Human Development in Tamil Nadu

1
Human Development in Tamil Nadu

• A look at the Education Sector
• By
• Venkatesh Sundararaman
• The World Bank
• May 18, 2005

2
Access and Coverage
Percent of Rural Habitations with Primary Schools
within 1 km distance
Statewide percentage of villages served with
schools
3
Growth in Enrollment

Age Specific Attendance Rates for 6-10 year olds
NSS Rounds
4
More recent evidence from administrative records
illustrates improvements.
Percentage of children in each age group that is
enrolled in school
5
(No Transcript)
6
Enrolment Rates By Social Group And Age (NSSO
42nd And 52nd Rounds, Percent Of Children
Enrolled In School)
7
Rural Urban Differences in Enrollment Rates
(NSS 52nd)
8
The rural-urban divide worsens for higher age
groups
9
Enrollment by Quintile (NSS 55th Round)
10
Performance in the Education System Primary
Completion Rates
11
(No Transcript)
12
Teacher Characteristics and Issues

• PTRs on average below the prescribed norm of 40
• Teacher training and quality seems to have been
  maintained but once again there is a need to
  examine detailed data
• 21 percent of teachers in central and local
  government schools were absent at least once in
  three visits in Tamil Nadu this range of
  absenteeism suggests two impacts directly
  through the loss of teaching activity and hours
  and secondly, parental concern to leave children
  in an unsupervised setting (particularly girls)

13
All India Teacher Absence Map (Public Schools)
14
International Comparisons
15
Sampling Regions
Sample districts covered all four regions of the
state
Sampled Districts

• 270 schools visited and three observations on
  each teacher obtained
• 61 percent were government schools, 8 percent
  municipal schools, 14 percent aided schools, and
  14 percent private schools

16
Findings on Teacher Absence in Tamil Nadu

• Absence rate across all schools about 17.8
  percent
• Away on official duty was the answer given by
  nearly 37 percent (by others when teachers were
  not there) 12 percent were on sick leave, and 47
  percent stated that they were on authorized
  leave. By type of school, absence rates in
  government schools amounted to about 21 percent,
  in municipal schools it amounted to about 18
  percent, aided-schools accounted for 13 percent
  of the absences and private schools had teacher
  absences of about 8 percent
• Female teachers less likely to be absent, as
  were married teachers
• Male teachers more likely to be absent, as were
  teachers with more years of experience
• Absence rates were also higher in schools with a
  higher degree of new teachers

17
(No Transcript)
18
Key Summary Statistics by School Type
19
Infrastructure by School Type
20
Post-Elementary Education and Labor Market
Linkages

• We are just beginning to look into this area in
  India and are currently undertaking a sector
  study on Secondary and Vocational Education and
  Training
• GoTN needs to pay particular attention to
  developing their secondary infrastructure,
  institutions and delivery systems
• Even at the elementary level there is evidence
  the system expansion has not benefited all
  equally this concern extends to secondary
  education as well

21
Post-Elementary Education and Labor Market
Linkages (contd.)

• Policies need tailoring for specific
  sub-populations for example, while higher
  returns to female education suggests that
  attainment may be a path towards gender equality,
  we do not find that SCs get higher wages
  (conditional upon participation), thus suggesting
  policies that are beyond the strict purview of
  the education department.

22
Education Financing
23
(No Transcript)
24
Summary of challenges facing the education sector
in Tamil Nadu

• There remain persistent gaps in enrollment
  across gender, caste, income and location for
  higher age cohorts
• There is considerable inter- and intra-district
  variation in system performance measured in terms
  of completion, drop-outs, PTRs, etc.
• Poor quality of service delivery -- partly due to
  weaker governance -- is observed in rural areas
• Expansion of the Secondary level to replicate
  the successes of Elementary education, may allow
  help address the deficiencies in both
• Unresolved quality issues in Elementary level
  makes the task proposed in Education for All
  more difficult at higher levels of education

25
Some suggestions on the way forward

• enhance management in the government sector for
  improved efficiency (teacher management and
  career development, ME systems, assessment
  tests, quality of infrastructure)
• strengthening the role of the private sector and
  define the subsidiary role of the State to
  improve equity and effectiveness
• improving budget management for policy purposes
• Education strategies should combine long-term
  policies with short-term responses to shocks
• Teachers evaluation as a performance indicator
  for promotion and transfers
• Develop policies enhance the social and economic
  gains to education
• Develop Monitoring and Evaluation as a policy
  instrument
• Involvement of research institutions to assess
  interventions and foster dialogue.