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| Universal education: far away | | | Sunita Vakil
Rather than just passing the law, its implementation and execution is the need of the hour.
Kossuth has well said, "It is on the sound education of the people that the security and destiny of every nation chiefly rest". This rings very true since it is an established fact that no country where the education of the youth is neglected can achieve any progress. The great end of education is to make human beings "humane" in the real sense. Definitely, universal schooling of a decent standard could contribute to the nation's development in the near future. It was towards this end that the union cabinet cleared the long pending Right to education bill, the biggest move towards providing a much needed boost to the country's education sector. Earlier, the Right to education in constitution had not been made compulsory. Only phases of advanced education were modified upon. But the poor could not avail of the benefits since they had to cross the barrier of primary education in the first place. Now more than sixty years after Independence, the government has only emphasised the need for primary universal education by drafting a legislation that guarantees a better opportunity for poor and deprived children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. The Right to Education Bill, that promises free education for every children in the 6 - 14 years age group could address the problem of illiteracy in India, if properly implemented. But the moot question is - will the new bill ensure that every child goes to school? Statitics reveal that India has 17 million child labourers under the age of 14, the highest in the world. Will they be able to avail the benefits of education bill? As such, free education programme does not exempt such children subsisting on very low family income levels from incurring related costs like transport, book, clothing ,which they can't even dream to afford. In such a case, won't it be a cruel joke played upon them?
Though the need for universal primary education cannot be over emphasised, it took the government 61 long years to clear the Right to Education Bill, which promises free and mandatory education for the children between the ages of 6 and 14. The bill that has been around for many years is the enabling legislation to notify 86th constitutional ammendment that gives every child between the ages of 6 to 14 years the right to free and compulsory education. In fact, it was Gandhiji in 1937 who first voiced the need for the universal education. But the government did not rise to the occasion. The constitution also alluded to it causally with a plea to the state to "endeavour to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14". But neglect of the elementary education continued substantially for decades after. Then things started looking up in 2002 when education was made a fundamental right in the 86th ammendment of the constitution. In 2004, the BJP led NDA government drafted a bill but could not introduce it since they lost the elections. When the UPA came to power, it made some changes in the 84th constitutional ammendment and the bill has been hanging fire as the funding responsibility of the states and the centre has turned into a bickering contest. Thus a bill that should have been implemented in the 60's was agonisingly slow in shaping up and lack of resources was cited often as the vague explanation. Now that the union cabinet has finally cleared the bill that has eluded the country for 61 years, it remains to be seen whether it will be passed before the term of the present parliament is over or is allowed to lapse at this final stage. It is also time to probe as to what has stopped our leaders from sidetracking such a serious policy matter by denying free education all these years. Indeed, the nation cannot afford to lose much more time to make primary education universal in the proper sense. It is a matter of concern that 3 years after the Right to Education Bill 2005 was passed by the parliament, access to elementary school has remained elusive to 50 per cent of children in India. As is obvious, non implementation of any initiatives proposed has all along been a serious drawback to the cause of education in the country. The result is that, we lag far behind several countries which attained Independence some five or six decades ago.
It needs no reiteration that the need of the hour is real and enduring action on the ground rather than symbolic gestures. Merely passing the laws will not suffice. Their implementation and execution is more important. In fact, the speedy approval of the bill has been credited to the fast approaching Assembly as well as General elections. The very fact that full details of the bill are to be made public only after the Election Commission is taken into confidence is proof enough that the UPA government cares more for political mileage rather than future prosperity of the country.
The enactment of the Right to Education Bill may be a step in the right direction but its ambiguity allows for plenty of scope to pass the buck between the centre and the state. For instance, the bill may envisage some key provisions like 25 per cent reservation for the disadvantaged children, no donation or capitation etc. But it is not clear whether the centre and the states, which are expected to foot the bill, will be able to cough up an astronomical seem of Rs.2 lakh crore for the successful implementation of the bill. It is also not known whether the states have given the go ahead for being on board with the scheme. Then there is the question of providing 25 per cent reservation to the students from poor backgrounds in these elite schools which the latter have earlier opposed on the plea that it will lower their standards. Also there is the issue of upper class culture which the poor children will find hard to fit into. It can therefore be rightly gauged that the bill will not receive the desired co-operation from the private sector. Despite the fact that this draft bill aims to provide an elementary school in every neighbourhood, it surely cannot ensure that all underpreviledged children reach the classrooms.
Merely establishing schools in every neighbourhood or passing laws without substantiative action is not a feasible solution to attain the dream of achieving universal education. Though the Ministry of HRD is gloating over its touted feats in education reforms, the reality is that access to elementary educative remains elusive to millions of children in the country. While the majority of them do not get enrolled in the first place, up to 50 per cent of those who reach the class rooms drop out before they reach class VIII. The quality of education in government run schools is too pathetic to talk about. The same state of affairs prevails in the schools in villages and towns. Run down buildings, over crowded classrooms, poor ventilation and couldn't careless teachers complete the picture of the pattern of Education in our country. Will the new bill change the apathetic state of our institutions of growth and contribute to nation building? We have enacted various legislations to further the cause of education but bare essentials remain ignored till date. The very fact that the long promised allocation of 6 per cent of GDP for education has remained exactly where it was - only on paper, amply illustrates this point.
Although it has been long back that we achieved Independence but millions in India are still waiting for some of their most basic fundamental rights like reservations for women, uniform civil code etc. Clearly, six decades of democracy has yielded nothing on these issues. Although the government has now become wise to the vote bank potential for making education a fundamental right, the goal of achieving universal primary education is still far far away. |
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