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Sabrang Team
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June
21, 2003
EDUCATION
FOR ALL
by Eduardo Faleiro
Education Ministers from SAARC countries held a 3-day meeting at
Islamabad last month. The purpose of the meeting was to co-ordinate
strategies to combat illiteracy, improve quality and
eliminate gender inequality in Education. These are priority themes
in the SAARC agenda and Islamabad is the venue of the SAARC Regional
Centre for Human Resource Development. It is regrettable that
neither our Union Minister nor any of our several Ministers of State
in the Ministry of Human Resource Development could find the time to
attend this meeting. Their absence was in furtherance of the
Government decision that Ministerial contacts between the two
countries even on non-controversial subjects such as Education would
be conditional on the success of the new Indo-Pak "peace initiative"
which itself is subject to several conditions and pre-conditions.
The ineptude of the
two major countries of the sub-continent to settle their
bilateral disputes hampers not merely the progress of their own
people but also of other countries of the region which are held
hostage to the quagmire of the Indo-Pak conundrum.
Last November UNESCO released the "Education for All Global
Monitoring Report 2002: Is the World on Track?" The report points
out that among the 154 countries for which data is available 28 are
not expected to attain any of the three objectives which the
international community gathered at the World Education Forum two
years ago had agreed should be achieved by all nations by the year
2015. The three goals are universal primary education, free
schooling of acceptable quality and removal of gender disparities in
Education. All the countries of South Asia with the exception of Sri
Lanka are among these 28 countries. Bangladesh has made considerable
progress in recent years but India and Pakistan continue to be high
on rethoric but low on performance. Indeed, South Asia is fast
emerging as the most illiterate, most malnourished, least gender
sensitive, the most deprived region of the world today. And yet it
continues to make more investment in arms than in education and
health of its people. India and Pakistan spend more than three times
in imports of military hardware than they spend on literacy and
education. About a year and a half ago the Union Government
introduced in Parliament and with unusual alacrity passed during the
same session the 93rd Constitution Amendment Bill to provide
universal and compulsory elementary Education. The Constitution
Amendment was in fact unnecessary inasmuch as the Supreme Court in
Unnikrishnan's case had held that the fundamental right to Education
already exists in our Constitution and is implicit in the Right to
Life (article 21). I asked the Minister of Human Resource
Development during the last session of Parliament why this
Constitutional mandate had not yet been implemented. The reply, "the
83rd Constitution Amendment is to be followed by a Central
legislation with detailed mechanism for its implementation." When
will this Central legislation be enacted and when will it be
implemented? Government is not prepared to spend the amounts
required for universalisation of primary education. Indeed, the
budget allocation this year for the Department of Elementary
Education of the Union Government is marginally lower than the
budget allocation last year before enactment of the Constitution
Amendment. The Tapas Majumdar Committee appointed by the Union
Government in 1996 had assessed the demand for universalisation of
elementary education at Rs.13,700 crore each year for a period of 10
years.
The 93rd
Constitution Amendment Bill in its financial memorandum mentions a
much reduced requirement of Rs.9,800 crore per year and finally the
budget provides for the project Education for All, "Sarva Siksha
Abhiyan" an allocation of Rs.1,500 crore. The allocation for Sarva
Siksha Abhiyan bears no resemblance to the requirement assessed by
the Tapas Majumdar Committee and not even by the Bill passed in
Parliament. Indeed, the Minister of Human Resource Development
admitted in reply to my special mention in the Rajya Sabha "this
(the
budget allocation) is less than what we had projected and we have
taken up the issue of enhancing our allocation with the Finance
Ministry and the Planning Commission". The Finance Ministry and the
Planning Commission are unlikely to respond favourably to the pleas
of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Our economic reforms
and the globalisation process have focused on integrating markets
but have neglected the development of Human Resources; yet the
emergence of the "knowledge society" in the new millennium where
knowledge is the primary source of wealth rather than capital or
labour makes
universal literacy a must.
70 percent of the expenditure on universalisation of Primary
Education is to be borne by the State Governments. The State
Governments, however, are not likely to do so as they are markedly
short of resources. Furthermore, the States are not being consulted
either on this or other policy matters regarding Education. The
Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) which is the forum
specifically intended for such consultations has not met for the
last
several years. In the recent judgement of the Supreme Court in the
Aruna Roy Case a three judge bench emphasized the importance of CABE
and two judges, J.J. Dharmadhikari and Sema directed the Union
Government to consider convening this forum. Justice Sema elaborated
the point and held : "While it is true that the CABE is a
non-statutory body, one cannot overlook the fact that it has been in
existence since 1935. It has also been accepted as an effective
instrument of meaningful partnership between the States and the
Centre, particularly in evolving a consensus on major policy issues
in the field of Human Resource Development. I am, therefore, of the
view that the importance of the role played by CABE cannot be side
tracked on the plea that the body is non-statutory, particularly
when it has been playing an important role in the past for evolving
a consensus on the major policy decisions involving national policy
on educationŠ There is yet another reason as to why consultation of
this Board is highly essential in the issues like relating to the
State and Central co-ordination in evolving a national consensus
pertaining to national policy on education which require
implementation in all the States, as the education has now been
brought to the concurrent list by the 42nd amendment to the
Constitution. This would dispel the lurking suspicion in the minds
of the people and also will project transparency and purity in the
decision making process of the governmentŠ The Union of India is,
therefore, directed to consider the filling up of the vacancies of
the nominated members of CABE and convene a meeting of CABE for
seeking its opinion on National Curriculum Framework for School
Education (NCFSE) as expeditiously as possible and in any case
before the next academic session".
Government of India has shown no inclination to comply with this
directive of the Supreme Court. Education is a subject in the
Concurrent List of the Constitution and no policy on education can
be deemed to be a National Policy without the concurrence of the
States.
The Supreme Court in the aforesaid Aruna Roy Case cautioned
Government about the danger of religious education being perverted.
The National Steering Committee on Textbook Evaluation was
constituted in 1991 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The Committee submitted two reports which indicted several textbooks
and organizations for using material of a sectarian character. On
April 6, 2001 in reply to questions in Parliament, Government stated
"the two reports of the Committee were circulated to the State
Governments by the NCERT for necessary follow up action. No feedback
has been received from the States." Two years have now elapsed but
subsequent queries elicited no further information. A secular and
liberal education is pivotal to the agenda of Peace and Tolerance,
the two essentials of an enlightened and forward looking society.
(The writer is a Member of Parliament and a former Union Minister)
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