3rd Prize Winning Essay in Write for Rights by Ankita Dubey

3rd Prize Winning Essay in 'Write for Rights' Essay-Writing Competition

(Human Rights Week)

by Ankita Dubey, TYBA, Wilson College

Education is an interactive process which ensures overall development of a child which involves imparting knowledge, life skills, reading, writing, reasoning, analytical ability, critical and rational outlook, etc. which will help a child to deal with daily requirements of life. Whereas, the term literate means basic understanding of reading and writing. Unfortunately Indian parameters of education deal largely with literacy than education which is evident in the picture to the left. It also shows the gender gap which was ironically increasing until a sharp fall in 2010-11.

 As of 2011, enrolment rates are 58% for pre-primary, 93% for primary, 69% for secondary, and 25% for tertiary education. In January 2019, India had over 900 universities and 40,000 colleges. Around 65% of students study in government schools whereas only 29% go to private schools as per Education Ministry data. While, according to U-DISE Data the students’ average annual dropout rate at different stages during 2014-2015, for Upper primary level is only 4% but shoots to 17% at Secondary level. 

In 2009, India made Right to Education a fundamental right and also made it a fundamental duty of guardians to ensure the education of children. Education became free and compulsory for children between 6 to 14 years of age. But these alone have not proved to be helpful. Multiple factors have besieged the holistic growth of education in India including:

• High dropouts
• Lack of schools and teaching infrastructure
• Poor student-teacher ratio
• Poverty and unemployment problems of families
• Poor quality of education in government schools, etc. 

Coronavirus attacked brutally on the quality of education in already struggling Indian schools. Digitalisation didn’t ensure opportunities for all categories of students and families with hardly anything to eat faced dilemmas of providing necessary infrastructure for the children to study. Children especially in remote areas of villages and padas were found to face low levels of motivation in digital world affecting their quality. Higher education faced similar backdrops. The Gross enrolment ration in Higher education is only 25.8% which is quite low. Funding, research opportunities, internalisation, poor placement opportunities, lack of quality in syllabus, etc. have been the major illnesses of Higher education in India. 

RTE though somewhat successful but has not been able to ensure overall development of children. Merely learning to read and write cannot be considered as education. There are questions being raised for education after 14 which are the more crucial years of education. Various surveys have proven that many students face problems with basic Maths and English even after completing their secondary levels. Lack of proper teacher training and sensitisation is another such issue. Guardians too have not been able to understand the motto behind making RTE as their fundamental duty, maybe lack of accountability is a factor! There’s still a long way to go in terms of RTE gaining its success in India. Awareness and strong political will is pre-requisite for such objectives!