E-Paper
Self before service
The report of a government proposal to dole out Rs 3.5 crore, topping an earlier Rs 5.5. crore, to a school for the wards of top civil servants in New Delhi tells us a lot about why India?s educational system is where it is.
The report of a government proposal to dole out Rs 3.5 crore, topping an earlier Rs 5.5. crore, to a school for the wards of top civil servants in New Delhi tells us a lot about why India’s educational system is where it is. For the record, 40 per cent of Indians are illiterate. As for the literate, you can take your own guess on how many are only functionally so. All this after 59 years of Independence and countless plans, schemes and funds which are, at the Centre and the states, managed by the very civil servants whose Civil Service Society — chaired by the spouse of the head of the civil service, the Cabinet Secretary — runs Sanskriti. Clearly, this tells us a lot about their managerial abilities and focus. As for the management philosophy, it seems to be based on the principle that the self always comes before service.
No one grudges government servants special schools that take into account the fact that their jobs require frequent relocation. But it is precisely for this purpose that the Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodayas were set up at great expense across the country. The decision to fund a super ‘creamy layer’ school is clearly, a vote of no-confidence for the KVs. The school’s boast of setting up state-of-the-art labs and facilities are a poor joke. Especially considering that despite Rs 10,000 crore set aside for the government’s flagship literacy programme the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, government schools, even in Delhi, suffer the constraints of limited funds and perils of poor governance — high teacher absenteeism, poor infrastructure, low morale and all the other ills one has come to expect from most government-run schools. But clearly there’s a difference in the way the government runs its public schools meant for the ‘public’, and its private enterprise meant only for ‘people like themselves’.
This should not be seen as a criticism of Sanskriti school. But to point out to our solipsistic bureaucracy who run the education ministries at the Centre and the states that their real task, and achievement, would be if they can bring all government schools across the country at par with Sanskriti in quick time in terms of holistic development.