Classroom sums

Budgets are usually heavily into mantras, and this one was no exception. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha needed to demonstrate to the world that he has read Amartya Sen right, so he reiterated the by now familiar observation that 8220;access to primary education is critical for empowering people8221;. Sinha then proceeds to uncover an ambitious concept, the Education Guarantee Scheme. While the scheme sounds promising, scrutinising the fine print of the budget document yields very little. The minister seems so content with how the scheme sounds, that he doesn8217;t seem too bothered about how it would work. It hangs like a great illusion above the country8217;s dismal primary education scenario. And not just because the amount earmarked for this purpose in the budget document is Rs 3035.13 crore for the year 1999-2000 8212; less than half the amount a Parliamentary Standing Committee had computed as yearly investment to make elementary education universal in this country.Under the Education Guarantee Scheme, an elementaryschool is to be set up in every habitation which does not have one within a radius of 1 km. It may surprise the finance minister to know that educational authorities have long been claiming that this objective has already been achieved. The reality, however, is that even though there may be the pretense of a school within a kilometre of every habitation, it may not have a roof, a teacher or, worse, students. Elementary education is much more than the mere physical existence of a school. It needs special provision down the line. As it is, he is delightfully vague about how he is going to ensure education for all.

Listen to him: 8220;Initially, the local community would provide the premises and select a local person as a part-time teacher. Teaching material and other assistance will be provided by the Central and the state governments, while gram panchayats will mobilise contribution from the local community in cash and kind for running the school for at least two years.8221; Once this happens, the school will beupgraded on a permanent basis. The minister plans to have 1.8 lakh schools of this kind during the next three years of the Ninth Plan.

Cynics may be forgiven if they consider these national schools as notional ones. Surely the experience of 50 years of planned development having left an estimated 110 million children out of school should educate ministers of the dangers of being overly facile? What makes the minister sure that the 8220;local community8221; would 8220;provide the premises8221;? What makes the minister imagine that a 8220;local person8221; would work as a committed teacher? And, yes, what makes the minister imagine that gram panchayats, notorious for their casteist influence peddling, would efficiently run a school in an egalitarian fashion for two years? Indeed, those 1.8 lakh schools the minister hopes to kickstart with this budget seem destined for early failure. Universal elementary education has now come to be regarded as the true essence of human and national development. But before the nation canachieve that, it needs some elementary common sense.