This appeared in The Tribune Chandigarh some time ago. Thought it is relevant now!!!!!!!!!!
Bias in education
V. Krishna Ananth
THE verdict by the Supreme Court granting absolute control to managements of engineering and medical colleges in the private sector on admissions has raised a lot of debate. In an era where the market, rather than social commitment, is peddled as the mantra, such a verdict was only to be expected. The point is that it came a little late in the day!
And when that happened, we find the parties, across the spectrum, expressing in favour of changing the law. Well, the statutes will have to be changed and one will expect such a consensus emerging when leaders of political parties gather later this month in a meeting convened by Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh.
It is also likely that such a statutory change will be challenged before the courts by the forces against change. The forces of the status quo, after all, cannot be expected to accept changes.
Recall, for instance, the fact that the status quoists were able to stall the implementation of the Mandal Commission’s recommendations for at least four years. The Indira Sawney and others v/s Union of India case settled the dispute for the time being and declared that there was nothing unconstitutional about reservation for the Other Backward Classes in Central Government jobs.
The fact is that this small measure to achieve socio-economic justice was delayed by 10 years in the first stage (it was announced in 1990 despite the report of the Mandal Commission submitted in 1980) and by few more years until November 1993, when the apex court upheld the August 8, 1990 order.
While all this and a whole lot of other battles fought through the judiciary were necessary to ensure a semblance of equity in opportunities for state and central government jobs, the experience in the education sector has been equally challenging.
But then, the fact that parties across the spectrum are now under pressure to speak up for the Dalits and the Other Backward Castes and notwithstanding the fact that they do so only because they are forced to do and not because they are committed to the ideal of affirmative action, is something that must be factored in at this stage of the debate.
In other words, the forces of the status quo, entrenched as they are in all walks of our public life and everywhere in the political establishment, have managed to devise other means to deny the Dalits and the OBCs what is their due. And in the process, they have managed to ensure the marginalisation of a whole lot of socially deprived sections.
Let us now wonder, in broad terms, the profile of students who aspire and manage to gain admissions in the engineering and medical colleges run by private players in terms of the schools they come from. It will not be wrong to conclude that a majority, if not all, studied in schools run by private players.
Putting it differently, only a small section of the students in the engineering colleges run by private managements studied in the schools run by the government. That is, because, most such government schools in villages do not have the minimum number of teachers and lack all necessary facilities.
It is a fact, acknowledged even by the governments in various States, including Tamil Nadu, that several primary schools in villages have only two teachers. That is, just two teachers for five classes! And even these teachers go on leave, are employed for electoral roll revision and other jobs.
The fate of the students who are sent to these schools can be imagined. So much so, parents who manage to earn little money decide to send their children to private teaching shops. And most such shops, run in the name of schools, are set up and run from small houses. The one where 96 kids died in the fire on July 16, 2004 in Kumbakonam is just one example of the kind.
Coming back to our government schools, while several children drop out after their primary education, some land in the high schools and a smaller number go to the higher secondary schools in villages and small towns.
True, they get free bus passes and are blessed with bicycles in Tamil Nadu if they continue to study after their class X. But then they are certainly not equipped to compete with children whose parents are rich enough to send their children to unaided private schools.
Consider the social profile of children whose parents are not rich enough to educate their wards in private schools. They happen to be the Dalits, the backward castes and other deprived sections of society.
And in the event these children decide to join an engineering college or a medical college in the private sector, their parents will have to borrow huge sums of money. This, they cannot afford.
And they all end up joining the arts colleges where the fees are not as high as they are in the private professional colleges.
The point is, the poor and the socially deprived are even otherwise excluded from pursuing higher studies in professional colleges.
Hence, the imperative for the powers and the political classes is to ensure that all schools are of the same kind. The idea of common schools. Anil Sadagopal, a Gandhian and an educationist of repute has made a case for this in his recommendations to the government.
The Constitution has been amended now and Article 21 contains a clause that all children between 6 and 14 have the fundamental right to education. The Union Government will now have to enact details of the Bill to enable implementation of this fundamental right.
It will be useful and meaningful if all parties raise this issue and ensures that the necessary changes to the law on reservation in educational institutions are brought about soon. But then, these changes will not make sense without ensuring a common school system.
In other words, abolish the system where the rich can send their children to schools that are well equipped and the poor are condemned to sending their children to schools without a building, to schools without an adequate number of teachers and schools without blackboards and schools where nothing is taught.
Bias in education
V. Krishna Ananth
THE verdict by the Supreme Court granting absolute control to managements of engineering and medical colleges in the private sector on admissions has raised a lot of debate. In an era where the market, rather than social commitment, is peddled as the mantra, such a verdict was only to be expected. The point is that it came a little late in the day!
And when that happened, we find the parties, across the spectrum, expressing in favour of changing the law. Well, the statutes will have to be changed and one will expect such a consensus emerging when leaders of political parties gather later this month in a meeting convened by Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh.
It is also likely that such a statutory change will be challenged before the courts by the forces against change. The forces of the status quo, after all, cannot be expected to accept changes.
Recall, for instance, the fact that the status quoists were able to stall the implementation of the Mandal Commission’s recommendations for at least four years. The Indira Sawney and others v/s Union of India case settled the dispute for the time being and declared that there was nothing unconstitutional about reservation for the Other Backward Classes in Central Government jobs.
The fact is that this small measure to achieve socio-economic justice was delayed by 10 years in the first stage (it was announced in 1990 despite the report of the Mandal Commission submitted in 1980) and by few more years until November 1993, when the apex court upheld the August 8, 1990 order.
While all this and a whole lot of other battles fought through the judiciary were necessary to ensure a semblance of equity in opportunities for state and central government jobs, the experience in the education sector has been equally challenging.
But then, the fact that parties across the spectrum are now under pressure to speak up for the Dalits and the Other Backward Castes and notwithstanding the fact that they do so only because they are forced to do and not because they are committed to the ideal of affirmative action, is something that must be factored in at this stage of the debate.
In other words, the forces of the status quo, entrenched as they are in all walks of our public life and everywhere in the political establishment, have managed to devise other means to deny the Dalits and the OBCs what is their due. And in the process, they have managed to ensure the marginalisation of a whole lot of socially deprived sections.
Let us now wonder, in broad terms, the profile of students who aspire and manage to gain admissions in the engineering and medical colleges run by private players in terms of the schools they come from. It will not be wrong to conclude that a majority, if not all, studied in schools run by private players.
Putting it differently, only a small section of the students in the engineering colleges run by private managements studied in the schools run by the government. That is, because, most such government schools in villages do not have the minimum number of teachers and lack all necessary facilities.
It is a fact, acknowledged even by the governments in various States, including Tamil Nadu, that several primary schools in villages have only two teachers. That is, just two teachers for five classes! And even these teachers go on leave, are employed for electoral roll revision and other jobs.
The fate of the students who are sent to these schools can be imagined. So much so, parents who manage to earn little money decide to send their children to private teaching shops. And most such shops, run in the name of schools, are set up and run from small houses. The one where 96 kids died in the fire on July 16, 2004 in Kumbakonam is just one example of the kind.
Coming back to our government schools, while several children drop out after their primary education, some land in the high schools and a smaller number go to the higher secondary schools in villages and small towns.
True, they get free bus passes and are blessed with bicycles in Tamil Nadu if they continue to study after their class X. But then they are certainly not equipped to compete with children whose parents are rich enough to send their children to unaided private schools.
Consider the social profile of children whose parents are not rich enough to educate their wards in private schools. They happen to be the Dalits, the backward castes and other deprived sections of society.
And in the event these children decide to join an engineering college or a medical college in the private sector, their parents will have to borrow huge sums of money. This, they cannot afford.
And they all end up joining the arts colleges where the fees are not as high as they are in the private professional colleges.
The point is, the poor and the socially deprived are even otherwise excluded from pursuing higher studies in professional colleges.
Hence, the imperative for the powers and the political classes is to ensure that all schools are of the same kind. The idea of common schools. Anil Sadagopal, a Gandhian and an educationist of repute has made a case for this in his recommendations to the government.
The Constitution has been amended now and Article 21 contains a clause that all children between 6 and 14 have the fundamental right to education. The Union Government will now have to enact details of the Bill to enable implementation of this fundamental right.
It will be useful and meaningful if all parties raise this issue and ensures that the necessary changes to the law on reservation in educational institutions are brought about soon. But then, these changes will not make sense without ensuring a common school system.
In other words, abolish the system where the rich can send their children to schools that are well equipped and the poor are condemned to sending their children to schools without a building, to schools without an adequate number of teachers and schools without blackboards and schools where nothing is taught.
posted by Krishna Ananth at
8:47 PM
4 Comments:
hi sir!!
made some changes to the comments section on your blog. earlier only bloggers could comment..now almost any human who reads your blog can comment.
so am in chennai and was chatting with my NRI cousins...it's amazing how everyone recognises the fact that the economic and social divide in the country is increasing...but no one wants to challenge the economic order that sustains it.i guess challenging something that made things so much easier for some of us is difficult.
thank you chotu. i will have to learn to react to comments promptly... am yet to react ...
An attempt to articulate.
OBC- other backward classes... therefore the whole song and dance about "the government should help economically, if a higher caste is poor then what happens" etc etc - is all refuted.
It is bogus. CLASS is an economical concept, therefore financial background is the basis.
Although class and caste are highle interlinked, they are not one and the same.
So I don't think it is right to go around randomly pointing fingers and accusing the government when one is not able to comprehend the whole thing.
The anti-reservation protests and demonstrations for most people signified an important landmark-"so many people united for a cause" and to most peole it was such a 'great and just' cause.
Well, ofcourse the government did not respond in an appropriate manner. The violent attempt at supressing the 'voice of dissent' (as i would like to call it) was not needed and just added fuel to the fire.
The RAng de BAsanti analogy drove me up the wall. From both sides, the protestors as well as the authorities.
I failed to see the connection.
Probable because I heard the 'voice of dissent' as the voice of GREED. All i could see or understand was "we have goodies, but we will not share them".
Maybe that was an unfair conclusion, maybe we are so unconnected and ignorant of our reality (in its entirity) that the common myths became realities. Myths of reservations taking away the chance for anyone to excel etc. (an interesting point of view is available on Pamela Philipoe's article in IE)
For me this benefit of the doubt syndrome came about after spending a few days at the Delhi University form submission centres. Here numerous people came in enquiring about every possible resevation category... any random category possible.
well if people want to use reservation what is all the hue and cry about.
The other thing that really stood out was seemingly priveledged people with no visible need for reservation were making use of it. A father whose daughter who'd scored 83% and did not look like needed any financial assitance and was also sitting for numerous engineering and medical exams wanted to know if he should use the reservation this year or next so that his daughter does not loose out a year. with taht percentagew she would have got in to any college for the course she was applying to.
Bt despite all these discripancies there is something fundamentally wrong with the anti reservation protests- they call themselves youth for equality, but equality is not a random abstract concept. It is rooted in the socio economic reality of the time.
So then how can one even compare the sections requiring/needing reservation to the general category?
Are we not automatically priveledged with public school expossure and reputed educational institution and the resources of our parents relatives and friends behind us, with the support system we can create because we are not unacceptable, with all that we are just so much more capable of finding other alternatives....
Or so I think.
Too long I suppose, but i had to get everything done.
I presume it's Moyna... Hey... you are right and those who have not been deprived have found the alternative too... they create the space for them... they also protest for a while... let them.
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