School Quality

School Quality
There are many factors that contribute to the quality of schools and an education system as a whole:


 * Absenteeism of teachers,


 * underfunding,


 * and inefficient allocation of resources

These all may lead to results that are unsatisfactory. As many of these factors are present in rural areas, especially in India, school quality can be a difficult variable to measure, as it can vary widely on a regional basis.

Perhaps the best assessment of school quality in India comes from the Annual State of Education Report (ASER) [1]. Published by Indian NGO Pratham, the report focuses on a multitude of factors related to the education system, and especially those of Tamil Nadu. The region is experiencing mixed results overall. Reading comprehension increases at a constant rate per grade level, with 69.5% of students in grade 8 being literate and able to comprehend more advanced text. However, trends over time imply that there are few increases overall in number of students at this level of achievement. For arithmetic, results are similar. The education system succeeds in increasing the knowledge and abilities of students on a year to year basis, but when comparing any given year in recent times to current levels it is difficult to ascertain whether aggregate improvements have been made.

Comparing public school performance to private school performance reveals that public schools in Tamil Nadu are closing gaps in multiple areas. For example, the metrics of student literacy and class attendance, both areas in which private schools traditionally out perform public schools, are becoming closer. In some areas the sector in the lead has swapped, but the pattern of increasing similarity is obvious.

[1] ASER report on Tamil Nadu:  http://images2.asercentre.org/aserreports/TAMIL_NADU_2010.pdf