Many well-meaning educationists like Anil Sadgopal, and many friends with left-of-centre view have proposed that all children must go to neighbourhood schools.  They are not happy with the RTE provision that 25 per cent children from economically weaker sections be admitted to all public schools.  Their proposal is unexceptionable.  What can be more equitable than children of rich as well as poor parents receiving the same quality of education?  This would be an ideal state.  I have no doubt that all of us desire such a state.  But how does one achieve such an ideal state, because at the moment we are far from it?  First, the government (in the states as well as in the centre) has to make education their top priority, which it certainly is not at the moment.  Then it must open many more schools so that a government school is within the reach of every child; no child needs to trudge several kilometres, in fair as well as rainy weather, to reach a school.  Also, the governments must inject a massive dose of funding to provide necessary infrastructure in the form of buildings, toilets, safe drinking water, libraries, laboratories, telephones, computers and  internet connections.  If you look at the data collected by NUEPA for their School Report Cards, and also read reports that appear in the media from time to time, you will find that most government schools still lack adequate arrangement for drinking water, toilets, libraries and laboratories.  To expect audio-visual support for a proper teaching-learning environment in the form of televisions, projectors, computers  and internet would be a cruel joke on these schools.  I believe that these facilities are essential for optimal learning to take place in the schools.

It is because of this state of paralysis in the government schools, that private schools have come up in large numbers almost every where, from small town to metropolises.  This phenomenon is not more than 25 – 30 years old.  How the government school system has reached this state is not difficult to understand.  There has been, and still is, blatant interference by the political class and bureaucracy in all aspects of the system, including location of schools, appointments and transfer of teachers, release of grants and other administrative matters concerning the schools.  And while the private schools are mushrooming, the government school system has gone from bad to worse.  So much so that even those parents who can ill-afford even a modest fee prefer to send their children to a private school round the street corner, rather than to a government school.  Their perception is that at least the teacher comes to the class, and if she does not, they can meet the Principal and complain, and get their grievance redressed.  This is not possible in the government system.  Who would listen to these ‘uneducated’ people?  One big attraction of the private schools, specially for the lower middle classes, is that they are ‘English medium’ schools.  You would recall that in many states there is a strong demand from people for teaching their children through English and the state governments have not been heeding to this demand.  I am just stating a fact.  I am not passing any  judgment on teaching through English versus teaching through the mother tongue, or whether this fascination for English is justified or not. 

 

This being the state of affairs in the government school system, would it be wise to force parents to send their children to these schools?  More importantly, would it be wise to deprive a whole generation of children of a meaningful education until the government school system improves.  The resulting resentment, may be even rebellion, among parents cannot be ignored by any government.  Remember that by all accounts middle classes forms a sizeable chunk of our population.

So, what is the solution?  My own view is that first of all we stop looking at the education system through an ideological prism; neoliberalism/socialism debate is not going to be of any help.  Let us be pragmatic.  Let us support efforts of people like Anil Sadgopal towards the ideal of a common school system.  Let us also keep exerting pressure on the government to improve their system.  However, until the government schools have achieved certain minimum standards, let the parallel system of private schools continue.  To help the parents who would like to send their children to fee-paying schools, the government can adopt the voucher system, or some other system of grants.  I believe that when parents perceive that the government schools are as good, or better, than the private schools, they would shift their children to government schools.  When this happens the private schools, at least the street corner ones, will start vanishing from the scene.   Providing a better alternative is always a superior strategy to forcing people to shun a certain system.  

When I say that government schools are in a bad shape, I do not mean that there are no good government schools.  Surely, there must be many good schools.  Our endeavor should be to identify such schools and use them as showpieces to force the government to bring other schools also up to their standard.  Similarly, there must be a large number of teachers in the government school system who are competent, creative, innovative and hard working.  However, a bad system kills their creativity and inventiveness.  If we can spot such teachers, we must help them to keep their qualities intact even while working under difficult conditions. 

Ideally, the private schools should be run by philanthropic institutions on no-profit-no-loss basis so that they charge only that fee which is necessary to provide the requisite infrastructure in the school for a modern, liberal and purposeful education.  The job of the government should be to regulate and see that children receive education which is modern and liberal and not sectarian and obscuratist.  The government must also ensure that the schools appoint trained teachers and give them freedom to be innovative and creative and that they have a decisive say in the formulation of syllabi, textbooks and other learning material and should be involved in drawing up of local curricula.  Experts should be there only to guide them. 

 

To oversee the functioning of schools and local education departments, the government can constitute district/regional  level Academic Support Groups consisting of schoolteachers, parents, teachers drawn from colleges/universities in the area and a few concerned citizens (not with political affiliations).  The aim must be to provide education which helps us shed our prejudices and superstitions, which promotes equity and a modern viewpoint, and, above all, which makes us think rationally.  In my view, the very survival of our country as a modern and secular state depends on the kind of education that we provide to our children.