The previous decade brought great visibility to learning classes in India. In attempts to reform education, people made several attempts on small and large scales. The book synthesizes lessons from these attempts and debates across different strands of education - assessments, pedagogy, governance etc., and argues that weak state capacity is the critical constraint in the school education reform currently. It also lists out the implications of weak state capacity - forcing us to settle for second-best solutions etc. The book then discusses the meaning of state capacity and frameworks to understand the same; as well as widely debated themes in education - decentralisation, incentives, private schools, and vouchers. Finally, it argues that if we are to improve any further, we must focus on enhancing state capacity and it must be made the priority.

Karthik Dinne