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1
Sanjiv Kaura
National Alliance for Fundamental Right to Education (NAFRE)
UNIVERSALIZATION of ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
[UEE]:Grassroots perspectives and the
Indian polity
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AMARTYA SEN’S PHILOSOPHICAL ANECDOTE
“ My student once told me as to why I haven’t changed the content of my thoughts since 1950s.
“ My reply was –
Because surrounding environment hasn’t changed;
I will probably die saying the same things.”
3
INDIAN PM AGREES !
“ Primary education needs a far stronger political will.
It is sad that this important area of nation building does not attract the best and the brightest
administrators.”
- Atal B Vajpayee,
22nd Oct., 1998,
4
RIDERS APPLIED TO THIS PRESENTATION
• All statistics are government sourced
• All solutions also sourced from
government documents or
government appointed Commissions
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TWO FACES OF INDIA
1/8th = The INDIA known for IT, doctors , engineers and Amartya Sen7/8th = Ground reality INDIA called ‘Bharat’
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Ground reality that includes -
• 400 million = below poverty line of 20c /day
• 400 million (+/-) = No. of illiterates
• 80 million (+/-) = No. of children out of school
• 150 million = No. of children in school
• Irrelevance of “literacy %” currently at 67%
-
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SOME ROUGH EQUIVALENTS
AMERICAN INDIAN
House Appropriation Committee
Planning Commission
Congress Parliament
House of Representatives
Lower House (545 MPs)
Senate Upper House (245 MPs)
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JOURNEY OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION BILL
1947 : Constitution drafters overrule demand1993 : Supreme Court declares education a fundamental right1997 : Govt. tables a federal Bill. Govt. falls, Bill withers away.2001 : Govt. re-tables Bill, unanimously passed by lower house.2002 : Unanimously passed by upper house 2003 : Presidential assent expected
9
WILL THE BILL ACHIEVE UEE?
NO, because of :
(A) Little financial backing ($)
(B) No reference to equitable quality education
(C) Excludes age group 0-6 years
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$$$$$(A) HOW LITTLE IS ‘LITTLE’
PARTICULARS ANNUAL AMOUNT IN US$
Actual requirement $ 2.9 billion
Promised by both houses of Parliament
$ 2.0 billion
Planning Commission allocated only
$ 1.2 billion
Actual disbursal in 2001-2
$ 200 MILLION !!!!
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CAN INDIA AFFORD UEE ?
AGE GROUP
ADDITIONAL AVG. ANNUAL EXPENDITURE
% OF GDP
0-6 yrs. $ 1.6 billion 0.5%
6-14 yrs. $ 2.9 billion 0.8%
14-18 yrs. Not computed by any govt. source
-
• Non merit subsidies are 10 % of GDP per annum• Never a bombs vs books question
Umesh Banakar:
Indira Gandhi
Umesh Banakar:
Indira Gandhi
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(B) INEQUITY, POOR QLTY. BRED BY (A)
• Things for which you need money -India needs 400,000 schools and 4m teachers more33% of schools are single teacher schools50% of schools are in fact merely ‘schools’
• Most imp., inferior parallel options are being institutionalized by ALL political parties
• 40% parents can’t afford to send ward to a ‘free’ government school (costs $ 6 a year)
• Talk of linking education to larger socio-cultural issues seems utopia
13
DOCUMENT AGE GROUP PROVIDED FOR
Constitution directive (non- judicial) to educate by 1960
0-14 years
1993 Supreme Court judgment making edu. a fundamental right
0-14 years
Most policy documents 0-14 years
International treaty CRC ratified by India in 1992
0-18 years
(C) AGE GROUP 0-6 DENIED FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT
Yet, Bill grants fundamental right to 6-14 years only
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OPPORTUNITIES PRESENTED BY THE BILL
• Irrevocable legal commitment of the government established
• Great opportunity for children to demand education with basic quality and dignity
• Could catalyze India to face its grossly inequitous underbelly in courts a la’ Brown case in US Supreme Court
15
SOLUTIONS
• At the state level Himachal Pradesh and Kerala are experiments that can be replicated
( a strong assertive social will was present in both)
• Common School System enshrined and passed by Parliament in every National Policy on Education since Independence viz. 1968,1986,1992
• Funding by the State, management/control by the community
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OTHER POLICY DEVELOPMENTS
• Curriculum No one talks of ‘integrating the world of work
with world of knowledge’ - 1938 Zakir Hussain in Mahatma Gandhi’s Nai
Taleem• Privatization Touted as a panacea for all evils, not realizing that
basic education in even the most privatized economies of the world is govt. respomsibility.
17
THE ROAD AHEAD
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WHAT INFLUENCES POLITY?Pre - 28th Nov, 20011998 : A Parliamentary Standing Committee (represented by
all political parties) recommended against positive changes suggested by development sector
1998 to 28th Nov, 2001: Every political party expressed helplessness in supporting NAFRE
28th Nov, 2001 : 50,000 grassroots people rallied together in nation’s capital at their own expense from across India for edu. – a first in independent India
Result : All opposition parties reversed their stand on the Bill, negating their very own Parliamentary Committee,
in favor of NAFRE’s positive changes.
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28th Nov, 2001Debate inside Parliament
50,000 people outside Parliament6.00 PM : Opposition proposes an alternative Bill
against govt. (captures NAFRE’s points)
1/3rd MPs vote in its favor.
7.00 PM : Government puts its own Bill to vote
Unanimously passed by all incl. the 106
MPs + proposer of the alternative Bill!
(who was a Left party ideologue)
Message : A long struggle lies ahead
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This hour glass is 1/3rd full,This hour glass is 1/3rd full,NOT NOT 2/3rd empty2/3rd empty
The EndThe End