64 3 Nine Year Compulsory Education in a Poor District ...
implications, especially where it means very young children are separated from
their parents. Though concentration of enrolments in large schools can result in
economies of scale these may become marginal above a certain school size of
750–1000. There may also be diminished economies of scale.
In addition, those small schools that remain may suffer from relative neglect
and falling demand to the point that they become non-viable if they are not seen
to have a future; teachers may be demotivated and parents may try to transfer
their children. There is also a growing issue about pre-school provision which is
most likely to be delivered effectively close to pre-schoolers homes. Managing the
dynamics of transition is clearly a challenge in Ansai. Over time, almost all chil-
dren may become boarders from lower and lower grades. Alternatively new kinds
of incomplete schools including pre-schools and early grades might be developed
with multi-grade pedagogies and access to internet and other distance technolo-
gies that can link in low population density communities to mainstream educa-
tional services. Though the policy of reducing the number of small rural schools in
favour of concentrating resources in large boarding schools had many attractions
in the last two decades, it may be that the time has come to reappraise the options
and the costs and benefits.
Third, high levels of boarding school participation have raised issues of both
child development and pedagogy, and issues for teachers. There appears to be lit-
tle grounded research but much opinion about the benefits of boarding schools
for improvements in the quality of education for rural children. There is scope for
more evidenced based research on what the effects may be and how the benefi-
cial aspects can be maximized and the negative aspects minimized. This applies to
both the children whose emotional support and family relationships are central to
their developing identities, and to teachers who may or may not be attracted to the
conditions of employment that boarding schools provide.
Fourth, though enrolment rates are high and drop out rates generally low, it
appears that there are still issues about over-age enrolment and whether all stu-
dents will graduate on schedule. Late entry into grade 1 and repetition still occurs,
though it should no longer be visible. The reasons vary but some are certainly sub-
ject to policy intervention—late entry should be discouraged and entry at age six
promoted at community level; repetition is a curriculum and learning issue that
needs to be addressed within schools; age grade slippage related to school transfer
should be managed in ways that reduce the problem. Over-age enrolment has con-
sequences—the more over-age the less likely to enter and complete junior second-
ary school and the greater the chance of falling behind in learning. All countries
that have high participation in schooling have few over-age students.
Fifth, the deployment of teachers and the efficiency with which their time is
allocated remains an issue. Some schools have an unbalanced age structure in
their teacher cadres which may result in shortages of experienced teachers in
mid career. Some schools now have very low pupil teacher ratios. Even in larger
schools teacher workloads can appear modest, with less than half the number of
teaching periods in a week being taught. If this is the result of managed decisions
on resource allocation it may be appropriate. But if it is the result of organizing