Education and the Public Good

Two announcements were made recently. The first (in chronological order), to allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India (University of California at Panipat, anyone?) and the second, the Right to Education (RTE) Act, whereby all children aged 6-14 can avail free and compulsory education. Two plans, initially aimed for two completely different groups, the haves and the have-nots. But I think the beauty of this is that should RTE take off (and by that I mean, have long term impacts, e.g. probable changes in the composition of our labour force), we will see a greater proportion of our children being able to complete on a global platform, right here in India. A tall order, yes, but brimming with possibilities.

Dr. Manmohan Singh announced on national TV last week that education is what has made him while recounting his humble beginnings and restated the importance of this opportunity for every child in the country. For a Prime Minister to say this is actually heartening, especially when we've had to get used to living with politicians of dubious distinctions: criminal records including fraud allegations, rape charges, smuggling, organized crime, etc.

Let me start with RTE. So what's the problem here?  Quality. We can build a million schools, but if our teachers don't teach well and our students don't study well, we can't build a nation. Teacher absenteeism and lack of quality training still plague the country's schools and thus sadly, over half of our primary school-going kids are unable to read or write correctly. What a waste of public resources, both human and financial. Part of my job requires me to examine the counter-factual. i.e. what would happen in the absence of this initiative / scheme / hypothesis? What would happen if the RTE were not implemented? Sure, we'd still probably see hoards of kids making their way to school in all sorts of weather and terrain, some sitting under the roadside lamp to study in the wee hours of the morning, some reading their textbooks while helping their mothers prepare an evening meal for the family. But the RTE in theory presents an opportunity to cut down their travel time to the school (1-3 kms restriction), and in fact make more schools accessible to more poor youth by reserving a proportion of seats in private schools.In short, really, its aimed at creating a more conducive 'learning environment'.

The key to success of this programme is two-fold: (1) to incentivize the system such that leakages (of time, money, supplies) are plugged (better pay, better infrastructure, cutting down on the deprivation that we've seen all too often). So many of our people have gone without so much for so long that its almost impossible to see well-stocked classrooms with blackboards and chalk sticks and wooden benches without expecting them to be taken away at some point. (2) to make all stake-holders accountable to the system through better testing methods, by grading teachers on performance (of their own teaching and outcomes of their students) and by making students understand the meaning of 2+2 rather than spoon feeding the answer to them.

We spend so much time on structure of the syllabus that we lose sight of substance of the syllabus. Pondering over whether a class 10 student needs to take a "Board" exam or not is hardly optimal. At the age of 15, musn't the student have a solid grasp on math, sciences, languages and literature anyway, irrespective of the testing body or methodology? Its a collective failure if that isn't achieved! And when teachers and students can focus their energies more on 'education' than on 'exams', its definitely going to be more rewarding for both. And for the country at large. Imagine nurturing a talent pool of highly skilled labour that is far greater than all the top-notch professionals we lose to the West every year? India, now that is worth the investment.

Moving on to foreign varsities. I'm hesitant because I am not entirely clear about this initiative. Is the purpose only to hand out Ivy League or other degrees (with a 'Made in India' disclaimer?) or are schools really going to invest here? The last thing we need is another group of utterly unemployable grads, albeit with fancy tags. Will they develop infrastructure here or piggy-back off exiting systems? What it should do is increase competition in the market and raise standards of local universities. There's also a chance it might crowd-out some of the smaller domestic players. My suggestion for these varsities is to collaborate with precisely these small players who might already be reasonably well-established in their fields of study or/and geographical regions. A joint venture of this kind might just pay off. Its probably not enough to retain those kids for whom a  foreign degree is merely a step towards migration, but if it can impart quality education to others, that's good for the public.