To be educated …………………. in India

The extra ordinary step taken by Capt Amarinder led Congress government in Punjab has left the opposition fuming, the community rattled and authorities looking for answers.  The whole sequence has opened a Pandora box that reflects on the ills that the education system of the state or for that matter the country has.

Punjab government had earlier announced to merge 800 elementary schools having less than 20 students within one kilometer .However; it had to later postpone the move when the opposition and the Teachers’ Union went on a sphere of criticism. But the emerging reasons are the epitome of the problem of education system that highlights the way the politicians have handled education over the years. The reasons would give an ample ground to know why the government job is the most cherished one in India while no government official sends his/her kids to a government school. Not even to the same school where they teach!

While the leading opposition party Aam Aadmi Party, the Teachers’ Union and now relegated to third spot the Shriomani Akali Dal (SAD) are opposing the decision, the SAD has lot to answer as some of the reasons are directly attributable to the party. And so is the case with any other party including Congress that had a rule in any other state as just Punjab can’t be singled out for the present problem.

The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise! All the parties are willing to ignore the fact that the number of students’ strength in government primary school in Punjab has dropped by a whooping five lakhs in seven years. Parents do prefer to send their kids to private schools. The government schools lack in infrastructure, the quality of teachers and above all the willingness of the teachers to teach. Their resolve that these students hail from weaker sections and hence would remain week in their studies too has ruined the bleak chance that these students have of growing. Successive governments have been ignoring the education sector, specially the primary one. Higher education is left for the private universities to make the best of the opportunities that they can create for themselves. In its 10 years of rule, SAD allowed 86 Engineering Colleges and close to 50 Management Colleges to make a base for themselves. However, a majority of them are on the verge of closure. All these ten years the industry was moving out of Punjab due to the high electricity rates for industries, and institutes were churning out students by lakhs with hardly any employability.
Alarm bells should have been sounded all these years when strength was going drastically down in government schools and private schools were gaining. But no one bothered. Teachers were content with reducing numbers till it came to the present proposal of Capt Amarinder Singh’s government that would now call for some of the teachers to relocate or travel more. If the teachers really cared for the students, as they are now talking for the “sake of the students”, they or their unions would have raised an alarm. They should have made more efforts to enroll more students. Former state education minister of SAD issued a byte to the media claiming that the major reason for decrease in the numbers is after the school started linking the Aaadhar number of the children, “there was not doubling of admissions”. He added, “Earlier same student was shown studying in two different schools to maintain the numbers but we got this fudging eliminated.” In other words teachers were making exaggerated entries in the attendance registers and admission records that too in a logical manner so that the address and parents name were being used to ascertain the authenticity of the data. Teachers who indulged in such practices to save their jobs don’t have a moral right to oppose the decision of the Amarinder Singh government.  Former education minister also claimed that during this tenure around 150 primary schools were merged but decision was taken on where they were running in the same building or a distance less than half a kilometer. That’s great ! But did he take any action against those schools who presented an inflated data of admission?

Hardly anything has been done for the sake of the students. Schools in rural India are in worse condition as we can’t even expect. Very basic amenities like benches, desk, writing tables, a chair for the teacher are rarely viewed as necessities making school children sit on dusty floors all day. Teachers are reported to ferry plastic chairs for themselves on special carriers like their scooters on a daily basis. The water coolers are kept under lock and key with wired cages all around; to not let the drug addicts take the taps or the filters away!

Education has been the lowest on the priority of any of the governments, as an educated voter may not vote for them!