We have lost faith in our state’s ability to run schools, says Gurcharan Das in the Times of India. I second that, quoting here my favourite bit of statistics : the proportion of ‘never enrolled’ children has been declining steadily : from 50% in 1986 (6-14 years in the most backward states) to 20% in 1996. Whiuch means that more and more parents who cannot strictly afford this are willing to give education a chance. (Source : PROBE)
But given the state of Government run schools, is their struggle even worth it ? After all the effort involved in going to and staying in school involves, do children even enjoy school, like they ought to ? Are they learning anything or merely going through the process of ‘getting an education’ ? And above all, is there any accountability from anywhere ?
Das discusses the model suggested by Sanjay Kumar, B J Koppar, and S Balasubramanium in the Economic and Political Weekly (23/8), purporting that government should not run primary schools but lease them to teacher-entrepreneurs (with minimum HSC qualification) who would manage them up to class 4 according to a standard curriculum of ankh and akshar.
The need is for low cost, quality education for all, which the state has not been able to provide, in all these years. Is it now time to fully admit the defeat of the socialism of India-yesterday, and embrace capitalism as the way for India-tomorrow? If this is working in other areas, why not education ? Accountability will only be the beginning…..