It’s a decision which in the unlikely event of its being implemented, will revolutionise primary-secondary education countrywide. On August 18, the Allahabad high court directed that the children of all state government employees including judges, local government officials and people’s representatives, be compulsorily enroled in government schools. According to a single judge bench of the court (Justice Sudhir Agarwal presiding), this is the only panacea for improving the condition of Uttar Pradesh’s 146,000 primary and upper primary schools which grudgingly serve 17.5 million children.
While hearing a plea challenging the state government’s rules relating to assistant teacher appointments, the learned judge observed that the government’s disinterest in elementary education has led to the ruin of educational standards in public schools which cater to 90 percent of the state’s primary and upper primary school-going population.
This observation is supported by the Annual Status of Education Report, 2014 (ASER) published by the highly respected Mumbai-based NGO, Pratham. According to ASER 2014, 81 percent of government schools in Uttar Pradesh (pop. 200 million) don’t provide safe drinking water and only 49.1 percent have functional toilets. Moreover, learning outcomes are abysmal with 52 percent class I children unable to recognise (Hindi) alphabets and 15 percent of class VIII children unable to write 1-9 numerals. Even progressive legislation such as the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which mandates establishment of local school management committees (SMCs) with 75 percent parent majority, teachers and local government officials (s.21), has come to naught with less than half the state’s schools reporting formation of SMCs. State government data indicates 270,000 primary teacher vacancies and 10 million unemployed youth in UP by 2017. Evidently appalled by this and related data cited in open court, Justice Agarwal passed this historic order and directed the state government’s chief secretary to submit a compliance report within six months.
The Allahabad high court’s drastic order which made headlines countrywide, has been welcomed by educationists and activists across the state, and unsurprisingly deplored by government employees associations.
Rashmi Sinha, former director of the UP Mahila Samkhya (an organisation focused on education of women in rural areas), welcomes the court’s directive. “It is a bold step. If implemented rigorously it could lead to a common schooling system, ensure vigilant supervision of all schools, social justice and provision of comparable quality education to neglected children in government schools,” she says.
On the other hand Manoj Mishra, general-secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Government Employees Union, is less enthusiastic. “Government servants are forced to send their children to private schools because of valid quality concerns. How just is it to coerce them to send their children to schools which rob them of their right to a better future?” he queries.
However, informed legal opinion in Lucknow, the administrative capital of Uttar Pradesh, is skeptical about the legal validity of Justice Agarwal’s order. “For a start, this single judge’s order is subject to appeal. Secondly, it can be rebutted on the ground that all citizens including government servants, have a fundamental right to enroll their children in schools of their choice. Only recently the Supreme Court ruled that parents have the right to choose the medium of instruction for their children. Most government schools in UP offer Hindi medium instruction,” says a senior counsel of the Lucknow high court, who preferred to remain anonymous.
There are political impediments to implementing the order as well. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s two daughters are enroled in Lucknow’s top-ranked private sector La Martiniere Girls’ College and his son is in La Martiniere Boys’ College.
Puja Awasthi (Lucknow)