The recent TRP increasing incident in Bihar, of students cheating during an examination, is now past its shelf life. TV channels and the media have moved on and the matter is deemed closed after a couple of interviews. It is rather unfortunate that one more opportunity has been missed for analysing the much larger question: Are we educating India?

Educating India starts and ends with creating ‘infrastructure’, new schools, colleges, IITs and IIMs. It is another matter that even the budgetary allocation is nowhere near the recommendation made five decades ago by the Kothari Commission. As is the practice in every other sector, education is an opportunity for business, exploiting a multi-billion-rupee market.

Quality conscious

Let us recognise one important fact. India is educated by its teachers and not by classrooms, desks and benches, pipettes and burettes. The teacher has to become the centre of education. The key question is: What are our schemes and plans to develop and improve the quality of teachers? Our motto should be to impart the same quality of education to every child in India, irrespective of her background, and, for that, teachers all over the nation must be of the same high quality.

The important fundamental step required to start off in this direction is a central service for teachers. One fails to understand why this country, while recognising the need for civil services in many spheres, did not think it necessary for education. Put aside the downside of the all-India civil services and concentrate on the obvious positive points.

Teachers being the key, two things become important: One, we need to attract dedicated and talented people to this profession by paying them the market salary and giving them the status they deserve. And two, they should be trained and retrained in modern methods of imparting education.

Training programme

There is a need to introduce an Indian education service. This can be at various levels — primary, secondary and high school. Chosen on the basis of a competitive examination, candidates should be put through a rigorous one-year training programme based on the IAS model. Let there be at least five training academies in each State, and a common programme which can be carefully drafted by international experts who are well known for modern teaching methods. Teaching is not only about mathematics, physics, chemistry and history. Teachers need training in understanding, motivating, moulding and even reprimanding a child.

Let these teachers be placed in government schools in the district headquarters. With time, let them adopt surrounding village schools. Let there be provision for them to grow in their profession. Let there be scope for a sabbatical for them to rejuvenate and qualify for a higher position. Let them be groomed to occupy important positions in the sphere of education. Let them be catalysts for a revolution in education.

Governments cannot take the narrow view like parents who, in most instances, look at education as a path for material wealth. Prosperity is a byproduct and not the main goal. Finland, for example, has made revolutionary changes in education with the laudable goal of preparing kids for life. They have completely removed inequality in school education and, as is the case with every successful model, the government solely funds the school system.

Just CSR won’t do

That our education lacks quality, defined in a very conventional sense, has been pointed out by several studies. A few well-intended attempts by corporate giants, using their Corporate Social Responsibility fund of 2 per cent of profits, is not enough to solve the problem. In fact, this CSR money can well be used as financial support for the training academies, with no interference in administration.

One is tempted to add that education remaining in the concurrent list has made it an orphan. What is needed is cooperation between the Centre and the State, and not competition. Education cannot form the grounds for parochialism, though a child has to understand the society around her. The idea of a central service will have the twin advantages of integrating India and normalising quality across the States. Language, no doubt, will be an issue, but not an insurmountable obstacle that can be solved with a broad frame of mind.

Higher education, too

It is not that higher education, which from the Nehruvian era got preferential treatment, is all hunky dory. Technical education is in a shambles. Sitting in an interview panel, I was shocked to see 39 out of 40 engineering graduates fumble on the equation of a straight line — a basic concept taught in school! ‘Make in India’ will remain, at best, a pleasant dream if this knowledge gap is not urgently addressed.

Indian education, be it school education, higher education or technical education, requires a serious change in the mindset of the planners. Let the government not be paranoid about growth and other macroeconomic indicators. Education is the foundation of society, its values, culture and progress. The Bihar incident is not an outlier, but yet another example of the rot that has set in. It is time we bring back the archetypal school teacher.

It is also time to realise that education is too serious a business to be left to the private sector.

The writer is a professor at IIT-Madras. The views expressed are personal

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