Job talk

The prime minister, in the course of his defence of the UPA8217;s record during his Independence Day speech yesterday, chose to stress the importance of accessible education, saying that there has been a massive increase in educational opportunities at all levels. There are, however, two important facts that emerged: first, that this government has been inappropriately slow in acting on even sensible proposals; and second, that 8212; at least in public discourse 8212; they continue to confuse allocations of funding and paper proposals with an improvement in actual outcomes.

The first comes through vividly in the prime minister8217;s own words. In his 2006 speech, he spoke of the need for what he called a 8220;vocational education mission8221;. In 2007, he said it was 8220;ready to be launched8221;. This year, he announced that a 8220;skills development mission8221; was being launched. To have spent two years on planning something that was declared the need of the hour seems unforgivably dilatory: especially since, even now, it is unclear what the mission is supposed to do, and whether it comes under the PMO, or the Planning Commission, or the HRD ministry, or the labour ministry 8212;who came up with the draft 8212; and to what degree it incorporates industry8217;s expectations from its workforce. The vast expansion of Industrial Training Institutes the plan envisages will be utterly useless unless the expectations of prospective employers are taken into account. The Confederation of Indian Industry has been soliciting its members8217; opinion on the subject; no amount of lip-service to public-private partnership will replace actual action here.

Which is why it is particularly disappointing that every aspect of the prime minister8217;s speech stressed proposed expansions in the educational sector: there was not one word about restructuring. Announcing a university in every state does not translate to ensuring that curricula are up-to-date; a primary school in every block does not mean that teachers will actually show up to teach. There is little doubt that India8217;s electorate will come away with the impression that the prime minister8217;s intentions are good. The question is whether his government possesses the imagination to carry them out effectively.