India: Wrong to Education Act
Atul Chatterjee
August 06, 2008
It was enshrined in the Indian Constitution that every child till the age of 14 would receive education. It did not happen, now the government has to pass a Right to Education Act which says more or less the same thing. Unfortunately passing an Act does not mean the ground realities are going to change.
Firstly, consider those who are above the age of 14 and did not receive adequate education till that age. They will remain unlettered. It is a proven fact in education that if the parents are educated (or even literate) the child has a better chance of being educated.
Second, children drop out in rural areas because of the pressure to work, and this pressure is usually seasonal. To date all time tables are drawn with very little regard to this fact. The government has not thought of imparting education on a campaign basis.
Third, the shortage of good teachers is acute, so campaigns would be even more effective. Teacher training does take place, but teachers do not have to go through any distance education course or further education to improve themselves on their own.
Fourth , for those who have become literate there is very little further educational material. Few mobile libraries, no
educational CDs, very little drama. All in all there is no fun in education, it is all about abc and 123. So even those who do become literate or semi-educated don´t stay that way because there is no reinforcement.
Fifth, the government and apex educational bodies treats it as an input – output game. The inputs should be 1 teacher for 40 students, one classroom for forty students, one blackboard, 180 teaching days, one book for maths, one for social sciences …, one mid day meal providing 600 calories, three teacher training workshop per year, one principal to manage the whole school, one cleaner etc. The output of all these inputs is literacy and education.
The net result of this approach has been that there are students who are 11 and cannot recognize numbers between zero and ninety nine, and other horrendous facts that emerge when tests are conducted by external bodies.
(Some tests have been conducted on teachers with equally disastrous results.)
Sixth, government resources are spread equally to all, this results in everyone remaining uneducated. There is very little performance based resource allocation at the level of the school.
This is roughly the way the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has begun to work. From a brilliant programme started in the mid – 90s and then called the district primary education program (DPEP), it is now in shambles. And what has been outlined above is without going into the way finances are being mishandled.
However, along with all this bad news and views comes some good news. The state of Kerala has bucked this trend, it has achieved near hundred per cent literacy. In fact the state is moving towards e-literacy and is already taking steps in that direction.
Education is on the concurrent list, it is the responsibility of the government at the Centre and each State. Possibly in the light of Kerala´s experience it should be made the responsibility of Kerala alone with each of the other States. So Kerala could tell the other states what to do i.e. the Centre should abdicate its role and hand it over to Kerala.
Firstly, consider those who are above the age of 14 and did not receive adequate education till that age. They will remain unlettered. It is a proven fact in education that if the parents are educated (or even literate) the child has a better chance of being educated.
Second, children drop out in rural areas because of the pressure to work, and this pressure is usually seasonal. To date all time tables are drawn with very little regard to this fact. The government has not thought of imparting education on a campaign basis.
Third, the shortage of good teachers is acute, so campaigns would be even more effective. Teacher training does take place, but teachers do not have to go through any distance education course or further education to improve themselves on their own.
Fourth , for those who have become literate there is very little further educational material. Few mobile libraries, no
educational CDs, very little drama. All in all there is no fun in education, it is all about abc and 123. So even those who do become literate or semi-educated don´t stay that way because there is no reinforcement.
Fifth, the government and apex educational bodies treats it as an input – output game. The inputs should be 1 teacher for 40 students, one classroom for forty students, one blackboard, 180 teaching days, one book for maths, one for social sciences …, one mid day meal providing 600 calories, three teacher training workshop per year, one principal to manage the whole school, one cleaner etc. The output of all these inputs is literacy and education.
The net result of this approach has been that there are students who are 11 and cannot recognize numbers between zero and ninety nine, and other horrendous facts that emerge when tests are conducted by external bodies.
(Some tests have been conducted on teachers with equally disastrous results.)
Sixth, government resources are spread equally to all, this results in everyone remaining uneducated. There is very little performance based resource allocation at the level of the school.
This is roughly the way the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has begun to work. From a brilliant programme started in the mid – 90s and then called the district primary education program (DPEP), it is now in shambles. And what has been outlined above is without going into the way finances are being mishandled.
However, along with all this bad news and views comes some good news. The state of Kerala has bucked this trend, it has achieved near hundred per cent literacy. In fact the state is moving towards e-literacy and is already taking steps in that direction.
Education is on the concurrent list, it is the responsibility of the government at the Centre and each State. Possibly in the light of Kerala´s experience it should be made the responsibility of Kerala alone with each of the other States. So Kerala could tell the other states what to do i.e. the Centre should abdicate its role and hand it over to Kerala.