Improving Student Enrollment and Teacher Absenteeism Outcomes through Social Accountability Interventions in Nalgonda and Adilabad Districts, Andhra Pradesh, India
Although Andhra Pradesh (AP) has high economic growth, the state's public education system, which most poor children attend, faces several structural issues that hinder its quality. Although the public education system offers a structured spac...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2009/11/16207910/improving-student-enrollment-teacher-absenteeism-outcomes-through-social-accountability-interventions-nalgonda-adilabad-districts-andhra-pradesh-india http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25025 |
| Summary: | Although Andhra Pradesh (AP) has high
economic growth, the state's public education system,
which most poor children attend, faces several structural
issues that hinder its quality. Although the public
education system offers a structured space for parent and
community input into management of schools, these spaces are
not systematically used. AP achieved 10.37 percent economic
growth for 2007-08 against the national average of 8.37
percent and has a poverty headcount ratio of 16 percent,
compared with 23 percent for India as a whole. Despite such
growth, AP's public education system, which serves the
children of most poor households, faces several structural
issues that impair its quality. The quality of education
itself is suboptimal, teacher absenteeism rates are high,
and teachers lack accountability to parents and the
community. As a result, parents who wish to give their
children quality education opt for expensive private
schools. The AP Community Participation Act also empowered
village level school committees to conduct micro-planning
exercises and to develop education plans for schools. These
school committees consist of teachers and the parents of the
children enrolled in the school. Committee meetings are
convened by the school's headmaster but presided over
by an elected parent. After one year of implementation, this
accountability intervention catalyzed the community and
service providers to take an active role in public
education. It brought about a series of impacts and
outcomes, starting at the micro level with behavior changes
on the part of students, parents, and the community, as well
as school administrators and teachers. These behavior
changes iterated over time, triggered changes at the
institutional level in the school committees and government
functionaries at higher levels. |
|---|