Invitation to think: India's Education Policy 2015

Hello iRA-D-AR readers

Education is too important a subject to be left to few experts, politicians and bureaucrats. It could not be more true in a country like India with its ethnic, linguistic, religious, and geographic diversity. There are Indians who earn less than a dollar a day and there are Indians would find it difficult to keep count of their earnings. Top down approach to policy making for such a nation, where half of the 1.27 billion people are in 0-25 year age group, is unlikely to fill the knowledge gap that perpetuates many of India's social and economic problems.

After one year in school 47 out of 100 children do not recognise alphabets

According to a 2013 report that collected data from 327,397 households in rural India 47.3% of children at end of standard I could not read even a letter, 32,3% could not read a word, 12.6% could read a word, 4.4% could read text of the level expected at standard I and 3.6% could read text of the level expected at standard II. 74% of children in standard VII could read text expected at standard II.

Source: ASER 2014 Report

The reading competence developed in private schools is better than in the government schools but still it is no consolation to note that only 63.1% children in standard V could read standard II level text in private schools and that percent has hardly changed between 2009 and 2013 (see table below).

Source: ASER 2014 Report

After one year in school 41 out of 100 children cannot count 1-9 numbers

The numerical abilities also are worrying. Only 24.3% of standard VIII could do subtraction and 46% could do division.  41% children enrolled in standard I could not recognise numbers 1-9. Only 26.4% children in standard VII could subtract. This is just part of the evidence that shows that the top down approach to policy making in the last 67 years since independence of the country in 1947 has not yielded elementary educational goals leave aside the development of human potential that an educated nation could unleash for individuals to live a good life.

Source: ASER 2014 Report

 One in five children attending government school in standard five could do division. Only 18.9% of children in standard III in government schools could do subtraction. The most worrying aspect of the following table is the declining trend in improving the numerical abilities of Indian children both in the government and private schools. While India can rightly take pride in designing and launching satellites, its primary education system seems to be matter of real concern.

Source: ASER 2014 Report

You can make a difference to education in India

The current minister of Human Resources Development in India has called for more people to contribute to new education policy formulation. If this announcement is executed as intended, it qualifies as the most important decision by the central government in India. I hope that the announcement will be taken up seriously not just by the minister and her office but also by experts, parents and others. Education is one of the most important keys, if not the most important key, to unlock the bottlenecks to removal of poverty and to well being billion plus of the planet's population that inhabits India.

I invite you to share your thoughts and suggestions on this blog by posting your views in brief but focussed way. Please respond with any thoughts you have with one of the following six headings:

Improving access and quality of education in primary schools: Put subject heading PRIMARY

Improving access and quality of education in high/higher secondary schools: Put subject heading: SECONDARY
Improving access and quality of higher/vocational education: Put subject heading: HE
Encouraging STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine): Put subject heading: STEM
Encouraging arts,humanities and other areas: Put subject heading: ARTS & HUMANITIES
Life long learning, professional development after formal qualifications: Put subject heading: LIFE LONG LEARNING

I look forward to reading your contributions.

Witness to history in making

Not always one feels that one is witnessing history in making. But I do feel today that way on 18 September 2014 as four million plus Scottish voters have been voting in referendum for independence of Scotland from the United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The voting would have closed by 10.00 p.m. probably before I finish typing this blog post.

I thought of writing this post late evening reading these entries in a diary of a Hiranand Karamchand Makhijani. Let me put entries first and then give the context.

" 20 April 1947: What will happen? What will become of Sindh? Will there be a massacre in our beloved Sindhri also? What is my duty? Can I go away? I am unwell as it is. But leaving will be an act of cowardice. How can I leave my home at this precarious point in time?" (Bhavnani, p.7)

Hiranand Makhijani was 46 years old Hindu Sindhi journalist who lived in Sindh which was until 14 August 1947 part of undivided India. Hiranand was a staunch Gandhian and freedom fighter according to Nandita Bhavnani from whose fascinating book The Making of Exile the above entry and following couple are taken. Hiranand's dilemma continues in build up to the decision about partition of India and his fear of becoming a foreigner in his own land as he writes below.

"10 May 1947: If there is an attack, what should I do? All my life I have preached the sermon of non-violence. How will I raise my hand against another? How do I face the religious lunatics? If I cannot respond with violent means, then with non-violence, will I be able to throw myself in front of the mob? I cannot find this courage within myself.

What will happen to the women? How will I be able to bear it if anyone is attacked in front of me? How will be able to stop them." (Bhavnani, p.7)

The above entry sends shiver down my spine because I know that exactly during the same period when Hiranand was writing the above entries my maternal and paternal grand fathers were in Sindh and they were Hindus just like Hiranand. It was their ancestral land as was Hiranand's. What trauma and pain would those days must have been to be living in fear and anxiety pending the decision about future of their land separating from India. The decision was made soon in early June as Hiranand notes in his diary.

"6 June 1947: Sindh has settled down. The causes of conflict have been removed but I have been separated from India! Have I become alien to India? I simply cannot believe it, that this has happened with one stroke of the pen! How can I become an alien in my own country? The threads of my life are tied up with my motherland! How can I break them? The ideals of my life are linked with the freedom of India. Now how can I say that India is no longer my country? No matter what the laws says, I will continue to consider myself an Indian, I will live as an Indian." (Bhavnani, p.7)

Hiranand's dilemmas and pain must have been shared by tens of thousands of Hindu Sindhis. I never got chance to discuss in great detail with my paternal grand father who passed away in 1991 about how he decided to leave Sindh and bring his family to India after the partition. My grandfather was a peace loving and quiet tall handsome man who toiled hard to provide for his family who was put up in one of the many refugee camps that were set up in India. Having been born in one such refugee camps as I came of age I always wondered why were Hindu Sindhis, who left their cultural, economic and natural heritage in search of security, called refugees in India when effectively what they did was, as Hiranand notes becoming 'alien in my own country'. They chose to remain in India by moving to what was India after partition. The power of 'one stroke of pen', drew boundaries and a new territory was born along with it were two identities Indians and Pakistanis.

Boundaries are thin lines on maps. The land remains same but a humanly drawn line divides it into nations and countries. Today's summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi was overshadowed by another line drawn exactly 100 years ago in 1914 by Sir Henry McMahon, the then foreign secretary of the British ruled India who negotiated that with the Tibet, which was independent at that time. The McMahon Line, as it is now known, is still an unresolved issue between two countries trying to strengthen their economic ties for mutual benefit.

My drafting of this blog has taken me past closing of the voting in Scotland. Whether tomorrow, that is 19 September 2014 morning, Scots will still be Brits also or only Scots, the referendum results in next few hours will decide, but witnessing we are history in making. A palmist would tell the believing individual what the lines in one's hands tell about individual's future but the lines drawn on maps create territories. Territories and therefore, nations, are fictional realities if you listen to Dr. Yuval Noah Harari in his extraordinary bold historical analysis in A Brief History of Mankind. Dr. Harari, a very interesting narrator of history in different  way, claims that nations like race, god and many other constructs invented by human kind are fictional reality and the human beings, homo sapiens in Dr. Harari's words, can be persuaded by fictional realities to act and react. Territories define identities and everything that goes with it. Even if we grant identity is 'fictional reality' but the damage or benefits it bestows can be real. Imagine the difference in possible quality of life for someone born as US citizen compared to being born in Somalia. Or being borne in the British Royal Family and being borne to a slum dwelling pauper in Mumbai. The difference will not be fictional reality whatever Dr. Harari may say about mundane needs of life born in human imagination.