ninety three
two simple digits, but ones that should have tranformed the lives of the children of India:
I am referring to the ninety third amendment to the constitution of India..
It took half a century for the children of Independant India to get the right to free education. It should be a cause of celebration… but then all is not well on planet India…
A few weeks back a senior government official asked me whether I would like to ‘take over’ the local municipal school. At first I thought it was a joke.. but soon realised the person was serious…
I was in the presence of the so called privatisation of education, that one had been hearing of for some time.
My blood ran cold…
The state was simply abdicating its duty towards education and handing it over to whoever would want it… and i why should anyone want it if not for commercial reasons.. we were not talking philantrophy here…
Yes it is the fashion of the day to hand over what one is not able to run, be it a natural resource like water to the running of complex organisations like power, to mundane ones like garbage collection… but has anyone stopped to think what this would mean…
Handing over municipal schools to commercial interests simply means denying millions of children their constitutional right to education… yes i am sure some palliative will be found, some form of literacy or the other for which someone will find a befitting and conscious easing name… and society wil be further divided..
An easy way to solve problems.. maybe next time we cannot handle our own children let us give them to the highest bidder!
Hi anuradha
I can’t say I know much about this stuff but I don’t agree that it’s the governments duty to provide education. To provide the framework to encourage education yes definitely but to actually run schools .. no. I’m a staunch believer in privitisation of schools with people like you running them. Running them like the best of corporates. With belief that only if you run the ‘best school’ in terms of education will you get the ‘best returns’ in terms of quality and quantity of kids. And no best returns are never mean killing the golden goose by charging prohibitively like many fear privtitisation of schools will lead to. There is need for schools for all economic levels there is opportunity to work and earn in all of them. The better your school is the better returns you will get on your investment.
As for the government .. thank you I don’t think a body that changes history every 5 years depending on it’s wims and fancies should be entursted with anyones kids. Religion and poilitics should be totally barred from playing educational games with young minds. But how can you ask them to when they are the ones we like to hold responsible for the task of education?
Yes anuradha its a sad reality…
I felt my blood run cold in my body the other day when i read about a similar thing. Karnataka has started free afternoon meals for all govt schools all over the state…but that food never arrives at most schools anymore..its sold at a very low price to neighbouring communities and other who are ready to pay.
Hi, I came here thru Ammani’s blog. I have added your blog under New Delhi in Indibloggers. Keep blogging 🙂