Even after half a century of Indian Independence, the fate of education, educators, and students has hardly improved. The apathy of the power, including a large section of society, has not changed regarding human resource development and education. Even now, more than four crore educated unemployed youths are in India. India boasts of being the world’s third knowledge power, but this is the lowest when judged against the per thousand population base. Societal degradation, inflicted by political might, is reflected in educational institutions across India. Aberrations have become the rule on campuses infested with self-seekers and politicians.
Though a noble concept, the democratization of higher educational institutions has, in the past 20 years, turned campuses into a cauldron of stinking filth. These are managed by affiliations charged with little regard for excellence, honesty, and intellectual integrity. Unethical and politically-motivated decisions serve a few and are reflections of societal catharsis. Geographic India consolidated into a polity by the British has muted into conglomerations of politically charged, disjointed entities and facsimiles of democratic degradation. The classic conservative yearning for an ordered nation and commensurate pursuit of knowledge on the campuses are missing. Whichever brand rules the country, this section of society commands no respect now. May it be students or teachers, they don’t have a voice, they don’t constitute an essential service, and education is not a national necessity. Being a state subject, educational policies suffer from innumerable deformities.
Though it is a constitutional obligation, the non-availability of funds and vested administrative setup have led to the mushrooming of universities, fake campuses, private enterprises, numerous makeshift education centers, and fly-by-air foreign campuses. It has proved to be a great financial endeavor with hardly any risk because it does not come under VAT or other financial constraints. India has, by now, more institutions of such type than colleges, an excellent opportunity to rope in knowledge-seeking youth and those who desire to fly off to greener pastures.
When formulating policies about higher education, structuring the system, financial assistance, grants, and salary, the statutory body, the University Grants Commission, is mentioned like a sacred cow worshipped and butchered in the streets. How far the UGC is autonomous is a piece of common knowledge. It has become a post office, a government organization, disbursing petty grants sanctioned by the Central Government among universities or institutions with several tags attached to them depending upon the status of the recipient institutions, state, Central, autonomous, or deemed universities. There is a perpetual complaint about the non-availability of funds. The administration should appreciate that the jumbo cabinet and expenditure on legislatures could be reduced to feed and educate a few villages. The teacher wants to be a ladder upon which students can climb and scale new heights.
The Central and state governments invoke ESMA to curb the voice of agitating people, but it takes no time to benefit politicians and bureaucrats. It is essential to please them to maintain a symbiotic balance and oblige a few. The government has failed to take practical steps to curb the industrialization of education. The doles were given in Parliament within hours, and the honorarium was doubled. Still, the 6 percent expenditure of the GDP on education has been dogma from the Kothari Commission recommendations for over four decades.
Students of various educational institutes go on strike almost yearly, demanding the withdrawal of excessive fee hikes. Tuition fees comprise only about 13 percent of annual expenditure on university education. It is now a formidable industry, and the aim is to make money. However intelligent they may be, poor students cannot afford to join colleges, professional institutions, or courses. They may join such classes by putting their families in heavy debt from banks or financial institutions. Even in the USA, tuition fees contribute to about 15 percent of the total annual expenditure on higher education. Nehru said: “If all is well with universities, it will be well with the nation.” Rabindranath Tagore once compared educated classes in India to “The second story in an old building that was added in, but unfortunately, the architect forgot to build a staircase between them.”
The teaching profession devalues the country because the teachers can’t compete in our society, have no muscle power, are educated, and behave differently. Neither do they have the guts of creamy bureaucrats nor institutional support. A teacher can entertain you with a pale smile on hearing that this profession is nation builders, the cream of society, and a noble profession. The next moment, teachers will be branded as cancers in societal marrow, getting a salary for no work, craving power, equality in pay, and status with the Class A government servants. The teacher was the consultant and conscience keeper of society till the mid-century. One could identify him by his tattered clothes, emaciated, pale face, soft voice, and meek behavior. He was the guru. That guru, comparatively having a better outfit now, has metamorphosed into a present teacher.
Newspaper reports are replete with his shortcomings; his misconduct in preaching indiscipline is paid to him for no work, as he has to teach only 181 days a year. How could he dream of parity with his bosses in the secretariat, his class dropouts in Parliament, and the government? To save our hard-earned “democracy,” which is being strengthened by a few hooligans, politicians, and administrators, the government has to suppress the genuine demands so that education does not progress to the detriment of “illiterate democrats”. Many teachers adopt unethical means to become rich, just like any other segment designated scamsters today. Exceptions, however, do not make the rule.
Most presidents and bureaucrats have been in this profession, including ministers, parliamentarians, and others. Did they not do any good work for the betterment of society before their elevation to these posts of governance and reverence? Can’t the authorities assess the strength of the demand vis-à-vis the qualification, age at the time of being recruited as a teacher, lack of promotional avenues, stagnation, and competency in terms of hiatus in the inflated societal values, urge, and the necessity to improve qualification and experience to remain in the fray? Education for teachers is a continuous process, unlike “one-time-degree-obtaining-education” for others. Evaluation is paramount in this profession for every promotion. Classroom education has become drudgery, afflicted by societal unrest, absolute lack of infrastructure, fear psychosis gripping the powerless parents, and absences of administration.
In their election manifestos, political parties promise to reduce employment, poverty, and corruption. But this can’t be achieved without education. TPoliticians take less interest in improving teaching and living because they know that once people with low incomes know about their corrupt practice, they will neither listen to nor elect them. To me, education comes as a discipline that is all-pervasive. Enshrined in our directive principles and ensuring our countrymen, “right-to-education” makes me feel we possess the right to educate”.
Even when we have ushered in the new millennium, education remains a password to those who make an arrogant assertion that they know best and are serving the public interest, which is determined by them. By the perception entrenched with the British subjugation of our people, elitist education occupied the center stage to produce Macaulay’s clones, who were Indians muted to be “English in taste, in opinion, in morals, and intellect”. “Educated slaves became strong props to sustain the British rule.” Lord Curzon favored bureaucratization of education since he opined that educational institutions have become factors for producing political revolutionaries. By the Act of 1919, education was transferred to the province.
When we educate, we are involved in politics. Educators often think of education as being disjointed from politics. Education is perhaps the most political activity in the community. The state has always influenced what is taught in educational institutions. The socio-political (and in some cases religious) ideology colors the learning content and emphasizes various aspects. Based on where the child was educated whether it was a large city or a village, whether the school used English or a regional language as a medium of education, among other factors- the child will have a different worldview. However, based on the syllabus, education in India has largely strived to impart a temperament of religious, political, and social tolerance. The social mores and hierarchies often seep into learning and color education.
Given the political potential of education, there have been numerous attempts to use education as a way of indoctrination. Sometimes, it is covert. At other times, it is over. Sometimes, it is subliminal. Other times, it is deliberate. However, political forces have always used education to different particular world views. Today, numerous educationists and political thinkers in India are afraid that a deliberate attempt to use education as a social-religious indoctrination might be the agenda of the new education policy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Not gold, but only teachers can make people great and strong persons who for truth and honor; sake stand fast and suffer long They build a nation’s pillar deep and lift them to the sky”. The teaching profession is a bed of roses. A good teacher is always their student’s guide, friend, and philosopher. A boy looked at the sticker on a car, which said, “Trees are friends”. He challenged this statement and started cutting trees, saying, “Trees are not our friends, but our enemies”. When asked why he thought so, He said in his science textbooks, it was stated: “Trees bring rain”. Since his village gets flooded every rainy season, he thought, “all trees must be cut down”. Confucius wrote, “If you plan for a year, plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If 100 years, teach the people.” Literacy is not enough. Having a population that can read is good, but it is infinitely better to have people distinguish what is worth reading. With overcrowded classrooms and ill-paid teachers, coaching classes are the commercial fallout of a system bursting out of the seams. How can idealism be expected from someone as concerned about the quality of life as you and I?
We grew up with cherished memories of special teachers who made us love a subject we could have been frightened of and whom we respected unconditionally. I have encountered many people whose mediocrity is reflected when they project themselves as the best. In contrast, the fact speaks otherwise, and those criticizing their alma mater forget they passed out from the same school they graduated from. Education can have a significant role in decreasing social disparities between groups and promoting social mobility. For instance, the tremendous expansion of the Middle class in India can confidently be attributed to the investment in education, especially in higher education.
Universities are struggling to survive on shrinking governmental grants. In the wake of this, it takes shortsighted decisions to cut expenses and increase revenue by increasing fees, which may not be in the long-term interest of the universities. Thus, universities end up being run as business enterprises. Education cess is now partially considered to meet funds for primary education, and Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan opened our universities to international students. Foreign campuses may prove to be of hardly any use in generating funds for Indian education. Trading in education may be another jeopardy.
Collaborations could be in specialized fields with foreign campuses like in the past. Even in the USA, the private and government ratio in the higher education system does not exceed 80/20. China is experiencing two-way international student traffic, with many of them from the USA in preference to India. This could be reversed if we build proper infrastructure and achieve proficiency in imparting world-standard education. A realistic education cannot be separated from the student’s environment’s realities, which surround him, his aspirations, society, the local cultural factors, conditions varying in his own country, and global effects. Education, therefore, should agree with day-to-day living. To date, education does not define our resurgent polity and democracy.
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