Page 86 - Education World November 2022

Special Report

ing high-quality preschool to Ph D
education to India’s children and
youth is deep and wide within the
establishment and society. Regretta-
bly, post-independence India’s great
estates — Parliament, the executive,
judiciary, academia, industry, middle
class and media — have failed and
neglected the education sector. The
first step towards transformation of
the national mind-set in favour of
developing the country’s abundant
and high potential human resource
is to informally audit the record of
the great estates of the Republic in
reaching the fundamental right of
good quality education to the world’s
largest child and youth population.
Pre-primary children in Chennai: consistent advocacy benefit P a rl ia m e n t & l e g is l a tu re s n e g -
l ig e n c e . Although Article 45 of the
Moreover since 2020, EW has ing the national mind-set to accord Constitution of India enacted in 1950
also started publishing league tables highest priority to developing the directed that the State shall provide
ranking the country’s best govern- country’s abundant and high-poten- free and compulsory education to
ment and private arts, science and tial human resource and provide a all children in the 0-14 age group
commerce colleges. This has prompt- productivity leap to Indian industry, nationwide, it was only in 2002 that
ed India’s best colleges and universi- agriculture and the economy, it’s also the Constitution was amended by
ties to benchmark themselves with important to acknowledge that our
top-ranked higher education institu- failures outnumber successes.
tions abroad. Also by writing and Firstly, despite continuous
publishing lead features on excellent advocacy and exhortation, we have
privately promoted universities such failed to persuade Central and state
as Manipal, Amity, Ashoka and O.P. governments to raise their combined
Jindal Global among others, we have annual expenditure for education to
taken the wind out of the sails of left 6 percent of GDP, as recommended
intellectuals who hitherto had a free by the Kothari Commission way back
run to rubbish private initiatives in in 1967 and promised in the election hon’ble members of Parliament to
higher education. manifestos of every major political transform this ‘directive principle’
Following EW’s continuous party. Every year in our analysis of into a fundamental right. Even so
advocacy of private initiatives in the Union budget, we have published the obligation of the State to provide
education, several state governments detailed schema suggesting ways and free and compulsory education to all
have enacted special legislation to means for the Central government children in the 0-14 age group was
facilitate the promotion of private to mobilise Rs.7-8 lakh crore — by restricted to children in the 6-14 age
universities across the country. This reducing wasteful establishment group.
has totally transformed the higher expenditure, slashing non-merit gov- Moreover to limit the expendi-
education landscape in India and ernment subsidies, targeted social ture of the State — bankrupted by
has substantially reduced the annual welfare spending and fire-sales of inorganic socialist ideology and
outflow of school-leavers and un- bleeding public sector enterprises — reckless nationalisation of banks
dergraduates to universities abroad for investment in public education and businesses and uncontrolled
which costs the Indian economy $10 and healthcare. Although this calcu- establishment expenditure — part of
billion (Rs.82,321 crore) annually. lus has been printed and published, the obligation of providing bottom-
But although over the past 23 and also forwarded to eminent of-pyramid children free and com-
years since the first issue of Educa- economists, it has not received any pulsory elementary (classes I-VIII)
tionWorld was somewhat hesitantly traction. education was offloaded to private
and experimentally launched with Unfortunately, indifference to schools.
the ambitious goal of transform- the critical importance of provid- With provision of quality public

86 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022