Programmes initiated, not implemented
J.S. Rajput, The Asian Age
January 2, 2008

The educational initiatives taken in 2007 generated more controversies than confidence. Educational planning and programme implementation over the last couple of years have received far more criticism for their failures than appreciation for their achievements. New initiatives, which are essential and timely, include greater focus on vocational education, more institutions of excellence in technical and management disciplines, provisions of interest free loans in higher education, several scholarship schemes and universalisation of secondary education. The 19 per cent allocation of Eleventh Plan-funds to education is a positive gain.

All this could have galvanised the education system. Unfortunately, every ministry of human resource development (MHRD) initiative became suspect in the eyes of the general public because of the over emphasis on minorityism and reservations. Its over-enthusiastic response to the Sachar Committee Report further alienated the people who were convinced that the MHRD had a "hidden agenda" that was more political than educational in nature. So, what could have been a gain for the country stands lost in files, press releases and full-page advertisements, which further alienate the supposed beneficiaries. The situation deserves an objective scrutiny.

Achievements of the Indian education system receive considerable appreciation and commendation outside India. Our products have contributed significantly to the global IT revolution. And they have done so in spite of the deficiencies in our education system. Often national level achievement surveys report that an alarmingly large percentage of children in Classes IV and V find it difficult to write their names. But the system remains unmoved. The nation is very rightly proud of elite institutions like IIMs and IITs, it however, comes as a shock when the Times Higher Education World University Ranking includes no Indian university in its global list of the top 200.

Expanding education at every stage was necessary; in fact, the expansion that has taken place till date is still inadequate. Millions of children are outside the pale of school education, and only around eight per cent of youngsters in the appropriate age group are in higher education. Dilution in quality does take place in such situations, but the system and the implementers should be able to anticipate the problems and put in place the necessary checks and balances. Educational endeavours have missed this point. A couple of hundred thousand young persons getting green cards do not indicate that all is well with the education system.

In spite of the increased allocations of the last three years and those promised ahead, the government still does not have adequate resources or institutions to meet the needs of all those who should be in higher education. Even in developing countries, governments permit private players to enter the field and ensure through academic regulatory mechanisms that quality is maintained. Not only this, it is the healthy competition in terms of quality indicators that leads to further quality enhancement. But this aspect is practically missing from the Indian discourse on higher education. As a consequence, considerable demoralisation has affected the academics even in universities known for high quality educational achievements in teaching and research in the Fifties and the Sixties.

For the ills affecting the education system, even now considerable blame is put on Macaulay and his British masters who knew that to subjugate India, they had to "delink Indians from India," alienate them from their culture and do so by destroying their indigenous system of education. This criticism would have been apt if made six decades ago. Now, it appears to be an exercise in shifting responsibility to others to cover up policy inadequacies and programme failures. If Gandhi could assert in 1931 that the existing model was not fit enough to bring universal elementary education to all in India "even in next hundred years," those at the helm of educational affairs after independence could have paid some heed to the vision contained in this statement. He had also mentioned in the same speech that his model for free India was ready: Open schools in each village both for boys and girls. But independent India persisted with the then existing alien-transplanted model and ignored Gandhi.

Enhancing resource allocation is certainly a welcome step, but it has to be supplemented by greater school-university-society interaction, which is not taking place. If this takes place, it would increase confidence among people and bring credibility to the system.

Further private enterprise in education has to be accepted as a necessity, and therefore, should be encouraged to enter education to extend its outreach and inculcate values among the products. Those running private enterprises in education are fed up of the hurdles created by the education departments and the regulatory bodies. The existing system makes everyone sweat profusely before permitting them to open a school, a college or a professional institution in particular. It may sound like a cliché, but is a hard fact that the Indian education system needs to take an incisive look on the functioning of its regulatory bodies. It must be professionally ascertained whether these are bringing in any value addition to the system or eroding its credibility. India needs big expansion in practically every sector of education, but the legacy of quota-permit-licence raj still persists in government offices. The common man, unable to afford the high fee-charging "public" schools, laments about the neglect of schools and the institutions funded out of public money, but to no avail.

Public-private partnership in education is not only desirable but a necessity at this juncture. Private initiatives deserve encouragement, but with clear indications that education shall never be treated as a purely commercial enterprise. It shall always have a pronounced socio-cultural angle within the values associated with education that will prepare young persons for progress ahead. This government has to ensure that there is a reasonable regional spread of such initiatives.

Situations like degree level engineering institutions getting concentrated in the four southern states must be avoided.

The challenge is to achieve an attitudinal transformation within the system and to ensure that whatever is framed as policy, is implemented with a sense of commitment. A drastic change in work culture is a pre-requisite. That is the key for implementing quality enriched initiatives in education.