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With much fanfare, the Government of India has enacted one more ârightâ in this race to ensure that all possible human endeavours soon get converted into the ârights to be demanded from the stateâ. This is called the Right To Education! In operationalising this Right, all kinds of challenges are already emerging, including those related to the actual meaning of this right for each child, adolescent and their parents?
Last week was particularly relevant from the point of view of education âSeptember 5 in India is celebrated as Teachersâ Day; it is hoped the respect and gratitude towards the teachers will be expressed by society on this day. The government ritualistically âawardsâ some great teachers in a ceremony of pomp and glory. But, nobody asks the question about the performance and accountability of teachers and their profession? If continued and chronic absence of teachers ( from classrooms and teaching both) is the bane for our exceptionally poor record in promoting basic quality education for all in this country (or others too?), then why are teachers not held to account on this Teachersâ Day: do they respect their profession and value their performance?
The second important day last week was September 8, UN designated International Literacy Day. This time around, the Ministry of human Resource Development, Government of India placed big advertisements in newspapers claiming that âSakshara Bharatâ programme launched last year is going places; however, the main public function on this Literacy Day was inauguration in Vigyan Bhawan (through remote button) of buildings of 31 Navodaya Schools (secondary schools for bright kids) by Smt Sonia Gandhi. So, the lip service was given to literacy, and real investment was made in secondary schools for the âbold and the brightestâ children! This hypocritical approach towards literacy has been characteristic of Indian policy-makers and political leaders during the past sixty years; it is precisely because of this mind-set that scores of national and provincial programmes for literacy have added upto not much achievementâIndia still has about a third of its population (nearly 400 million folks) illiterate, vast majority of them girls and women.
It suits the current regime and elites that teachers in public schools donât teach, and literacy programmes continue to flounder; millions without functional literacy skills allow the status quo to continue unabated, and the rulers continue to rule uninterruptedly.
The Right To Learn has not been legislated or enforced; it is only the right to attend school occasionally!
Rajesh Tandon
September 12, 2010
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