Published : Indian Express(5th Aug 2010)
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/time-out/sarva-shiksha-abhiyan-is-a-farce/195759.html
During my recent visit to Kanyakumari, while I was returning from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, a little girl (aged not more than 3 years) approached me. The girl looked frail and emaciated and wore a torn, dirty dress to camouflage her skeleton. She was trying to sell polythene bags to me at Rs. 2 per bag. Well I can’t explain the glum and dejection which shrouded her innocent visage. I was moved by her condition and promptly handed over a crisp Rs. 10-rupee note to her. Her smile was worth watching.
I had initially assumed that she was the only small girl there peddling bags to tourists. But as soon as I handed over the note, a dozen more children like her surrounded me. I had to pacify them by giving a two-rupee coin to each child near me and then I stealthily ran away to avoid being further accosted by more children. This is a mockery of our “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan”.
This incident made me ponder over the sorry state of primary education and child care. Just when these innocent ones should have been learning in schools and playing with their peers, they are busy peddling polythene bags to tourists to earn a living. The budgetary allocation to improve primary education has seen a steady rise over the years. We even pay a special 2 per cent education cess from our pockets to fund the education of the deprived ones. The number of primary schools has increased manifold and the enrolment rate has increased. But change seems to have come only on paper.
Let us start from the enrolment process itself. Once the school authorities get poor children enrolled in their school registers, they assume their role to be over. No one is bothered about how many enrolled students actually attend school. We have a much hyped mid-day meal scheme in the schools whose only purpose is to ensure that enrolled students attend school regularly. But the scheme has failed to achieve its purpose. It is because the huge amounts of rice and other vegetables procured for the scheme are embezzled by the school authorities. Even in schools where a perfunctory meal is arranged, the quality of food is extremely bad. And there is no one to whom the poor children can complain.
What the entire school learns depends upon the whims and fancies of the teacher. And we expect these poor children to compete with top-notch English medium school students who get individual attention and care. As the functioning of the school depends on the whims of teachers, let us analyse the quality of teachers themselves. The payment for primary school teachers is so meagre that it only attracts the least talented. While the top brains go for medicine and engineering and the average ones opt for bank jobs, other clerical posts or high school lectureship, the worst lot are selected as teachers for primary schools. And we expect those who have flunked in their exams many a times to educate our children.
Thus our primary education system is replete with bottlenecks and flawed in every aspect. Investments in agriculture, industries, infrastructure, etc., yield returns only in the present. But investment and improvement in primary education yields returns in the future. We are deliberately jeopardising the future of our country by neglecting the sentinels of our future. We can’t expect ill-educated citizens to lead us. We have to change the present education scenario if we want to secure a top place for India in the evolving world order.
