Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Schools without roofs. Schools without teachers. Schools perched on filthy junkyards. Schools that are not schools but memorials.
A series on Uttar Pradesh8217;s temples of learning run by this newspaper should have made Union Minister of Education Murli Manohar Joshi recoil in horror and rush to make inquiries for himself 8212; because it8217;s important that he doesn8217;t take us at our word. But, from all evidence, the HRD ministry continues to remain an oasis of calm. And for good reason perhaps. What8217;s new about all this anyway?
As it is, this year8217;s Economic Survey had indicated that his government is not prepared to put its money where Joshi8217;s mouth is 8212; that far from the 6 per cent of GDP promised years ago, expenditure now stands at some 3.66 per cent, and falling.
Of course, it would be most unfair to place the entire onus for the situation on Joshi8217;s shoulders. The state government which had rashly vowed, among other things, to transform the life of the Dalit child, is also guilty of an apathy so manifest that even schools in Mayawati8217;s birthplace 8212; which should stand high in terms of emotional resonance for a leader who takes her birthdays so seriously 8212; and, in fact, even her old school, remain empty shells where little or no learning takes place.
It8217;s not as if her political adversary, Mulayam Singh Yadav, fares much better, despite having set up two schools in the village of Saifayi. There is a lesson here for politicians of every persuasion. It takes more than tokenism to ensure literacy. If they are serious about education it8217;s time for them to go back to the blackboard.
