Addressing education inequity

The African proverb ‘If you have to go fast, go alone, if you have to go far, go together’ captures the essence of collective action for societal change.

Throughout history, sustainable transformations — from the anti-Apartheid movement to Covid-19 pandemic relief — have been driven by collective efforts where samaaj (civil society), sarkaar (government), bazaar (markets), and sanchar (media) collaborated to create meaningful impact. Today, this unity is essential in addressing one of our most pressing challenges: education inequity.

There is universal agreement on the purpose of education — which is to develop agency, perspective, and opportunities for children. However, public education systems globally continue to rely on traditional teaching methods and goals. The result is a stable yet suboptimal status quo, especially in regions where transformative change is most needed.

Moving beyond this status quo requires more than policy changes; it demands a collaborative approach for the 143 million children enrolled in India’s public schools. By mobilising the strengths of different actors, we can create improved learning environments for every child.

From silos to synergy

A key challenge in the public education system is that impactful efforts and interventions often operate in isolation.

Teachers and school leaders — those closest to the problem — often lack the agency to design solutions tailored to their local contexts. Decision-making is centralised, with a one-size-fits-all approach for every state, limiting flexibility and innovation.

These systemic constraints are compounded by the vast scale and diversity of India’s education landscape, where one-size-fits-all approaches struggle to address unique local needs. Inefficient processes, limited system capacity, and insufficient data-driven decision-making hinder the delivery of quality education. These obstacles manifest in alarming learning gaps across India; as per the 2022 ASER Report, only 20.5% of Grade 3 children in rural areas can read a Grade 2 textbook.

The path forward

To bridge these gaps and move towards inclusive learning, a co-ordinated effort across sectors is essential. For instance, sarkaar and samaaj must facilitate effective parent and community engagement, and set standards for the learning infrastructure needed in schools. Imagine the local government partnering with community leaders to host regular ‘learning circles’ with parents. Edtech companies (bazaar) develop cutting-edge tools and work with government schools to pilot these innovations. They invest time in learning design and training teachers, and evaluate the effectiveness of new methods. Sanchar ensures a public narrative of hope and progress, driving sustained engagement and community support, and celebrating the dedication and successes of all stakeholders.

A recent example of such collective action is the Vidya Amrit Mahotsav (VAM). Under VAM, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) encouraged educators to conceptualise, plan, and implement innovative pedagogy based on the needs of their classrooms, resulting in nearly 600,000 improvements in the education system across 27 states and union territories.

The NCERT, DIKSHA PMU(EY), and several civil society organisations collaborated across programme stages, from design to implementation, ensuring that VAM addressed the nuanced needs of local communities. Samaaj’s role brought invaluable local insights and support, enabling a holistic approach to this national movement.

The path to lasting change requires more than just co-ordination — it needs a strong, trust-based community that can evolve and adapt to new challenges. Over the last decade, in our collaborative work across India, we have seen firsthand that creating this trust is key to unlocking impactful long-term improvements in public education. This trust emerges by prioritising transparency and accountability at every level, clearly defined goals and roles, collaborative monitoring, evaluation, celebrating successes together, and holding each other and the group accountable to commitments even as new complexities arise.

The nature of solutions, roles of partners, and collective goals need not be set in stone but should evolve with time. The system is driven by interrelated factors (such as poverty, nutrition, climate, physical and learning abilities, etc.), and as these complexities emerge, solutions must redraw themselves.

For example, the Nagaland Reading Festival, orchestrated along with Nagaland Samagra Shiksha, fostered a love for reading through teacher-led innovations. Students were encouraged to explore books, newspapers, and magazines with activities like read-aloud sessions, flashcards, kinesthetic exercises, and games that sparked their imaginations.

This reinforces the fact that new educational tools, methodologies, and policies must evolve alongside students’ needs. Platforms such as DIKSHA and the National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers' Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) help build the foundations for student success by supporting educators with peer learning communities and mentoring.

As Mahatma Gandhi observed, “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” Collective action bridges this gap and creates opportunities for each child shaping a future driven by the aspirations of today’s public-school students — our leaders of tomorrow.

S D Shibulal is founder, ShikshaLokam, and co-founder, former Member of the Board, and CEO, Infosys. Khushboo Awasthi is co-founder, Mantra4Change, and co-founder and COO, ShikshaLokam.