As an educator working with almost 500 schools in South India today, I am frequently drawn into conclaves and conferences on school education and occasionally on higher education as well. Several topics come up for analysis, and specifically the performance of the powers-that-be in terms of understanding the needs and aspirations of students and institutions of learning across the country.
Nothing conclusive ever comes out of these deliberations. All of them end with a sigh, a whimper and a wishlist of things that can be done, but aren't yet. I have no doubt, though, that the hurdles can be overcome with the right approach. But first, several tough questions need to be answered.
Education, in my view, has always deserved a bigger budgetary allocation and several systemic bolsters.
This year, the Congress manifesto carries a budgetary promise of 6% of the GDP in the next five years (by 2023-24), a transference of school education to the States (now on the Concurrent List), increasing the number of seats in higher education by as much as 50%, increasing the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) and of course, free and compulsory education up to Class XII in public schools.
Most significantly for a state like Tamil Nadu, this manifesto carries with it the promise of a total scrapping of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for the medical degree, a burning and contentious issue. Already, two suicides (Anitha and Pradeepa), and a beleaguered student population has further alienated voters in the Southern State over this issue.
In comparison, the BJP manifesto seemingly promises more achievable targets including the opening of 200 Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodayas, a medical school in every district, and of course the opening up of universities in Music, Hospitality, Tourism and the Police. It promises freeing up the regulations of institutions for higher education.
On the face of it, the Congress manifesto seems to be slightly more in favour of the autonomy that many state governments seek and actively ask for. However, as with NYAY, I wonder (along with my fellow laymen) where the budgetary allocation promised by 2023 will materialise from. Further, transferring school education to the State, while desired by many of the more progressive states, may backfire in the case of those States that are fund-strapped.
Neither manifesto successfully addresses these concerns at the moment. Both of them make promises that have been echoed before, but we are far from achieving. While the current dispensation has made progress on some of these parameters, sustained effort and more drastic solutions are needed across the spectrum of learning.
The current budgetary allocation has been far less than desirable (less than 1% of the GDP), making Education one of the domains accorded less importance than was due.
India's place in the HCI (Human Capital Index, calculated by the World Bank, placing India at Rank 115 out of 157 countries, as a measure of how productive a child born today will be by the time he/she reaches adulthood, measured across health, quality-adjusted education and survival) is worrying.
So, is our poor showing on Global Research rankings among educational institutions. Despite this, the ruling dispensation is confident of making a turnaround.
All indices are fraught with errors, but it still leaves us with the first of the basic questions.
Tough Question # 1: What will the budgetary allocation be for primary, secondary and higher education in the immediate to short-term future and what would the rationale be?
To be fair, the Modi administration inherited an education portfolio beset with several problems, not all of which could be systemically corrected in the 2014-19 term, and understandably so.
To be equally fair, some welcome moves have been executed including the creation of the NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework, a one-stop system for all institutions of higher learning), the removal of price tags for Vice Chancellor positions in universities, setting up the IoE (Institutes of Eminence) mechanism which brings in a substantive corpus for research funding over five years and almost complete autonomy for the institution receiving the status.
Notwithstanding the inconsistency on the policies regarding the IIMs and IITs (the Smriti Irani era was wrought with fee caps on these institutions and a loss in autonomy in the way they were run; the Prakash Javadekar era has been more temperate and has restored some of these freedoms back to the said institutions), we must concede that steps towards more sustainable change are indeed encouraging.
The contentious issue of slashes in research funding among a number of institutions for higher education, and the seemingly arbitrary idea of what constitutes research that will receive government funding vs. what will not are key issues for the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development to address.
A transparent decision process that looks specifically at how we can encourage the talent pool in these institutions to contribute towards truly groundbreaking research will be welcome. Does the Government's intervention truly facilitate progress in this, or is there painful over-reach?
Tough Question # 2: How will the government create, sustain and motivate high-quality research across disciplines, without undue interference in the running of institutions of higher learning?
At the other end of the spectrum, the situation in primary education continues to be worrying. So far, we are still far from addressing the problem of securing good teachers for public schools. There is then the need for continuous and ongoing training for these teachers and equipping the heads-of-schools with leadership skills to handle 21st-century complexity. Perhaps these are ideas that will be expounded upon later and delegated to others to ponder about and plan!
However, several questions remain, not least of which will concern the Pay Commissions and their recommendations as an important factor. Already, studies indicate that in many states, public schools are wrought with dysfunction. There are schools that are grossly understaffed. The facilities on offer in many of these schools are dismal too. Exceptions become news items. This in itself will have to change.
The issue of what could be desirable learning outcomes, and ways to measure them with a no-detention policy from Class I to VIII have been addressed by the current regime, including a drastic revision of the methods to evaluate progress on these outcomes. One could argue that again this is a point in favour of the current dispensation. However, we still need to ask...
Tough Question #3: How do we make enrolment in public schools desirable rather than merely mandatory?
The worldwide craze for technology finds resonance in our policies in Education. While the intent and the plan to use technology at even a primary-school level is necessary, there is a yawning gap when it comes to implementation and quality control. The BJP manifesto, for instance, promises smart classrooms under the Prime Minister Innovative Learning Programme. Installing smartboards is a means to an end. What will be fed into it or through it? Who decides on this content (NCERT? State-run agencies? Private Educators or Education Companies?).
The recent controversy over perceived overreach on the part of the CBSE in terms of altering syllabi (notably in History, where crucial topics have been made redundant for the public examinations) has already raised eyebrows over what the role of the NCERT should be? Equally fuzzy is the status of the National Education Policy despite the recommendations of the TSR Subramaniam report, commissioned by Smriti Irani. Which leads us to -
Tough Question # 4: Where does the Government's role end and that of expert educators and scholars (or agencies that represent them) begin in school education?
Like me, many professionals investing in Education in our country want to enable progress and change. However, the emphasis on education needs to be piped up enormously, and fast.
Till then, here is to progress!
Anil Srinivasan is a well-known musician, educator reaching over 3 lakh children, and an Associate Professor of Practice at KREA University