Outdated curriculum, low teacher quality behind poor learning outcomes: CII-KPMG

Outdated curriculum, inadequate infrastructure facilities, low teacher quality, lack of accounting and monitoring mechanisms, and skewed pupil-teacher ratio are among the key reasons for falling outcomes in the field of education and skill development, says a new report by CII-KPMG.

The report, tilted ‘Improving learning outcomes by raising in-class teacher effectiveness’, points out that despite achieving 100 per cent enrolment at the primary level, not much improvement can be seen in learning outcomes.

Commenting on the report, Narayanan Ramaswamy, Partner and Head, Education and Skill Development - Social, KPMG in India, said:

“ It is so fundamental – this need to select, nurture and incentivise teachers – but has been ignored over decades.

Way forward

The report recommends an action plan to increase teacher effectiveness, particularly in ‘in-class teaching’, to improve the learning outcomes with primary school students, especially in government-run schools.

One of the findings is that in India teachers spend a lot of time outside the classroom, either for administrative or other scheme work. Also, they are employed in multiple non-academic duties either by the government or by the school and have to report for these duties far away from their homes, leading to absenteeism.

Teacher selection

Also, entry requirements in the teaching profession are an indication to the status assigned to it as a profession. In countries, such as Finland and Singapore, teachers are selected from the top one-third of the academic segment. However, that’s not the case in India, the report notes.

The report advocates the need to integrate teacher training with performance management structure, an effective monitoring mechanism as also encouragement to teachers to use technology.