Sarva Shiksha Apmaan!

By

RP Subramanian

Here is a government that preaches ‘Education for All’, abdicates its responsibility to provide decent primary schools, and then muscles out anyone who dares to set up private schools

It’s pretty much common sense that a primary school should have certain basic infrastructure and amenities that make learning possible and enjoyable, and that ensure the safety and comfort of both children and teachers - a building with a wall; a small playground; classrooms with fans and lights, tables and chairs, blackboards and chalk; taps for drinking water, and a sufficient number of functioning lavatories. It’s also common sense that a privately promoted primary school must show that it provides such basic infrastructure and amenities in order to obtain ‘recognition’ (i.e., permission to function) from the government authority in charge of primary education. Buoyed by this spirit of common sense, we might be tempted to cheer at media reports that the civic agencies in charge of primary education in Delhi - Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and New Delhi Metropolitan Council (NDMC) - have been directed by the Delhi government to identify and shut down ‘unrecognized’ primary schools within a week. (for instance: ‘Govt to identify unrecognized schools’; The Times of India, 28 April 2010)

Alas, common sense is exceedingly rare in Indian government, and practically non-existent in the Delhi government. The fact is, privately run primary schools in the national capital – even the ‘unrecognized ones – are far better equipped and managed than the primary schools run by MCD and NDMC, which lack the most basic infrastructure and amenities for children and teachers. Most MCD schools have no water, no lavatories, no tables or chairs or blackboards. Over 250 MCD schools run in tents, and of those housed in buildings, most have no fans in their classrooms – imagine this at a time when the day temperatures are consistently over 40 °C. Most schools lack walls or fences (leave alone watchmen), leaving children vulnerable to harassment - or far worse - by adults who wander in and out freely. In many schools classrooms are permanently occupied by squatters, posing ever-present danger for the children, particularly girls.

Can you imagine your own children in such an environment? It does not matter whether you are rich or poor…surely you will want your child to go to a primary school where  she/he will be safe, where she will at least have a bench to sit on, safe water to drink, a lavatory to use when she needs to. It’s precisely because the MCD/NDMC schools are so bad that private primary schools that have sprung up all over the city, to accommodate children whose parents—rich and poor alike—wish their offspring to be educated but fear for their safety and health in the horrific environs of the government-run schools.

Such is the desire for good education today that poor parents will take loans at usurious rates and pledge whatever possessions of value they have in order to pay the fees demanded by private schools. Many of these private schools are ‘recognized’; but many (among them NGO-run schools) are not. When the primary schools run by MCD and NDMC are themselves hideously unrecognizable as learning institutions due to the absence of the most basic infrastructure and amenities for children and teachers, can there be any justification for the government to shut down ‘unrecognized’ private schools?  Surely the Delhi government should instead endeavor to clean up its own schools?  Of course this will require money…but thereby hangs a tale.

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