India needs privatised and centrallised education
There is an urgent need of induction of privatisation policies in all aspects of the education system except for teachers and planners who should be government employees. A centrallised, autonomous Education society should be formed.
IT IS easy for everyone to smell a rat in government schemes and planning. Some even claim that if Chanakya had been alive today, he would have laid his hat down for the immaculate planning of goals that usually leads to a few benefiting instead of the intended recipients.
These beneficiaries are usually the NGO’s and politicians, who wait to grab free government land in the name of schools and make huge sums of money selling it to private players. There are also many NGOs in India which are run by the family members of politicians, business houses and bureaucrats.
There is an urgent need of induction of privatisation policies in all aspects of the education system except for teachers and planners who should be government employees. This privatised setup should be free of NGO control or that of small private bodies. Instead a huge and centrallised Education Society should be formed and become a part of the HRD ministry. This body should be autonomous like the Election Commission of India and should be the main force behind the selection, hiring and training of the teachers.
The services selection and the body should be equivalent to the administrative civil service levels of India like IAS, IFS, IPS etc. The teachers should meet the criteria laid down by this institution with the help of centralized exams conducted by UPSC including interviews.
The curriculum should be in English, Hindi and Sanskrit with the regional languages till Kindergarten. The Kindergarten should be till Class 6, The Junior or Middle school till Class X and Senior or Higher Secondary levels till Class XII which is similar to the existing system. NCERT should print and publish books in India and all private designing, authoring and implementation of school books should be banned except for reference books. These private schools adoption of variety of school books are a major havoc with child's education as many quarters of the society cannot afford them and a universal book would give a much required uniformity to the education system
Further, a system like the Kendriya Vidyalaya or the central school system, whose quality of education is at par with the best private institutions, should be adopted at a bigger scale.
In recent times, many announcements were made for developing the poor state of affairs in education, the most notable ones being the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
These announcements are:
- To progressively increase expenditure on education to around 6 percent of GDP.
- To support this increase in expenditure on education, and to increase the quality of education, there would be an imposition of an education cess over all central government taxes.
- To ensure that no one is denied of education due to economic backwardness and poverty.
- To make right to education a fundamental right for all children in the age group 6–14 years.
- To universalize education through its flagship programmes such as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Mid Day Meal.
One should remember that, education reforms are a two edged sword; harmful for some and beneficial for others. Today our education system has made our countrymen proud in many sectors and countries, not because of any government support or any private sector initiative but on the sheer backing of our old and erstwhile practices. The class X and Class XII boards prove a stiff competition for all the students and is excelled only through sheer hard work. It’s not education but this trait of quality to excel in competition which develops in the mindset of children and leads them to success in life.
The survival of the fittest would surely leave some in tears. But, by redesigning the policy just to please a few or to cure children of the fear of the boards is not the right thing to do.
The International competitive edge we enjoy today is because of our competitive system of learning. By dumbing down this system, we would lose our competitive edge and further hamper future generations.
The working group on secondary education has estimated a requirement of Rs1.45 lakh crores for expansion and achievement of universal education in India. A majority of this amount is being funded by United Nations and other grants. The best way to meet this expenditure is to have our educationalists export education or set up universities abroad. The teachers can be local but a majority should be Indian and the profits earned can be utilized for free education in India.
Private sector managed education should be banned except for administrative running of the institutions. The Government should concentrate in developing vocational training for the weak students only who are filtered out as misfits by the present system.
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