The foundation of a strong and prosperous nation is always built upon a healthy democracy which creates inclusive opportunities for the honest, efficient and educated people to contest elections. Over decades, money, muscles, populism and propaganda has influenced the electorates in the country; it has blocked the way of many good and efficient candidates to fight elections.
In these circumstances, quality school education can create the right environment for the good candidates to participate in democracy.
The Annual Status of Education (ASER) Report 2023 mentions 42% of children in the age group of 14 to 18 years in rural India cannot read easy sentences in English, while more than half of them struggle with simple division problems.
The report also shows 45% Indians or nearly 65 crore youth in the age group of 14 to 18 are unable to read, write, understand and calculate simple arithmetic. The total number of eligible voters with poor schooling may cross 100 crore.
Without quality school education, the voters will not understand the root cause of the complex social, economic and political issues of the country. They are easily carried away by the politico-social media, spurious advertisements, political narratives, a maze of statistics on development, freebies, promises and by catchy slogans. They find election as an opportunity to get short term benefits and elect the wrong candidates due to lure, fear and confusion.
According to a Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR) study, 43% of the MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha have been booked for various cases; the number has increased over the previous Lok Sabha. The ADR survey says, out of the 8,337 candidates contesting the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, 20% candidates have declared they have criminal cases pending.
About 14 percent had declared they have serious charges like rape, murder, attempt to murder and crimes against women. In fact, all the accused may not be involved in crimes; some of them may be the victims of political vendetta.
Political parties give them election tickets despite knowing their background because winning an election gets priority over the candidates’ public image, honesty and integrity. So, it is not expected that those candidates and their mentors have good intentions to serve people through politics.
When they come to power they misuse immense executive power to amass wealth from various contracts, waste taxpayers' money on unnecessary projects and populism; they manipulate government agencies and twist policies to benefit their corporate cronies. In the process the road to healthy democracy is destroyed.
Quality school education up to Std XII with focus on discipline, moral and physical development of children will help build healthy democracy. It will make the child a conscious citizen and help him become a leader. With quality education a person can tap the multiple economic sectors and become self-sufficient.
Over decades, the Union Government has failed to introduce the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus in the country; a large number of schools still follow substandard state syllabus which cannot build conscious citizens. Simply introducing NCERT will not help. The country needs a large number of quality teachers who can teach the NCERT syllabus to children.
Low salary and social security, poor working conditions and basic amenities seldom attract talented youth to the teaching profession
The hurdles before quality education are many. According to the National Sample Survey Organization, nearly one-third of the teachers in India do not have the necessary qualifications to teach.
Low salary, lack of social recognition, lack of social security, poor working conditions, poor basic amenities in remote districts and lack of career growth etc., seldom attract talented youth to the teaching profession. Rote learning is still followed in many schools. The schools need dynamic principals who can motivate teachers and improve the quality of education.
In the 2024-25 Union Budget, the government has allocated over Rs 73,000 crore for the Department of School Education, the highest ever allocation for school education which should be utilized with transparency.
A surprise inspection conducted in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools across the country found that some schools were presenting dummy students, ineligible candidates and not maintained records properly.
The authority has de-affiliated 20 schools and downgraded three schools. This is only the tip of the iceberg; hundreds of schools across the country are playing with the future of their children.
Though various state governments allocate vast land beyond the actual requirement of schools and give concessions to private schools, many of those schools do not impart quality education to children but function like business entities. This is high time for the government, voluntary organizations, rich celebrities, retired teachers, educated youth and media to ensure quality school education for all.
Comments
Post a Comment
NOTE: Hateful, abusive comments won't be published. -- Editor