Probe Revisted

Description

PROBE Revisited is a field-based study of the schooling situation in rural India. It is based on a resurvey, in 2006, of largely the same villages that were covered by the PROBE survey in 1996, in Rajasthan, undivided Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, referred to in the report as the ‘PROBE states'. Himachal Pradesh was also surveyed, as the state of primary education there provided a contrast to the situation in the other states. The PROBE survey formed the cornerstone of the Public Report on Basic Education in India, widely acclaimed as a landmark study on primary education in India. PROBE Revisited focuses on significant changes in the delivery of primary education in the decade 1996—2006, and their impact on school access and quality. It highlights major progress in the PROBE states in areas such as schooling facilities, provision of mid-day meals, enrolment rates and consequent narrowing of social and gender gaps. At the same time, it finds that fundamental problems remain. Enrolment does not mean attendance. Neither does attendance imply learning, on account of little teaching activity. Mindless rote learning still dominates. The report also looks at the state of upper primary education in the surveyed villages. Problems with school access and quality at this stage are also acute. It is unfortunate that in spite of the many positive changes that have occurred between 1996 and 2006, most children cannot access education of quality. However, the recently-passed Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 provides a useful tool to continue the struggle to achieve this goal.