It’s about quality, not merit

We would need to ensure universal good quality teaching in quality schools all over India

The furious debate over reservations in institutions of higher education must be seen in a larger perspective. It pertains to the question not of merit but of quality. The champions of reservation, who wish to see reservation extended to “other” backward classes argue that most underprivileged students simply cannot compete with those who have studied in “better” schools, those who know English well, those who come from urban backgrounds. They are entirely correct. The other view is more visible. It covers a wide spectrum of people who use the “merit” plank. It is the view expressed by medical students, for instance, who’re afraid that a reservation of seats in AIIMS would be the “loss” of a career option. It is the opinion of India Inc that reservation would dilute the quality of corporate activity. They are right.

But no one has heard the views of those who really are the marginalised. If one were to ask them, the likely answer would be: “Reservations? What are they? Merit can be measured, if at all, between equals. In our education system, merit is unfortunately measured by the marks one obtains — that infinitesimal difference of, say, 0.1 per cent in a highly competitive situation. But it is a tussle between those in the same class, in the same environment, the same cohort. If there is a divergence across the country, we ensure “commonalisation” of merit through common entrance examinations. We do not expect that an 8th grader should compete with someone in the 12th. The 8th grader may actually have the higher IQ, but he needs to go through a learning process before he can compete with someone in the twelfth.

It is the same with the demand for reservations. And there’s the same need for “commonalisation”. Who would the reserved student compete with, once he is pushed into the same environment? He would have to jostle with the very “best” and would find it almost impossible to cope. If an underprivileged student, after reservation-based entry into an institute of higher learning, has to compete in a neutral environment with his peers, the foundation of the required competence must be laid before, and not after, he has joined such an institution. So we need to ensure universal good quality teaching in quality schools all over India, especially in rural areas. The lack of good quality schools in rural areas is really the problem.

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The government has an ambitious programme of upgrading infrastructure. But why leave out education? Without investing in human capital how can we put India in the league of developed nations? We therefore need to upgrade all our 7 lakh primary schools, most of them in rural India. This large swathe of schools, with a mid-day meals programme now in place, are performing a necessary task of providing a rudimentary level of literacy and nutrition. What we need now is the provision of schools all over India at the intermediate level which can compete with the best.

How do we do this? We do not have to look for a new model. The existing merit-based Navodaya pattern of semi-urban quality schooling has been a success story. The government must set up quality schools, of the Navodaya variety. The target could be, for the present, 10,000 such schools. The total cost to government will, say, be just half that for the golden quadrilateral, which with its cost overruns has required over Rs 60,000 crore. The main objection to such a programme would be the costs entailed. The cost per Navodaya student is now a little less than Rs 10,000. For a little over Rs 5,000 crores per annum, affordable in India today, we could provide quality learning for an additional 1 crore children. And costs can be brought down. Not all schools need be residential, and they could cover more students per school. The private sector has professed a desire to participate in improving basic education. The government must involve it in this major affirmative effort. It should also not be totally free. Poor students could study free, while the rich families from rural and semi-urban areas — irrespective of caste — should pay appropriate charges. Over time, with adequate flexibility built in, this could be India’s most significant private-public partnership.

A possible criticism would be that 10,000 schools would neither be appropriate nor sufficient. The fact remains that between the village school at one end, and the IIMs, at the other, there has to be stepping up of quality. This intermediate system would help this process. It requires good English to be taught. There’s no mistaking the fact that one of our strengths is this language skill. This intermediate layer of education would appropriately be at the taluk level, where urban facilities can be provided to teachers and students. And until we have such a system, let us stop indulging in rabble rousing on both sides of the reservations divide. Let us recall what Helen Keller had once said — “the highest result of education is tolerance”.

The writer is secretary, Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises. Views expressed are his own poile—jit@yahoo.com

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