Page 34 - EW FEB 2022

Cover Story

12

UNINTERRUPTED RACKETS

DESTROYING INDIAN EDUCATION

In 2004, when this publication was a mere five years of
age, we featured a cover story titled ‘Dirty Dozen Corrupt
Practices Destroying Indian Education’. Almost two
decades later, not only are the dirty dozen corrupt practices
of the early millennium omnipresent, several new ones
have been added to the list

Dilip Thakore

T HERE’S A SERIOUS BLINDSPOT IN Central government schools (1,245 Kendriya Vidyalayas

Indian society. In his address to the
and 661 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas) and 54 Central
nation on the eve of January 26 when
universities and higher education institutions such as the
the nation observed its 73rd Repub-
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, 43 IITs and IIMs, is
an important marker of the priority that the Centre accords
lic Day, President Ram Nath Kovind
made only a cursory reference to hu-
man capital development, aka educa-
whose number is estimated at over 500 million.
Curiously, indeed astonishingly, there seems little
tion, of the world’s largest child and to education of India’s children and youth aged below 24,
youth population. Ditto on February 1, when Union finance awareness in New Delhi or in the state capitals of the criti-
minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget cal importance of nurturing and upgrading India’s children
2022-23, the best she could do was to raise the Central and youth in an era when all developed countries, including
government’s outlay for education from Rs.93,223 crore in China, are experiencing falling birth rates and rapidly age-
2021-22 to Rs.104,278 crore, an increase of 11.86 percent ing populations. In the remainder of the 21st century India
over the previous year but a mere 5 percent over the pre- will have the largest working age (18-65) population of any
pandemic 2020-21. country worldwide. If they are intensively educated and
Admittedly, the Centre’s share of the annual expendi- skilled, in the second half of the 21st century, this country
ture on education is a small percentage (0.5 of GDP) of could multiply its GDP 5x from the pathetic $3 trillion cur-
the national outlay on human capital development. The rently (cf. America’s $22 trillion and China’s $16 trillion)
major share of over 3 percent of GDP is contributed by the and transform into a respected producer of high quality
country’s state governments and eight Union territories. manufactures, goods and services.
Nevertheless, the Centre’s annual allocation which funds Instead, the annual per capita outlay for educating and

34 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2022