Education in India needs a people’s movement
Unless we place it on the country’s political agenda and make it a vibrant people’s movement, right to education in India would not see the light of the day. Such thoughts marked the mood at an international consultation organised by Plan India and UNESCO held in the national capital today.
Rebecca, a young of around 12 years, wanted to study and become a teacher. But her father wanted to marry her off. She was fortunate enough to escape and enroll herself in a school, all made possible by her grandmother and Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Kenya.
Rebecca’s story was narrated through a five-minute film screened at an international consultation on schooling for all organised by Plan India and UNESCO in the Indian capital.
Quality education through the formal school system is a right of all children irrespective of their nationality, gender, race, and ethnicity.
As notes Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to education” and it should be, “directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights”.
Further, the UN Millennium Development Goals demand governments and civil society to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling; and eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2015.
But despite these very concrete provisions, how far have we progressed? Has improvement in school enrollment rates addressed the fundamental issues of equity and quality of education as well?
To ponder over such grappling questions, an international consultation organised by Plan India and UNESCO was held today in the Indian capital.
Learning without fear
“The targeted years are passing by but dreams are yet to be realised,” said Surina Narula, Patron, Plan India and Co-chair, Consortium for Street Children, UK.
Worldwide school enrollment has reached 88 percent, a phenomenal progress indeed. But at the same time around 72 million children continue to be out of school.
Data though can be contested but the problem aggravates when despite ensuring access and retention, learning does not take place. Then arises the question of quality and performance.
“After 1976, the subject was put in the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution, thereby expanding the scope for action by both the central and state governments. However, the scene has not changed much on the ground and ensuring social equity still remains a major challenge,” Narula added.
The country faces a humongous task of creating a paradigm shift in the education system and removing the ills, what Shankar Chowdhury from UNESCO described as the ‘three Ds’ – denial, disempowerment and deprivation.
Enrollment rates do not reflect on quality of learning. What need to be addressed are the multiple barriers to education.
“Children are often subject to various forms of abuse and discrimination and psychological mistreatment at schools.How can they go back and study in such an hostile environment?” asked Roland Angerer, Country director, Plan India.
Learning environment is a very critical factor in providing quality education to a child. One needs to understand deeply as to what kind of backgrounds both students and teacher bring to the class.
A child belonging to a socially disadvantaged section of the society or a teacher who is a victim of domestic violence can hardly contribute to the leaning process in a constructive manner.
Therefore, it is equally important to focus on work conditions of the teachers and build their capacities to understand their pupils better and cater to their specific needs.
Taking this forward would require committed collaborations and sustained partnerships. Education therefore needs to be integrated with a holistic approach to child-centred development.
The African experience
“As shown in the film Rebecca now studies in a Centre for Excellence (COE), a model school system bring run by FAWE in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Salina Sanou, FAWE.
The COE model, now being replicated in Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda, encompasses several aspects that are crucial to child-centred development. These include making schools a harassment free zone, education on HIV/AIDS, sexual maturation coaching, facilities like boarding, scholarships etc.
“As a result we have been successful in reducing the dropout rate and also controlled teenage pregnancies,” she said.
One size doesn’t fit all
For the children living on streets, those working as bonded labour, trafficked, migrants, dalits, in custodial institutions, children of stigmatised parentage - sex workers, manual scavengers, HIV positive - children with disability and mental illness, and within each of these groups for the girl child, an obstacle is waiting at very step
Be it the dalits in India, refugees in Palestine or child soldiers in Somalia. Their inability to access formal schools is a function of complex factors involving particular forms of vulnerabilities, biases, prejudices and discrimination.
Also, the issues of physical access, affordability and availability of schools play a key role.
“Poorest of the poor children are still out of schools. They are either stitching footballs in Pakistan or washing dishes in India,” observed Sangeeta Mehta, Programme Manger, Education, Department for International Development (DFID).
“A society like India which is so disaggregated needs to evolve contextual strategies to cope with hurdles in increasing access for all,” she added.
Education for a child should mean that one has received the bare minimum in terms of literacy, livelihood options, a dignified living and becoming a responsible member of society.
School culture needs to be more responsive to the needs of students from the poor and deprived sections.
Mehta cited the example of Activity based Learning (ABL) module being followed in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Here teachers actually devote time and energy taking care of children with varied levels of grasping power and imparting them a meaningful education.
Make it a political agenda
“It is high time that we make this a political debate,” said noted Right to Education activist Vinod Raina.
What India has been following till date is a social welfare approach to issues like education, a sector where plethora of schemes have been introduced.
However, in addition to developing a socially and culturally sensitive attitude towards the deprived groups, there is an exigency to strictly enforce the right to education through legal provisions.
The Supreme Court of India in 1993 combined the Article 21 (right to liberty) of the Fundamental Rights with Article 45 (provision for free and compulsory education) of the Directive Principles of State Policy.
But, the 86th Amendment (2002) called for a law to grant this right.
“We are still waiting for that binding law as the Planning Commission has been repeatedly saying that there are no funds to put the bill into practice. A country boasting of double digit figure in economic growth cannot do this to its children,” Raina lamented.
When it comes to providing quality education to all, Sri Lanka presents a role model to the rest of the South Asian region. Inclusion is a major problem in the sub-continent with India facing the most gigantic task due to its sheer size and numbers.
It is not that every corrective measure can be put in place right at the outset. The Right to Education Bill too has loopholes.
For instance, it doesn’t include the recommendations of the Kothari Commission (1964-66), calling for a common school system, a very vital component of the overall strategy for securing equity and social justice in education.
However, it is a landmark move in the direction of ensuring education for all and to a certain extent, making way for equalisation of educational opportunities.
The next step should be to make this a people’s movement and not just confine it to the civil society clamour. It should not remain only a social agenda any longer but become a political issue, calling for vigorous action.
“The political class fears the massive electorate change that this can bring and that explains their non-chalance on spearheading action on the matter,” noted Raina.
Community participation especially of those who are on the fringes is extremely crucial to pressurise the government to table the bill in the coming session of the Parliament.
A play called ‘Nai Taleem’ (new education) performed by the students of Springdales School was staged during the event. The play’s theme - imparting a meaningful education to reduce social inequalities - was enough to highlight what needs to be done.
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