The
need of the hour
We all
are part of a changing world. The socio-economic fabric
of our country is more and more being influenced by some
powerful organisations like the WTO and World Bank. Though
the common man might be somewhat impressed by the apparent
picture of prosperity, the actual situation is often camouflaged.
India
boasts of being the largest democracy. The main tenet of
democracy is to allow all citizens to have a voice in decisions
that would affect all, more simplistically, equal opportunities
for all citizens in every respect. And education is supposed
to enable people to overcome hurdles that obstruct the overall
development of individual. Has education played its role
in our country? Not exactly! The forces of liberalisation,
privatisation and globalisation are controlling every sphere
of activity. We keep hearing of the catch phrases 'universalisation
of education' and 'education for all'. It might appear to
be very promising but the reality has something else to
offer. On the one hand, we see lakhs of Government schools,
most of which have poor infrastructure, and on the other
hand, there is proliferation of schools which are outside
the control of State, like, expensive private schools, schools
run by religious institutions, non-formal schools, etc.
Within the State sector, there is a wide variety ranging
from the prestigious Navodaya Schools and Kendriya Vidyalays
to EGS schools and so-called alternate schools. What we
get to see from this entire scenario is not a type of education
which is universal in nature, but a multi track education
system which is creating a gap, increasing differences and
discriminating between the privileged few and unprivileged
many.
In recent
years, various high sounding schemes and programmes have
been introduced and implemented in the field of education,
chalked out by the international organisations. Actually,
these are making the public education system more and more
weak and the entire education system very discriminatory,
while increasing the chances of private investments and
FDIs to play a dominant role. With so many different types
of schools, with unending facilities, people are falling
into the trap of believing that they have so many choices
in hand to decide which school to opt for. The points of
contention here are : does provision of good quality of
education any way depend on the material/five star facilities
like swimming pools, ac classrooms, luxurious school buses,
etc? And then, this 'choice' is available to whom, only
to that section which can afford high fees. So, no uniformity
of opportunity here.
What
we look forward is to make an effort to bridge this widening
gap since what is happening in the field of education is
against the philosophy of democracy, of equity, of social
justice. It's not that our Government had never thought
in these lines. The vision of educating all in India, education
which will be equitable in quality, was mentioned quite
a few times, like in Article 45 of the Constitution, Kothari
Commission Report, National Policy on Education 1968 and
1986 et al. To tackle the present threatening situation,
a single school system is highly desirable, it has the potential
of ushering in a far more egalitarian society. This type
of education system is there in a number of countries. It's
there in capitalist countries like USA, Japan and France
for many years now. Socialist countries like Cuba and Russia
also have a very strong public education system which is
common to all and where the bulk of children study. These
countries register very high literacy rates. So why can't
India imbibe such an education system?
Education
has become a fundamental right but there are many more things
to be fulfilled. We have linked ourselves with like-minded
people and are part of alliances like NAFRE (National Alliance
for the Fundamental Right to Education) and WBEN (West Bengal
Education Network) sharing concern about this entire issue,
to resist the surrounding threats to equality of opportunity
and to generate public awareness. Ultimately, what universalisation
means is treating all members of the society on the same
basis.
In
the third week of August, we had an interesting visitor
from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. The person called Sonam
Wangchuk spearheads a non-Government organisation called
"Secmol" (Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of
Ladakh) which has been working for educational development
of the people of Ladakh since 1988. He had us enthralled
with his account of how his project "Operation New Hope"
gradually became a part of Government policy in his home
state. This was advocacy at its best - and what better way
of demonstrating how "Common School System" should be implemented
in our country keeping in mind our geographical, cultural
and ethnic diversity. Among many innovative steps introduced
by SECMOL, the most important was related to curriculum
- in Ladakh cultivation is practiced in rain shadow areas
whereas in the Geography textbooks children had to read
about rainfall helping in agriculture in India to which
they could not relate. This is where they brought in a change
in the curriculum. Having schools open during winter and
keeping them closed in summer/spring by utilising solar
heating in the sun-rich state to enable children participate
in the life of their community is another example of what
innovation can do.