The new year has begun on a dismal note for citizens genuinely concerned about the future of generation next. In quick succession, three authoritative studies have confirmed the worst fears of committed educationists and well-wishers of the world’s largest child population which for over four decades has been suffering open, uninterrupted and continuous neglect, malnutrition and education deprivation, without impacting the stony conscience of Indian society.
The first batch of secondary students from Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh — reputedly India’s most educationally advanced states — selected to write the PISA (programme for international student assessment) test, which assesses the broad preparedness (reading, science and maths literacy) of 15-year-olds in 74 countries, was ranked 73rd. Conterminously, a study conducted by the well-known IT major Wipro and Ahmedabad-based Educational Initiatives (EI), of top day schools in the country’s five largest cities indicates that the quality of education delivered by these primary-secondaries — most of whom boast long waiting lists — is driven by rote-learning and is socially regressive. And the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011, released by the Mumbai-based NGO Pratham on January 16, concludes that the percentage of class V children in rural India unable to read and comprehend class II textbooks has increased from 46.3 percent in 2010 to 51.8 percent.
While the ASER 2011 and PISA reports don’t come as a surprise because they mainly focus on learning outcomes in government primary and secondary schools respectively, the Wipro-EI study, which punctures the loud world-class claims of private school promoters and principals, is a revelation. While there’s no doubt that the country’s top-ranked private schools offer better quality education than government schools, the Wipro-EI study casts a shadow over their tall claims of dispensing globally comparable education.
Quite evidently, a deep-rooted malaise has infected the country’s entire school system. And beyond the usual breast-beating about inadequate funding, infrastructure, teacher truancy etc, the syllabus formulation process and structure and composition of the country’s 34 examination boards require careful study and re-evaluation. Against the backdrop of the massive 2G, Commonwealth Games, Adarsh Housing Society and sundry other corruption scandals, there is every reason to suspect that the deep rot and corruption within the country’s 18 million-strong government bureaucracy has permeated the education sector, and that education ministries, textbook committees and examination boards — especially of state governments — are hot-beds of nepotism, graft and inertia.
The abysmal learning outcomes of India’s children — even those enroled in top-ranked private schools — suggests serious flaws in syllabus formulation and obsolete examination boards. Urgent investigation and bold reform of these opaque areas of the school education system is the prerequisite of reversing the plunging learning outcomes of the nation’s children floundering in a sea of troubles.
Muslim middle class must assume rightful leadership
The in absentia presence of New York-based Booker Prize winner of Indian origin author Salman Rushdie, transformed the five-day Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF), which concluded on January 24, into a tragi-comic farce. But at a deeper level the unofficial ban imposed on Rushdie’s travel to India to attend this festival of arts and letters, and the subsequent cancellation under duress of a video address to JLF delegates by the celebrated author, has grave implications for the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression conferred upon all citizens by Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India.
The initial objection to Rushdie attending JLF 2012 was articulated by the Darul Uloom, Deoband, one of the largest Muslim theological seminaries of India. The clergy of the seminary opined that in Satanic Verses, a satirical novel published in 1988, Rushdie had denigrated Prophet Mohammed and insulted his wife and family. Therefore the Central and/or state government of Rajasthan should ban him from coming to India and JLF in particular, as the author’s presence within the country would inflame Muslim sentiments. Confronted with the prospect of communal violence, Rajasthan’s Jaipur-based Congress government blocked Rushdie’s visit by inventing a plot against his life. Moreover, even a video conference with Rushdie was cancelled by the JLF organising committee following intimidation by a flashmob of Islamic extremists gathered at the gates of the festival venue.
The recently concluded JLF has left everybody looking bad. The Congress party for abjectly capitulating — reportedly to harvest Muslim votes in the imminent Uttar Pradesh assembly elections — to the threats of a rag-tag band of fundamentalists; JLF organising committee members for their pusillanimity; a group of eminent authors for playing into the hands of fundamentalists by provocatively reading passages from the banned Satanic Verses, and the moderate Muslim middle class for remaining silent and letting clergy and fundamentalists speak for the entire community. The JLF committee members should have explained — or tried to explain — to the protestors that Satanic Verses was written by a much-less mature Rushdie over 25 years ago, and that the author has publicly apologised for having hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims.
All this raises the question as to why the Muslim middle class — which most suffers loss of reputation when fundamentalists hijack the right to speak on behalf of the community — remains conspicuously silent. Presumably because of fear of the mob. However, India’s educated Muslim middle class will have to summon up the courage and will to assume leadership of the community. Ill-educated about democracy and secular governance, the Muslim clergy and fundamentalists are projecting the country’s entire Muslim community as irrational, regressive and dogmatic. They need to be shown their place in a society governed by the Constitution and rule of law. And this can happen only if the educated Muslim middle class asserts itself and assumes its rightful leadership of this much short-changed minority.