Author: Madhav Chavan (Box By Ramesh Vinayak; Ambreesh Mishra)
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Education is more a centrestage subject today in policy-making than it was ever before. The change in the view on education occurred perhaps in the mid-1990s as international aid agencies and the World Bank started talking about investment in primary education and its socio-economic returns. As the Indian economy was liberalised and the promise of high growth rates began to look real, the focus of policy began shifting towards a qualitatively superior education system that was capable of serving much larger numbers of children. The two arguments together power the consensus on the need for education while the conflict between the two is what prevents a consensus on the 'what' and the 'how' of education delivery.
Rajiv Gandhi's policy initiatives, including the seven technology missions, attempted to integrate social justice with economic development in the mid-1980s. The thrust on literacy and education, which was an integral part of this policy, also suffered a derailment from which we are just beginning to recover. While expenditure on education rose from about 3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to about 4 per cent of GDP between 1980 and 1991, it has remained stagnant at 3.8 per cent over the past decade while GDP has increased in leaps and bounds as a result of a growing economy. It is only recently that the Union Government has made a substantial financial contribution. In contrast with the 1980s, the political picture today is highly fragmented with different parties and alliances ruling in different states and the Centre. This makes ideological unity much more difficult but it is possible to build a consensus on common programmatic objectives.See the full content of this document
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On a New Slate ; Quality Education, Not Just Education for All, Is What Is Required in India. For This, the Mindset of 'Poor Schools for the Poor' Must Change and Academic Support Systems Turn More Responsible.
Of course, several issues such as regular attendance of children and teachers, disruption of school functioning and unevenness of quality of schools persist. The findings of both the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2005 and the NCERT assessment in earlier years paint a grim picture of poor learning achievements of in- school children-nearly 50 per cent cannot read, write, or do basic arithmetic in spite of spending four-five years in school. These challenges have to be met and steps have been taken towards impr...
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