Over the years, India has tried varied approaches to improve enrolment and quality of school education. However, as some recent surveys and data show, there is a huge gap between our aspirations and actual achievements. In the process, we have created a two-tier system of school education. Those who can afford school fees go to private schools and those who cannot, go to state schools. This gross inequality in schooling opportunities is the result of our current approach to education.

India is not the only country where state schools perform poorly. In fact, most of the people across the world are unhappy with the performance of state schools in their countries. The US spends one of the highest amounts per student in the world but education usually ranks as the second major issue of concern after the economy among her people. In a typical Western country, a vast majority of students go to state schools (almost 90% in the US). What are these countries doing to reform their education systems?

Each national education system is unique in some way and each one tries to fix its problems in its own way.