Government and Primary Education

Let’s shift focus back now to the issue of government’s role in primary and secondary education. This is one area that has been grossly neglected by successive governments while it is also the one area where any government is supposed to play a pivotal and more active role. While India produces a substantially higher number of graduates and post graduates that our communist neighbor China, the literacy rate and the number of children availing basic primary and secondary education is far lower than China. This highlights the stark inequalities and injustices which exist in India’s educational system and government policies. It makes absolutely no sense why, despite these inequalities, governments have always taken a keen interest in higher education while exhibiting a blatant disregard for the vast illiterate population of India who are in desperate need of basic primary and secondary education. Perhaps it is because neither the media nor the general public regards this as an issue of utmost importance.

Before moving on to the immediate steps which are required to be taken on behalf of the government on this issue, it is important to understand the challenges they face. A majority of the illiterate and uneducated population of this country is comprised of the rural poor. The extreme poverty of these families leaves them with no choice but to use their children as commodities. At an early age children are sent off to work as domestic helps or as agricultural or construction laborers. As a matter of fact the number of children in rural poor households is usually quiet high because children are viewed as a potential source of income to the family.

This is precisely why, despite the existence of government schools in villages, the rural poor are hesitant to send their kids to school. Of course, there are other issues such as the pathetic infrastructure and faculty available at such rural government schools and the irresponsibility of the faculty appointed, which act as added deterrents. Also, most government schools in villages provide education only till class 5 beyond which, if the child is interested in studying, he would have to travel many miles in order to attend the closest government high school which is usually located only in prominent towns.

Education must be a basic right which no individual can be denied. The quality of government schools must be rapidly enhanced to levels which rival their private counterparts. As a matter of fact there must not be any private schools in the first place. All the private schools in the country offering education from class 1 to class 10 must be completely nationalized. The distribution of schools in the country must be altered based on the population distribution so that students do not need to commute hundreds of kilometers in order to study in a good school. The quality of education in all schools must be on par with the quality that currently exists in the best of private schools in the country. Well, qualified teachers must be recruited and trained by the government. They must be offered a respectable salary in line with that offered currently in private schools. Strict rules pertaining to attendance and other disciplinary issues must be framed for the teachers to follow and a discipline-performance based pay scale must be prescribed.

The fee charged for the students must be proportional to their family income while also taking into account other variables/factors such as the sources of income, existing wealth or property reserves, number of dependent members in the family, etc. For students belonging to BPL (below poverty line) families, tuition, books, clothing and food should be provided free of cost while also offering a nominal stipend of about 1000 rupees a month for each student. This way, the amount they make by coming to school would exceed what they might earn working as domestic helps or as agricultural laborers, which would be incentive enough to convince their families to send them to school. Of course, the stipend will be offered only if a stipulated minimum attendance criterion is met.

Division of society on the basis of financial circumstances of families must be revised. The current definition for BPL families is obsolete and outdated. These must be revised immediately. It is acknowledged in various circles that 10% of this country possesses 90% of its wealth, so it would only be fair that this 10% also bears the expenses of 90% of the country. A large proportion of government work force must be deployed to ensure effective functioning of the primary and secondary education system in India. A large work force will be necessary in order to keep a track on the financial health of each and every family in India. The issues of implementation and budgetary concerns or allocations for such policies will be discussed in ample detail in the following chapters.