Right to Education is one of the basic human rights that every human is supposed to be guaranteed. But when this is put to trial…… does it cover all the people of this country?
The government has released the draft National Education Policy which is 484 pages long and has taken 4 years to get completed! The draft admits that there is a severe learning crisis and if it continues then the country could lose 10 crore students. But what about the reasons for the crisis? That hasn’t been mentioned anywhere…!!
What the country needs is free and quality education which the Indian government has failed to provide. Public schools are not equipped with adequate infrastructure including classrooms, drinking water, functioning toilets, nutrition and an overall environment conducive to learning.
Public school and college teachers are paid low salaries and are overloaded with larger number of students per class and also compensating on lesser staff than necessary. The posts of retired teachers are not opened but instead teachers are hired on contract basis which enables them to keep teachers at abysmally low salaries and absolutely no job guarantee.
With the quality of education drastically falling, teachers are blamed for this situation. Isn’t that terribly unfair? Teachers are the most important stakeholders in the education system but are treated as completely dispensable.
Horrendous reports of young girls getting raped and molested within educational institutions are becoming a recurring trend. How are these crimes allowed to continue?
Private schools are the only option for receiving average quality education, which can go cost up to 4 lakh per year. Who can afford such a costly and that too average quality education?
There are around 700 universities in India out of which proper facilities are only in the top 200. Steps are being taken towards “internationalization” of higher education! What would be the aim of doing that? Increasing profits? Are these profit-making institutions beneficial to us? Do our facilities improve through their profits? Our experience has proven otherwise. Universities are basically factories for producing human resources that can be used for the benefit of a handful of the rich in our country.
Public expenditure on Education in India was 2.7% of GDP in 2017 – 2018, whereas the country with the highest share of 6.4% is Norway. Does this show educating our people as the priority of our government?
The draft recalls the times of Nalanda and Takshashila when education recognised the holistic aspect of all human knowledge and enquiry as fundamentally connected. But this kind of education will only be accessible to a small section of elite students.
The New Education Policy is a disguised attempt to enable the government to negate its duty to provide free, compulsory and quality education to all at an affordable cost.
Does the ‘right’ to education remain a right? Or perhaps a privilege!
Join Lok Raj Sangathan in exposing the misleading nature of the government’s policy through such devious attempts.
-Vimla
