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India, Educate Yourself
Listen to what a woman whose
husband was beheaded has to say
WSN Network
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If this
is the state of affairs when it comes to the education sector, then
why is the Indian nation state surprised to see a continuous spiral
of violence in the areas it calls the Red Corridor? Apologists of
the Indian government who proudly feature in the talk TV shows every
single night on India's myriad news channels mince no words to
castigate the Maoists but it will do them a lot of good if only they
were to hear the words of the widow of the police officer who was
beheaded by the Maoists. |
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 Even as inane
statements by India's education minister Kapil Sibal about
introduction of one exam, one syllabus overpower all debate in India
on education, and the talk of high growth rates tends to simply
bypass any real progress in the domain of core sectors of education
and health, the harsh reality remains that India's schools and
colleges, at least those run by the government, have been completely
left at the mercy of inept politicians and bureaucrats. Government
funding to the education sector is almost at a standstill while a
false notion is being spread that more and more Indian children are
now going to school.
Not very long
ago, the saffron political party had suffered an ignominious
electoral defeat after it tried to paint an
India
shining campaign when the reality on the ground was very different.
It now seems that minister Kapil Sibal could as well make the same
mistake again if he continues to persist with the myth that all is
well, even rosy.
On the ground,
the picture is heartbreaking. Government schools have been reduced
to ghettos where ill-equipped teachers try to impart substandard
education to extremely disadvantaged children who come from homes
and background which is absolutely not conducive to anything called
"studies". Minister Kapil Sibal is so focused on the private sector
and the issues related to the IIM, the IITs, and the professional
colleges and universities that the attention being paid to the
government run schools is simply missing.
In Punjab, the
government of Prakash Singh Badal is doing things the same way. The
Chief Minister, following harebrained idea, continues to push for
something he calls Adarsh Schools. Apparently these are schools, or
will be, where the level of education, the skill sets of the
teachers, the funding available to the school, the recruitment
process, the procedures of supervision, the teacher to student
ratio, the role of sports, extracurricular activities, the
interaction between the school and the parent teachers association,
virtually everything under the sun is supposed to be different from
the rest of the government schools.
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On the ground, the picture is heartbreaking. Government
schools have been reduced to ghettos where ill-equipped teachers
try to impart substandard education to extremely disadvantaged
children who come from homes and background which is absolutely
not conducive to anything called "studies". Minister Kapil Sibal
is so focused on the private sector and the issues related to
the IIM, the IITs, and the professional colleges and
universities that the attention being paid to the government run
schools is simply missing. In Punjab,
the government of Prakash Singh Badal is doing things the same way. |
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Most
controversial aspect of this entire scheme was the proposal to
involve private sector in the setting up of such schools. The
corporate houses were asked to become part of the entire project and
they were even told that hundreds of acres of most precious land
will be handed over on a platter to them to set up such schools.
This was nothing short of a full-fledged scandal. Shockingly, while
some civil society organisations did raise their voice against such
an idea, the principal opposition Congress kept silent. Even the
BJP, which often claims to act differently inside the ruling
coalition, also thought it prudent to maintain its silence.
Clearly, the interests of the politicians and the corporate class
have converged to such an extent that even scams of hundreds of
thousands of crores now can be brushed underneath the carpet.
Three years into
the government, and the Adarsh school scheme is a nonstarter. The
Akali Dal government is hardly ashamed of its track record and the
Congress does not think that it is a serious issue which should be
taken to the people. Clearly, the State government is only
reflecting the nonserious attitude of the central government towards
the education sector.
At the federal
level, nowhere is the disconnect between the dreams of a billion
Indians and the cold, hard reality more stark than in education.
Even as funds from both, the government and the private sector,
flood the system, daunting tasks remain — bringing down the
jaw-dropping drop-out rate of over 50% by secondary stage, or making
over 300 million adults literate, or making higher education
available to more than the meagre 11% youth at present.
One striking
aspect of this complex problem is that there is a disconnect between
promises made by politicians or policy makers and actual action. The
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a
Delhi
based thinktank has picked up a few significant promises made in
election manifestoes and budget or plan documents and tracked down
the actual financial allocations made towards it. The results are
stunning: in most cases the money falls far short of what is needed
to implement the rosy promises.
 Take the case of
the promise made by the Congress in its 2009 election manifesto, and
later included in the 2009-10 budget — to set up model schools (on
the Kendriya Vidyalaya lines) in each block of the country. That
means 6000 schools in all. This wouldn’t solve the problem of either
drop out rates or poor quality, but at least it was a beginning. But
CBGA analysis shows that the provisions in the 2009 budget for the
first 2500 schools was a mere Rs 9321 crore, of which the central
govt’s share was Rs 7457 crore.
How much does it
cost to set up a KV type school? CBGA says that as per the ministry
of human resource development (MHRD) itself, each school will cost
Rs 6.77 crore, and 2500 of them would need Rs 16,925 crore! So, the
government has allocated less than half of what is required for
setting up less than half the number of schools they had promised.
For all 6000 schools, to be set up till 2012, the cost would be Rs
40,620 crore but the Eleventh Plan has set aside just Rs 12,750
crore, according to CBGA.
Another hollow
promise, made by the ruling party in its 2009 manifesto, is that of
providing free education to dalit and adivasi children. CBGA
calculations show that the government allocated Rs 11,352 crore
through schemes under 4 ministries for giving various types of
assistance to dalit and adivasi students. Using census data, a
population of 13.68 crore for dalit and adivasi youth aged between 5
to 29 years can be assumed. Thus, government help works out to about
Rs 830 per student per year. The amount will be even less as all of
them are not in educational institutions.
 Compare this to
what the latest 64th round of National Sample Survey data has to
say: out-of-pocket expenditure by an average parent on a child in
government school is Rs 1243 at the elementary and Rs 2597 at the
secondary/ higher secondary level. A set of books can cost between
Rs 2400 and Rs 7500 for professional courses, but the scheme for
maintenance, including books, gives only Rs 130 to Rs 340 per month
for day scholars for all expenses. Another huge promise that seems
to be floundering is that of providing for monetary incentives to
girl child for educating her from primary to higher secondary
stages. This promise has been repeated in budget documents, plan
documents and election manifestoes.
According to
CBGA calculations, the government allocated Rs 11,417 in 2009-10 for
different schemes under 5 ministries for helping girl students. The
number of girl of age 5 to 18 years, projected from Census data, is
about 15.7 crore. So the financial allocation is a measly Rs 725 per
year. This is less than a third of the expenditure incurred by
parents for a daughter at the higher secondary stage.
.jpg) If this is the
state of affairs when it comes to the education sector, then why is
the Indian nation state surprised to see a continuous spiral of
violence in the areas it calls the Red Corridor? Apologists of the
Indian government who proudly feature in the talk TV shows every
single night on India's myriad news channels mince no words to
castigate the Maoists but it will do them a lot of good if only they
were to hear the words of the widow of the police officer who was
beheaded by the Maoists.
Featured on
NDTV's "We the People" programme, the widow was asked by anchor
Barkha Dutt what she thought about this entire circle of violence
that, apart from wreaking so much misfortune on all sides, also
claimed the life of her husband. Her words should shame every single
policy maker and politician in India and, of course, Minister Kapil
Sibal. She said,"There is no education, there is no development. Is
it any wonder that many are choosing to become terrorists?"
Is it any
wonder, Mr Minister?
24
February 2010
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