Are We the Learning Laggards?

Every year, despite the odd modest increase in learning outcomes, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) makes for sobering, if not depressing, reading. Although India has succeeded in getting the overwhelming majority of children up to 14 into school, quality remains an abiding problem. We spend a fraction of our GDP on education and in the last budget, spending on education was reduced by 16 per cent. Unsurprisingly, our literacy rate lags far behind that of other BRICS countries.