Page 43 - Education World July 2020

Rankings (EWISR) in 2007. These rangan Committee being accepted, it
ranking surveys which are followed by will considerably reduce the life-and-
celebratory award nights in which top- death power of the educracy and the
ranked schools in every category are neta-babu brotherhood over the coun-
felicitated and awarded, have raised try’s schools, colleges and universities.
quality awareness and an unprec- In the circumstances, the onus is
edented teaching-learning revolution on the public, including the academy
in Indian education. Unsurprisingly, and intelligentsia, to exert pressure on
the E W rankings, which reflect on- the Centre and states to increase their
the-ground reality that private schools public education expenditure and
and colleges provide far superior edu- take urgent steps to improve learning
cation than the great majority of gov- outcomes in state-funded schools and
ernment institutions, have provoked higher education institutions. Simul-
hostility and contempt in the Union taneously, a public outcry against offi-
HRD ministry in New Delhi and the cial harassment of private institutions
states. Invitations to our events and in education is long overdue.
interview requests are routinely de- Singh: new attitudinal change Simultaneously the officially en-
nied by the ministry and officials of dorsed image of private education
its subsidiaries CBSE, NCERT, UGC, and involvement of all stakeholders providers — substantially individuals
AICTE etc. including the teachers’ community is driven by the spirit of enlightened self-
N EVERTHELESS, ARUN in private and government schools,” to be given an early burial. In these
interest and/or philanthropy — needs
being built to raise learning outcomes
ABH SINGH, director-
perilous times, the national interest
says Singh, an alumnus of Delhi Uni-
principal of the CBSE-
There is a familiar dej a v u ring
governments focus their attention
affiliated Nehru World versity and King’s College, London. demands that the Central and state
School, Ghaziabad (estb.1978), ranked to such hopes of greater Central and on sharply improving infrastructure,
the city’s #6 co-ed day school in the state government attention to public teaching-learning standards and
latest EW India School Rankings education and deregulation of private learning outcomes in basic education
2019-20, and a committee member of schools and higher education. Though in the country’s 1.20 million govern-
FICCI-Arise (Alliance for Reimagin- politicians routinely highlight the im- ment schools while lightly regulating
ing Indian School Education), a lobby portance of quality education and the private primary-secondaries provid-
group of private school promoters af- country’s demographic edge, these ing acceptable quality education to al-
filiated with the influential Federation lofty sentiments have not yet been most 50 percent of in-school children.
of Indian Chambers of Commerce & matched with greater investment in The rationale of according highest
Industry (FICCI), believes that a sea public education. priority to universalising school edu-
change in the attitude of government Despite the Kothari Commission cation is explained by Nobel laureate
and the Union HRD ministry towards (1966), the National Education Policy economist Dr. Amartya Sen in his
private education is imminent. (1992), T.S.R. Subramanian Com- best-seller The A rgum entati v e I ndi an
“There is a discernible change of mittee (2016) and the Kasturiran- – Wri ti ngs on I ndi an H i story , Culture
government attitude and willingness gan Committee (2019) — the latter’s & I denti ty (2005). “The under-devel-
to work together with private schools, liberal draft recommendations have opment of Indian school systems, es-
foundations and NGOs, particularly in been under consideration of the HRD pecially in the backward regions of the
the new era after the Covid-19 lock- ministry for over 12 months — govern- country has been… extraordinary. This
down of all education institutions. ment (Centre plus states) investment is both deeply inefficient and amazing-
With the promotion of Anita Karwal, has been stuck in the 3-3.50 percent of ly unjust… If we have not been able to
hitherto chairman of CBSE which has GDP groove for seven decades. More- seize economic opportunities for the
a large number of affiliated private over, reports from Shastri Bhavan, manufacture of simple products in a
schools, to the office of secretary of the Delhi indicate a furious debate about way that has happened in Japan, Ko-
Union HRD ministry, there is greater unbundling the functions of regula- rea, China and other countries of east
willingness in the ministry to interact tion, provision, funding and standards Asia, not to mention the West, India’s
and cooperate with all stakeholders in setting — currently vested in the HRD remarkable neglect of basic education
education — private school organisa- and state education ministries — and has a decisive role in this handicap,”
tions, reputable trusts and founda- vesting them in separate autonomous writes Sen.
tions, and NGOs. I believe that a new institutions. In the unlikely event of Time to heed the words of proph-
ecosystem based on trust, cooperation this recommendation of the Kasturi- ets, visionaries and savants.

JULY 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 43