Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) Even if belatedly, primary-secondary education is becoming an important election issue — at least in state legislative assembly elections. Credit for this must primarily accrue to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which against all expectations swept the Delhi state assembly elections in 2015 and 2019 and also the Punjab state election last year. Reform of K-12 education — and especially bringing government schools on a par with private schools — is given high importance in AAP’s election campaigns. Moreover after being voted into office, the AAP government of Delhi has walked the talk by allocating 25 percent of its annual budget for school education — spruced up the infrastructure of government schools, provided smart uniforms to children, introduced computers and even sent principals and teachers of government schools for training to Finland and Singapore, unprecedented initiatives for public schools. And the outcomes of these initiatives have been equally unprecedented. Delhi government schools claim CBSE board exams results on a par with private schools. Moreover in the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings 2022-23 — the largest and most comprehensive worldwide — the Delhi government’s Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) primary-secondary schools were ranked #1 and #2 among state government schools countrywide with four ranked in the Top 10. AAP’s sweeping victories in Delhi and Punjab attributed in large measure to its primary-secondary school reforms agenda, has not gone unnoticed in Karnataka which goes to the polls on May 10. All major political parties including the Congress, BJP, JD(S) and AAP, which released their election manifestos on May 1-2, have allotted substantial space to upgradation of the state’s 71,000 government primary-secondary schools — a hitherto neglected issue in Indian electoral politics. An estimated 50 million people in the state are eligible to vote for 224 assembly seats in Karnataka (pop.65 million) next week. The ruling BJP, which is pulling out all the stops — including road shows featuring prime minister Narendra Modi — to win a second term in office, has made big K-12 education reform promises in its manifesto. Among them: to increase the budget allocation for education to 6 percent of GSDP (gross state domestic product) to “ensure quality education for every student in the state, as per NEP guidelines”; to launch PRE-KSHANA Mission (pre-primary education) to ensure that all pre-primary and primary students achieve foundational literacy and numeracy by 2025; upgradation of 65,911 anganwadis and to establish IIT-like Karnataka Institute of Technology in every district statewide. Moreover if elected, it promises to introduce the Visvesvaraya Vidya Yojane under which “the state government will partner with eminent individuals and institutions for holistic upgradation of government schools to top class standards”. Likewise, the main opposition Congress party’s manifesto promises to restore “the true values of Bharat and Karnataka” and scientific temper by rewriting textbooks (a reference to the BJP rewriting history texts); fill teacher vacancies in government schools and colleges within a year; make the compulsory mid-day meal more nutritious, and regulate fees of private schools. More importantly,…
