Cover Story : Education: Creating new future

In India, 4percent children never start school, 58 percent don’t complete primary education, 90 percent don’t complete school and only 10 percent children go to colleges. Acute shortage and lack of qualified Indians in Indian education is by far the most glaring problem in Indian education. If problems in Indian education are to be resolved, the Indian citizen must become involved, have more control in the programs to which his children are exposed, have a say in types of courses included in the curriculum, help hire teachers, establish employment policies and practices, and all other responsibilities vested in school administration—and be a part Board of Education.

The universal acceptance of the RTE Act (flawed as it is) has led to a slow but steady entry of technology in education. Therefore the new government has all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle in place.

“One of the most important and long pending policy decisions for the new Government is regarding the language of learning in schools. All researches as also the basic common sense tell us that most efficient and effective learning is in the language that the child uses in home environment. Any language other than the mother tongue would consume most of the effort and energy just to learn it and other learning becomes secondary hence deficient and incomplete. Therefore, a bold decision needs to be taken to provide learning in mother tongue at least till primary classes if not till eighth class. Regional language may be introduced after primary classes and Hindi may be learnt in the last years of schooling in Non-Hindi speaking areas. Those who need to learn English or any other foreign language be provided best facilities after class ten.”—Prof B K Kuthiala, Vice Chancellor, Makhanlal Chaturvedi Rashtriya Patrakarita Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal