No Child's Play
Joydeep Mitra
No Child's Play
Times Of India editorial: http://www.timesofindia.com/today/27edit2.htm
The story of 23 school children trekking for three days and nights from a
remote tribal area in Maharashtra to the office of the Tribal Commissioner to
protest against their crumbling education system makes a mockery of the
government's tall claims of enforcing compulsory primary education. The
remarkably courageous little children were not asking for much. " We want
to study and be good like city people, but our future is in the hands of
the wrong people," they lamented while submitting a memorandum on the
crippling obstacles they face in their local school. Encouraged by an absentee
headmaster, the teachers rarely attended classes, the watchman terrorised and
assaulted the students, no uniforms were purchased in the last two years and
the children's food was filled with worms and stones. Yet, enduring all these
odds, the children still wished to remain within the education system. The
story has a happy ending, action has been taken against the offenders. But this
is the exception rather than the rule. While all the political party manifestos
have made honeyed promises about education for all -- the BJP plans to deliver
this by 2010 while the others have wisely refrained from mentioning any date
-- past experience proves that once the elections are over this issue will be
put on the backburner. While only the naive would expect either compulsory
primary education or indeed total literacy in the next 10 to 12 years, the
government ought at least to be taking some measures to transform the
education system in a meaningful manner. Legislation alone is not enough
as has been proved by the shoddy state of primary education in the 14
states and four Union Territories which have passed laws making it
compulsory several years ago.
Today, a staggering 6.3 crore children in the age group of six to 14 are out
of school. The main reason for this is cited as lack of funds. But the
Maharashtra example shows even when funds are available, they are devoured by
a corrupt and shortsighted system. Disturbingly, while lamenting the lack of
funds, state governments have been steadily reducing their budgetary
allocation for elementary education even as the Centre has been stepping up
its share. However, every major scheme which the government has poured money
into has been a failure -- Operation Blackboard comes to mind immediately. In
other developing countries, legislation has been followed up by greater
monetary and infrastructural input. In India too, a number of positive
suggestions have been made by the last government which could contribute to
strengthening the education system. Among these, one of the most important,
was to upgrade the status of teachers since teaching is one of the most
demeaned professions today. A review of the poor salary structure and lack of
career advancement in teaching will pay rich dividends. The mid-day meal
scheme which is in a shambles in most states could be revived with expenses
being shared equally by the Centre and the states. With the constitutional
enactment, the stage is set for the realisation of the promise of universal
primary education. If the next government has the political will and
administrative resolve, India could well begin a new learning process.