Education needs lot of improvement
By: Vijay Garg
The situation is indicating that the educational structure in the country has been continuously transforming. On one hand the children of the affluent, capitalists, politicians and bureaucrats are getting educated and trained in expensive schools, while the poor condition of government schools continues to expand.
Even due to the heat of political corruption, the seeds of education have withered. At least that’s what the Education Ministry’s recent report on school education suggests. Recently, the Unified District Information of the Ministry of Education (UDISE+) annual report released for 2021-22 says that twenty thousand schools have reported closure in a year.
These are the schools in which mostly people from low income group and deprived society reach with expectations. Undoubtedly, this situation also tells the story of the rulers being freed from public welfare obligations.
Even more worrying is that during this period one lakh teachers of private schools have lost their jobs. If the data of this survey is to be believed, even if it is not taken, the serious discrepancy of the educational world is exposed.
Undoubtedly, the corona pandemic has shaken the whole world’s educational infrastructure. Millions of poor students all over the world, especially most girls, will never be able to see the face of schools again. The crisis of livelihood has wreaked havoc on their families during the pandemic.
Undoubtedly, their priority has been bread first, education has been a secondary subject for them. The reality of the Indian educational structure has also been exposed in this report. The report shows that in the survey about 53 percent of the schools in the country involved did not have computer facilities.
At the same time, internet was not accessible in 66 percent of the schools. In such a situation, it can be guessed how hollow the claims of online education must have been during the Corona crisis? How much damage would the education of these children have suffered during the pandemic? Will these children be able to compete with the students of private schools in future?
Several other figures in the report expose the reality of the vast gap in the academic world. The report shows that 89 percent of the schools in Bihar have internet facility. It is not. About 83 percent of the schools do not have a projector for education. 23 percent of the schools in the country do not have playgrounds. About 83.3 percent of the schools do not have a library.
What will be the future of the children studying in these schools, far away from modern education, where more than ten percent of the schools do not have even an electricity connection?
At the same time, about 2.5 percent of the schools do not have toilets for girl students. Without these basic necessities of education, in what conditions children are studying and writing, it is easy to guess what they are learning.
One can say that these schools have become the carriers of a sick future. So what is the justification for the statement that this is the century of knowledge? Also how effective has the new education policy been on the ground? Undoubtedly, the Corona period came before us as a big challenge. Then there was the crisis of saving lives. But why is it not in the priority of those in power to restore the old status quo?
It is natural to ask the question that why there is no sincere effort to bring uniformity in the education system in the country and to adapt it to the needs of the times. Why has the responsibility of appointment of teachers been handed over to the corrupt system? The question is also whether we have been free from the curse of Lord Macaulay? Why are the problems and challenges of the education world not addressed in a holistic manner? Till the education system is not freed from the gap of economic inequality in the country, we will never be able to do justice to the future of the youth who are facing the brunt of inequality. Governments cannot be absolved of the responsibility of improving the education system.
(The author is a retired Principal and an educational columnist from Malout Punjab. The views expressed are his own)
KV News
