Professor Amartya Sen has advocated important reforms in the realms of primary education and primary health care. What are your suggestions to improve their status and performance?
Approach · directive: “suggest”
What it asks · Recall Sen's case that basic education and health build human capabilities, then suggest concrete reforms to improve schools and primary health care.
It asks 3 things — answer each
- Recall Sen's case: why primary education and primary health care need reform, in his capability view
- Suggest: concrete measures to improve the status and performance of primary education
- Suggest: concrete measures to improve the status and performance of primary health care
Open with · Sen treats basic education and health as both ends of development and means to growth; development is the expansion of human capabilities.
Cover
- Diagnosis: schools that enrol but do not teach, absent teachers (a quarter, in a national survey) and low public spending.
- Education: teachers and school management committees under the RTE Act 2009; foundational learning measured; mid-day meals; Article 21A.
- Education finance: 6 per cent of GDP (since then NEP 2020) with support for girls and disadvantaged groups.
- Health: staffed sub-centres and PHCs, ASHAs, immunisation; public spending above 1 per cent of GDP (since then NHP 2017 target 2.5 per cent).
- Prevention and accountability: sanitation, nutrition, water; Panchayat and user voice, facility data, social audits.
- Visual: hub of the five levers of capability building.
Close with · The reforms advance SDG 4.1 (free, equitable, quality schooling) and SDG 3.8 (universal health coverage with financial risk protection).
Add value (verified)
- Article 21A makes elementary education a fundamental right, which gives any reform of primary schooling a constitutional footing.The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2024), Article 21A — Legislative Department ↗“The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine”
- SDG Target 4.1: free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education for all girls and boys by 2030.Goal 4 - United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (sdgs.un.org) ↗“Target 4.1 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education”
- SDG Target 3.8: universal health coverage, including financial risk protection.Goal 3 - United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (sdgs.un.org) ↗“Target 3.8 Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services”
- A national survey of government primary schools in India found 25% of teachers absent and only about half teaching during unannounced visits.Kremer, Muralidharan, Chaudhury, Hammer and Rogers, 'Teacher Absence in India: A Snapshot', Journal of the European Economic Association, 2005 (DFID-hosted copy) ↗“25% of teachers were absent from school, and only about half were teaching, during unannounced visits to a nationally representative sample of government primary schools in India.”
- Amartya Sen's Pratichi Trust carries out research, advocacy and experimental projects in basic education and primary health care.UK Government research-for-development record, 'Primary schooling in West Bengal' (Amartya Sen) ↗“With his Nobel Prize award money, Amartya Sen set up the Pratichi Trust which carries out research, advocacy and experimental projects in basic education, primary health care”
- Official figures put combined Centre and State government health spending at 1.15% of GDP in 2015-16 (RE).PIB (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare), 'Spending on Health Sector', 11 April 2017 ↗“As percentage of GDP 1.15 %”
- Since then, the National Health Policy 2017 set the goal of raising public health expenditure progressively to 2.5% of GDP by 2025.PIB (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare), 'National Health Policy, 2017' ↗“raising public health expenditure progressively to 2.5% of the GDP by 2025”
- Since then, NEP 2020 (approved 29 July 2020) says the Centre and States will work together to raise public investment in education to 6% of GDP at the earliest.PIB (Ministry of Education), 'Cabinet Approves National Education Policy 2020', 29 July 2020 ↗“The Centre and the States will work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2016, GS Paper II — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 3 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 278words · Minimalist IAS
Amartya Sen treats basic education and health as both ends of development and means to growth: development is the expansion of human capabilities, not income alone. Reform must therefore target learning, care, money and accountability.
The diagnosis behind Sen's case
- Schools and clinics that fail: children enrol but learn little, and a quarter of teachers were absent in a national survey of government primary schools.
Suggestions for primary education
- Teachers: fill vacancies, curb absenteeism through school management committees under the RTE Act 2009, and train teachers continuously.
- Learning, not enrolment: make early-grade reading and arithmetic the goal, and measure them; use mid-day meals to keep children in class.
- Money and equity: raise spending towards 6 per cent of GDP (since then, the National Education Policy 2020 commits the Centre and States to it), targeting girls and disadvantaged groups. Article 21A gives this a constitutional footing.
Suggestions for primary health care
- Facilities: staffed sub-centres and primary health centres with doctors, nurses, medicines and diagnostics, backed by ASHAs, immunisation and maternal care.
- Financing: lift public health spending from about 1.15 per cent of GDP (2015-16) and cut out-of-pocket costs (since then, the National Health Policy 2017 set 2.5 per cent by 2025).
- Prevention: sanitation, nutrition and safe water, which markets undersupply.
Making both accountable
Capability building: Teachers who teach; Measured learning; Staffed health centres; Adequate public finance; Local accountability
- Local voice: give Panchayats and users a say, publish facility-level data, run social audits, and reward schools and clinics that perform.
These steps move India towards SDG 4.1, free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education for all girls and boys, and SDG 3.8, universal health coverage with financial risk protection.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 3 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
