Indian education is poised uncertainly at a historic crossroads. On the one hand, there are great expectations of the 60 days old BJP-led coalition government at the Centre swept into office on a tidal wave of aspirations for economic development, after ten years of disappointing rule by the Congress-led UPA coalition which failed to fulfill any of its promised reforms in education.
Perhaps the only notable achievement of the UPA-I and II governments was enactment of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 which makes it obligatory for the State (Central, state and local governments) to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the 6-14 age group. But even this long overdue Act is flawed legislation that has mendaciously passed on a part of the State’s obligation to private, independent schools, and unjustifiably penalises a huge number of private budget, no-frills primary-secondaries which have mushroomed across the country as a response to dysfunctional government schools (see p.80).
There are strong indications that prime minister Narendra Modi who won General Election 2014 for the BJP with his spirited advocacy of economic growth and full employment, appreciates that neither of these goals are attainable without substantial investment in human resource development. Unfortunately, the BJP is a constituent unit of the sangh parivar, a loose coalition of Hindu cultural outfits headed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the well-known revivalist organisation with strong majoritarian cultural traditions. And RSS and the sangh parivar seem more interested in revisiting and reviving the glories of ancient India than in preparing the world’s largest youth population for the 21st century.
For the past almost 15 years since this publication was imposed upon a reluctant public, our practice has been to report the news and prescriptions of education leaders and experts. However, in this issue we have written our own comprehensive, unprecedented prescription for the revival and resuscitation of Indian education — from preschool to postgraduation — albeit not without the aid and advice of education leaders and experts. The objective of this cover feature is to highlight the challenges which are pinning India’s schools, colleges and universities down, and to offer some suggestions which could serve as a starting point of a national debate on ways and means to reform and regenerate the country’s collapsing education system. To what extent this objective is achieved is for you to say. I warmly invite comments and criticism.
The special report feature written by managing editor Summiya Yasmeen which sends out an SOS to the public to save India’s budget private schools — a unique and laudable entrepreneurial response to the country’s under-performing 1.2 million government schools — is intimately connected with the cover story. Furthermore, this issue of EducationWorld is filled — perhaps overfilled — with a plethora of news reports, opinions and essays. Read on, you have a whole month.