RTE---a distant dreamL or a reveling realityJJ!!
(HER)RETROSPECTION:
I recall my mother saying to me: “How happy I was going to school, when I was a kid; we had fun and learning at the same time. Our teachers were passionate and competent and everybody in the community gave them ample respect –because A Teacher is considered a torchbearer for a child’s education and for character building and has as equal a responsibility as a parent has in a child’s upbringing. To say -A teacher begets adulation as a celebrity is no less exaggeration during our schooling”.
I got stunned for a moment .Then I thought she was to be believed, for a simple reason –Her Sister was a govt. teacher and my mother had stood a chance to witness that in her life in close quarters.
(MY) INTROSPECTION:
With a perplexed mind and with resentment for my schooling, I started asking these questions: where are those Govt. schools and teachers gone? Why am I studying in Pvt. Schools, with shoddy teachers, paying skyrocketing fees .But no fun, let alone learning?So what is going wrong in between these generations? Suddenly I ask –what is a school? Is it just a building with some staff to run it?
Then I recall somehow that school is an educational institution? - So what is an institution? – I hit the dead end of my chain of thoughts:
What is an institution?
WHY all Kids are not studying in a common method and system of schooling?
MY writing -blah blah starts, have patience (isn’t it a great virtue? To decide, move on)
Let me try to retrieve and put some light on this most important yet neglected subject through a historical perspective and contemporary view and also the futuristic vision of PRIMARY EDUCATION IN INDIA –our crux of the subject.
(INDIAN)HISTORY UNPLUGGED!
Almost everything fishy can be linked to our colonial history. The British introduced the English System of Education (for wholly selfish reasons).Though initially it served their purpose ,gradually it infused rational thought and brought in reforms in the society ,and eventually led to our Independence-there is no dispute to this.
This kind of alien education system which constantly derided our culture and disdained the ancient intellect made the Indian mind inferior to itself. This cold blooded way of imposing an alien way of system struck at the fundamental roots of our traditional way of education. As a result there is no ingenuity in this method; no appreciation of the culture we used to live in; We groveled at their feet shamelessly, deluded ourselves to be minnows –we lost our character; We are forever enslaved to our historical colonial past .There was no building of constructive framework for sustainable reconciliation of the educational processes followed in different parts in India, cutting across different ethnic populace, before and even after our Independence.
Sadly, even after our Independence there was no revolution and transformational vision in this direction. The very reason why the modus operandi of the present educational system is rote-memorization is quite evident from the above arguments.
For a child to learn something, the process has to come natural rather than by rote. The key is ‘language’-the medium of instruction. The child listens, thinks and communicates in its mother tongue. If the medium of instruction in schools is other than mother tongue, the process of learning adopted is going to be abusive to the cognitive ability –instead of aiding in learning it becomes a challenge and an impediment-of its evolving mind. To be able to somehow manage the child grapples with fear and takes to rote learning. And as a result the golden age of child’s flowering thoughts of imagination is lost forever to mediocrity and hence forth the child feels itself comfortable in a herd of buffaloes- gets used to prodding and goading along with other children .
Perhaps, Only India, in the Whole world, is witness to this devastating phenomenon in the last two decades (our generationL), where children were directly enrolled into English medium schools. As a result we can neither claim ourselves having significant skills in our own mother tongue nor claim to be the masters of English(which is damn indispensible today).There is no comprehensive development in one’s ability to express through verbally or in writing, which is Very Important and fundamental to the Individual personality and the making of one’s intellect.
The earlier generations were fortunate enough to have their primary schooling in their mother tongue and could develop substantial cognitive abilities prior learning anything in a foreign language like English. Thus they could learn anything holistically purely on Individual interest and effort.
(ARE) WE (UN) FORTUNATE?
I always used to wonder how Russians, Chinese, Japanese could manage use their own language as medium of instruction. Why not INDIA? Because of many languages, may be, may not be. I don’t know the exact reason but I am sure, I envy those people!
Russians –the most genius of minds.
Japanese-self reliance personified.
Chinese-Terrifying Deadly Dragon.
WHAT IS AN INSTITUTION?
Let me answer the question I have raised and give the reason for the paradigm shift in schooling between the earlier and current generations:
Institution: an organization, establishment, foundation, society, or the like, devoted to the promotion of a particular cause orprogram, especially one of a public, educational, or charitable character.
Stakeholders are individuals or entities who stand to gain or lose from the success or failure of a system or an organization.
When the stakeholders lose their power or when they are no more interested in success of an institution, the institution declines. This is what happened:
Stakeholders in an educational system are students (kids), parents, and teachers. Because of the surge of Industrialization, the declining primary sector and increasing population and mix of many historical reasons the common man opted out of it. The State-funded public school system had collapsed because the elite and the middle classes had pulled their children out of these schools.
The pvt. Schools mushroomed across the country promising quality education. This is nothing but in conjunction with demand-supply rule of Business.
(Discussion on this aspect of stakeholder analysis is beyond my intellect and resources!)
For BSA (business stakeholder analysis) please Visit:
(EDUCATION)SO MANY LAWS BUT NO JUSTICE
(Ground Reality!)
For a country, so vast, big, diverse and myriad in nature demands solutions that are practical, effective and time-bound, as the educational landscape is ever-changing and sensitive. To standardize and to bring the conflicting systems of education (practiced along the length and breadth of the nation) is nonetheless daunting and herculean task.
Education was taken very seriously as a nation embracing socialist policies. Laws on education were envisaged with great idealism and vision, however, they are misguidedly enthusiastic, anachronistic and not at all pragmatic .So many committees, commissions with so many recommendations and solutions but there is no sustainable and constructive framework for devising, innovation, planning and implementation.
I will provide a good example here of Rajiv Gandhi’s vision of Technocratic vision for India:
Many people would argue that because of Rajiv Gandhi’s policy on technology education, India is now riding on the current Knowledge Economy (computers and Technology).But they tend to forget and suffer from short changed vision of future and as well as the past.
Instead of consolidating and standardizing the education, his government embraced technocratic vision for India and in collusion to this allowed hierarchal system of education (where privileged (rich) go to good schools and the deprived to shoddy school or no school at all.eg. kendriya,Navodaya,Gurukul,etc,..) to flourish. The end-result is widening the social gap –with giving raise to elitist institutions.
This new policy, without building any framework based on earlier recommendations, not only muddled the already frail educational system but also beleaguered with anachronistic ideas.The ramifications are manifold but the most striking one is –The dream of “COMMON SCHOOL for all” is buried in the slumber of sluggards and thugs.
WHY EDUCATION and who is Responsible?
First of all, what is to get education for? –the ability to learn, think, communicate, express and finally stand on one’s own feet through skills acquired and cultivated right from childhood to bachelorhood. Simply put to become an individual .This process takes off during the formative years of schooling and continues till one’s death.
So, who is responsible and to be held accountable to take off or trigger this ride, to ensure this to be smooth and endearing? Ans: (a) child (b) parents (c) teachers (d) THE STATE (e)GOD ( f)don’t know (this question sucks!).
Why education is overlooked by all of us? Why it is not given as equal an importance as health reforms or other populist issues like price hike or take for example religious issues like babri masjid and Ram mandir? It is simple : because they are easy to deal with and also politically opportunistic .
Undoubtedly, it is the state’s responsibility to provide equal opportunity to a child irrespective of its position in this ugly social stratum. But in India, the child’s future is almost certainly limited to and sealed off forever by its birth: If born into riches can get access to quality education, otherwise it’s bound to be precarious and dreary.
(Forgive me, I am going to stretch on a little here, keep patience and get on reading!)
STATISTICS are not Sacrosanct (are not secret):
The statistics are shocking and bragging about ‘INDIA IS RISING’-nonsense etc., is mocking. Millions drop out from schools every year .Though the stats in terms of % regarding to total no. of school goers and population is not terrible ,but definitely alarming .and everybody agree and attribute the cause to one and only one thing: ‘deeply flawed system’. The state is confounded and clueless how to rein in this endemic, systemic failure of this magnitude and proffers excuses like no good teachers, no infrastructure; no kids are enrolling etc,
The “biggest failure” of India was its inability to provide good quality education to its children. Though this was the only Directive Principle which had a time –frame of 10 years, India had failed miserably. India hosted half the illiterates in the world and 75 per cent of the bonded laborers. Though Kothari Commission desired in 1964-65 that six per cent of the GDP be earmarked for education, it had not crossed even four per cent so far. An Annual Assessment Report, pointed out that 47 per cent of those studying in 5th standard in the country cannot read the First Standard text book in their language properly. India had built up the “most exclusionary system of education in the world where one got the institution according to one's paying capacity. It is a hierarchical and fragmenting school system.
Bone of Contention: RTE (right to education)!
Recently, Govt. of India came up with RTE 2009 to boast off universal education, making it a fundamental right. Who will give a damn heck of thought? By just making a law on paper? What difference that’s going to make?
Some main salient features are:
- Every child in the age group of 6-14 has the right to free and compulsory education in a neighborhood school
- Private schools will have to take 25% of their class strength from the weaker section and the disadvantaged group of the society through a random selection process. Government will fund education of these children.
Critical analysis:
The bitter truth is that the Indian state of late has been acting more as an agent of the neoliberal capital than as the guardian of the people's democratic rights. Its policy focus is on throwing open Indian education as one of the most lucrative markets for global investment. This is evident in a range of initiatives such as tax exemptions to investors and a range of pro-market laws on the anvil, including the foreign university Bill. So policymaking, which is function of legislature, is outsourced to private entities without any slightest qualms.
There is couple of arguments to be made to support the above claim.
First one, the abdication of Govt. obligation for equitable quality education, is evident from the RTE act allowing the private corporate houses to continue commoditizing education .The provision of 25 per cent seats being reserved in schools of “specified category” and private schools, aided or unaided is simply saying that “Govt. school is always of inferior quality” .And also by simply transferring funds to private schools to fund the above provision the Govt. is abdicating its responsibility.
But creating an illusion to the people saying “something is better than nothing”.”That your kid stands a chance to go to Pvt. School and see who is funding that-We Govt”.(off- topic ,but this is comparable to AAROGYA SRI scheme for health services started by AP government,which drained the exchequer).It is nothing but feeding the corporate houses .
And the problem does not end here –what is the plight of the kids (under the 25% provision)? Can the Govt. ensure no discrimination to them? As there will be glaring socio-economic disparities among the kids in the same school. Will those kids get offended and abused?
The second one is:
The sole objective of education must be building up of socialistic, secular, egalitarian and enlightened society. But the ground reality is preparation of highly skilled workforce-skilled but slavish or popularly called “foot soldiers” for the global market (ranging from plumbers to economists, IT specialists etc.,).
Some problems (excuses): Teacher training and Infrastructure
Well, frankly, teacher Training and Infrastructure are indeed a problem .But the lack of Strong political will to tackle this Solvable issues is what making them invincible. Teachers tend to be lackadaisical owing to mainly because of lack of motivation for performance and other institutional issues. With process driven methods and great commitment from the Teaching Fraternity there can be a monumental shift in this perspective.
Skeptic’s view:
Anyhow there is at least an iota of change from the Govt. But the complaints are:
Why pre-primary education is untouched?
How are we going to define quality?
The main apprehension is how the law is getting to be implemented and at what pace? -with 42 Boards and two national-level boards functioning in the country. Besides, how are we going to get 14 lakh teachers required when 50 per cent of the teachers in eight States are not fully qualified?
Point to be taken: “We don’t need shoddy laws but demand practical implementation”.
Correcting our past mistakes
Behold ! our dream starts here :)P
The hierarchical system of education is a curse and a blot to our nation .Why Nobody has the faintest conception of how can we benefit from a common system of education? (Practiced elsewhere across the globe)
The answer is the privileged resent the idea of equal opportunity; they don’t want the poor and underprivileged to rise and threaten their position. Simply to drive home the point:”You don’t wish your servant’s children compete with yours!”(Yes,’ knowledge is power ‘in an ironical way).
The reason why Education is seen as a great tool to bridge the social barriers ,is paradoxically, applied to widen it further and crush the masses beyond redemption by creating the hierarchical system of education ,thus promoting pro-market principles based on paying capacity, socio-economic status -“user pays the cost”.
Redemption:
How can we shore up the system from this deathly throes and woes of an unwieldy bemusing complexity?
The only way forward is to raise our voice –demanding for our rights rather than laws-Holler at the highest pitch of our voice, shrilling, enlightening the stakeholders (ourselves) and jolt the Govt. Administration into action (not some Knee-jerk reaction like RTE).
For this to galvanize, awareness is the single biggest challenge. People must be made aware that “EDUCATION EMPOWERS” and also How to get to that Education as promised by our constitution.
Leadership by example:
Here is an excerpt from the news paper:
“The Collector, Dr R. Anandakumar, and his wife, Dr M. Shrividya, went to the Tamil-medium Panchayat Union (government) School at Kumalankuttai near the Collectorate, stood in the queue along with other parents, and got their daughter Gopika admitted in the school. The Collector also told the headmistress, S. Rani, that his child would take the midday meal served in the school, rather than eat lunch sent from home.”
Iam not sure, how may this will inspire you to start cleansing the system right from your own house. But the imagination of this idea brings a workable solution .If at all, our public servants, who are on the government payroll – officials, MPs, MLAs, Ministers, members of the judiciary and, of course, teachers of schools, colleges and universities – take their cue and get their children admitted in neighborhood government schools, it is bound to bring about revolutionary change.
With such a thing ever happens-The powerful elite and allies in govt. and policy makers start finding ways to improve the state-funded Govt. schools .And everything with this expression of trust and strong public as well as political will ,can generate the capacity to bring back good golden days .
Pledge my dear comrades!
With great commitment and great courage accomplish the great work! With collective action and a revolution of a wholly sincere heart , I am optimistic ,we can live to see a different India (with common school system )where we send our children (if not our grandchildren J)to schools having common system ,consistent throughout India(with local processes wherever applicable) free of cost and fear of opportunity cost .
Let us pledge to stop these tons and loads of unfulfilled human potential getting drained in India (not only from drop-outs, but also from unfulfilled capacity of our brothers and sisters).and let us tap this to spark a new chain of events and wonders.
I am absolutely confident -INDIA becomes World’s Envy!
Congratulations! your nose-dive into this boring blog article is ended.
I dedicate this article to Myself!
