The Hindu Business Line : Education for all

The article "Equality in education" (Business Line, June 5) makes a very important point — empowerment of the less privileged sections is possible only by making quality education accessible to them. Today, at one end of the spectrum, there are schools that impart quality education, boast excellent facilities and use English as the medium of instruction. These schools charge hefty fees and donations and are, hence, out of reach for children from less privileged families.

At the other end are the typical government schools where teachers hardly have the skills or motivation to do justice to their jobs. These schools normally use the vernacular as the medium of instruction and cater to the less privileged.

As has always been the case, when it comes to the job market, knowledge of English is often the key to bagging a good job. One may be tempted to say that such a situation is an organised conspiracy by the elite to keep the masses backward, but for the fact that in matters involving primary education, a `vision' or `design' has rarely been in evidence. As the article forcefully brings out, the first step in ensuring equality of opportunity to all is to have an educational system that imparts quality education uniformly to all, without distinguishing between the rich and the poor, the rural student and the urban student.

Equally important, it would also mean that every school student gets an equal opportunity to learn English. Let us not forget that if growth in the services sector has not really touched the lives of ordinary people in our country, part of the reason lies in the English-vernacular divide in our educational system.

G. G. Menon

Udupi

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