Written by Kartikeya Jain for our 300m Challenge.
Education is imperative and integral to the development of an individual and society. The fundamental right to education — irrespective of caste, creed, religion, ethnic or linguistic background has enabled individuals to access information, knowledge, skills, and opportunities which the previous generations may have lacked.
This, in turn, has often enabled people with formal education to improve their family’s socio-economic conditions.
While the step to formally enshrine the erstwhile Directive Principles on the Right to Primary Education — as an inalienable Constitutional Right in 2002 —was a landmark decision that came 55 years after India’s independence of equity and equality in access to quality education should still be lauded.
Social attributes, such as caste, class and gender have been stumbling blocks in the path to economic growth and shared prosperity. The quality of education in India has been uneven and varies from pin code to pin code.
There are not too many people in today’s India who do not wish their child to receive some degree of formal education. Formal education symbolises a person’s aspirations and dreams for stability and a comfortable life.
Most parents — whether in rural India and more so in urban India want their children to be ‘educated’ to achieve better economic standing and gain access to opportunities that they did not have.
Dr B. R. Ambedkar fought against systemic oppression to achieve a doctorate from the London School of Economics in 1923. Over the years, he has influenced and inspired generations of students to take up education. His famous quote “Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence” calls for the education of the masses for the holistic development of society. A century later, the question arises, where are more on the likes of Jyotirao Phule and Dr Ambedkar? Perhaps, the education system has not changed so much.
The quality of education in India is equated with the sums of money spent on it. A good education certainly costs a lot. An institute with a higher fee structure looks like a better option than an institute lying anywhere else on the spectrum. A majority of Indian parents want the ‘best’ and ‘good quality’ education for their children, so that their children may have a comfortable life in future.
This is true to the point that most economically upward mobile families have a blueprint (of sorts) which prescribes the best way forward. This involves private schooling followed by a professional degree from the best private or public university in the country or abroad, attained after appearing in highly competitive entrance examinations. This is followed by a well-paying job to pay off the debts (if any) and thereby continue and perpetuate the cycle.
At the same time, we have millions with degrees of access to what will be considered ‘poor education’. Poor education would translate into a lack of infrastructure, amenities, trained teachers, learning material, and exclusion from participation in classroom activities. The World Bank, in its 2014 report titled Student Learning in South Asia: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Priorities linked poor quality education and poverty — which prevent faster economic growth and shared prosperity.
India has achieved a near-universal enrolment of children in schools and implemented a system of automatic passing till Class 5 (ASER, 2017). Enrolments in Class 8 have almost doubled – from 11 million to 22 million – between 2004-05 and 2014-15 (District Information System for Education, DISE, 2017). These are promising developments but the ground reality spells a different tale.
The question of how ‘successfully’ India’s children complete their elementary education is answered when we look at the studies that measure grade-level language skills – 75% of students of Class 8 are unable to comprehend a Class 4 text (ASER 2017).
The identified problems are rote-memorisation stemming from boredom, lack of interest and motivation in children, who are often first-generational learners.
The Indian education system is currently going through an unprecedented period where the institutions of learning are shut due to a nationwide lockdown in the country brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the state along with the population tries to survive these challenging times — questions, thoughts, and debates of how to return to the ‘normal’ are being raised.
A ‘normal’ where businesses run, as usual, life is set to the customary clock. Schools and other learning institutes operate at full capacity with their tight schedules; trying their best to churn out the best ‘exam-acers’ and potential leaders of tomorrow.
At the same time, a handful of the population has had the luxury and privilege of continuing their learning through available and upcoming e-learning technologies — attending online classes, accessing online courses, workshops, and webinars.
Teachers are occupied with completing the prescribed syllabus via these online, digital, and remote technologies. Mentors and educators are being innovative with their video calls infusing non-traditional methods of teaching to impart knowledge and wisdom to their disciples.
Simultaneously, a parallel image of the migrant children walking back home — across state lines — comes to mind. What about their education? Which classes did they attend? Which classes would they attend? One in their respective hometowns or the one where their parents work? What would be the learning opportunities for them?
One does not need to read sociological texts to know and understand that the stark difference in access to quality education among multiple socioeconomic classes in our nation has increased. News reports are portraying the hardships and atrocities that migrant children are facing in the time of COVID-19, such as the lack of access to the mid-day meals for children in various states, the dropout rate is ought to increase with the possibility of more children being pushed into child labour.
The degree of vulnerability among many children from working-class families grows every day, and more so for girls and differently-abled children. This is not only in the case of their health but also in terms of their education and future.
When we talk about a “self-reliant” India, where do they feature? What steps are we willing to take to educate them to become “self-reliant”? What changes to the education system do we want to make? What is the kind of education that can break this cycle of poverty and inequity and reinvent an education system, which is free, fearless, and fair?
To quote the words of Tagore, “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free and the world is not broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls…” It is imperative to consider these questions while we reimagine a post-COVID-19 world.
About the author: Kartikeya Jain works as a Researcher and Project Manager at Katha’s Child Poverty Action Research (CPAR) Lab. He currently heads the Swachh Maharashtra Project — a behaviour change communications (BCC) programme in Zila Parishad schools of Chandrapur district in Maharashtra, being implemented by Katha in collaboration with Samhita & Collective Good Foundation & SACRED. He is also a visual artist and engages with themes of society, culture, and livelihoods.
300m Challenge is a mission embarked upon by Katha to change things for our children through the power of reading! We partner with like-minded organizations and bring the joy of well-illustrated books to children and bridge the gap in literacy and reading in India. If you wish to be part of this mission, please feel free to write to us at 300m@katha.org with your ideas.