"All the Knowledge of the East isn't worth a shelf of English Books" thundered Lord Macaulay as he delivered his famous 1835 "Minutes on education", setting the ground stone for Anglicized education for the masses of India. With a single stroke of pen, he would change the destiny of Indians, who were, till then, educated mainly in informal "Gurukuls" and Oriental languages like sanskrit and persian.
There after Education to Indians would be delivered in "Her majesty's" English and they would be accessing western knowledge bank of science , mathematics and engineering.
Later on, not without some serious persuading, the British introduced a series of landmark acts such as Woods dispatch(1857), Saddler act, Harthog act, Indian universities act(1905) and Sergeants plan etc finally culminating into the education system as we know it today.
Today , we have the largest pool of English educated populous, something which is so adequately put to use by our IT barons and our "Knowledge processing" industry, sometimes derided unkindly called "Cyber Coolies".
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Right to education, as bought out by govt of India Today, is an enormous undertaking having colossal consequences for the future of our nation. We have around 22 crore children going to school in India, but only 1.8 crore actually make it beyond 12th standard. The "Other" majority either drop out or are absorbed into invisible occupations, sometimes Non-voluntarily.
With india known more for its "LAWS" rather than "ORDER", it is scary to think of such large pool of unemployed, uneducated and potentially hostile youngsters stalking our society of tomorrow.
Therefore, needless to say,t he challenge of Goverment, which thusfar has shown exceptional courage to implement social reforms , is in making these students stay put beyond 12th standard.
The Bill seeks to provide education to every child within 6-14 years as a "Constitutional" right. If any public school fails to provide/ enroll him, he has a right to move the Supreme court directly, which , it is hoped , would be a powerful deterrant. It plans an enormous infrastruce upliftment of present Public schooling in inida, which comprises of 93% of india's schools. It provides for quality teachers with set qualifications, failing to reach which means removal from thier job. It seeks minimal attendence of Teachers at school. Furthermore, it seeks to provide 25% reservation in private schools to disadvantaged and poor children.
But education is a state subject, which means onus of the implementation of this landmark bill rests on State goverments. We know how notoriously inefficient the schools of UP and bihar for eg , are, and the challenge would be to convincing the state govt and the public at large to proactively work towards betterment of the system.
Mayawati,not surprisingly, has already "Complained" about the lack of funds to implement this act, which would be laugable if not Tragic when seen in context of her audacious spending spree on Stautes and grand parks.
How would the state guarentee the quality of the education when even most of the engineers passing out , about 5 lakh annually, are labelled "Unemployable" and below Par?
Systemic corruption and gender inequality are some of the more pressing issues.
Furthermore, how will state convince people to send kids to school when thier economic status presses for more viable option of sending him to do labour?
Not withstanding all these loopholes, it is, without doubt, a monumental bill in the field of education which would, if implemented properly, change the face of the nation forever.
Hearing kapil sibal, the union minister for education speak, was a delight , and a reminder that we Indians have scaled the peaks of civilization and public discourse. He sounded remarkably candid about potential problems and, oddly enough for a politician, presented a statesmanly picture of future.
His impeccable demeanor and resolve, we hope, would make sure disadvantaged kids from all background gain access to education, and in doing so, would bridge the rapidly growing economical and educational divides.
