Over three decades after Dharampal’s classic, The Beautiful Tree, established that pre-Macaulay India had a literacy rate of around 73% and virtually every village had a school, the nation stagnates with a literacy rate of 65%. If memory serves me right, over the past two decades, we have managed to increase national literacy by just 2%, and this figure would owe much to States like Kerala. So much for Education for All by 2000; by current reckoning this will be difficult to achieve even by 2025.
The reasons are not far to seek. Besides flawed priorities (for instance, undue attention to institutions of higher learning like the business schools that know how to take care of themselves), there has long been an evasion of fundamentals. That is to say, there has been no attempt to establish a correlation between money spent and results achieved. As a consequence, the rot has gone deep, and is likely to deepen further, if the new Government is indeed pushed to increase the outlay for education without ensuring accountability of funds disbursed.
On the face of it, it makes good sense to allocate more funds for education so that the goal of universal elementary education (UEE) is achieved as soon as possible. How long can resurgent India – who’s IITs and IIMs are the toast of the international corporate community – tolerate being a nation with the world’s largest number of illiterates? Raising public spending from 4.1% to 6% GDP should naturally take us forward with geometrical strides. The statistics, however, tell a different story.
Neighbouring China, for instance, spends only 2.2% of its GDP on education but enjoys 91% literacy; Sri Lanka spends 1.3% GDP for a phenomenally high 92.5% literacy and Indonesia too spends just 1.3% GDP for a literacy rate of 88%. Thus, many Asian countries have achieved very satisfactory levels of literacy by spending around 2% of the GDP, or even less, on education. Planners believe that there should be some ratio between public spending per student and the per capita GDP. In India this ratio works out to a whopping 20.8%, which exactly matches that of the USA, and is far more than the 15.8% of Britain (Economic Times, 1 June 2004).
Clearly, there is a gross mismatch between national income and expenditure. So there must be other reasons behind India’s poor literacy achievements. One obvious cause is the generally low standard of Government schools, which the scintillating performance of the high quality Navodaya schools in this years’ Board examinations cannot wash away. Even in the capital there are Government schools with a pass percentage of zero. When Government school teachers earn double or triple what their counterparts earn in ordinary private schools, it is unacceptable that they can bunk school with impunity, or get away with cursory teaching.
If education is to be meaningful and justify the huge public outlay, reforms must precede increased allocation. To begin with, politics must either take a back seat, or be more fully accountable. For instance, even if teachers have secured their jobs through political connections, there must be no compromise on the issue of basic qualifications or attendance. In villages, schools must be placed under the jurisdiction of the panchayats with immediate effect, and teachers who do not report to school for say, three successive days, without valid reason (sickness, earned leave) be liable for dismissal. The days when party workers could get jobs and salaries without attending school – or at most depute an ill-qualified ‘proxy’ to teach on their behalf – must be put behind us forever. At the same time, panchayats and opinion leaders within the community must ensure cent per cent attendance of all children below 15 years of age in school.
In the cities as well, public vigilance over Government schools should be invited by roping in respected community leaders or Residents’ Welfare Associations area-wise, to secure attendance by both teachers and students. This is necessary because it has been observed that while poor families that avail of such schools are deeply interested in the education of their children, they are unable to judge issues of quality of education or sincerity of teachers, and cannot raise relevant issues with the school authorities. The enlightened mediation of educated citizens of the localities concerned would go a long way to bridge this gap. What is more, there will also be public scrutiny of funds received and spent by each and every school.
Finally, every councillor, MLA and MP should be charged with the responsibility of improving literacy in his/her jurisdiction. It would be highly desirable if those seeking re-election were to voluntarily submit an account of school results and pass percentages in his/her area for public scrutiny, opprobrium, or approval. The involvement of public representatives in this manner will not only shake the system out of its present slumber, but will go a long way in ensuring higher standards of achievement and accountability in education, which, even more than bijli, sadak and pani, is critical to development.
What India urgently needs is public vigilance and participation in education at the level of both village and town. Once this is achieved, we may find that we can reduce public allocation of GDP on education while securing, and even exceeding, the literacy rate we enjoyed before we came victims of the White Man’s Burden.
Sahara Time, 12 June 2004