Privatisation no cure for education problem

It was a historic moment for India on Tuesday when 'The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2009,' was passed by Parliament. The new law makes it compulsory for a child between the age of 6-14 years to be in school. With the passage of the Bill the right to free education also comes into effect. Surprisingly, United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi did not speak a word in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the Bill.

However, educationists criticised many of the provisions of the Bill and also pointed out that it was unfair to the disabled. They also panned it as an elitist agenda, calling it a part of the neo liberal approach.

Elitist agenda?

Educationists and some politicians claimed that the Act has made education elitist, commercialised it and was beneficial only to the rich. But according to the UPA Government the emphasis of the Bill was on quality education.

In Parliament, while presenting the Bill, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said, "It is a historic step. I thank Soniaji. I thank the Prime Minister."

Sibal may have appeared unfazed, but the minister faced a barrage of criticism.

Critics point out that:

The Bill has clearly been done up in a hurry to meet the 100-day-deadline.

There is Not enough scope for quality education for the poor.

Minority institutions should have been kept out of the purview of the Act.

Twenty-five per cent reserved for the deprived but disabled not provided for.

But Sibal said that all children with disabilities will be covered under the deprived quota in the Bill.

"Get this Bill redrafted. It does not even talk about the financial implications and the financial memorandum," said Asaduddin Owaisi, MP, MIM.

On the other hand the some points of the Bill that have been welcomed included:

The concept of neighbourhood schools was being introduced

No child would be detained in class

Schools will have to provide quality teachers

There will be an improved student-teacher ratio

Reports say that the financial implications of the new Act could be around Rs 65,000 crore and may need Centre-state co-operation.

It is the elite who send their children to private schools; the poor send theirs to government-run schools. So, how is HRD Ministry going to bridge that gap to fulfill its agenda of quality education? Is the private sector going to be tapped into?

CNN-IBN's show Face The Nation discussed: Is privatisation of education the only way to ensure quality education for all?

On the panel of experts were Congress spokesperson and Member of Parliament Manish Tewari, Economist and author Gurcharan Das, educationist Anil Sadgopal and Director of NGO Pratham Rukmini Banerjee.

During the presentation of the Bill in Parliament with Sibal calling it a historic step, why was UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi silent?

"The fact of the matter is that whether or not the Congress President speaks or does not speak is not important. What really matters is the support she lent to the Bill by being there through out the proceedings and the message went out very clearly that this is a commitment of the Congress party, of the UPA alliance government, which is being fulfilled. Her presence was a signal that she was personally driving the Bill to its logical conclusion," said Congress MP Manish Tewari.

Replying to the charge by the Left that the Act pitted the elite against the poor Tewari said, "The Left does not live in a real world. When you take a step as historic and as revolutionary as this whereby you make education compulsory, which is an onus on the state, that's a privilege to the child. You have to go along and implement it in the existing parameters."

But educationist Anil Sadgopal disagreed calling the Act a regressive step.

"It is a black day in the history of Indian education and is a fraud on our children. It gives neither free education nor compulsory education. In fact, it only legitimises the present multi-layered, inferior quality school education system where discrimination shall continue to prevail. It violates our constitution on three major grounds. It has deprived more than 17 crore children below six years of age from education which already exists in our Constitution," claimed Sadgopal.

"It has institutionalised discrimination in our school system through four categories of schools, categories within categories, nation within nation. So this is going to fragment our society," he added.

Economist and author Gurcharan Das said that it was a myth that private schools were only for the elite and the government schools were for the poor.

"Fifty-four per cent of the urban children go to private schools and this is growing at the rate of three per cent a year. As a result, even the poor children are abandoning the government schools. They are leaving because the teachers are not showing up," said Das.

But it has been often been alleged that one out of four teachers do not show up in government schools and among those who do, some do not teach well.

"It is not an issue of public versus private. We would all love government schools that function. The issue really is that people too are being forced to go into the private system because the government system has failed,” Das added.

Rukmini Banerjee agreed with Das that quality of education should be the top priority.

"We should be able to provide a meaningful and effective education, whether they are eight-years-old or 10-year-olds," said Rukmini.

But she debunked the myth that private schools are better than government schools. She quoted a research study taken up by NGOs that threw up a result that there is not much difference between the quality of students except on certain parameters.

Child labour vs right to education

Child labour and the deprivation of education go hand-in-hand. Unless child-labour is abolished how would the children employed go to schools?

"These things have to be done simultaneously. Look at the case of Bihar,” Rukmini pointed out..

“Bihar is a state really worth studying. In the last two years, there has been a big drop in the number of children who are out of school. There has been a huge increase in the number of teachers who have come in and no private schools. But now that the Bill has been passed, what we really need to think about is what will be the rules and regulations," she claimed.

Sadgopal said he did not see it as a Fundamental Rights Bill at all. He hoped that the middle class would now realise, rise and rebel.

"There is no provision here to regulate the private school fee-hike which is taking place all over the country. I am very hopeful that the middle-class will rise against the fee-hike in private schools that is not being regulated. It is a pro-privatisation, pro-commercialisation Bill which is going to give arbitrary powers to increase their fees or do whatever they like,” said Sadgopal.

Neighbourhood school debate

Should the elite, too, send their children to government schools so that the government schools are forced to deliver quality education?

Sadgopal alleged that Kapil Sibal had misled Parliament on the issue of neighbourhood schools issue. Sadgopal quoted from the Kothari Commission report on education systems from about four decades ago to buttress his claims.

"System of education exists in almost all G-8 countries, particularly in America, Canada, France, Germany and Japan. There every school is a neighbourhood school. They have totally changed the definition of neighbourhood schools in this Bill by saying that it will be the neighbourhood of the child and not the neighbourhood of the school. That was a total transformation of the universal definition of universal school," said Sadgopal.

Sadgopal said that any education system that works for profit cannot deliver promised goods.

Das said he would rather give the parents and children the choice. He would rather take the Rs 65,000 crore that the Government is setting aside for this Bill. He would rather give the money as scholarships to students who can chose what school to go to.

Rukmini insisted all schools can deliver but parents, especially those who were not sending their children to school must first make a move to send them to school.

Final result of SMS/Web poll: Is privatisation of education the only way to ensure quality education for all?

Yes: 42 per cent

No: 58 per cent

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