Most Indian 'schools' dont have blackboards
S Singh Sandhu
Mo <10033...@compuserve.com> wrote in message
<71acr9$pdo$1...@eros.clara.net>...
>Great article from rediff.com
>
>How You Can Educate India For A Song
>
>This happened last week, I swear. A conference that was
>supposed to consider reforms in education dissolved into an
>argument over whether a song should be sung.
>
>The quality of absurdity in this episode is not strained,
>please believe me. It comes to us full-strength, undiluted.
>Everything about it makes you want to beat somebody over the
>head. Check it out: The conference allocates time to be
>wasted on a song instead of getting right down to the urgent
>task of overhauling education. Ministers react by walking
>out rather than saying, "OK, let's get the chant over with
>and get on with our work." An uproar erupts about an insult
>to Hinduism. I sit down to write a column about all this.
>
>Forgotten, quite naturally and all over again, is the mess
>that is Indian education.
>
>What education desperately needs is some sincere, sustained
>and innovative attention. What it has got instead is half a
>century of neglect, punctured from time to time by partisan
>symbolism like the education ministers' conference put on
>display last week.
>
>Consider the problems. One of every two primary schools in
>the country has no blackboard. Three of every five have only
>one teacher -- though most teachers absent themselves from
>teaching, anyway. Four of every five have no toilet. These
>schools have an average of 48 students to every teacher --
>every teacher, whether absent or otherwise -- a ratio in
>which we are outdone only by countries like Lesotho,
>Bangladesh, the Central African Republic and Malawi. Even in
>urban India, where schools are relatively widespread, the
>racket of coaching classes conspires to take education away
>from those who most need it.
>
>With all that, the real bane of education, if I had to pick
>one, is the rate at which kids drop out of school. Nearly 40
>per cent of the children who enter primary school vanish
>before they reach Standard V. Among girls, things are worse.
>In 1992-93, 45 million girls between 6 and 11 -- 92.7 per
>cent of the girls of that age -- were enrolled in primary
>schools. But only 15 million aged between 11 and 14 -- 54
>per cent of girls in that bracket -- were in middle school.
>
>It gives me no pleasure either to read or quote such dismal
>truths about India. Especially because they have, together
>with other dismal truths, turned India into the world's
>deepest cesspool of utterly wasted human potential: every
>second Indian cannot read and write. That face of India is
>the major reason for the thoroughly ignominious place South
>Asia has laid claim to: our subcontinent is, by far, the
>most illiterate region in the world.
>
>Besides, the consequences for India are magnified because
>nearly two-thirds of our illiterates are women. For example,
>that is one reason we have 62 million malnourished children
>in India: again, the highest number in the world.
>(Second-ranked China has 19 million, less than one-third our
>collection). "No society has ever progressed far," wrote
>Mahbub-Ul-Haq in 'Human Development in South Asia', "if it
>has neglected its women, and if it has invested so little in
>the education of its people."
>
>That's the magnitude of the crisis of education in India, a
>glimpse at the price we pay for nurturing it.
>
>Indeed, education needs attention. The challenges are many
>and tangled. How do you get teachers to show up every day,
>to teach every day? How do you attract people to the
>teaching profession? How do you provide basic facilities --
>starting with buildings, in too many cases -- for thousands
>of schools that lack them? How are the goals of education to
>be reconciled with the rate at which children disappear from
>schools? How, then, do you get kids, and particularly girls,
>to stay in school?
>
>And if you do manage to come to grips with those questions,
>what of what is taught in schools? How do you give children
>an education that is relevant and valuable? In a country
>that is comfortable with universal corruption, that thinks
>ethics are for the crows, how do you teach values in schools
>so as to bring about the generational change in attitude
>that we probably need? In fact, what values do you teach?
>
>Many hard challenges, as I said. But the longer we turn
>aside from tackling them, the harder they get. The neglect
>of education, the way it destroys so many Indian lives, is
>eating away at India far more surely than our belligerent
>neighbours are. You'd think that would be the true spittle
>on the face of Indians.
>
>Instead the clowns who don't want to sing a song are matched
>by buffoons who claim that melodious reluctance insults
>India.
>
>Why this quarter-hearted attitude towards educating all
>Indians? Part of the reason is that in India, the Ministry
>of Education has always been treated as a punishment
>posting, least desirable among the portfolios. When Maulana
>Azad, that giant of our freedom struggle, was appointed
>independent India's first Minister for Education, he and
>others saw it as a denigration of his stature and talents.
>He was bitterly disappointed that Nehru did not assign him
>Defence, Finance, Home or External Affairs rather than
>Education.
>
>Azad's successors in that ministry have had similar
>attitudes to education, besides being less than half the man
>the Maulana was. So what really is the country's most vital
>task -- educating its citizens -- has been overseen by men
>who were, at best, simply marking time until a more
>attractive option came up. They may have offered a few
>platitudes, voiced some plastic concerns. But they have all
>come and gone without making much of a difference to the
>slipshod way India educates Indians.
>
>So Murli Manohar Joshi is only the latest minister to talk
>about reforming education. Pursuing that noble aim, he wants
>all students to learn Sanskrit. He wants them to learn the
>Vedas and the Upanishads. He wants older girls to learn the
>special skills of keeping a home. He wants to "Indianise,
>nationalise and spiritualise" the curriculum.
>
>Now I want to know how learning a language not a soul speaks
>is going to help Indian children. I don't like this notion
>of channeling girls into the home-keeping route. And all the
>rhetoric that we've heard about teaching the Vedas and
>Upanishads, as well as about this "Indianise, nationalise,
>spiritualise" business, suggests that the real purpose of
>these proposals is a gaggle of political points to be
>scored. Not an overhaul of the education system.
>
>Still, if Joshi really wants to teach values via the Vedas
>and Upanishads, if he truly has no other motives, more power
>to him. What's inexplicable, even inexcusable, is that he
>has so little to say about the immediate urgencies in
>education. What is he going to do about missing school
>buildings, missing blackboards, missing toilets? Missing
>teachers? What is he going to do about students dropping out
>of school?
>
>Or, to put another twist on this, who is going to teach
>Sanskrit and home-keeping and the Vedas and the Upanishads,
>besides all else students must learn, if teachers arrive at
>school only to collect their pay? Who is going to learn
>those things if the students drop out at the rate they do?
>And if some fortunate school does happen to have both
>teachers and students, where will all this learning happen
>if it has no building? Or blackboard?
>
>Why is "Indianising" and "nationalising" education
>apparently unconcerned with these vital details?
>
>Why, too, was there no mention in this conference about the
>83rd Amendment to the Constitution, the one that will make
>education a fundamental right? On November 24 1997, the
>Parliament's Committee on Human Resource Development, a body
>of 60 MPs, presented a report to Parliament about this
>amendment. It said: "Universalisation of Elementary
>Education (UEE) has been recognised as a crucial input for
>nation building since Independence. ... [The 83rd Amendment]
>is expected to provide the desired momentum to the efforts
>being made in the country to achieve UEE by 2000 AD." 2000
>AD was just over two years away then, and one of those two
>years has been frittered away. The 83rd Amendment remains
>where it was: still to be approved by Parliament. Of course
>2000 AD was always a stupidly unrealistic target, but will
>there ever be some urgency for the issue?
>
>Not likely: there ensues, instead, a wrangle over a song.
>It's more than absurd, actually. It's criminal. Obscene.
>
>Yes, the real insult to Hindu culture is not that some
>people objected to singing "Saraswati Vandana" at that
>conference. That's just small change. The real insult to
>Hindu culture, and in fact to all of India, is that
>education has been treated so flippantly over the years,
>that it continues to be treated that way. That treatment has
>made the lives of millions of Indians -- Hindus, Christians,
>Muslims, whatever -- miserable.
>
>Yes, I really do want to know. Just how is learning Sanskrit
>going to fix that?
>
>How Readers responded to Dilip D'Souza's recent columns
>
>Dilip D'Souza
>
Mo
Mo
Class action
Three issues seem to have got jumbled up in the education
ministers conference hoopla. One, the so-called
RSS-sponsored changes in school curricula. Two,
sleight-of-hand amendments to the Constitution by ignoring
the rights of minorities as provided therein. Three, the
chanting of the Saraswati Vandana at the inauguration of the
meet...
It is now my considered opinion that the BJP should be
called the OSP -- for One Stupid Party; I've no doubt that
its collective brain was roaming the northern meadows in
search of tender grass. What in heaven's name could Murli
Manohar Joshi be thinking of? That the Opposition would lap
up his Vedic agenda? That it would miss this chance to
charge a saffron brainwashing of children? That the Great
Protectors Of India (eg, Sonia, wife of the one who amended
the Constitution to annul a Supreme Court verdict: "To take
from the minorities the guarantees which make ours a secular
state would be to surrender to those very forces which took
the life of the Mahatma") would sit by twiddling their
thumbs?
Sun Tzu said: "He will win who knows when to fight and when
not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both
superior and inferior forces. He will win who has the
capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign... If
you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory
gained you will also suffer a defeat. We cannot enter into
alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our
neighbours."
BJP's chaalaks should be aware that theirs is merely a
coalition government: They knowingly entered into an
alliance with several parties not wedded to the BJP
ideology. They *should* have known that Jayalalitha, Mamata
and the Akalis would revolt. They are guilty of being
ignorant of the temperament of their own partners; of not
discussing with them the education agenda before publicly
opening their big mouths. They are in no position to do
their own thing, for the sovereign never gave them a full
mandate. They are to blame for beginning a losing battle.
In my book, political imbecility is an unforgivable sin. I'm
mortified that the BJP didn't even realise that it was
doomed to be defeated. Sun Tzu also said: "We are not fit to
lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the
face of the country..."
The rumbling over education began last April, when Sahib
Singh Verma's regime launched an education programme in
Delhi's municipal schools. One part of the programme
included tips on healthy living, manners, respect for the
elderly, care for the environment, reading habits, traffic
rules, etc; another proposed changes in history textbooks:
New chapters would reject the outdated theory that the
Aryans were invaders who'd displaced the natives, and
explain that Babar built a mosque over the Ram Mandir. So
far, so good. But then, chapters on Gandhiji and Lincoln
were to be deleted -- and chapters on Keshavrao Hedgewar,
the founder of the RSS, added. Now, Hedgewar may be God to
swayamsevaks, but that hardly warrants a tutorial on him!
Naturally, the proposal was seen as "disseminating ideology
through textbooks" and "rewriting history under the guise of
moral education." Murli Manohar Joshi had plenty of warning:
It was predicted that the BJP's efforts would meet a
controversial end in Delhi itself since many schools opposed
the proposed changes. Two institutions even complained to
the Union HRD ministry, cautioning it to first have the
programme screened by the federal government and its
agencies like the NCERT...
And what are these earth-shaking issues for which Dr Joshi
entered battle -- from which he then had to flee with tail
tucked in dhoti? Courses on house-keeping for girls (only).
Compulsory Sanskrit from Class III. Mandatory instructions
on the Vedas and Upanishads from the primary to secondary
level, as well as in technical and vocational training
schools...
House-keeping for the little women folk, eh? I'll show you
how domesticated we are! I've observed that one branch of
Hindutvawadis -- notably those with loyalties to the likes
of Dr Joshi -- seems to consider women as appendages. I know
for I've been at the receiving end of affronts from several
overseas "reformers" (who of course can afford to preach
anything from a comfortable distance). The same goes for the
chauvinistic yobs in the VHP. They're no different from the
hypocrites of the Congress and CPI-M.
At a time when the world stands at the threshold of the most
sweeping revolution in history; in an era when
microprocessing is projected to soon subvert the
nation-state, creating a new form of social organisation,
the Information Society, WHY would I want my child to be
burdened with Sanskrit? Doesn't he have enough with Hindi,
English and his mother-tongue? In which country are even two
languages compulsory, for India to add a fourth...? Like
Latin, Sanskrit is defunct. Even in the plant kingdom, only
that which adapts, blends, intermingles and evolves,
survives. Why shouldn't natural selection be applicable to
language, too? What's with this necrophiliac itch to raise
the dead?
All that the Centre can do is ask state governments to
rectify the perversions that decades of Marxism and
Nehruvian Secularism have inflicted upon Indian history. And
it must do so with yards of proof to support its guidelines.
It has no right to mandate religious instruction; for that,
there are gurukuls and madarsas. It's up to parents to
decide whether their child should be taught religion and the
extent of it. If Dr Joshi has read the Gita, he should know
that in Hinduism, even spiritualism is optional. Besides,
since he professes Swadeshi, why follow the foreign UNESCO's
declaration on the need for spiritualism in education...?
But what makes me hopping mad is this: How DARE Murli
Manohar Joshi put Hinduism in a position where its ancient
scriptures faced rejection from pinko scum and
minority-appeasing mongrels! How dare he take the step of
proposing their study without knowing if it would be
received with due respect! How dare he embroil the Vedas and
Upanishads in a national tamasha! It's unforgivable. As far
as I'm concerned, this man is persona non-grata.
And now for the @!#$%*& pinkos. These slugs have no face to
reject the Saraswati Vandana or talk about the
"indoctrination of children" -- since it's they who used the
Durgapuja to woo the electorate of Bengal. Last year, well
before the panchayat elections, the CPI-M itself set up over
4,000 puja stalls statewide. The vultures flapped down on
the pandals because that's where the young gather -- the new
generation reluctant to align itself with Marxism. For the
first time ever, commies were allowed to participate in the
puja and help its organisers; though in a discreet manner,
of course -- to keep the theoretical Marxist bullshit
intact.
The Saraswati Vandana was played before IK Gujral. We heard
it before Sharad Pawar's address at the Akurdi municipal
corporation in Pune. The prayer has always been common at
schools and functions -- whichever the government: If you
notice, no 0ne from the Congress spoke against it -- except
for the Italian... But, didn't we recite "Our Father who art
in heaven" all through school? And yet these pinkos have the
gall to insult my religion by staging a walk-out?! Anil
Sarkar has the guts to say, "Today they will play THIS
TUNE..."?! Answer me, how would the Mosies have reacted?
Friggin Hindus have *no* bloody spine.
And what's Kanti Biswas sermonising about the (educational)
"need of the hour"? His party has a 16-year-old policy of
keeping English out of primary schools! Not to forget
Leftist gundagardi: Bengal's primary school councils, all
filled with CPI-M goons, blackmailed the Ramakrishna Mission
schools with the threat that if English instruction wasn't
halted, the monastic headmasters would be replaced with
state officials. For years have various bodies and political
parties been campaigning for re-introduction of English,
especially after it was realised that aspirants to the IAS
failed to make the grade because of inadequate knowledge of
English, and that the demand for English-medium schools was
exceptionally strong in even rural Bengal.
Do you know of the Private Universities Bill, tabled in
Parliament by Narasimha Rao's government? Fear of
antagonising the Left prevented two successive UF
governments from pursuing it. The Bill would have improved
higher education opportunities and allowed new institutions
to give state-run universities a race. The government wanted
industrial houses stepping into the private universities
sector, but since the CPI-M opposed the entry of private
entrepreneurs, that was that...
As for distortions in Indian history, I advise you to look
up Mr Arun Shourie's meticulously detailed essays on the
subject. Here are some quotes: "The explicit part of the
Circular issued by the West Bengal Government in 1989 in
effect was that there must be no negative reference to
Islamic rule in India... there must be absolutely no
reference to the destruction of the temples by Muslim
rulers, to the forcible conversion of Hindus, to the
numerous other restrictions which were placed on the Hindu
population. Along with the Circular, the passages which had
to be removed were listed and substitute passages were
specified...
"Itihash (Prachin), West Bengal Shiksha Parishad, 1994, on
page 94 gives an illustration of the ruins of Nalanda, it
says how important these seats of learning were. But it is
studiously silent on who it was that destroyed them. After
all, alluding to that would violate the Circular!
"And there is an illustration on the page to reinforce the
message into the child's mind: Captioned, Dharmiya Utpidan
(Religious Persecution), it shows a man in a bush-shirt
flogging a poor person with a whip. In the foreground is a
Brahmin, in a dhoti, with a chutia, a menacing frown,
directing him to do so."
Well, what do you expect from trash which worships Lenin and
Stalin? They invented propaganda and intellectual fascism!
However, what I find truly bizarre is Biswas's charge that
by ignoring the rights of "minorities" and substituting it
by the term "citizens," the BJP was trying to amend the
Constitution... Nope, try as I may, I do not understand why
anyone would want to first be set apart as a minority
member, and then also expect to be considered as part of the
national fabric. I don't get it at all...
How Readers responded to Varsha Bhosle's recent columns
Varsha Bhosle