Priorities for Primary Education Policy in India’s 12th Five-year Plan

This paper seeks to bridge the gap by summarizing the research, making policy recommendations based on this research, and suggesting an implementation roadmap for the 12th Plan. The main findings reported in this paper are that there is very little evidence to support the notion that improving school inputs in a ‘business as usual’ manner will improve learning outcomes. On the other hand, innovations in pedagogy (especially supplemental remedial instruction targeted to the level of learning of children) and governance (focused on teacher performance measurement and management) have shown large positive impacts on student learning. The findings from this research are however, not being reflected in the current policy priorities of the Government of India.