'A quarter of India's kids don't go to school'

Though India has the largest number of school teachers in the world and a record enrolment of 150 million children between six and 14 in schools, universalisation of elementary education -- UEE -- in India still remains a distant dream, according to K K Khullar, a writer on Indian education.

Despite umpteen policy changes and review panels, the Indian education system still failed to deliver the goods because of flawed policies, lack of vision on the part of planners, non-implementation of certain key recommendations and finally, the government's failure to see education as an 'agent of change', according to Khullar.

The statistics look impressive. Over 598,000 primary schools, 171,000 upper primary schools, 65,000 secondary and 25,000 higher secondary schools, 7,513 colleges, 167 universities (including 28 agricultural universities), 36 deemed universities, five Indian institutes of technology, four institutes of management, a network of polytechnics and industrial training institutes, besides 284,000 centres of non-formal education.

But then, instead of discarding the colonial system after Independence and evolving an indigenous system, ''we went for committees and commissions,'' Khullar says.

The UEE, as envisaged in Article 45 of the Constitution which had set a target of 10 years to achieve this, has not only remained an unattained goal, but education in India today is a story of stark disparity that was introduced by the same guiding principles meant for making the nation prosperous and enlightened, laments Khullar.

India produces the largest number of graduates in the world but a department of education report in 1995 admitted that a quarter of the total school-going age population, about 28 million children, were outside the formal education system. This happens though education in government schools is free up to class eight and up to class 12 for girls and despite 14 states and four Union territories having passed legislation for compulsory primary education, the paper says.

India had all the opportunity, considering it had leaders who were also educationists, like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Dr S Radhakrishnan, Gokhale and Tilak. But the government appointed the University Education Commission in 1948 and the Dr Mudaliar commission for secondary education in 1952 which actually reestablished Lord Macaulay's system of colonial education, Khullar says.

A significant development in the Indian education system was the formation of the Kothari commission in 1964 under the chairmanship of physicist D S Kothari, to advise on the national pattern of education and general principles for educational development. This commission's report was the basis of the National Policy on Education, 1968, which had called for a complete transformation of the existing system, Khullar says.

One of the most important recommendations of the Kothari commission was the establishment of a ''common school system'' across the country, which would provide the bedrock for social justice, national integration and educational equality through a common admission policy, tuition-free school education, parity among teachers, besides equality in access and retention. In fact, subsequent policies in 1986 and 1992 also reiterated the Kothari commission's recommendations. However, as education then was on the state list, the fate of the recommendations depended on the mercy of the state governments, says Khullar.

In 1976, the 42nd amendment of the Constitution brought education under the concurrent list, finally empowering the Centre to legislate on the issue. The Central Advisory Board of Education made recommendations to overhaul the entire system. However, education could still not be delinked from degrees and the system of capitation fees flourished, Khullar says.

The parallel system of public schools which were allowed to go on, added to the problems, Khullar says. These private institutions imparted English medium courses and charged high fees, helping to create an elite class alienated from the national mainstream. This increased the gap between education haves and have-nots, he says.

The NPE of 1986 for the first time had, among other things, a concept of a 'national system of education' based on a common 10+2+3 structure and a common core curricular framework. This would ensure that up to a given level, all students irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex would have access to education of comparable quality, he says.

However, the new government in 1990 almost ignored a review report by a committee under Acharya Ramamurti. The updated 1992 NPE laid emphasis on vocationalisation of education at the second level, provisions for distance education and involving voluntary agencies and community participation in educational development, Khullar adds.

The most significant opportunity since Independence to revitalise the system, Khullar says, came with the Constitution (73rd and 74th amendment) Act of 1992 whereby education and other related subjects like cultural activities, women and child development were handed over to the gram panchayats. But the country was yet to reap the expected harvest and many states have not set up village education committees as proposed in the policy, he adds.

Khullar suggests finalisation of the Ninth Plan must also include effective measures in this direction. ''Instead of opening more hotels or liquor shops, we should open more schools,'' he suggests and adds that the non-formal system must be tried earnestly, as the formal system of education seems to be unable to bear the burden of educating India's vast numbers.

Operation Blackboard must immediately be extended to the non-formal system, which should not be treated like a poor cousin of the formal system, he says. The national programme of nutritional support should also be extended to the non-formal sector, he adds.

''If the child does not or fails to go to school, the duty of the State is to bring the school to the child,'' he says.

Educational development cannot take place in isolation and must be brought about through effective policies for human resource development, in which education plays a major part, he says. This requires a national policy on HRD which should also take into consideration the needs of skilled personnel and fulfil the nation's cultural aspirations.

This requires providing equal opportunities for the intellectual development of men and women, he says. In this respect, education of the girl child and non-formal education of women should be accorded top priority, he adds, pointing out that an educational bureaucracy alone cannot bring about a revolution in this field; it required the participation of the people.

''In the 50th year of India's Independence, it will thus be a great gesture if each educated person resolved to teach at least one illiterate,'' Khullar says on an optimistic note.