The issues in primary education were discussed by Chandra.
 In order to streamline elementary education in AID-Chennai chapter, an attempt was made to summarize the activities undertaken in the last year. The interventions required of the chapter were outlined, to improve access and the quality of the education.The objectives of primary education, access to and enrolment in schools, retention in schools, and the need for the quality education were discussed.
 

Chandra Anil highlighting the issues in Primary Education

Barriers to Primary Education:
 No stimulation at pre-primary age group surfaced as an important barrier to education. Although the poor economic background is the most important concern for primary education, yet lecture mode in the multi-grade class and the gaps in the planned and the realized goals of education also act as major deterrents for the families, which are poor and face the dilemma of sending their children to school or to make them earn a livelihood for the families. Besides, the schools are not efficient enough to realize the basic goals of primary education like functional/numerical literacy. Increase in dropout rates can also be attributed to the examination system which lays a lot of emphasis on memorization, resulting in poor self-confidence.
 
 To iron out the immediate problems faced in the implementation of primary education goals, some measures were discussed:-
 - Evaluating the status of the learning: The current status of the learning assessment was quite revealing. Surprisingly, 50% of the children in any village could not read fluently, and 70% of the children attending school did not understand the basic concepts of numbers and arithmetic. To tackle these underachievement patterns, simplifying the evaluation becomes a natural choice. Participation of the community must be sought to improve the current education scenario in general and primary education, in particular.
 - Demonstrating the change: To demonstrate a change requires multi-pronged and strategic reforms in teaching. Focus on specific goals or skills, assessing what the children know, designing activities specific to the child’s level, recognizing small improvements, and using all these to change perceptions of children’s activities, were discussed as change factors.
 - Evaluation Methodologies: As an answer to the various problems posed by current scenario (such as meaningless aggregation of skills etc.), evaluation methodologies can be evolved in the direction of skill by skill testing, competing with oneself rather than others, and providing adequate opportunities to better one’s performance.
 - Other Ideas: Conducting sample surveys on the levels of learning to identify the gaps can help to improve the ongoing educational programs in villages and districts. Furthermore, running specific focus classes with a view to impart real-life skills in a time-bound manner can go a long way in retention of children in schools as this would increase the confidence of the parents in the education system. Organizing pre-school activities once a week in Govt. anganwaadi centers and organizing one metric mela every month to emphasize the ability to logically estimate rather than technical knowledge are additional activities that can help to improve the educational process. Starting a Mobile Library Network in and around schools/villages could be a good initiative in this direction.
 
 The trend of transition from primary education to secondary education has been alarming. Ravishankar presented an analysis report identifying the trends and measures to revamp the secondary education.
 
 Reduction of dropout rates requires secondary education to evolve on the lines of innovative learning. The steps discussed to achieve this objective are:-
 - Improvement in the quality of education
 - Making education fun and interesting
 - School education must impart real-life skills
 - Focus on science should be strengthened

Ravishankar elucidating the issues in secondary education

The current educational system is lacking in providing desired level of science education. AID intervention is required here to develop low-cost and fun-based experiments. Students can also be involved in developing teaching aids, as this will enable them to explore the concepts in greater depth. AID will also undertake the development of video CDs on various concepts and holding demonstration classes in schools. A dialogue with the students will be of great help to understand what they know, and what they need to know to achieve the goals of secondary education.