Help India's Children Make the Grade
AZIM PREMJI
The Times of India
Full marks to the government for the cabinet approval of
the constitutional 93rd amendment Bill 2001, to make
education a fundamental right. Though the Bill is yet to
be approved by both Houses of Parliament, it is a step in the
right direction.
There can be scope for discussion on the implications of
making education a fundamental right and how the legislation
has to be worded, but I am confident no one who is interested
in building the future of our nation will, in principle, oppose the
Bill.
The biggest significance of this Bill is that the government is
committed to provide the necessary resources to realise the
fundamental right to education. In addition to education
becoming a fundamental right, the proposed central law also
underlines the need for education of "satisfactory quality".
The official stand that "...only if it (education) is of satisfactory
quality will the people be willing to pay the opportunity cost of
entrusting their children to schools" sets the spirit of the
proposed amendment and the corresponding legislation. This is
indeed the right direction to take with regard to the proposed
constitutional amendment.
It has been established beyond doubt that early childhood care
and development is an integral part of the overall education and
well-being of a child. This was also emphasised in the new
education policy document of 1986 and the revised document in
1992.
While it is understandable that the age group of less than three
years does not necessarily come under the formal definition of
"education", it is entirely within the gamut of the ministry of
human resource development and existing government
institutions to work on the pre-school age children of three to
five years.
Can the lower age limit, therefore, be decreased to three years,
which will include pre-school education for children between
the ages of three to five years?
The proposed amendment envisages that the right will be valid
for children up to the age of 14 years. It is well known that in
order to pursue any further academic/vocational education, a
minimum level of 10th standard (SSC/SSLC) is expected in
most institutions.
Further, there is no formal certification of schooling until the
10th standard, in the current situation. The Convention on the
Rights of the Child has been ratified by India, which obligates
the country to provide education to all children up to the age of
18 years.
In the light of all this, it is strongly recommended that the upper
age limit of the fundamental right be revised as follows — 'up to
the age of 18 years or completion of 10th standard, whichever
is earlier'.
Although Article 25 of the directive principles of state policy
indicates free and compulsory education for every child, the
word "free" needs to be re-examined in the new context of the
proposed amendment. The present definition of free appears to
be limited to one where children do not have to pay any fees.
Other supplements to schooling such as uniforms and textbooks
are given out as "incentives" to children in government lower
primary schools, and selectively to children above the primary
level based on various criteria. The programme for providing
free mid-day meals (in the form of foodgrains) is also seen as
an incentive to attract children to school.
However, parents invest financial resources for purchasing
stationery, transportation, etc to enable their children to attend
school regularly. This often becomes a deterrent for parents to
send children to school. Therefore, free should include not only
fees, free uniforms and textbooks, but also necessary
stationery, transportation and any other such expenses that
families may incur to send their children to school.
The government has taken the view that a school of
"satisfactory quality" is essential to encourage children to come
to school regularly. This also implies that the parent is interested
in making a rational choice about what is good for the child.
It is, therefore, recommended that it must be incumbent upon
the state to provide educational opportunities as per established
norms to every child in the country and that no penalty be
imposed on the parents. Article 51A, which imposes a duty on
the parents, with associated penalties may be dropped from the
proposed constitutional amendment. This will eliminate any
scope for harassment of parents (especially the illiterate ones)
by the enforcement authority.
Today, the focus in most schools is almost entirely on teaching
and not on learning. If the child does not learn, there are too
many alibis. Apart from defeating the basic purpose of
education, the child not learning also results in disinterest and
drop-outs.
Over the years there has been an attempt to assess classroom
learning in the form of competencies or minimum levels of
learning (MLL). Any proposed legislation that follows the
amendment to the Constitution must define the term satisfactory
quality in unambiguous terms. This will lay the foundation for
an important transformation that is required for improving the
educational set-up in the country.
Private educational institutions in the country also have an
obligation with respect to achieving the national goal of
universalisation of elementary education. The proposed central
legislation must work out the modalities of how private
institutions will also be involved in discharging this important
national duty.
The first Bill was introduced in 1997 by the then minister for
human resource development S R Bommai. At the time, it was
estimated that nearly Rs 8,000 crore per year additional
expenditure would be required to implement education as a
fundamental right.
The numbers have been reviewed more recently, and the
estimate is that the additional requirement of funds is close to
Rs 14,000 crore per year for the next 10 years. The state must
make whatever financial resources are necessary to implement
education as a fundamental right.
There are other issues such as confronting 'child labour',
creating awareness about the new legislation among parents,
community members and members of the education department
of the government. Only a well-orchestrated effort on all the
fronts will achieve the goal.
Amending the Constitution to reflect this national priority will
put the focus precisely where it belongs: Educating India's
children is non-negotiable.
(The author is chairman of the Azim Premji Foundation)