The primary education system in India reeks of gross negligence and incompetence on the part of the government. It is shocking that India spends a meagre 3.6% of GDP on education, notwithstanding the size of 290 million students to be taught. Despite the vociferous claims of the incumbent parties doing well on educational front; it just turns out to be hollow in the light of the fact that –India’s illiterate population equals the population of USA. India when compared to most of the developing countries like Brazil, Russia, South-Africa etc ranks far behind in the Human Development Report (HDR 2006-07) of UNDP. In order to be an economic power and a global player ---in the long-term—India just cannot ignore the potential of primary education system. No matter how much the government does to improve the higher education system in the country, with a near moribund primary education it would just turn out to be a wild goose chase. 9 out of 10 students in class 1 won’t get into colleges!!!! This hole in the education “bucket” needs to be plugged—sooner the better.
Looking forward what can be done to improve the whole educational milieu in the country. After reading a number of reports and articles I believe certain bold and new steps could be taken by our policy-makers— at least to start with:
1) Privatise primary education. By privatisation it shouldn’t mean exit of government from primary education. Operations like Mid-day meal scheme, Maintenance and teaching staffs etc can be taken care by the private players. While government’s role would comprise developing course curriculum and management. There are innumerable government primary and middle schools across the country. But most of them are in a dilapidated and neglected state. A Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) model can be envisaged. If railway can do a turnaround using a PPP model why not education system?
2) The teaching staffs --which are already a few --are not performing well. Most of the schools today are understaffed --with 1 teacher per 120 students. Most of the teachers are reluctant to perform and are mostly truant from their work. The government must decentralise the primary education system. By this I mean, the teachers must be made directly answerable to the Village panchayat and the parents. The Panchayat should be given the authority to audit the performance and use of funds in the school. A monthly report and a performance appraisal of the teachers must be done. By doing this the teachers would be directly answerable to his “Customers”.
3) Why should the Higher education be subsidised? A major portion of government’s education spend is lost in form of subsidies. Only a small fraction is left for primary education. In the first place why should students pay only $45 per month in IITs when students can easily pay $2000 for US universities? In India the higher you study the more subsidies you get!! Such anomalies must be addressed soon so that primary education is not left in lurch and dearth of funds.
4) The problems of poor education quality will not go away by control but by decontrol. As of today education system still remains regulated by the government. Education system is perceived as “Not-for-Profit” domain. This has to change. Education too can be run as a profitable business and at the same time not hurting National interests. This sense of misplaced anxiety—a vestige of pre-liberalisation period--- must vanish. FDI must be allowed into higher education at least. Recently the government was mulling over this, let’s hope such progressive initiatives are expedited.
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