GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS, NAXALISM AND PRIVATISATION OF EDUCATION…

A controversial statement is reported to have been made by a prominent Scoio-Religious figure in India, that since Government schools are breeding grounds for Naxalism, school education should be privatized. 

 

Almost all National dailies have carried this report today (22.3.12)

 

We attempt to look at this statement in an unbiased way. 

 

We do not know if the person was quoted out of context or whether he meant a particular area alone and whether it was based on any statistics. 

But, at the outset, the theory appears to militate against reason and facts.  Most of the public figures in various walks of life are products of Government Schooling. 

 

Of course, the Times of India (Coimbatore Edition dated 22.3.12) carries another interesting report based on a study of the use of funds in Government schools.  It says that out of the funds allotted from the Sarva Siksha Abhyan Scheme, very little is actually going to the benefit of the students and that almost 90% goes to benefit only the teachers or the management.  What benefits the teachers at least would percolate to the students, one would wish.  But the report says that most of the expenditure is made in the name of maintenance like white-wash. 

 

Now, this report would appear to support the call for privation of school education.

 

But the actual fact remains, that most of the private schools are also found to be indulging in such misutilisation of funds.  Only, because they are run in the name of Trusts and not accountable to public under the RTI, the quantum of misuse could not come out in the open.  What is in the interest of the institution is decided only by the hand-full of individuals who are the ‘Trustees’.

 

Now, coming to the aspect of rebellion and terrorism, as Naxalism is related with, if someone says that education in Government schools makes pupil capable of indulging in the same, but the private institutions will not allow such tendencies to develop, it can only mean that private education is capable of making its products oblivious of the inequalities in the society and incapacitates them from reacting to it or attempting to change it.  While there is no second opinion that terrorism of any sort is not acceptable in a civil society, to ignore the cause while treating the symptom will hardly help in solving the problem.

 

The root of the problem is inequality in society and, a section however tiny it may be, proclaiming that they do not believe in the ‘Rule of Law’ or the institutions of the State to find a remedy.

 

To advise abandonment of the basic social requirement of education by the Government, will then, amount to abdication of powers, thereby avoiding meeting out the fundamental right to equality and right against exploitation. 

 

Such a step will only lead to further deterioration of the situation, not to contain it.

 

Hence, let us hope that the entire episode had come out of some mis-understanding.