Page 42 - EducationWorld September 2020

Cover Story

brainwashed middle class with private
schools, the inestimable contribution
of PSIR 2020 is that for the first time
in the history of post-independence
India, it has highlighted the vital
importance of private K-12 schools
towards national development. Al-
though it’s an open secret that the top
leadership of the establishment — bu-
reaucracy, diplomatic corps, defence
services and captains of industry and
business — is drawn from the middle
class overwhelmingly educated in
English-medium private schools, it is
politically incorrect to highlight this
reality. In the lexicon of Bloomsbury
Square (London)-inspired socialism
embraced by the Congress party un-
der the influence of Jawaharlal Ne-
hru, independent India’s first prime Budget private school classroom: marginally superior
minister, private industry, business
and even more so education, became high-powered Kothari Commission dren’s learning outcomes are rock-
— and to this day remains — synony- having strongly recommended way bottom.
mous with profiteering, exploitation, back in 1967 that government expen- For over 15 years, the A nnual Sta -
elitism, snobbery and sundry deadly diture (Centre plus states) on educa- tus of Education Report (A SER) pub-
sins. tion should urgently be raised to 6 lished by the highly-respected Pratham
T HIS PREJUDICE AGAINST been attained for the past seven de- been warning that the literacy and
Education Foundation (estb.1994) has
percent of GDP, this target has never
numeracy capability of government
private enterprise was per-
cades since independence, remaining
petuated by Indira Gandhi,
Nehru’s daughter who suc- stuck in the 3-3.5 percent groove to school children is going from bad to
worse. The latest A SER 201 8 testifies
this day.
ceeded him as prime minister and her Moreover, the original sin of con- that 49.7 percent of class V children in
son Rajiv Gandhi who also served as sistent under-funding of the country’s rural government schools cannot ad-
prime minister and president of the 1.2 million government schools has equately read and comprehend class
Congress party which ruled India for been compounded by other transgres- II textbooks, and only 27.8 percent
over a half century after 1947. Un- sions such as packing them with un- of class V children can solve a simple
surprisingly, free India’s supposedly committed, under-qualified teachers three digits division sum.
independent judiciary, packed with — normatively kith and kin of state- Nevertheless although PSIR 2020
‘committed’ judges by Mrs. Gandhi level politicians and bureaucrats. Yet highlights the substantial and unsung
in the mid-seventies, passed a spate despite the estimated 5 million gov- contribution of private schools to
of judgements excoriating “commer- ernment school teachers being paid post-independence — and post-lib-
cialisation of education” — especially high emoluments 12-15 multiples of eralisation (1991) — India’s splutter-
higher professional education — as a per capita national income, teacher ing development effort by providing
result of which the fundamental right absenteeism in government schools children better quality school educa-
of citizens to promote and administer averages 25 percent per day, and chil- tion, the report admits that learning
education institutions of their choice, outcomes in the great majority of
conferred by Article 30 (1) of the ‘Committed’ judges private schools are marginally rather
Constitution, has been substantially than infinitely, superior. Citing SER
A
1
eroded. appointed by Mrs. Gandhi 20 8 , it admits that 35 percent of class
The ideological purity of the Ne- in the mid-1970s passed a V children in rural private schools
hru-Gandhi dynasty and Congress cannot read a basic class II textbook
party would have been acceptable if spate of judgements paragraph (cf. 49 percent in govern-
coterminously, they had paid atten- excoriating “commerciali- ment schools), and that 60 percent
tion to developing the public (gov- sation of education” can’t manage simple division sums.
ernment) school system. Despite the Presumably, the purpose of highlight-

42 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020