1 Sanjiv Kaura National Alliance for Fundamental Right to Education (NAFRE) UNIVERSALIZATION of ELEMENTARY EDUCATION [UEE]: Grassroots perspectives and.

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Sanjiv Kaura

National Alliance for Fundamental Right to Education (NAFRE)

UNIVERSALIZATION of ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

[UEE]:Grassroots perspectives and the

Indian polity

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AMARTYA SEN’S PHILOSOPHICAL ANECDOTE

“ My student once told me as to why I haven’t changed the content of my thoughts since 1950s.

“ My reply was –

Because surrounding environment hasn’t changed;

I will probably die saying the same things.”

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INDIAN PM AGREES !

“ Primary education needs a far stronger political will.

It is sad that this important area of nation building does not attract the best and the brightest

administrators.”

- Atal B Vajpayee,

22nd Oct., 1998,

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RIDERS APPLIED TO THIS PRESENTATION

• All statistics are government sourced

• All solutions also sourced from

government documents or

government appointed Commissions

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TWO FACES OF INDIA

1/8th = The INDIA known for IT, doctors , engineers and Amartya Sen7/8th = Ground reality INDIA called ‘Bharat’

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Ground reality that includes -

• 400 million = below poverty line of 20c /day

• 400 million (+/-) = No. of illiterates

• 80 million (+/-) = No. of children out of school

• 150 million = No. of children in school

• Irrelevance of “literacy %” currently at 67%

-

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SOME ROUGH EQUIVALENTS

AMERICAN INDIAN

House Appropriation Committee

Planning Commission

Congress Parliament

House of Representatives

Lower House (545 MPs)

Senate Upper House (245 MPs)

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JOURNEY OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION BILL

1947 : Constitution drafters overrule demand1993 : Supreme Court declares education a fundamental right1997 : Govt. tables a federal Bill. Govt. falls, Bill withers away.2001 : Govt. re-tables Bill, unanimously passed by lower house.2002 : Unanimously passed by upper house 2003 : Presidential assent expected

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WILL THE BILL ACHIEVE UEE?

NO, because of :

(A) Little financial backing ($)

(B) No reference to equitable quality education

(C) Excludes age group 0-6 years

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$$$$$(A) HOW LITTLE IS ‘LITTLE’

PARTICULARS ANNUAL AMOUNT IN US$

Actual requirement $ 2.9 billion

Promised by both houses of Parliament

$ 2.0 billion

Planning Commission allocated only

$ 1.2 billion

Actual disbursal in 2001-2

$ 200 MILLION !!!!

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CAN INDIA AFFORD UEE ?

AGE GROUP

ADDITIONAL AVG. ANNUAL EXPENDITURE

% OF GDP

0-6 yrs. $ 1.6 billion 0.5%

6-14 yrs. $ 2.9 billion 0.8%

14-18 yrs. Not computed by any govt. source

-

• Non merit subsidies are 10 % of GDP per annum• Never a bombs vs books question

Umesh Banakar:

Indira Gandhi

Umesh Banakar:

Indira Gandhi

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(B) INEQUITY, POOR QLTY. BRED BY (A)

• Things for which you need money -India needs 400,000 schools and 4m teachers more33% of schools are single teacher schools50% of schools are in fact merely ‘schools’

• Most imp., inferior parallel options are being institutionalized by ALL political parties

• 40% parents can’t afford to send ward to a ‘free’ government school (costs $ 6 a year)

• Talk of linking education to larger socio-cultural issues seems utopia

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DOCUMENT AGE GROUP PROVIDED FOR

Constitution directive (non- judicial) to educate by 1960

0-14 years

1993 Supreme Court judgment making edu. a fundamental right

0-14 years

Most policy documents 0-14 years

International treaty CRC ratified by India in 1992

0-18 years

(C) AGE GROUP 0-6 DENIED FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT

Yet, Bill grants fundamental right to 6-14 years only

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OPPORTUNITIES PRESENTED BY THE BILL

• Irrevocable legal commitment of the government established

• Great opportunity for children to demand education with basic quality and dignity

• Could catalyze India to face its grossly inequitous underbelly in courts a la’ Brown case in US Supreme Court

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SOLUTIONS

• At the state level Himachal Pradesh and Kerala are experiments that can be replicated

( a strong assertive social will was present in both)

• Common School System enshrined and passed by Parliament in every National Policy on Education since Independence viz. 1968,1986,1992

• Funding by the State, management/control by the community

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OTHER POLICY DEVELOPMENTS

• Curriculum No one talks of ‘integrating the world of work

with world of knowledge’ - 1938 Zakir Hussain in Mahatma Gandhi’s Nai

Taleem• Privatization Touted as a panacea for all evils, not realizing that

basic education in even the most privatized economies of the world is govt. respomsibility.

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THE ROAD AHEAD

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WHAT INFLUENCES POLITY?Pre - 28th Nov, 20011998 : A Parliamentary Standing Committee (represented by

all political parties) recommended against positive changes suggested by development sector

1998 to 28th Nov, 2001: Every political party expressed helplessness in supporting NAFRE

28th Nov, 2001 : 50,000 grassroots people rallied together in nation’s capital at their own expense from across India for edu. – a first in independent India

Result : All opposition parties reversed their stand on the Bill, negating their very own Parliamentary Committee,

in favor of NAFRE’s positive changes.

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28th Nov, 2001Debate inside Parliament

50,000 people outside Parliament6.00 PM : Opposition proposes an alternative Bill

against govt. (captures NAFRE’s points)

1/3rd MPs vote in its favor.

7.00 PM : Government puts its own Bill to vote

Unanimously passed by all incl. the 106

MPs + proposer of the alternative Bill!

(who was a Left party ideologue)

Message : A long struggle lies ahead

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This hour glass is 1/3rd full,This hour glass is 1/3rd full,NOT NOT 2/3rd empty2/3rd empty

The EndThe End