 level text. In Grade 2 only 11,8% and 11% of the learners could read a Grade 1 level and Grade 2 level text, respectively. Shockingly, even learners in Grade 3 could not read letters [12,7]; 18,5% could not read a Grade 1 level text, and 21,6% could not read a Grade 2 level text. For further analysis, the following table indicates the percentage of children by grade and reading level in rural schools in India in 2013. The table reflects information related to the foundation phase only.
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Table 3.1: The percentage of children by grade and reading level in rural districts in India
GRADE CANNOT EVEN READ LETTERS CAN READ LETTERS BUT NOT MORE CAN READ WORDS BUT NOT GRADE 1 LEVEL OR HIGHER CAN READ GRADE 1 LEVEL TEXT BUT NOT GRADE 2 LEVEL TEXT CAN READ GRADE 2 LEVEL TEXT TOTAL 1 47,3 32,3 12,6 4,4 3,6 100 2 23,1 33,4 20,8 11,8 11,0 100 3 12,7 25,0 22,2 18,5 21,6 100
(Annual Status of Education Report 2013:70)
Although research conducted by ASER (2011:2-3) in India showed that children’s learning levels improved over the course of a year, in every state most children are at least two grades below the level of proficiency assumed by their textbooks. For example, a total of 7,85% of grade 2 learners in the provinces of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan could only fluently read a grade 1 level text when baseline assessments were conducted. An even stark finding was that only 21,33% of grade 3 learners from the above regions could fluently read a grade 1 level text at end line. When assessments were conducted six months in to the school year in 19 schools in India, only 4,5% of grade 1 learners and 33,6% of grade 2 learners could only read a simple sentence (Jhingran 2011:4). Furthermore, Jhingran (2011:3) adds that when grade 2 learners were tested a mere 1,61%, 1,8%, and 1,7% of learners in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, respectively could comprehend what they have read.
Bhattacharjea, Wadhwa and Banerji (2011:9) reiterate that in language there is a substantial gap between what textbooks expect and what children can actually do. In 2010, ASER conducted assessments in 13 000 government primary schools across India; tracking approximately 30 000 children over a period of one year; in five states across the country (Bhattacharjea et al. 2011:2- 3). In each district 60 government schools with primary sections were sampled, and up to 25 learners from Grade 2 and 25 learners from Grade 4 were randomly sampled from the enrollment registers from each of these schools. The sample was drawn from 15 districts located in five
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states, and consisted of a total of 900 schools and close to 30 000 learners (Bhattacharjea et al. 2011:3). Although children’s learning levels did show improvement over the course of a year, most children were at least two grades below the level of proficiency assumed by their textbooks. For example, out of more than 11 500 Grade 2 learners tested, less than 30% could read simple words. A year later, when tested in Grade 3, about 40% of these children could do so. However, children are expected to read simple words in Grade 1. Out of about 11 000 children tested early in Grade 5, only 3 out of every 10 children were able to comfortably and fluently read a Grade 3 level text. A substantial majority of children thus could not read a text designed for children two grades below them. By the beginning of Grade 2, over half of all the children could write letters that were dictated to them. This number rises to over 70% by the end line. However, Grade 1 textbooks expect these children to be writing these simple words on their own by the end of Grade 1. Even by the end line when children had moved to Grade 3 in most states, barely more than 50% could correctly write a simple word that was dictated to them (Bhattacharjea et al. 2011:14).
In India’s neighbouring country Pakistan there is a severe access to education problem, but access to education is not the end in itself. ASER Pakistan’s 2010 assessment of 54 062 rural children, 5-16 years old learners for up to Grade 2 and Grade 3 competencies, revealed poor results in reading (Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi 2011:2). This data demonstrated that a significant percentage of children could not read and write. Thus, a learning enhancement campaign, Chalo Parrho Barrho [Lets Read and Grow] [CPB], was introduced in two rural villages, Rawani and Wahid Buksh Lar (Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi 2011:3). An encouraging result that came forward was the increase in overall learner enrollment. In Rawani there was a 41% and 31% increase in the girls and boys primary schools, respectively. In Wahid Buksh Lar there was a 57% and 14% increase in the girls and boys primary schools, respectively. The combined final reading assessment results for both the villages in Urdu and English showed increases in achievement at sentence and story levels (Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi 2011:21-22).
Furthermore, in 2010 Save the Children began implementing the LB programme in Allai, Pakistan (Save the Children 2011:1). Save the Children identified 15 schools [ten LB schools and five comparison schools] in Allai. While LB learners started the year with lower reading scores than comparison learners, they significantly outperformed their comparison peers in end
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of year scores and overall gain in scores for each of the five core reading skills. The greatest progress was made in fluency and accuracy in both the languages, Urdu [the language of instruction] and Pashto [the dominant home language of both the LB and comparison learners] (Save the Children 2011:1). Moreover, the number of non-readers in LB schools dropped significantly at end line when compared to non-readers in comparison schools. Also, LB has led to important learning benefits for girls, who often confront more difficult hurdles in their access to quality education in Pakistan. Girls in LB schools ended the year with higher skill levels across all reading skills and greater learning in both Urdu and Pashto compared to girls in comparison schools. It can be deduced that CPB and LB have assisted in improving the literacy results of both boys and girls in Pakistan.
When referring to other countries in South Asia Jhingran (2011:11) asserts that the common issues surrounding literacy are that in these countries, a majority of learners are not learning to read even simple sentences by grade 2; in no country do children reach grade level expectations; writing ability is very low in all countries; and there is high disparity in reading levels from Grade 2 onwards. The above conclusions are based on literacy assessments conducted in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
There is substantial evidence suggesting that India and its neighbouring countries are making notable efforts to ensure the right to education for all. However, at the same time these countries face daunting problems when it comes to education, particularly reading and writing. Studies conducted by ASER revealed deplorable results in reading. Critical questions to consider are: What are the factors that contribute to these disastrous results in India and its neighbouring countries, and is the situation similar in Africa?