New challenges in Indian education! Education’s impact on the wider aspects of Indian public life!
Ideas for this generation’s education and culture!
The 16th Lok Sabha ends its mandate and the General Elections for the 17th Lok Sabha is due. India is a fairly literate country by now by various parameters and as such it is also time that the people, the new generation, mostly youngsters, all educated would have the competence to judge the public issues.
As such we can ask some general questions. How the 16th Lok Sabha had performed its duties? Looking at the statistics, we see that one major state, namely, Tamil Nadu with 39 MPs, a state advanced in education, health and industrialisation, not even one member had brought forward a private member Bill! Though in the present Lok Sabha 1,117 private member bills were brought forward and debated! This is only one example. There is not much evidence to show how many days in a year the Parliament functioned without any disruption! Very likely the Rajya Sabha, no less the Lok Sabha didn’t function for many days.
We have come to a time when the voting public, the common man only saw disruptions of the two Houses as a sign of its functioning! This is only one sign of the Indian state of how it functions. India is a large democracy in the world and also a functioning democracy. There are some strong positive features of our democracy. The periodic election, every five years, takes place and the outside world wonders and even admires our democratic functioning all these years. Then what about our education? Yes, it is also progressing faster.
But education’s meaning is not progressing! A literate society must get elected the right persons as MPs. Just the opposite is happening! The quality of education and also the expected rise in better awareness of the voting public is not forthcoming. Corruption in public life is rising and also latest developments in tackling corruption have resulted in many corrective actions. Some notable politicians, even Chief Ministers and their families have gone to jails!
So, the quality of our public life, some sober requisites, like some transparency, competency and also some general education and rise in awareness must lead to a vibrant democracy and the rise of human rights and also the fall in the quality of public men, political leaders and party inner workings must lead to parties selecting a bit higher quality members to Parliament must ensure the rise of quality
politics and public life.
Nowadays, the craze for education for migration hasn’t slowed down, though there is a decline in the number of Indian students going to the USA and UK. Costs of education are rising and also the American Visa rules have been tightened and the latest arrests and jail of 130 odd Indian students in an education fraud has come as a warning. Also, some courses like engineering and MBA are falling in fashion and
also the employment after US and UK education is also becoming scarce.
And what about education at home? Now, coming to Indian education, we see a sort of hypocrisy in our platform orations on education. All sorts of empty talks preponderate. Higher-ups, the President, Vice-President, past and present, hold on education. Macaulay is quoted; Gandhiji enters in and enter out! Yet, what we see? Education at the top has become highly commercial and like more corrupt politicians, corrupt education entrepreneurs have become new class of wrong doers! Whenever we see the political higher-ups on the platform, we also see the corrupt education entrepreneurs also gracing the functions!
The play of unethically earned big money is corrupting the higher education, nay even the private secondary education sector. That is one reason why the Indian education is not rising in genuine quality and any international comparisons in rankings. Also, the genuine new ideas or reforms are getting delayed entry into education changes. In the last generation, we used to hear some education thinkers like Paulo Freire of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Ivan Illich of the Deschooling society and many others. This generation there is a complete blackout! Who cares for ideas and intellectual debate? It is time some so us at least realise this and give up the bad practices of inviting Governors and Delhi higher ups, and bureaucrats to schools and colleges and universities’ functions.