Drawing attention to a high dropout rate in upper primary schools, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam "schools are facing the "biggest crisis" in India. The world's second-most populous country also has the "biggest gap" between (rpt) between talent at the top and unfulfilled potential at bottom. Experiments have shown that starting as early as possible in a child's life cycle helps."
He further added "Schools are the biggest crisis in India today and have been for a long time. Schools are the biggest gap between India and East Asia. And it is a crisis that cannot be justified. When India took part in OECD PISA study in 2009, it was ranked 73rd out of 74 countries. "And this is in a country which has exceptional talent with people who go to IITs and IIMs and lead companies all over the world and are first-rated."
"India has the biggest gap, I know and I have spent many years in education. Talent at the top and the unfulfilled potential of those in the rest of the society. And these things can be fixed. And it is not by way of ever-increasing budgets," he said.
"How do we recruit our teachers, how do we train them, how do we hold the teachers accountable, how do we provide for quality across the system and not just at its most exclusive end? How do we ensure that every school is a good school?" he explained.