India is in dire need of an efficient education system that can build a literate society. By literate, I mean education that will enable any individual in India to shape a career not only in India but on a Global scale.
The Right to Education (RTE) Act makes education a fundamental right for all kids between the ages of 6 – 14. The World Bank education specialist for India, Sam Carlson noted that the RTE Act is the first legislation in the world that puts the responsibility of ensuring enrollment, attendance, and completion on the Government.
The RTE initiative is a step forward but one of the most striking criticisms is that it should involve children below the age of six and above the age of fourteen. This appears reasonable since the ages between 4 and 6, the kindergarten phase, teach a child the alphabet and number system, which are essential for a six year old, who would start from Grade I onwards. Moreover, at the age of 14, a child is in Grade IX or X and still unprepared to go college and therefore education until the age of 18 is essential to enable a smooth transition from school to college. This will ensure that the public investment in schooling provides the pathway for a career that would otherwise be wasted if a student is unable to attend high school due to family pressures or poverty.
Providing education to all children is no small task, if you consider the large population and the investments involved. Infrastructure is lacking, attendance is declining, and quality of teachers is poor. A recently conducted survey by Pratham, an NGO, in 2011 showed that more than half of the students in Grade V in rural India cannot read the text taught in Grade II. While thousands of crores are being pumped in to the implementation of the RTE act, effective utilization of the money is a concern. An educated society is the need of the hour to reduce crime, control population, and most importantly to elect good governments, which are free of corruption and focused on sustainable development.
One of the major attributes, missing out in RTE is QUALITY. Government has not taken enough steps in improving the quality of education. In recent PISA survey, India ranked 73rd out of 74 countries in education quality.
ReplyDeleteThere are many concerns with our current education system, like abysmal infrastructure in rural schools, ever declining teaching standards and many more.Among all these, what I fear the most is, India slowly going for a private schooling model.If this indeed happens, the vast divide that exists between rural and urban schooling will only widen. We need to get our public education system in place, sooner the better.