Education Shining

To place things in perspective, let me quote from the Approach Paper to the Tenth Plan 2002-07: 8220;Our performance in the field of education is one of the most disappointing aspects of our developmental strategy. Out of approximately 200 million children in the age group 6-14 years, only 120 million are in schools and net attendance in the primary level is only 66 per cent of enrolment. This is completely unacceptable and the Tenth Plan should aim at a radical transformation in this situation. Education for all must be one of the primary objectives of the Tenth Plan. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which has been launched to achieve this objective, indicates a strong reiteration of the country8217;s resolve to give the highest priority to achieve this goal during the Plan period.8221; Remember the Approach Paper to the Tenth Plan was published in September 2001. Surely, the Planning Commission wasn8217;t lying. So, in the 6-14 age group, 80 million were out of school in 2001.

Cut to the Tenth Plan document proper, circa 2002: 8220;Out of the approximately 207.76 million children in the 6-14 age group in 2000, the number of children not attending the schools is 40 million. Those outside the school system are mostly girls, SCs/STs children, working children, urban deprived children, disabled children and children in difficult circumstances. Providing access and motivation to these to be taken up during the Tenth Plan8230;8221;

Notice how 80 million has dramatically dropped to 40 million. Perhaps the Approach Paper had dated data. Perhaps the right figure was indeed 40 million in 2002. From 40 million in 2002 to 10 million very early in 2004 is a remarkable drop. True, there were official targets that all children should be in school by 2003, all children should complete five years of schooling by 2007 and all children should complete eight years of schooling by 2010. But these are official targets. In every country, including India, citizens don8217;t believe official targets. They are not meant to be achieved. This is one of the rare instances where an official target has actually been achieved. Of course, 10 million are still out of school. But at the rate at which we are going, by the time the Indian cricket team is back from Pakistan, these 10 million children will also be in school. And considering we have difficult states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa to consider, I think this performance is nothing short of spectacular. Far superior to 42 per cent export growth in December 2003 or 8 per cent GDP growth in 2003-04.

After all, these two performances are rates of growth and therefore benefit from low bases. Here, we are talking about absolute numbers. To place things in perspective again, we are hardly two months into 2004. Therefore, 30 million children have been brought into school in 12 months. More than 80,000 have been brought into school every day. Yes, there are quality problems, especially in the parallel education stream through education guarantee and other schemes. Yes, there are questions about what those children do in school, whether schools have any physical infrastructure and whether teachers at all teach. Whether teachers in the parallel education system have any training whatsoever. Yes, there are drop-out problems, especially among girls. But the fact that disadvantaged sections, SCs/STs, girls and difficult-to-reach groups are all in school now is a slap in the face of those who unnecessarily whine.

Once children are in school, these other aspects can be improved and the parallel system eventually mainstreamed. This whining lot also complains about the government abdicating its responsibility in elementary education and it is true that private expenditure on education has increased, while public expenditure on education has tended to decline. However, as long as children are in school, how does it matter whether the source of financing is public or private? And we know that the poor aren8217;t being deprived, courtesy the parallel education system, now formally sanctified in Section 27 of the Free and Compulsory Education for Children Bill, 2004. Had it not been for the parallel system, it would have been impossible to get all these children into school. That8217;s the true innovation, appropriately acknowledged in the Human Resource Ministry8217;s web-site.

Strictly speaking, in the NIC setup, the ministry doesn8217;t have a web-site. The Department of Education does. And if you attempt to look up elementary education, you won8217;t be asked to click on an icon that remotely looks like what you would expect a school to look like. Instead, you have a rishi teaching his disciples under a tree. That8217;s the parallel system, like barefoot doctors. If we are going to become a developed economy in 2020, as is now imminent, we must begin by at least attaining the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. After all, these are for developing countries. Not for the likes of us. If you have been followed the India Shining ads, you know we have already eliminated poverty and hunger. That leaves education and health. Elementary and secondary education problems have been licked. The human resource development ministry can therefore concentrate on a Free and Compulsory Management and IT Education Bill If nothing else, that will give the Americans something else to rant about.