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7/31/2019 AIF-RTE English Newsletter Reconstructing Education June 2012
1/28
RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION
June 2012, Year 1, Issue 3
An organ in support of free and equit able education from KG to PG
and in resist ance to all forms of t rade in educat ion
Quarterly publication of All India Forum for Right to Education
"Educate! Agitate! Organise!"
and cont inue st ruggle for
Reclaiming Knowledge , Reconstructing Education
A{Ib ^maV{ejm A{YH$ma M
Inside
Perspective
The common school system............ 2
Pseudo edu cationists ....................... 4
Issues arising out of school ............ 6Capitalist crises, privatisation....... 8
Convert ing 'liabilities' into 'assets'? 12
Activity Reports
All Ind ia Seminar at Patna.............. 16
State level seminar............................. 17
Workshop at Lohaghat, Uttarakhand 20
The status of edu cation:
Challenges and solutions................ 22
Reports from Bhopal 23
Call
All India Federation of Elementary 24
Stop centralization............................ 25
Lok Shikshak Manch........................ 26
Editorial Board
Convenor :
V.N.Sharma (Ranchi)
Editor :
Madhu Prasad (Delhi)
Assistant Editor :
Vikas Gup ta (Delhi)
Member :
Meher Engineer (Kolkatta)
Contact:
Dr.V.N.Sharma
A-100, SAIL Satellite Tow nsh ip
Ranchi 834004, Jharkhand
e-mail : reconstructing.edu [email protected]
Mob :+91 9431102680
Tel : +91 651-2441524
Contribution : 15/-
Editorial
These days, one may feel quite baffled by a few perhaps
insightful questions thrown-up afresh in the context of some
recent events. These events may include (though not limited to)
the following:The media responses on the recent verdict ofSup reme Cou rt uph olding the constitutional validity of RTE Act
on the question of 25 percent reservation for disadvantaged
children in private schools,. The media coverage of the lately
assent of both Houses of Parliament to the RTE amendment act
(2010) providing disadvantaged status to disabled children,
home-based education for severely disabled and exempting
minor i ty ins t i tu t ions f rom RTE. Discuss ion on Delh i
Governments decision to start a residential school for SC, ST,
OBC and minority children on PPP model of Kalinga Institute
of Social Sciences. The recently commenced broadcast of atelevision serial Satyamev Jayate on Star Plus (particularly its
episode d ated Jun e 10th 2012) along w ith its follow-up p rogram
Asar broad casted on Star News (dated Jun e 15th 2012), wherein
a pu blic celebrity issued call for don ations/ charities for the
educat ion of d isabled ch i ldren to the t rus t / a ided schools
without at all discussing the aspect of public (state) funded
schools.
This s tate of affairs raises certain pert inent questions .
wh ether fund amental rights of citizens of any p articular grou p/
comm unity/ class can be (and should be) protected throu gh
benevolence/ charity/ philanthropy/ comp assion/ sacrifice of
another individu al/ group/ community/ class? Whether such a
focus grounded in these forms of benevolence is not distorting
the modern notion of rights itself, which is essentially centered
on the principles of dignity and equality; and according to
which, rights are rooted in their recognition by the state and
guaranteed p rotection u nder the law of the land? Whether
personal or familial purchasing capacity of an individual or
someones donation and sacrifice should be (or could be) a
guarantee for enjoying a fundamen tal right of a citizen? Fur ther,
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RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATIO N
June 2012, Year 1, Issue 3
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PERSPECTIVES
E ven dur ing f reedom s t rugg le , ou r na t iona l
leaders conceived of a National System of Education and
some institutions were started in different parts of the
country by n ationalists. Many of them w ere open to all and
were non-discr iminatory in charac ter . Mahatma
Gandhi proposed Bas ic Educat ion which had the
characteristics of a Comm on School System. Schooling for
a period of eight years was considered essential for every
citizen. Thus even before Kothari Commission came up with
the concept of Common School System, the idea was therefor long. Kothari Commission gave an impetus to the
idea. Even thou gh m ore than forty years have gone since
the Report, it is regretful that n ot only a Comm on System
has not come up, but we are d rifting apart du e to the neo-
liberal policies adopted by successive governments and th e
un du e influence of the World Bank on policy-making.
ONSLAUGHT OF PRIVATISATION
Mohini Jain and Unnikrishnan judgements gave a lot
of hope to all educationists and social activists that
edu cation, as a fund amental right wou ld give the State a
The Common School System-
A Dream For Everpre-dominant responsibility to p rovide edu cation for all
children less than 14 years. But RTE Act 2009 belied their
hopes and desires. The Act does not mention CSS anyw here;
on the other hand it has perm itted privatization of schools
and provided for re-imbursement of the cost of education
foregone by the private managements in admitting poor
childr en against 25% of seats reserved for them in pr ivate
schools. It has also restricted the period of comp ulsory
edu cation for just 8 years betw een the ages 6 and 14. Pre-
school education can only be a desirable activity of the Stateand it is not a fun damental right. All these show th at CSS is
not in the agenda of the Centre. Almost all the States are
encouraging private schools and have red uced their bud get
allocation to edu cation. Tamilnad u, for examp le, wh ich was
spending anything between 25-34% of its budget on
education is now allocating only 14.6%, which includes
central contribution under SSA and allied schemes. Unaided
English Med ium schools which num bered just und er 40 in
1978 exceed 4500 at present which does not include
thousand s of nursery and p rimary schools.
is it sufficient to focus on inclusion, or equality /
equitable shou ld be our objective? Is it sensible and
essential for the media (particularly its electronic
avatar) to focus on non-implementation question,instead of engaging in an analysis that is informed
by policy shortcomings as well? How should one
deal with a perspective that is based on glamour
and exceptional/ genius instead of being situated
in the framew ork of ordinary? How should we
respond to the interventions launched ostensibly
for the pro tec t ion of r ights of cer ta in people
par t i cu la r ly by the med ia invo lv ing pub l ic
celebrities, corporate houses and other agencies of
neoliberal global cap ital who only refer to p olitical
in very elusory manner so as to perhaps capture
the political leadership of potential mass struggles
from genuine m ass leaders to themselves?
We believe that this issue of ReconstructingEduca t ion a long wi th the p rev ious and the
forthcoming ones will equip the inquisitive reader
to more critically engage with the affairs of our
times by throwing some light to th e above outlined
searching ques t ions . No progress ive peoples
movemen t striving for some colossal objective, like
the establishmen t of common school system based
on the concept of neighborhood schools (CSS-NS)
can succeed without unmistakably resolving these
fundam ental questions.
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ESSENTIALS OF COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM
1. A common School belongs to every child and entry is
not restricted to any religion, caste or creed or community.
2. It is wholly funded by the State. No fees are levied andchildren are entitled to free edu cation.
3. No discrimination of any kind is permitted not only in
adm ission bu t in the classrooms .
The infra-structure and practices in the school are
disabled-friendly.
4. Mother-tongue will be the medium of instruction.
5. Education of equitable quality will be assured to all
children in a full-time regular school It will promote the
development of the Head, Heart and Hand of the child.
NEIGHBOURHOOD SCHOOLNeighbourh ood school is the necessary corollary to the
Comm on School System. By this strategy, it becomes the du ty
of every school to ad mit every child in its neighbourhood
and it is the right of every child to seek adm ission into the
nearest school. Neighbourhood school lays no other condition
than proximity to the school. This has several advantages to
the child as w ell as the commu nity.
1. The travel time to meander to the school is reduced,
thereby the child has extra time for study and recreation.
The child can also help the parents in householdwork.(This should not be misconstrued with child labour)
2. There will be no need for free bus passes, resulting in
considerable saving for the State.
3. School transport system will be greatly reduced,
leading to saving of fuel as well as improvement of the
eco-system. Air pollution will be redu ced. In Tamilnad u
alone n early 25000 vehicles-buses, van s, au tos- take
childr en from hom e to school.
4. Dea th o f ch i ld ren due to acciden t s wil l a lso be
minimised.5. Every child comes to know of other children in her
neighbourhood which will increase comradery. The
socio-econom ic barriers will have little effect on children.
6. The commu nity will consider the School as its own
and will take greater interest in its functioning. Parents
of diverse backgrou nd s will play a useful role.
THE STATE AN D THE CSS-NS
It will be eviden t that a ll these require a kind of society
where equality is guaranteed to every citizen. While the
Preamble to our Constitution gr ants equality, in practice it
is not so. While socialism has been th rust into the Pream ble
du ring the Emergency, no effort was taken to bring in a
socialistic State. If only the sta tus of the Directive Principles
had been converted into m andatory du ties of the State, somechange could have come.
CSS IN SOCIALISTIC NATIONS
CSS-NS are being fully practiced only in Socialistic
countr ies. I was fortun ate to be in a village in the erstw hile
Soviet Union before its disintegration. Then enrolm ent of
children was going on and I was delighted when little
children with bugles and dru ms went from house to house
and invited the children to be enrolled to join their
procession. The procession ended in the school and the new
children had a hap py time w ith other children. I was toldthat that w ould go on for a fortnight for the new children to
get acclimatized to the school and the children there. No
dragging of u nwilling children to the school by the p arent.
I dream t that at least in one of the 7 lakhs of hamlets such a
method is adopted. Children were given great respect.
Teachers were fully trained and child-friendly. Quality
education was provided to all children. This is what I
consider as th e hallmark of CSS.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE NOT CSS
Some link Public schools in US and elsewhere withCSS. Of course Public Schools provid e edu cation withou t
discrimination. Privatisation of education is in full swing
in most coun tries. An article in a m agazine comp lains, A
small group of billionaires is prom oting p rivatization,
deprofessionalisation and high-stakes testing as fixes for
American public schools. The argument in favour of
privatization is that when parents and stud ents have greater
choice, schools wou ld be forced to comp ete for custom ers,
thereby driving the schools to up their quality. But a study
by the Teachers College, Colum bia University find s thatprivate schools serve far fewer students than traditional
public schools, and have high attrition rates among their
lower performing stud ents(2011). A powerful m ovement is
going on aga inst privatization of schools.
Since the sole motive of private schools is profit-making,
it canno t co-exist with pu blic schools. While Koth ari
Commission has not barred private schools from CSS,
experience within and w ithout has shown it is well nigh
impossible to implement a non-discriminatory system of
edu cation available to all children under th e dual provision
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One important argument advanced in favour of the
formation of a state, scholars confer is to provide indivisible
public services like Education and health to the citizens.
They are called as m erit wants that can be p rovided by an
institution that stand s for sovereign political pow er. The
World Bank economists have used their intellect to
distinguish between pu blic goods and private goods even
in edu cation. They have called on ly school edu cation as a
public good and higher education as private good as it
provides benefits to the individual and not to the p ublic
(even if one becomes a Nobel laureate we shou ld not claim
him or her a s a citizen of a country). Even this distinction
did not save school edu cation in Ind ia is a different ma tter.
Those who are familiar with th e American higher edu cation
know that around 65 percent of the students are provided
with free education through scholarships. The private
un iversities survive with the m unificent end owm ents and
the research projects that the d istingu ished alum ni get from
pr ivate sector. How ever, they are very few. The situation in
Pseudo Edu cation ists an d Edpreneu rsthe higher education of the advanced coun tries varies from
country to country. Now the Indian governm ent is seeking
ideas and recommendations from concerned citizens,
business group s etc as to how to expand higher education
to meet the grow ing needs of an economy.
Indian higher edu cation of the modern variety was
introd uced by the British to meet their requirem ents and to
help create an elite class that helped th em to su rvive and
would run the state once they leave. There are several
issues in this statement, but w e concentrate on th e current
discussion on a report given by a gr oup of business- cum-
edu cationists recently in Delhi on p rivate par ticipation in
h ighe r educa t ion . T he commi t t ee on "Corpora te
participation in Higher Ed ucation" constituted by MH RD
und er the chairman ship of Mr. Narayana Murthy
presented the report to the Depu ty Chairman, Planning
Comm ission, Montek Singh Ahluw alia, in New Delhi on
May 08, 2012.
It is reported that the committee wanted land free of
of private and p ublic schools.
WHAT N EXT?
A survey of history will show that nowhere has
educational revolution preceded social revolution. Changesin the edu cation system will happen only wh en the socio-
political climate is congenial to change. Our objective
therefore boils dow n to bring abou t a rad ical change in the
political system. Political par ties have evinced little interest
in CSS-NS. People, though aware of the need for quality
edu cation, are not prepared to fight for free quality education
through Government schools. Their eagerness to get their
children into private schools taking advantage of 25%
reservation show s they are not eager to send their children
to government schools. We have to build a powerfulmovement to convince the common people that their
children are entitled to free quality education and they have
to force the government to u pgrad e their schools and ensure
good education. CSS-NS should turn out to be a mass
program me. It is possible and w e will make it possible.
MOBILISATION OF PEOPLE AN D RESOURCES
All these call for activating the m asses in favour of CSS-
NS. AIFRTE can at best provide a theoretical sup por t, but
mobilization of the masses has to be und ertaken on a large
scale. In this, students, teachers, trade unions and like-
mind ed persons and organisations are to be used to send
the message. Street plays, dramas, public meetings, pressconferences etc., are some of the means to reach the p eople
at large. AIFRTEs perspective statement should be
translated into all regional languages. Posters shou ld also
be printed in all languages. Not only pu blicity but the spirit
of the masses shou ld be arou sed so that CSS-NS becomes a
un iversal dem and of the people. AIFRTE cannot u nd ertake
this mission all by itself. Its member organ izations shou ld
be assigned the job. In whatever State AIFRTE has no
affiliated unit, we have to find one. In Tamilnadu, the
demand for Uniform Equitable Quality Education wasconceded by the Government only when it turned ou t to be
a mass movement and student wings courted arrest and
faced police brutality. Unless CSS-NS turns out to be a mass
deman d, it wou ld just be a utopian dream.
Dr S.S. Rajagopalan
Retired Principal, High School, Tamil Nad u
e-mail: ssrajagop [email protected]
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cost (wanted on lease for 999 years like the Mu lla Periyar
dam) from the government and a 300 percent deduction
from taxable income. The wish list continues; a 10 year
mu ltiple entry visa for foreign students, a national loan fund
of Rs 1 lakh crores, no space ind ex for institutions in urban
areas to start camp uses (like one room universities) and the
Prime Minister should personally write to the business
houses to take part in higher edu cation . We could not access
the detailed report an d could p ick up few p oints from the
med ia reports. It app ears that neither the Professors nor the
civil society organizations h ave voiced their view s on th is
important issue that would impact the futu re generations
and the country.
Some of the experts who have given the
recommendation are being considered by a section of the
med ia as great Intellectuals and Edu cationists who brou ght
a turn around in the system. While the critiques and a few
educationists consider them as body shop pers w ith naked
craving for money and su ccess. It is also alleged that som e
of these self styled educationists brought disaster to the
system as they were responsible in influencing the whole
system to concentrate on th e pr odu ction of men-machines
or so called softwar e personnel to meet th e lower level skill
requirements of USA and other advanced countries in their
transition from manufacturing economies to serviceproviders. It is difficult to evaluate the u ltimate result from
this transformation is a gain or drain; the country lost the
best brains of few generations due to the private interests
and profits of the few. We all know how the Engineering
colleges in the country particularly in the South where
English mediu m helped th e boys and g irls to access the job
market of English speaking advanced countr ies flooded with
BCA, MCA and su ch related degr ees. Those who could not
get in to it used the informal sector to get the tag soft ware
engineer certification even withou t a d egree and left formal
edu cation in the m ad rush for jobs in the 1990s and 2000s.
The froth is gone now . There is some kind of hom ogeneity
and a guarantee of minimum salary structure comp arable
to some central governm ent jobs now in th e soft ware sector
for a select few. The repugnance for these courses is reflected
in the closure of several colleges in the South. Can a
developing country w ith less than 15 percent enrolment in
higher education and a drop out rate of around 70 percent
at school stage afford this?
The collegiate education or higher education in the
country was initiated thr ough the Grant-in-aid system of
the East India Company that promoted philanthropic
organizations including private charities to establish
educational institutions. If we look at the history of these
institutions, we realize that those who have occupied
important positions in India and abroad in the past and
being flaun ted now as educationists were the beneficiaries
of this phenomenon. We mu st pay our respect and gratitude
to these institutes that have invested their resources withou t
expecting anything in return. Some of them are still
surviving along with the religious charities that have a
different mandate, but have contributed for the developm ent
of education in the p rivate sector. The fund ing agencies like
UGC, AICTE, state dep artments of edu cation etc have been
providing grants to maintain these institutions that are
genera lly declared as non profit organ izations. But , majority
of these institutions that came in the boom p eriod with th e
supp ort of political and bu siness interests have mad e money
out of the social dem and for a certain category of education.
Some of these institutions have flouted norms and pu t all
kinds of pr essure on the regulatory authorities to get their
licenses to operate renewed. As a result, some of the
regulators are in jail and several professors are going rou nd
the CBI, CVC etc for their extraordinary service rend ered to
higher edu cation. Majority of these characters are involved
in the operations as edu cationists and are being unm askedas pseud o Edu cationists. Amu singly, some of the professors
wh o never taugh t in a school are produ cing text books for
school children (not the school teachers) that create ripples
in Parliament.
The land grant scheme to d evelop u niversity edu cation
in the USA is different as there is a built-in character of
charity in some of the w ell established private un iversities.
They have shown results and produced Nobel laureates
and t ransformed the economy. But , none of the
entrepreneurs of edu cation in India w ho can be called as
Edpreneur s (includ ing the experts of the Report) did n ot
spell out the benefit to the society at large, if public resources
are provided to the Edp reneur. If agreed, how it is possible
to reconcile this with the argu ments of the World Bank th at
higher edu cation is a private good?
K.S.Chalam
Ex-mem ber,UPSC, former Vice - Chancellor,
Dravidian University (A.P.) and former Professor of
Econom ics at Andh ra University
e-mail: chalam [email protected]
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Introduction
Every now and then, almost on every d ay basis, we
hear of some school bus acciden t in some corner of Ind ia
in wh ich a few to a few dozen school going children ar e
killed or ad mitted to h ospitals with grievously fractured
limbs and other major or minor injuries in school bus
accident. Thus end s the life of the coun try's Nau nihals -
the would - be builders of the Nation. The private TVchannels and the print media compete with each other in
reporting such incidents along with all the hypothetical
solutions to help their sale or TRP ratings. But even after
this, combined with the various orders of the Supreme
Court an d th e sane advice of the coun try's elders on th is
issue no change is affected. The very next d ay the coun try
and its school buses are back to square one-back on the
road. This raises a barrage of questions on the need of
ferrying children to d istant schools, long travel time, chance
of acciden ts, effect of Air pollut ion, adverse effect on bodyand mind and loss of useful time by 2-4 hours (journey
time) by every child ever y d ay. Issue before the society is
whether the sacrifices of these young citizens in this
manner are necessary for education. It should be given
serious consideration wh ether such travels can be avoided
wi thou t comprom ising wi th the ove ra l l ou tpu t o f
education.
Background
My school has 20 buses and oth er vans and autos fortransp ortation. Also hun dr eds of private cars come to the
school to drop their children and take them back. This
cond ition pr evails in all the schools in my city Ranchi. For
thou sands of school buses and vehicles runn ing in Ranchi
everyday pollution d ue to bu rning of petrol and d iesel,
not to talk of other wear and tear additives causing
damages to environment, can be easily calculated. This
mu st be the story w ith majority of schools in India.
As per the DISE Report1 the total nu mber of schools
were 12,85,576 in 2008-09. A miniscule n um ber of schools
Issues arising out of school transport
in a mu ltilayered system of edu cationin India provide bus service. It is estimated 2 that of the
60,000 buses sold in India annually, schools account for
near ly 10,000, which is close to 20 per cent of the total bu s
market. For pr oper evaluation of the net effect private cars
or commercial vehicles including public transport used
for transporting children to and fro their schools also need
to be accounted for along with th e school buses. This mu st
be generating a large number of polluting gases in stillhigher quantity affecting the environment adversely in
much bigger way3. The rich pr ivate schools are hiring Air-
cond itioned buses to p rotect their trav elling stud ents from
pollution. Renown ed environm ental magazine 'Down To
Earth' (May 1-15, 2012 edition 4) has reported various
studies and concluded in its editorial that AC buses/
vehicles have h igher p ollution effect on their tra vellers/
own passengers than those which have their windows
dow n. This shows that even AC equ ipped vehicles are not
safe for the owner or the user. The climate change andglobal warm ing caused by increased p ollution are already
knocking at our doors in different ways. International
conferences and Global summits are warning us day in
and day out of an impending disaster due to the ever
increasing pollution. A m ore accurate estimate can easily
provide d ata for the variety of dam ages caused to children
in particular and pu blic in general. They can be one or all
of the following
1. Reduced s a fe ty and s ecur i ty o f ch i ld ren dur ing
travelling2. Increased difficulty for parents in visiting school and
keeping track of their ward s
3. Improper/ undesired use of vast and costly resources
of the coun try in the form of school bus and impor ted
fuels like petr ol and diesel.
4. Increase in Air pollution
5. Traffic Jams leading to waste of time, money and other
resources
The first tw o items listed above affect the men tal and
physical health of the travell ing children and their
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academic output. But it is for sure that as long as the system
prov ides different kind of schools with d ifferent pattern s
like syllabi, standa rd etc. such a rat race of send ing children
to distant schools and millions of vehicles transportingthem is d estined to take place.
Nei ghbourhood Schools
If school is in th e neighbou rhood with facilities for
free equitable quality education, par ents will agree to send
their children to such a school without any hesitation.
Children can g o just by walking to the school. My school
is around 100 metres away from my r esidence. One can
watch my whole school from my house. No transport
facility is required. So if school is in the same locality asone's residence then no buses, vans, cars would be
required . No fuels will bur n releasing a mix of polluting
gases. Hence, human race will be saved from their bad
influences. In add ition the other imp ortant ad vantage of
Neighbourhood Schools is that this also helps in safety
and secur ity of children. Walking d own the school just a
half or one km from the h ouse is safe for childr en. Parents
can keep eye on th em. I can d escribe man y incidence of my
school. Many students wh o come by school bus elope away
with th eir friends before entering the school prem ises. Andthey are back to catch the return bus on time to go back
home. Neither school nor p arents know that their children
are bunking classes. Thus children succeed in keeping
their paren ts in the d ark. This can be p revented if school is
in the neighbourhood.
If parents d esire to visit the school they can easily go
to the school in the neighbour hood . Just opp osed to this
the parents will delay their visit if they are residing far
away from the school. The last but n ot the least is the saving
of school bus fees in term s of money w hich sum s up to arespectable amou nt in the d ays of ever rising cost of living.
Solution is CSS-NS
CSS in neighbourhood school could be a boon for
peop le. If there is a school in every locality with common
facilities, educational serv ices of perfect stand ard etc. then
it will convince both rich and poor p arents to send their
children to the school in the neighbourhood rather than
sending to a far aw ay school in a bus/ vehicle. To
succes s fu l ly imp lement i t bo th Cen t ra l and Sta te
Governm ents will need to focus and work tow ard s a fullypub l i c - funded Common Schoo l Sys tem based on
Neighbou rhood Schools from pr e-primary stage to senior
second ary stage (i.e. Class XII).
This alone can guarantee free and compulsory
edu cation of equitable qua lity to all childr en with out an y
discrimination w hatsoever. It is also a fact that those of
the countries which had common school system in
neighbour hood schools developed an d created better place
to live in than those which imparted education in a
selective or preferential way.
Conclusion
Finally, my take is strongly in favour of the Comm on
School System in Neighbourhood School (CSS-NS). This
system w ill really help a stud ent to study and grow u p
fearlessly. All schools must be upgraded to a common
stand ard , let us say of Central Schools level, with comm on
facilities like Science Lab, Comp uter Lab, Library, regu lar
trained teacher, high quality p rescribed books etc. for free
to all. Governm ent should set up such new schools in thelocalities where this is not available. I support this and
wish th is system to su cceed in Ind ia.
References
1 DISE Report: Analytical Reports (School and Facility
Related Indicators, Elementary Education in India),
2008-09
2 ht tp :/ / www.motorindiaonline .com/ vehicle-zone/
surging-demand-for-school-buses/
3 h ttp:/ / www.no2co2.in / msn / howitworks.php4 http:/ / www.downtoearth.org .in / content/ pollu tion-
great-leveller
Chirag Sharma
Class- VIII 'A'
Delhi Pu blic School, Ranchi-4
e-m ail: cs.190299@gm ail.com
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Capitalist globalisation has been masked under the
neutral term called globalisation in these days. Marx analysed
and showed that crises is inevitable in capitalist mode of
production. (Marx,1954). Capital itself is barr ier to cap italist
mod e of produ ction. History is replete with many evidences
such as global crises of 1930s,1970s and 2008 in last less
than hu ndred years. However, here we mainly focus on the
crises of 1970s and how privatisation, public-private
par ticipation policies are designed in an a ttemp t to come out
of this crises.The wor ld capitalism got enmeshed into crises in 1970s
du e to many reasons like contradictions amon g imp erialist
countries namely America, Germany and Japan ; the OPEC
oil embargo of 1973 and 1978 etc. As a resu lt, the profitability
of capitalists in advanced capitalist countries got reduced
drastically, dragging the entire w orld capitalism into crises.
Some alternative was called for if the crisis was to be overcome
(Harvey,2009) It is to solve this p rofitability crises of 1970s,the
policies of privatisation and pu blic-private p articipation have
been thrusted on third world countries by imperialist
countries and their servitor institutions namely Brettenwood
institutions.
The policy making in Third world countries started
changing drastically after the so called 'golden age' of
capitalism from 1970s onwards. As part of this general
trend ,during the last three decades or so, educational policies
in Ind ia are form ulated according to "Washington
Consensus",which emphasised the role of market forces in
the economy as the main mechanism for resource allocation.
The prescriptions emanating from these framew orks have
emphasised the need to redefine the role of the pu blic sectorin to promotion and regulation of free and competitive
markets,rather than direct provision and subsidisation of
good s and services." (Ha- Joon Chang,2008). The application
of these policies to third world countries where markets are
not d eveloped did not yield p ositive results. In fact, most of
these countr ies have recorded poor p erforman ce. This has
resulted in the so called post-Washington consensu s, wh ich
claims to be less fundamentalist in the sense of being sensitive
to the institu tional found ations of policy success. Whatever
may be the claim, "the core policy proposals of the Washington
Consensus still remain at the top of the post- Washington
Capitalist Crises, Privatisation and
Public-Private Partnerships in EducationConsensus agenda." (privatisation of public education,pu blic health, common prop erty resources like mines, forests
etc.)(Ha-Joon Chang,2008). Along with all other peoples
resources, public education is being made as means of
capitalist investment to solve the crises of profitability of world
capitalism. During this period,another important change had
taken p lace. The natu re of capital has changed significantly
from industrial capital to finance capital. This is basically
the period of capitalist globalisation or globalisation of finance
capital. Since then, the responsibility of government to p rovideeducation to its own citizens is being challenged on the plea
of a fiscal crunch almost in every n ation and par ticularly in
India. In this era of globalization all national govern ments
have started taking resource crunch as pleas to shirk the
responsibility of providing free education to their citizens
and to encourage commercialization, corporatization and
privatization of education. The p aper d eals with changes in
the d ominant form of capital and its grave implications for
educational policy making and also show as a result, how
the recently form ulated policies like RTE Act (2009), Foreign
Educational Institutions Bill (2010), etc.are likely to restrict
the access of education to the poor and deny social justice
and right to education to the Dalits, Adivasis and other
marginalized groups.
The paper is divided into four parts. The first part
explains briefly about globalisation and particularly
globalisation of finance capital and its impact on the state's
ability to provide basic necessities such as ed ucation, health,
food and safe drinking water etc. The second section
highlights trad ing in education provisions present in the RTE-
Act and Foreign Edu cational Institu tions Bill mooted by thegovernment . The th i rd par t i s about ques t ionable
assumptions underlying 'efficiency of market's role' in
allocation and d istribution. The fourth section ends with some
concluding rem arks.
I Globalisation of Capital
The process of development of finance capital was
discussed in detail by H ilferding and Lenin. In the course of
development of capitalism, there was a merger and
coalescence of ind ustr ial capital and banking capital giving
birth to finance capital at national level. In this period, finance
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capital was closely connected with and assisted by industrial
capital. The present day finance capital is different from the
finance capital of the earlier period in two different ways.
First, it is detached from its national moorings. Secondly, it is
also detached from indu strial capital. Therefore, it represents
highly volatile force roaming around the world in search of
speculative gains. Thu s, finance capital is internat ionalised
and basically interested in speculative gains rather than
industrial production. (Patnaik P, 2005). When restrictions
on the cross border flows were removed as the Brettonwoods
system based on fixed exchange rates collapsed, the capitalist
states started withdrawing from the project of demand
man agement. (Patnaik P, 2008.).
The opening up of the Indian economy to these
international finance capital in the nam e of economic reformsin 1990s has led to paralysing of many pro-poor public
policies. India has comfortable foreign exchange reserves
position for quite some time, although our imports of goods
and services are more than our exports. This is because of the
accum ulated portfolio investments (finance capital) form
different financial institutions. (You m ay like to reconsider
the un derlined sentence formation.) The governm ent has to
protect the interests of these portfolio investors who take
signals from the IMF and the World Bank either to stay or to
leave the Indian stock market. Therefore, IMF and World Bank
have considerable influence over the government policies
(Bhaduri, 2009)
The finance capital is opp osed to state activism because
of four reasons.
1) It leads to fall in the value of shares: The increase in
pu blic spending leads to increase in inflation. Especially
at high levels of employment and activity, exports
decrease as a result of inflation because the prices of our
goods increase both in term s of our currency and also in
terms of foreign currency. Therefore, the d emand for
exports decline.
2) The demand for imports increases. A rise in imports and
fall in exports w ill make the balance of trade ad verse
leading to current accoun t deficit. This situation creates
fears of exchange rate depreciation (fall in the externa l
value of curren cy) wh ich results in decline in the
profitability of finance capital. When tha t happens, the
financial institutions will pu ll out from share markets.
3) It leads to fall in real interest rates: As said earlier,
increase in public spending means increase in the
quan tity of money and results in inflation. During the
period of inflation, prices will rise persistently and the
value of money falls. Then the real interest rate also falls
because it is the difference between nominal interest rate
and inflation. (Since the rate of interest remains fixed a t
least for some period)
4) It erodes the state of confidence of the capitalists: In the
absence of state intervention, the employment depends
upon the state of confidence of the capitalists. If the
increase in public spend ing prom otes employment, then
that undermines the social legitimacy of the capitalist
class. This is much more so of financial capitalists.
Since finance capital both intern ational and national, is
going to stock m arket and money lending, pu blic spending
will adversely affect the finance capital. Thus governm ent
is more sensitive to the moods of the stock m arket and the
financial sentiments of its players. IMF and World Bank arein a pivotal position to influence the perception of players
like financial institutions, banks and other institutions of
finance capital. Indian government wants to protect the
interests of finance capital by becoming sensitive to m ood
of stock market and its major payers who are being
predominantly influenced by IMF and WB. Indian
government w ants to secure and retain the ap proval of these
internat ional financial institutions. To please them, Indian
government passed FRBM Act in 2003 , restricting deficit
spend ing for the welfare of the poor. If government d ares to
be activist, it wou ld find itself confronting cap ital flight with
grave consequences for the economy. Therefore the
government w ill favour cut in pu blic spending.
Since government cannot spend, the idea has gained
supp ort that the government should raise resources through
priva t isa t ion and the so ca l led publ ic -pr iva te
partnership(PPP) but not through raising the fiscal deficit
or imposing a turn over tax on securities transactions of
f inance capi ta l . PPP is "another name for var ious
arrangements in which the risk is public and the profit
pr ivate. It is specifically favoured in develop ing coun tries
these days by the World Bank, which warns countries at
the sam e time against r aising fiscal deficit" (Bhad uri, 2009).
That is wh y all the policies form ulated by th e governm ent,
do have p rovisions which encourage privatisation and
public private partnerships. The essential services like
health, edu cation, drinking water etc., are no exception . The
Right to Edu cation Act of 2009 and the Foreign Edu cational
Institutions Bill 2010, in th e field of edu cation, are taken up
to show how the policies of privatisation and PPP
reincorporated. The 12th plan document on education
displays the same trend.
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II. FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS BILL
AND RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT
A) Foreign Educational Institutions Bill.(FEIB)
The Foreign Edu cational Institutions Bill has 4 chap ters,
17 sections and a statement of objects and reasons. In the
Foreign Educational Institutions bill, there is no provision to
regulate the fee structure in foreign edu cational institutions
i.e., foreign universities. It is completely left to the management
of these institut ions. But the 6th section of chapter 2 of this
Bill dealing with fee structure indicates that the am ount of
fees charged is to be pu blished in the p rospectus (FEI Bill).
The management of these institutions can charge any amount
of fees from the stud ents, the only thing that is mand atory is
to publish this amount in their prospectus. Probably they
may term this as 'transparency'.Thousand s of years of struggle of the opp ressed classes
and castes particularly of last 150 years had resulted in the
inclusion of constitutional p rovisions namely reservation
policies. With the coming of the foreign educational
institutions bill, this provision becomes inap plicable. Indian
government has no role in the entire administration p rocess,
recruitment of faculty or other staff, their qu alifications, salary
structure etc. in these institutions.
"All this means a very h igh d egree of laissez-faire is on-
non-involvement of the government in higher education to
be p rovided by the foreign institu tions" (Tilak, 2010). (The
above und erlined sentence needs reformu lation.) Moreover,
once they get permission from the government these
institutions can decide anything and everything. Their
operations will not be subject to any examination by anybody.
In short, they are not accountable to anybody. As Tilak (2010)
rightly says 'this reflects the n eo-liberal governm ent's
unquestioned faith in m arkets' . In other word s, government
has unquestioned faith in the foreign capitalist who start
edu cational institu tions in India. According to the bill some
foreign ed ucational institutions which are n ot giving degree
or d iploma need n ot get even recognition w ithin the country.
About placing confidence in th e market i.e. in private and
foreign capital to provide education to the poor is a
questionable assumption of market solution, which is
discussed little later.
B) Right to Education Act
There are 7 chap ters, 38 sections in this Act. Firstly, there
is problem w ith definitions. In the Chapter I, wh ich gives
definitions of concepts used here, defines capitation fee as
"any kind of donation or contribution or payment other than
the fee notified by the School" (RTE Act, 2009. chapter 1
section 2(b). It means a p rivate school can charge any am ount
of fee by notifying it. In implementing foreign universities,
any amount of fee can be charged by p ublishing in p rospectus
whereas in private schools any amou nt of fee can be charged
by notifying it. In the sam e chapter elementary ed ucation is
defined as the 'education from 1st class to 8th classes. Pre-
primary edu cation which became so important tod ay, is not
the responsibility of the state as per this 'fundam ental right'.
Neither secondary nor higher secondary education is
responsibility of the state. Even for the elementary education,
if school has less than 60 students in a primary school (and
in majority of existing primary schools in Andhra Prad esh,
have the strength below 60 students) then there will be only
one teacher according to this act. That means, quality
education is not guaran teed even in elementary ed ucation.Second ly, regarding the fund ing of implementation of
even this defective act, the central government did not give
any commitment. Section 3 of chapter 3 of RTE Act tha t deals
with sharing of financial responsibilities says that "the central
government shall provide to the state governments as grants-
in-aid of revenues, such p ercentage of expend iture referred
to in sub section 2 as it may d etermine from time to time in
consultation w ith the state governments" (ibid. Chapter 3,
section 7)
It is also said that the central government prepares the
estimates of capital and recurring expenditure for the
implementation of the provisions of the Act. As it usually
happ ens the central government may ask state governments
to share certain percentage of total expenditure, if state
governments are not able to share that amoun t then on that
plea, central government m ay not give required money for
the implementation of this Act. In the matters of funding,
central government shifts to states and states shift to local
governments thereby leading to und erfund ing of even
elementary education.
Last not the least, the section 12, sub-section 1 and 2
wh ich talks about pr ivate school's responsibility for free and
compulsory ed ucation provides th e prov ision of 25 % seats
reserved for children belonging to weaker sections and
disad vantaged group, in schools of "specified category" and
private schools aided or unaided. It further says that these
schools "shall be reimbursed expenditu re so incurred " (RTE
Act, 2009 Chapter 4, section 12 (b) and (c), point 2)
This indicates that the meagre budget allocated to
education also does not go to strengthening of governm ent
schools in the villages and towns but will be diverted to elite
government schools and corporate schools in the nam e of
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pu blic private partn ership (PPP). The government becomes
agent of private and corporate sector in education rather than
a regulator of private and corporate schools. These measures
further weaken, and destroy, government schools. In the
words of Anil Sadgopal, this act opens a "new market by
demolishing the vast government school system, except some
specified categories of elite schools such as
Kend riyaVidyalayas and Navod ayaVidyalayas or the
prop osed Eleventh p lan's block-level model schools and such
other counterparts in various states and union territories"
(Anil Sadgopal, 2011).
III. Questionable Assumptions of Market
The unqu estioned belief of the policy makers in markets
is based on qu estionable assumptions of market. There is afundamental problem w ith the market in a poverty stricken
country like ours." If it is left to the market to decide what
goods to produce, it may simp ly end up not prod ucing even
the most basic and necessary goods needed by the poor"
(Bhad uri, 2005). It means m arket does not bother about th ose
who don 't have pu rchasing pow er i.e., (most of) dalits, tribals
and the poor (and disabled and Muslims?) in India. It is
concerned only with rich people and looks after fulfilling
their needs.
Although education is not exactly like commodity, in
the sense here edu cation service commod ity takes long time
than any u sual commod ity, but here also if edu cation is left
to the market to decide, it will eliminate access to the poor
and provide access to the rich. Is it justified and civilised to
eliminate the historically discriminated groups like dalit's,
tribal's and poor people from th e field of edu cation? Must
not, certain basic necessities like water , housing, sanitation
for the poor be provided by the governments?
The theory of market solution is based on questionable
assumptions such as perfectly functioning market, where no
prod ucer or consumer has any power to influence the process
etc. In reality there is no perfect competition because there are
power imbalances, discrimination, transaction costs, and
information asymm etry. No producer or consumer influences
price is also untrue. In reality, powerful monopolies,
monopolies, oligopolies abound in the real world even in the
education sector. Being the powerful and large producers,
these monopolies, oligopolies influence the prices to a
substantial extent. Thus under very highly artificial
assump tions, producers will prod uce goods efficiently by
utilising scarce resources and get normal profits. Consum ers
also get good quality produ cts and also at lowest possible
prices because of competition among producers. Since this
does not exist in reality, it is inapp ropriate to apply m arket
pr inciples to the education sector.
IV. Concluding Remarks
The change of capital from industrial form to financial
form, the belief of policy makers and other intellectuals in
unrealistic and questionable assum ptions of perfect market
to protect finance capital is resulting in the policies of
withdrawal of state from providing education to its own
citizens. This is why, even policies which talk about
providing fundamental rights to the people like RTE
Act,(Food Security Act etc) end up in supporting anti-people
policies like privatisation and public private participation
thereby denying access to education to th e poor an d socialjustice and right to education to dalits and ad ivasis in our
country.
Therefore, even the day today struggles against
privatisation and PPP mu st be protracted mass struggle and
definitely become part of transformative struggles of oppressed
and exploited masses of the society polit ically and
ideologically.
References:
Bhad ur i, A., (2005): "Developm ent w ith Dign ity". Nat ional
Book Trust, New Delhi.
Bhad uri, A. (2009): The Face You Were Afraid To See. Penguin
books India
H a-Joon Chan g, (2008):Reth ink ing Public Policy in
Agriculture-Lessons from History ,Distant and Recent.
Harvey, David (2009): "A Brief History of Neoliberalism", OUP,
New York.
Marx, Karl, 1954) : Capital,vol.1,Progress Publishers, Moscow.
Patnaik P, (2004) : The Meaning of Contemporary
Globalization, New Age weekly.
Sadgopal, Anil, (2011): Neolibera l Act. Frontline, July 15th.
The Foreign Edu cation Institu tions (regulation of entry and
operations)Bill, 2010
The Right of Children To Free and Compu lsory Education
Act, 2009 :The Gazette of Ind ia.
Tilak, JBG, (2010): The Foreign Edu cational Institu tions Bill.
Econom ic and Political Weekly May 8. volume45 No.19
K.Laxminarayana
Associate Professor in Economics, Universit of Hyd erabad
Secretary, AP Save Education committee
e-mail:[email protected]
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Accord ing to recent news r eports, the Delhi Cabinet
proposes to start a residential school for children from
Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other
Backward Classes (OBC) and Muslim communities "in
ord er to p rovide th em op portu nities to excel". This school
shall not only be mod elled along th e lines of the Kalinga
Institute of Social Sciences based in Bhu baneshw ar, bu t
will also be managed by the institute. A MoU w ill be signedbetween the Departm ent of the Welfare for SC/ ST/ OBC/
Minorities and the KISS. The institute shall also provid e
guide l ines for cons t ruc t ing the school in Ishapur
(Najafgarh area of South -west Delhi) . Most interestingly,
according to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the school w ill
be expected to be "self-finan cing" after th e first five years
du ring w hich it will be financially supp orted by th e Delhi
government.
In analysing this decision, I also argue that every
policy-decision regarding education can and mu st becomea reason for us to engage not just w ith the most imm ediate
ques t ions re la t ing to school ing, but a lso wi th the
relationships between schooling, social-injustice and
structural inequalities in India. I, therefore, propose to
analyse role of private sector in ed ucation, and residential
schools for und erpr ivileged children in term s of the overall
policy and philosophical frameworks within which they
are located. I will also draw up on the d iscussion that took
place on the e-forum of All India Forum for Right to
Educat ion (AIFRTE) 'Kagazkalam' [[email protected]].
As Madh u Pr asad (Member, Presidium -AIFRTE and
former Professor, University of Delhi) rightly ar gues, it is
not su fficient to ap olitically analyse this step in terms of
what i t provides as compared to the exis ting s tate-
governm ent ru n schools or low-fee private (LFP) schools
(these being th e only op tions available to children from
marginalized sections in Ind ia). An apolitical analysis fails
to inves t iga te how schoo l ing i s re l a ted to wide r
socioeconomic structures and processes, and the social
Making Provisions for a Right to Education:
Converting 'Liabilities' into 'Assets'?re la t ions which shape ch i ld ren ' s iden t i t i e s and
experiences inside and outside school. Such an analysis
will thus misleading ly isolate question s of schooling from
debates raging over th e dom inant economic paradigm in
India, and social-political struggles over distribution of
and access to resources. Instead, we need a thoroughly
political reflection on the ideologies underlying this
political economy of education which allows privateinstitutes to develop as substitutes for a state-funded
system of edu cation. It is also essential to engage w ith the
ideological assumptions underlying the curriculum and
teaching-learning p rocesses in an experiment in schooling
before replicating it.
Policy issues : Conditional and ad hoc provisioning for
a fundamental right
Were there a reliable and fully accountable public-
funded school system in place for these children and aKISS were only an alternative to that system, it wou ld be a
very d ifferen t situation . Instead , efforts like the KISS may
become th e only m echanism available to these children to
exercise their right to ed ucation. This kind of residential
and p r iva te in s t i tu te s , and such Pub l i c -Pr iva te -
Partnership models of schooling for underprivileged
children are very likely to become an excuse for the Ind ian
s ta te to fu r the r wi thdraw f rom i t s Cons t i tu t iona l
responsibility towards these children, a point made by
several members on Kagazkalam.Rajesh Mishra, another discussant on Kagazkalam,
and mem ber, AIF-RTE points to the m ost alarming aspect
of the proposed school in Delhi: that the school is expected
to become "self-financing" after five years. Why shou ld th is
be so? Would such an approach no t rende r th i s
fund amen tal right tempora ry? A right only for five years,
only for five batches of un derp rivileged childr en? After
that they either pay for their "free" edu cation, rely on charity,
or pay through sale of the products of their vocational
training? These are the sour ces of fun ding for the KISS -
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corporate philanthrop y, individu al d onations, "vocational
prod ucts", and fu nd s from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs,
Governm ent of Ind ia. Details of how the Delhi government
expects the school to become self-financing are n ot yet clear,and we need to demand all such details before the
governm ent makes bud getary allocations for yet another
layer of schools designed to weaken the existing p ublic-
fund ed school system.
There are quite a few p roblems with su ch a model of
schooling, and of fund ing for schools. Firstly, it is clearly
another category of schools plann ed to cater to a certain
group of children in a certain way, wh ich w ill be add ed to
the existing hierar chical, multi-layered school system. By
involving yet another set of Ministries and Depar tmen tsinstead of making the MH RD or the state Departm ents of
Educat ion fu l ly and perm anent ly respons ible, th is
approach complica tes is sues of governance . More
alarmingly, it strengthens a policy of segregating children
along lines of social class, ethnicity, caste and religion.
Ramesh Patna ik (Organising Secretary, AIFRTE) and Vikas
Gupta (Asst. Prof. University of Delhi and Member,
National Executive, AIF-RTE) both vehemen tly op pose
such segregation. Supposedly ensuring inclusion and
special opport un ity, such segregation may actually proveto be seriously problematic in th e long term; and having to
sud den ly face harsh r ealities of discrimination m ay even
traum atise children wh en th ey leave school. Thirdly, their
right to education does not remain an unconditional
fund amental entitlement of these children any more. They
have to either pay an emotional price by leaving their
homes, and all that is familiar and provides a sense of
rootedn ess and identity, or pay a financial price and attend
private schools. Else, they may risk life and limb by
travelling long distances in frail boats and buses alongfrailer bridges. Or, remain u nedu cated.
Further, if philanth ropy is part of the solution for "self-
financing" residen tial schools, then th e qu estion we n eed
to raise is: wh y should these childr en's right to edu cation
be a function of the char ity of our society's richer sections?
Why should education for one section be dependent on
the resources of another section instead of on public-
funds? Do we n ot need to qu estion the skewed distribution
of resources which makes such an inherently unjust
situation p ossible? Most importantly, what happ ens if and
when this corporate and individual charity comes to an
end? These children's rights will be automatically
terminated and the state will sit twiddling its thumbs,
protesting lack of resources as usual?
Another Pointer to the Obvious Failure of RTE Act
As Madhu Pra sad po in t s ou t , such an ad hoc
prov ision on ly shows h ow seriously the RTE has failed in
ensuring universal access to quality education for a
majority of children. If the RTE were able to guarantee
quality ed ucation closer for th ese childr en close to their
homes wh y w ould th ese children and their families opt
for residential schools? That there are about sixteen
thousand children at the KISS may say much that theinstitute can be prou d of, but it certainly points to the state's
failure in m ultiple areas. The Act cannot ensur e that th ere
will be enough good schools, and that children and parents
will not be forced to take up options like private fee-
charging schools or residential schools which take
childr en away from th eir homes and fam ilies.
The Act ne i ther dec lares educat ion free in an
unequivocal manner, nor intends to bridge the w idening
gaps in quality existing within our multi-layered school
system. Instead, it allows the state to go on adding differentcategories of schools to th is system. With such flaws, how
can this Act ensure underprivileged children's right to
equitable education which may liberate them from
opp ressive lives an d learning-processes? It basically just
pu shes them further away from the state-funded system of
edu cation tow ards options like private fee-charging, and/
or residential institutes (which may also promise other
facilities such as health-care, adequate food and a safe
environment).
As Harsh Mand er argued on Kagazkalam, "the rightto edu cation of a child is indivisible and inseparable from
her oth er basic rights, such as the righ ts to protection, food
and nu trition, health care and shelter". For him , state-run
residential schools are the answer for children without
families to dep end on , and children from u nd erprivileged
groups. However, Ramesh Patnaik, though strongly in
favour of seeing all these basic rights as p art of the r ight
edu cation, does not agree w ith the concept of residential
schools. He arg ues th at these schools will segregate and
divide children, and allow the s tate to abandon its
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respons ibi l i t ies . Ashwini Singh, (School teacher ,
Faridabad & mem ber, AIF-RTE) too argu es against
re s iden t i a l s choo l s because they may s t reng then
disparities within marginalised communities. Instead,qua lity schooling an d oth er basic rights pr ovided for by
the state in all neighbour hood s would tr uly ensure a right
to education for the most marginalised children without
their having to leave home. If the state can promise to deliver
this to all und erdeveloped an d und er-served areas in a
time-bound m anner and commit adequate fund s for it, then
residential schools could be an acceptable solution for th e
time being (except for institu tionalized and street children
wh o would need it for mu ch longer).
Ma ins t reaming and marg ina l i s a t ion th roughcurriculum : A look at microprocesses
The KISS does much for its 16, 500 children from triba l
commu nities. It d oes not charge any fees. It provides health
care, edu cation in health and h ygiene, information abou t
infectious d iseases, etc . It prov ides vocational training -
offering train ing in a var iety of skills wh ich w ill fetch a
range of opp ortunities and incomes . It also performs much
better in both board examinations than schools run by the
state governm ent . Which is why it seem to be a good id ea
to replicate this experiment, and let the KISS help withman aging school education elsewh ere.
Though these make for a great plan to help these
children survive individually within current development
paradigm, nothing in these strategies or curriculum is
intend ed to challenge this par adigm w hich marginalised
them in the first place, or the h ierarchical social order th at
mar ginalisation bu ilds on. Problem is, we are conceiving
marginalisation narrowly in terms of access to schools,
and ignoring marginalisation through curriculum &
pedagogy. We need to focus on whether and how schoolcurricula den y or help voice the realities and concerns of
un derp rivileged commu nities. Here are some examp les of
wh at the KISS tries to d o for its studen ts, and th e related
issues that should be, but are not raised in most classrooms
(even ap art from KISS):
1. It provides Vocational training to enter organised and
un organised sector. But, are questions regarding
exp lo i t a t ion o f ru ra l and u rban worke rs in
un organised sector raised? Does this training equ ip
learners to assert their rights in cu rrent exploitative
scenario? Can it talk about market forces and state
power which collude to sustain it? Learners may
choose from a range of vocations, but will they be
empow ered to challenge the conditions und er wh ichthey w ork? Will they be able to bring in exp eriences of
their families and comm un ities?
2. It teaches tribal children to preserve forests. Well, tribal
commu nities are hard ly exploiting forests even thou gh
they depend on them for survival. It is their rights
and trad itional ways of preserving forests wh ich are
being violated. Do teachers and textbooks talk about
efforts of Dalit and tribal commu nities, par ticularly
wom en, to organise and stru ggle for rights over land,
forest, wa ter?3. It cl ai m s t o d e li ve r on g e n d e r e q u a li ty a n d
empowerm ent. Though it talks about d ecision-making
in schools , par t ic ipa t ion in academic and
extracurricular activities, access to vocational training
and jobs, does it also teach to challenge d eep-seated
gender biases? The p aper Gender Issues in Edu cation
(NCF 2005) asserts that such biases regarding
marriage & moth erhood , issues of control over bodies,
choices, incomes, and assertion of citizenship by
w o m e n , m u s t b e b r o u g h t o u t . I t a r g u e s t h a tempowerment does not necessarily follow from
edu cation or even hav ing jobs unless students learn
to challenge norm s and v alues in families and larger
society. Further, is gender seen to be working with
divisions along caste, ethnicity, religion an d class?
There is difference between imparting skills and
information to learners so they can act, speak and think in
ways acceptable to the ma instream, and provid ing a critical
education w hich helps them u nd erstand how their lives
are shaped by pow er relations in the society, state policiesand distribution of resources. The former is what most
schools, and the KISS attempt. "To transform 'liabilities'
into 'assets'" is one of its stated goals "and the secret to its
success" . This approach is based on a par t icular
understanding of "marginalised" and "mainstream" that
a l so gove rns Ind ia ' s deve lopment pa rad igm. T he
und erstand ing is that u nderp rivileged p eople are a drain
on the na t ion ' s resources , ra ther than 'product ive '
contributors to its growth . That they need to be tr ained - in
skills and attitu des - to fit neatly into the m achinery of a
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neoliberal and globalising India. That is how they will
become assets to the Ind ian economy. So, schooling is n ot
about w ith challenging this econom ic par adigm or social
relations, but about converting stu dents into agents of thiseconomy.
Further, if and when we have a more meaningful
curriculum, imp lementing it in segregated schools would
be counter-productive. Diverse reali t ies need to be
discussed in classrooms where children from diverse
socioeconomic backgrou nd s learn together. Children n eed
to listen to each other, und erstand and respect difference,
and know th at the same policies and worldviews shape
their lives differently. It cann ot be achieved in residential
schools either, because they isolate individual learnersfrom families and communities, rendering questions of
structur al inequality invisible and irrelevant.
Vikas Gup ta and Ramesh Patnaik rightly assert that
wh at is required is a state-fun ded common school system
implemented through neighbourhood schools which
would have comm on minimum standards for quality in
curriculum and infrastructure. The National Curriculum
Framework 2005 would do very wel l as a guiding
document for curriculum reform. Further, the right to
edu cation m ust explicitly pr omise a right to relevant an dtransformative edu cation w hich does not ignore concerns
of sociocultu rally margina lised group s. Cur rently, the Act
does not lay down any serious guidelines for curricular
design or reform. The Indian state also needs to ensure
that sufficient fund s are devoted to curriculum plann ing,
imp lementation and teacher-training.
On 'empow ering' the state
An imp ortant aspect of the discussion on Kagazkalam,
was the ro le and s ta tus of the s ta te in th is e ra of globalization. Edu cationist Martin Carnoy explains how
nation-states both lose and ga in as a result of globalization.
They have to agree to policies which increase global
competit iveness even as they lead to sociopolit ical
destabilization. On the other hand, they retain some
powers as the ones regulating the "political climate" in
wh ich corporate capital condu cts its business globally
everyday. However , Michael App le , Professor of
Education, argues that within the neoliberal parad igm the
state's role is precisely this - to regu late this political climate
in favour of market forces.
It is in th is context that Firoz Ahm ad, (teacher MCDSchool, Delhi) and mem ber AIF-RTE und erscores the need
to think of how the state can "empow er" itself to act against
the interests of global capital, and commit itself to
systematically invest in the w elfare and developm ent of
those it has kept on the m argins for too long now . It has to
plan for transformation to a school-system and an
economic growth paradigm which do not rep rodu ce and
deepen structural inequalities and sociocultural hegemony.
Some things w e can do...One way to guard against uncritical, unthinking
replication of any experiments in education is to ensure
reliable and thorough research on the impact and p rocesses
of schooling in variou s such experiments. Indian p ublic
and policy-makers currently lack any understanding of
the imp ortance of social science research in gu iding p olicy,
a situation that needs to be urgently and systematically
remedied. Education is an area of policy-making where
quan titative and qu alitative research into variou s aspects
is badly needed; e.g. questions of curriculum, teacher'seducation and experiences, pedagogic processes; and
through these, issues of access , social justice and
empowerment in and through schooling. In fact, most
developed coun tries, irrespective of their dom inant
economic paradigm, try to ensure that their universities
continue to develop a bod y of research which is responsive
to their m ajor sociological concerns. And Ind ia does really
need to follow suit.
A most importan t need of the hour thou gh, is to build
a demand for public-hearings on such policy-decisionsrelated to edu cation. This must become par t of the larger
agend a to democratize governance and decision-making
given the d iversities disparities in India.
Reva Yunus
(Freelance Writer & Member, Cambr idge-based 'Alliance
for Secular and Democratic South Asia')
e-mail: r eva.yun [email protected]
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Ms. Guddi, the National Convenor of Yuva Biradari,
Yusu f Meherally Centre, Mum bai, wh ile inaugurating the
Seminar, called u pon the aud ience to stand by the weaker
section of the society and d o everything required to p rovide
quality education to their children as the Government and
the Corporate class do not seem to be worried abou t them at
all. According to her , the RTE Act 2009 is an eye-wash and
it is meant to h elp privatise edu cation and make it a part of
profit making and market economy. She further said that
the Comm on School System in Neighbourhood schools is
the only w ay to fulfil the dreams of our earlier generation of
Nation-builders. The inaugural session of the Seminar
organ ised by the Bihar Non -gazetted Elemen tary TeachersAssociation was chaired by a Presidium consisting of Prof
Wasi Ahmad, Presiden t of the Association, Dr.V.N.Sharm a,
Member, Secretariat, All Ind ia Forum for Right To Education
(AIF-RTE) and Prof. S. P. Verma , formerly of Patna
University.
Prince Gajendra Babu of Tamil Nadu Platform for
Common School System (spoke in English; Hind i interpretor:
Sri Ashwini Kumar) narrated the story of two years of
imp lementation of RTE Act 2009 and drew att ention of the
audience to the fact that Bihar w as the first State to set up a
Commission for CSS-NS and it was expected that others
All India Seminar at Patnalike Tamil Nadu will follow suit. But the Bihar Report is
du mp ed w ithout action to fulfil the ruling class agenda. He
further said that TN Government op ened Malls and p olice
station in schools and merged the school with other schools.
Doubting the intention of the ruling elite, Sri Ashutosh
Kumar Rakesh d esired that their hidd en agenda m ust be
exposed as the Act is only to help m ulti layered system of
edu cation. Prof. Anil Sadgopal said that the Governm ent is
determined to close down the Government schools so that
the children ar e forced to go to Pr ivate schools wh ere they
may or may not go due to financial constraints. The
Government is openly m aking anti-people laws w hich isleading to from bad to worse
situation in the field of edu cation.
He further stated that 30 schools
in Bhopal were closed recently
and they have all been asked to
work in P.P. mode thus getting
sup por t of the market forces. Prof
Was i Ahmad summed up the
session by asking how long the
Government will speak something
and do something differently. He
desired that in the sessions ahead
there w ill be convergence of views
in making Education a political
agenda. Sri Ankan Kumar, the
working comm ittee mem ber, Sri
Om Prakash Ojha , the Sta te
Secre tary of the Bihar Non-
gazetted Elementary Teachers
Association, Prof Meher Engineer,
Chairman AIF-RTE and Aaj correspon den t Sri Amalend uMishra also spoke on the occasion.
The second session on Child Labour and Education
was co -cha i red by Pro f . Madhu Pra sad , Member ,
Presidiu m, AIF-RTE, Md Taslimu dd in, General Secretary,
Bihar N on-gazetted Elemen tary Teachers Association, and
edu cationist Sri Akshay Kum ar. Dr. Vikas Gupta of Delhi
University dwelt up on at length on the problems faced by
the han dicapp ed children in th eir education. He clarified
that census keeps no proper account of the handicapped.
It is natur al, therefore, that p olicy and laws mad e in this
connection do not benefit them. Prof. Anil Sadgopal
ACTIVITY REPORTS April 28-29, 2012
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explained that economically d istressed parents cannot
bear the educational expenses of their children. This
requires to be changed so th at childr en can get edu cated
up to class 12. S/ Sri Lalan Kumar an d Sanjay Kumar an d
Rajeshwar Das, Vice-President of Bihar Non-gazetted
Elementary Teachers Association, Ashwini Kumar of
Ha ryan a, Dr. Vikas Gup ta of D.U., Sri Rajesh of AISF also
took part in the discussion. Sahdeo Ravidas, the Vice -
President of Bihar Non-gazetted Elementary Teachers
Association presented a beau tiful song on d ifferential in
infrastructure affecting th e educational environm ent.
The th i rd sess ion, jo in t ly cha ired by Sri Md.
Taslimuddin, General Secretary of Bihar Non-gazetted
Elementar y Teachers Association, Prof. Meher Engineer,
Chairman, AIF-RTE and Dr. Anil Sadgopal, Member,Presidium AIF-RTE, discussed wh at w ill be the m ode an d
intensity of strugg le to achieve the free and comp ulsory
edu cation of equ itable quality for all. The hou se was also
informed that w hen (Late) Brahm adeo Nar ain the founder
of Bihar Non -gazetted Elementary Teachers Association
organised m ovements 2.25 lakh teachers were p articipan ts.
Teachers income have shot up now between 20000 and
50000 but the orga nisation is a pale shadow of the past.
The fourth session on 29th Ap ril was co-chaired by
Prof. Anil Sadgopal, Prof Wasi Ahm ad an d Dr. Vikas Gup ta.
Prof. Minati Panda of JNU introduced the issue of
Language and educat ion and sa id tha t in 1970 81
languag es were used in Ind ia which has redu ced to 41 in
1999. Sri Sur jit Singh Thokchom from Shillong , mem ber,
AIF-RTE talked abou t langu age issues in th e N -E States
wh ereas Dr. Vikram Singh Amr awat, th e Office Secretary
of AIF-RTE talked about the differences being created in
the name of language and dialects. According to Prof.
Ramakant Agnihotri the d ifference between langu age and
dialects is the langu age has tank and bullets behind them
to supp ort, dialects have nothing.
Dr. V.N.Sharma spoke at length on the Role of
Comm on School System in N ational Integration w herein
he explained how the later w as a serious issue in 1960-80.
It is not talked about an ymore bu t the national integration
can be achieved through imparting education to all in
Comm on Edu cation System in CSS-NS as education is a
pow erful tool. Teachers mus t be t ra ined to impart
edu cation w ith this in m ind. H e called the RTE Act 2009
as a tool to weaken national integration rather than
strengthening it.
Sri Ashwini Kumar of Harayana, Prof. KhagendraKumar, Principal, Patna Training College, Dr. Kumar
Sanjeev of Patna Training College pr esented th eir views
on the subject. Dr. Anil Sadgopal quoted th e case of Finland
saying that it had the best system of edu cation in w hole of
Europe after adopt ing CES in CSS-NS. Prof.S.K. Ganguly,
Secretary of Patna University Teachers Association
critically examined the State of Edu cation in Bihar in h is
talk.
The fifth session h ad Prof Meher Engineer , Prof S.K.
Ganguly and Prof Minati Panda in the Presidium . Prof
Madh u Prasad , Sri Chaturan an Ojha of Gorakhp ur , Prof.
Anil Sadgop al, Prof S.P. Verma and Prof. Minati Pand a of
JNU took p art in the d iscussion.
Ashutosh Kumar Rakesh
Treasurer,
Bihar Non-gazetted Elementary Teachers Association, Patna.
(Brief & English translation by Dr. V .N. Sharma)
And hra Prad esh Save Education Comm ittee (APSEC)
has cond ucted a State Level Seminar on RTE Act and its
implementation for two full years in And hra Prad esh.
Prof. K. Chakradhara Rao (President, APSEC and
Member, Board of Advisers, AIFRTE) presided over th e
meet ing. Prof. G. Haragopal (Gen. Secretary, APSEC and
Member, Presidium, AIFRTE) presented the key note
address. Sri Madhusudhan, State coordinator, RTE cell,
Government of Andhr a Pradesh w as the special guest of
the evening. Reports of implementation of the RTE Act from
Sta te Level Sem in a r on RTE Act a t Hydera ba dfour d i s t r i c t s name ly ; Kar imnaga r , Waranga l ,
Mahaboobnagar and Gun tur w ere placed in the Seminar.
Sri D. Ramesh Patna ik (Organ izing Secretary, APSEC and
Member, Secretariat, AIFRTE) welcomed the gath ering and
laid down the purpose of the seminar. More than two
hundred delegates participated in the seminar. They
included activists of Democratic Teachers' Federation,
Andhra Pradesh Teachers ' Federation-257, Andhra
Pradesh Teachers' Federation-1938, Andhra Pradesh
Res ident ia l Educat ional Ins t i tu t ions ' Teachers '
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Association, Progressive Youth League and Progressive
Democratic Students' Union. Many individual activists
and g roup s also joined the seminar.
Prof. K. Chakradhara Rao in his presidential add ress
analytically showed how d isinterested are the government
in providing educat ion to the chi ldren. While the
constitution of India d irected th e state to provide free and
compulsory education to all children up to age 14 years
within ten y ears of imp lementation of the constitution of
India, the successive governmen ts in Delhi and in states
never took it seriously. Sup reme Court had reprimanded
the government in Unnikrishnan case (1993) for not
pr oviding free and compu lsory edu cation to all childr en
for almost four d ecades and interpreted that the right to
education flows directly from the fundamental 'right to
life'. Central govern men t took alm ost one d ecade to affect
an am endm ent to the constitution for the pu rpose. The
half baked 86th amen dm ent to th e constitution (2002) did
not include right to preschool and secondary education
and limited only to elementary education. The central
government took seven more years to bring the legislation,
'The Right of Childr en to Free and Compu lsory Edu cation
Act, 2009' and took one more year to notify it. The 'Act'
does not p rovide necessary measures to achieve the core
elements of right to edu cation like edu cation for all, quality
edu cation for all and equitable edu cation for all. The state
government of Andhra Pradesh took one more year to notify
the rules and is not serious about the implementation of
the minimal provisions in the Act for development of
governm ent schools and regulation of private schools for
the last two years. It seems that the Act and the associated
rules are prepared on the axiom that trade in education is
un questionable. He opined that all governm ent schools
will be closed with in ten years if the pr esent policy of the
Government to neglect its own schools and encourage
private schools along with reim bur sement for 25% seats
continues. The Government policies in every field
(including ed ucation) are being formu lated on the basis of
mode l o f deve lopment
imposed by World Bank. Such
design is necessarily fraught
with crises. He called u pon the
de lega te s to t ake the
movement to the people in
order to build strong pressureon the s tate for equal and
dem ocratic edu cation for all.
Prof. G. Haragopal
addres s ing the s emina r
exclaimed what the meaning
of independ ence is if it can not
provide elementary ed ucation
to the disadvantaged, Dalits
and t r iba l ch i ld ren even a f t e r s ix decades o f i t s
achievement. Referring to his en gagement in B