Page 42 - EW April 2021

Cover Story

education sector has demonstrated re- school managements during the pan-
markable resilience” and has managed demic era, the Central and state gov-
to almost continue education as usual. ernments have severely damaged the
According to the minister, under an education system. It’s unfortunate
alphabet soup of government initia- that all the HRD/education minis-
tives — NISTHA, PRAGYATA etc — 3 ters since 2014 have been nominees
million teachers have been “trained of the RSS which is not interested in
digitally” and “education continuity modernising Indian education, ” says
has not been hampered”. Moreover Damodar Prasad Goyal, the Jai-
in his essay under reference the min- pur-based president of the Society for
ister takes credit for having launched Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan
the National Education Policy (NEP) (SUPSR).
2020, “accepted as the world’s largest Over the past decade, SUPSR has
education reform of the Covid era” emerged as a champion of private
which is all set to “transform India school education in India. In 2012,
into a knowledge superpower”. it famously persuaded the Supreme
S placency flies in the face Goyal: severe damage ing schools from applicability of s.12
Court to exempt minority and board-
UCH ALL IS WELL com-
(1) (c) of the Right to Education (RTE),
of all ground-level surveys
schools to reserve a free-of-charge 25
which report that the over- ity of children in government schools Act 2009, which obliges all private
“has not been hampered”.
whelming majority of government The causal response of the BJP/ percent quota for poor neighbourhood
school teachers haven’t received any NDA government to the cataclysmic children in classes I-VIII. Moreover
training to switch to online teaching impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on last month, the society moved the
because of poor Internet connectivity the country’s 260 million school-going Supreme Court to issue a stay order
and ubiquitous computer hardware children deprived of meaningful edu- against a Rajasthan government no-
shortages. Moreover, an estimated cation for over one year, has shocked tification directing private schools in
30-40 million children are likely to and dismayed knowledgeable moni- the state to collect only 70 percent of
drop out of the education system to tors of Indian education. children’s fees for the years 2020-21
join the under-paid labour force and “The BJP/RSS leadership has a and 2021-22.
girl children are being forced into ear- totally different idea of education. The seemingly calculated neglect
ly marriage and/or prostitution. This They believe the country’s children of the BJP leadership to confer fa-
bodes ill for the world’s largest — and and youth need to be taught Sanskrit, voured MSME status on the country’s
most high-potential — child and youth the glories of ancient India, Hindi, estimated 400,000 budget private
population estimated at over 500 mil- Ayurveda and kabbadi, rather than schools (BPS), which would have
lion. contemporary liberal arts and sci- made their struggling managements
In the Union Budget 2021-22, ences that promote critical thinking, eligible for interest payment morato-
the unspecified provision made for the spirit of enquiry and questioning ria and soft credit to tide them over
teacher training is included in the of established wisdom. By not provid- the pandemic crisis, has angered the
Rs.31,300 crore National Educa- ing for digitalisation of government small tribe of child development and
tion Mission outlay which covers the schools in the Union budget, failure to welfare champions.
teacher salaries, nutrition and tuition award MSME status to private school “Half the country’s in-school chil-
of 132 million children in govern- which dispense quality education to dren are in private education and 85
ment schools. This sum budgeted for half the country’s in-school children, percent of them are studying in BPS.
2021-22 is 18.4 percent lower than the and setting parents against private It’s abominable that government
Rs.38,361 crore budgeted for the Na- doesn’t care at all that affordable,
tional Education Mission in 2020-21. “ ey believe the country’s low-priced BPS are shutting down by
Thus, the amount left for the digital the hundreds because of cash-flow
training of government school teach- children should be taught problems. To better future prospects
ers is likely to be negligible. Therefore, Sanskrit, the glories of of their children, millions of parents
the minister’s claim that 3 million have made great sacrifices to enrol
teachers — one-third of the national ancient India, Ayurveda and them in BPS which provide them bet-
teacher force — have been “trained kabbadi rather than liberal ter education than what is available in
digitally” is patently ridiculous as is arts and sciences.” free-of-charge government schools.
his claim that the education continu- But since BPS are direct competitors of

44 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2021