Friday, April 20, 2012

The Right to Education.. how much it is valid in reality???


Hon. Supreme Court has recently, rewarded the Indian people with the law named RIGHT TO EDUCATION... On larger perspective, the law appears to be a boon to economically backward classes and surely the people belonging to lower income starta, would be elated . In return, UPA Govt. would earn those browny points in form of votes and fulfill the motive behind “gifting” this unrealistic law... The UPA Govt. when it was re-elected in 2009, presented this law. For once, even if we presume that it was enacted to just and just abolish the inequality in the opportunity to gain education, in reality it lacks to serve its objectives... To understand and believe that the UPA Govt. enacted this law and the Hon. SC sanctioning it would hardly provide the private school educational facilities to students of lower income families. There are numerous hurdles on this path and one of it is the Govt. himself.. According to one of the surveys, if each child of the lower income group is to be educated in the private schools free of cost, then the Govt. would have to shell out 2.3 lakh crores. At present, the Govt. is spending 21,000 crores every year. under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan...which is even not benefitting the people. In 2009, when the HRD Minister Shri Kapil Sibbal stated that more 5 lakhs teachers are necessary to endow with good education to the children. The education level in Municipal and govt. schools is diminishing every day. Thus, the numbers of students are descending every day and unless the financial compulsion prevents one, people prefer providing education to their children in non-granted private schools. But, To overcome this loophole, the solution is not in transferring the encumber to the private schools as there are plenty of other hindrances.. Dwelling further, one realizes that the private schools, which would be compelled to provide 25% seats to lower income groups, will either have to decrease their profit ratio or shift the burden of their loss in income to the other middle income students as they would be tempted to procure it from them.. The priority hitch is that the teachers of govt and municipal schools generally have lots of disinterest in imparting education and taking pro-active interest in growth of students. Even in cases where the equipments like Computers, Tablets or laptops are provided under certain schemes to the students but are not utilized to its optimum due to lack of trained teaching staff. Another major obstacle is regarding psychological stress that would be suffered by the underprivileged children. In the race of turning them into at par with privileged students or lets eradicate the term “privileged” and term them as students belonging to middle and upper income groups. It may sound as prescriber of principal of equality, but in actuality, the Vitamin M flowing away, in creating projects, for picnics and parties would turn into impediment to those 25% of students studying in private schools. Not to mention the lifestyle lived by the fellow students of private schools and the stress created due to incapability of following the same..The gap between the students would widen instead of narrowing down when the respective children would open their tiffins...!!! This law provides for advantage to children of 6 to 14 years of age, generally, a child comes in std 10th, at the age of 15 and that is an important junction of his career. If this facility is not provided beyond age 14, how does a child, who has gained education from the proficient private schools, can afford to receive higher education at reasonable rate??? The ideal solution to this problem does not lie in providing 25% seats in private schools and coercing them to feel out of place as well as stressful or to improve the education amenities in the municipal or govt. run schools??? The additional benefit would be that it would be able to progress the lives of not only the 25% but also the rest 75%.. And, That is called inclusive education... When late Shri M.C. Chagla was a Education Minister in 1964, he had remarked, “The creators of our Constitution never wished that just by constructing the school building, their task was over. A school with non-efficient teaching staff, incorrect syllabus, lack of play grounds does not serve our purpose and just by providing this we can not justify the fulfillment of Article 45...” The Golden words are coming alive it seems...