In its second term in office, there-elected UPA has announced its intention to continue and strengthen key educational programmes. The government plans to do this through the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, while simultaneously attempting to universalise secondary education.

The President in her address during the inaugural session of Parliament reiterated the government's determination to make the right to free and compulsory education a reality soon.Currently, this bill is with the Rajya Sabha and is likely to be passed in the next session of Parliament.

The President's speech also praised the achievements of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meal scheme and highlighted the new Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan which promises to make secondary education universal.

Sounds interesting but I’m not buying these tall promises since the UPA government had also during its earlier regime made similar noises. Unfortunately nothing has come of it except impressive statistics cooked up on paper while the ground reality at the grassroots is rather dismal.

While hundred percent literacy and universalisation of elementary and secondary education are laudable goals it should not become merely goals achieved on paper as is the wont of our politicians. In the name of making everybody educated the government has thrown quality of education to the winds. Therefore allow me to ramble on about the quality or lack of quality as I see it in the Indian education sector,especially Government school education.

In my home state of Tamil Nadu the government has given clear cut instructions that no students of government schools should be failed in the examinations and that all students must be promoted up to the ninth grade. As a result students of government schools reach the ninth grade without even being able to spell their names and count properly from one to hundred. Teachers are then expected to nurture such poor quality students and enable them to pass the Secondary school leaving certificate examinations. Those who evaluate answer papers are also requested to go soft on the candidates. Then how can we ensure quality?

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which was praised by the President in her address is actually not an impressive achievement as it is made out to be. Anybody in the know of things and has the honesty to accept what I am saying will tell you so. The Government has periodically announced many such schemes & projects for basic education of the poor but none of these are making any significant impact on the lives of these poor children since none of these projects and schemes are implemented in letter & spirit. They are only intended to garner votes for whichever party that announces such schemes. Corrupt politicians and bureaucrats feather their own nests utilizing these schemes.

The Government mainly provides primary education in India.The clientele / students of most of these Government run or supported schools are from the poorer sections of society and there is willful neglect on the part of the Government servants & staff in these schools. As a result of this the poor belonging to the backward castes including scheduled castes and tribes are neglected and their fundamental right to education is being violated.

Our primary school system is one of the largest in the world and has approximately hundred and fifty million children enrolled. However, we have been focusing and continue to focus on quantity rather than quality. Governments have simply raised enrolment rates through programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan without ensuring high learning achievement in schools.

I personally know of Government schools in Chennai which send out their teachers to market the school and enroll more students so that they achieve the targets fixed by the Government.One of the reasons for this is that the government expects its schools to have a certain minimum student strength. If such minimum strength is not maintained the government may shut down the school and the staff therein may be posted to far away schools which they may find difficult commuting to. As a result teachers enroll uninterested children who join and only wait until scholarships and free cycles are provided after which they vanish from the scene. Those who remain are those who come to school only for the free noon meal provided there.

Thirty-seven per cent of all Indian primary school children drop out before reaching the fifth grade. As pointed out sometime ago by a former diplomat who has now joined the Congress party, “the illiterate population of India exceeds the total combined population of the North American continent and Japan”.

Personally I have seen and continue to see everywhere, quite a few who claim to be graduates and postgraduates including those in professional streams such as medicine,engineering, management, etc., who cannot write coherent and grammatically correct sentences in their native tongue let alone English

Another important issue as I see it is the growing concern or the lack thereof over the erosion of essential values and an increasing cynicism in society, which has brought in to focus the need for readjustments in the curriculum in order to make education a forceful tool for the cultivation of social and moral values, ethics, honesty and the like, which would help eliminate obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence,superstition and fatalism.

All this has led me to believe that the need of the hour is not “Universalisation of Secondary Education” and it is not the panacea for the development of our country. Much more than the universalisation of elementary and secondary education, the need of the hour is ensuring quality in primary, elementary and secondary education.

When I talk of quality I refer to quality of school infrastructure, quality of school teachers, quality of curriculum and quality of students as well. Only the improvement of quality on all these fronts will help us produce citizens who can lead this great country of ours to occupy its rightful position in the world comity of nations. If the government is really sincere about promoting education and thereby development of the country then they must focus on Quality, Quality and Quality alone.