Hemantha Kalam - 50 "Education and Elections....."

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school”                             

…………Albert Einstein

India is a country blessed by the Gods; whichever GOD you may have your faith in!

Otherwise, where else can you see almost 1.3 billion people of mixed cultures and of different languages co-existing to survive, under the leadership of mostly the un-educated and ill-educated, indulging in pettifogging and uncontrolled corruption?

The biggest blunder after the independence of India, in my humble opinion, is that education has not been made compulsory across all strata of people. It did not create a curriculum that is uniform across the country and that which reflected the ethos of the people and the country or which should have truly been useful to the people and the country alike. Bars were not appropriately set and raised, skill-building was considered traditional and civic sense was totally removed from most of the annals of the educational institutions and most importantly, the true empowerment was given a go-by, leaving behind, after some seven plus decades, a people who simply surge ahead as blind sheep (of course, exceptions always exist). We are a people with least good manners (at least a majority of us), with hardly any etiquette and with rarely a consideration for the others. Worst, we fail to question the right things and squabble on the wrong ones!

Those who wish to call me cynical may please do so, but I would also request them to kindly introspect after seeing the status of our traffic, the way we form queues if at all, the way we talk loudly in any place we are in, the way we break or at least try to break every rule that is made. Sadly, this holds true to mostly those who make these rules (especially) and are also supposed to implement. We have every law under the sky, but these laws also come with so many different interpretations that elongate the process of implementation, if at all, and result, more often, in lengthy litigation.

At the time of my writing this blog, India is having its general elections across the country. I went and fulfilled my mandate of voting but sadly, as in the long list of leaders to be elected, I found very few ‘cultured’ and ‘educated’ leaders in the true sense. Elections no more seem to be of the people, by the people and for the people. Nor is it of the educated and by the educated. It is now mostly of the rich, by the rich and for the rich – riches obtained in any which way. The election expenses have reached such stupendous heights that even if a good-samaritan wishes to contest elections, s/he simply cannot afford the costs.

Presently a stage has come in the Indian elections, where it is like the egg first or chicken first situation. Do you contest in elections so that you can make money or because you want to protect your money? So here’s how the vicious circle goes. If I take myself as an example (I am afraid I can’t take any other person for this for fear of libel or defamation), I have to work hard in some political party, catch the attention of the leaders, contest for small local positions initially, make my money and keep growing. A stage comes when I need to spend more and more for getting elected and staying elected. For that I need to earn more and more and for that I need position and power otherwise no pelf. So education is the last agenda I will have. Retaining power at any ‘cost’ is and will be my priority; throughout my political life. Elections in India, do not appear to be of any consequence to education and perhaps vice versa.

The real rich want to increase their wealth through businesses, for which they seek empowerment through education, networking and improving relations (also with politicians), nationally and internationally. It’s the pseudo rich, who now have found that politics itself is a good business, that indulge more in the politics.

Another mighty blunder, the governments so far have done, is not rationalising the qualifications for the politicians willing to contest in elections for positions of power. Age restrictions, educational levels, personal character, family life, lack of criminal records etc., do not seem to be of any consequence in the electoral process in the name of democracy and equality. There is no retirement for a politician. No educational qualifications. Is it not time for the country to seriously re-think of the same?

Similarly, we should have made education mandatory for voting too!

OK, we have earned independence after a great struggle in 1947. Perhaps, to give the benefit of the new founded happiness, of being independent of the shackles of servitude under a different race for two centuries, the first elections might have been conducted with eligibility for all to vote. However, the next elections onwards the government machinery should have mandated a minimum level of education to qualify for contesting to lead as well as for voting. This minimum level should have been steadily raised with every election.

Those who wish to criticise me for suggesting this without providing infrastructure for education, that’s precisely what I meant - a blunder; that we have not given adequate priority to true education in this country.    

You don’t need to take my word on this. The ASER 2018 (Annual State of Education Report) (http://img.asercentre.org/docs/ASER%202018/Release%20Material/aserreport2018.pdf) was released on the 15^th January, 2019 which gave out facts on the progress or otherwise of education in the country. It is saddening to note that there are more than 50% students, across the country, who are in standard VIII could not do simple calculations that should be done by standard II students. How were they allowed to reach standard VIII then? Because of faulty education policies, and / or by cheating in the exams? But then who are you cheating, really?

There have been good tidings and bad news which I tried to wade through as below:

Good Tidings	Bad News
Since 2007, the enrollment of children for the age group 6 to 14 has been above 95%.	Slightly more than half of all children enrolled in standard V can read only upto a Std II level text. This figure has inched up from 47.9% in 2016 to 50.3% in 2018
The overall proportion of the ‘out of school’ girls in the 11 to 14 age group has fallen to 4.1%.	Of all children enrolled in standard VIII in India, about 73% can read just a standard II level text. This number is unchanged from 2016.
The percentage of children (age 6-14) enrolled in private school was 30.6% in 2016 and is almost unchanged at 30.9% in 2018 – one perhaps can perceive that government schools are patronized more?	Only about 44% of all children in standard VIII can solve a 3-digit by 1-digit numerical division problem correctly { arithmetic test assesses whether a child can recognize numbers from 1 to 9, recognize numbers from 10 to 99, do a 2-digit numerical subtraction problem with borrowing, or correctly solve a numerical division problem (3-digit by 1-digit) }
Among children enrolled in standard III in government schools, the ability to read show an improvement of more than 5 percentage points over 2016 levels, in six states (Punjab, Haryana, Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Kerala).	Nationally, in 2018, 4 out of 10 government primary schools visited had less than 60 students enrolled
About 8 out of 10 schools had a playground available for students, either within the school premises or close by	Physical education teachers are scarce in schools across rural India. Only 5.8% of all primary schools and 30.8% of upper primary schools had a physical education teacher available.
Nationally, substantial improvements are visible over this 8-year period in the availability of many school facilities mandated by RTE. The fraction of schools with usable girls' toilets doubled, reaching 66.4% in 2018. The proportion of schools with boundary walls increased by 13.4 percentage points, standing at 64.4% in 2018. The percentage of schools with a kitchen shed increased from 82.1% to 91%, and the proportion of schools with books other than textbooks available increased from 62.6% to 74.2% over the same period.	In Jammu and Kashmir and most of the north-eastern states, less than 50% of schools had provision for drinking water or girls' toilets available in 2018
	Average teacher attendance has hovered at around 85% and average student attendance at around 72% for the past several years in both primary and upper primary schools.

Yes, yes, I know that what is good for me may not be good and what is bad for me need not be bad, for others. As my dear old colleague Mr. K. S. Parameswaran often used to say, it depends on which side of the table you sit to determine what and who is right or for that matter wrong.

As per the Labour Report of 2007, the Indian youth were simply unemployable. While 90% of the employment opportunities required skills, 90% of our school and college outputs have only bookish knowledge {Info courtesy: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indian-youth-are-simply-unemployable-Report/articleshow/2526720.cms} and that too very rickety.

Everyone is shaped by a Teacher! {Info courtesy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6oYyyrV2q4}. But how good the teachers are, is the big question!

There has been a steady decline in passionate teachers getting an opportunity of their choice. With limited exposure and limited knowledge, how good the teachers are able to train the next generation? Is it not the duty of the government, led by the leaders, to strengthen this institution by training the trainers (ToT) who will attend the trainings for the sake of trainings and not for the sake of networking or for the meager allowances they are entitled for? This is a generalised question while I do recognise that there always are passionate and dedicated teachers, but who seem to be few and  far and absolutely exceptional.

Now, now, before those who hastily criticise me for not being patriotic and for criticising our own people, I wish to very clearly clarify that I am no less a patriot than any other and this is out of anguish and a total concern for our people, our children and our followers in the next generation, that I am writing this as a loud introspection.

I am apolitical and am not against any political party. However, I am deeply concerned at this trend in education in the country and would wish that any party coming to power would seriously think about the present state of education in the country and do the needful to set it right, so that the future of the country would be better, stronger and secure. 

Because, if the present trend of education continues for just one more generation, there is a great danger to this great country becoming blind to the right and appropriate knowledge and could lead to a situation where the blind would lead more blind and inevitably nobody could reach the destination, if not for providence.

After all, we should realise that in the end, our society will be defined by not only what we refuse to destroy, but also from what we have or have not created!

So educated elections or continue the present system, bickering as crickets would stridulate? What do you think is a better option?

Till then, 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Odhiya and Nepalese), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic and Sudanese), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Deu (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai), Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish), Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian) and Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea), Malo (Tongan), Vinaka Vaka Levu (Fijian)

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India