The Right to Education Act has now been passed by both Houses of Parliament. But the real challenge in education lies ahead. For example, there is no consensus on the basic medium of instruction, torn as we are between global necessity and reality on the one side and acute rural deprivation and political considerations on the other. The colossal resources required to bring a large number of rural and corporation schools from deplorable to respectable levels in terms of facilities and amenities is daunting and there is no clear vision on when and how these will be bridged. Teachers with pitiable salaries being loaded with punishing work loads, is well known even in reputed institutions. In some states, education is a business run by oligarchy. And as a part of competitive politics, standards are diluted. Tamil Nadu, for instance, recently waived the need to clear papers before a candidate could progress to the next year. That could arguably dilute standards further.
The more fundamental question of inequalities in opportunity across social strata will still need to be addressed even after the passing of legislation.
Excellence in education cannot be created through slogans, cosy discussions and cosmetics. To achieve real change, the grave issues outlined earlier have to be addressed before tinkering with motivational techniques. We must first bring credibility to our education system by ensuring that no child is deprived of basic education, merit is not considered taboo, institutions with dubious records are brought to book and crass commercialisation of education ceases.
We do have some world class institutions which should be used as role models. The brand image of the IITs, IIMs and others such as the Indian Institute of Science and AIIMS and some prominent schools have been built through a package of dedicated staff, considerable resources, hard work of students and an uncompromising stand on quality. The government must begin to work out the details of implementation?the devil and the angel both lie in the detail.
The writer is a corporate executive. These are his personal views