Recently, an American friend told me about his concern for the public schools in his area. Parents like him made it a point to let the school know that they were not getting the return on their taxes if the school did not meet the expected standards. This set me thinking about the state of the Indian public schools. Shouldn’t we also be measuring their performance and holding them responsible for improvements (or lack thereof)? Unlike in the U.S, the plight of these schools does not even touch the educated middle class of India, as parents prefer to send their children to private institutions.

The Indian elementary education system is the second largest in the world consisting of 888,000 schools with attendance from 82% of the children in the age group of 7-14. Therefore, any effort to raise quality standards in these schools can potentially have a huge impact. The Government already spends about Rs. 7,800 Crore towards this effort. However, raising quality standards in the public education system is not just achieved by ensuring flow of resources into the system but also tracking a return on that investment through quantified improvements.

Mr. Ramamurthy, of Sivasri charitable trust, Bangalore, has begun the “Sikshana” project to illustrate just that. Sikshana recognizes the importance of shifting the focus from “how exactly the social organizations manage the funds” to “what they achieved with the funds”. This removes the donors from interfering with the micro-management of the social group, thus empowering them to achieve their goals effectively.Since 2001, Sikshana has helped schools set clear quantifiable goals and develop plans to achieve them. The project has demonstrated improvements in 28 schools in and around Bangalore. Sikshana has received financial support from AID TAMU, New Orleans, and Columbus to organize library expeditions, science camps, educations trips and improve infrastructure.

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Karthik Sriram, Bangalore