- Growing up in an agrarian country like India, the majority of us would have experienced what was on offer vis-à-vis education, supporting infrastructure provisioned at the portals of learning at that time, teaching aids, quality of teachers, as also well-defined inclusive curriculum not restrained in developing excellent temperament in the children seeking to excel in a chosen field. Of course, there were hardly a few private schools available where English medium teaching was considered privileged though not many could afford to get enrolled owing to its inherent exclusivity.
PC: Murali
- Those who could not afford to opt for the private schools had to settle for public schools, also known as government schools, to embark on the journey to get educated fighting against apparent incompetency, lack of finesse, glaring differences in quality of teaching, non-existent basic amenities, and far from the conducive environment for gaining knowledge. Call it a travesty of justice or failure to build on the momentum gained since independence and subsequent opening of the economy in the form of liberalization and globalization, the public schools continue to remain neglected though technological advancements over the years are revolutionary.
- The policymakers of the country have failed to improve the lot of the public schooling system whereas the private schools have succeeded in living up to the expectations as also keeping up with the emerging scenario played out on the global platforms elsewhere. Failure of the successive governments to increase the spending on the crucial education sector is telling as the present 3% of the GDP is proving inadequate. Anything less than allocating 6% of the GDP to the education system would yield limited returns which is utterly insufficient in a country like ours. Expectedly, the results are there for all to see as the latest statistics reveal.
PC: FE Online
- Recently, the Union Education Minister went on record stating that 42,000 government schools do not have toilets and 15,000 do not have drinking water facilities alongside many other constraints like trained teachers as well as a few mentioned in the above paragraph. As depressing as these revelations are but none of us are not overly surprised since the apathy prevalent on the ground is more distressing while visiting public-run schools in any of the areas, rural, semi-urban or urban, the story is no different. Exasperation at the way these schools are existing would be a very modest admission to make.
- Here we are trumpeting about digitization, New India, aspirational society, the emerging superpower, and aiming to set foot on the moon though consistently unable to provide level playing fields for the marginal and deprived children whose only way to embrace education at public schools are in such an appalling condition. The people in power should make earnest efforts at improving on one of the most fundamental rights by leaving no stone unturned in pumping funds to spruce up the education sector, especially public schools, to enable bright children from unprivileged backgrounds to have a crack at a quality education.
