Education in India – Is it for all??

February 18, 2013 | Filed under: Your Opinion | Posted by: Angana

Last week on my way back from my college I was going to attend the Gargi college fest. I took an auto from green park metro station. After arguing with the auto driver over the asked fare I sat into the auto. And within two minutes the autowallah asked me “beti kaunse college mein padhti ho??” And after my reply he said “khushnasib ho..hum garibo ke bache toh padhna woh bhi college mein soch hi nahi sakte”. And I right away asked “WHY”? I would be lying if I said that I did not know the answer, still I asked. At that point, my journalistic instinct just wanted to telecast this as breaking news on my channel and find out what educational schemes our leaders repeatedly shout about?? (Well, that was out of question) I asked him- “bhaiya, sarkar ki yojnaye hain na..university schools mein dakhila kyo nahi karate aap?” and he replied “beta sab kehne ki baat hain..garibo ke liye kuch nahi hain” and I inquisitively kept on asking him if he had sent his children to school. What is the actual problem? I knew that I could hardly do anything but I wanted to know to what extent the government is fooling us.

The auto driver told me he has a son. With his daily income of Rs.200 he educated his son till high secondary and after that his son told him that inter doesn’t help in today’s world and for a job he wants to pursue B.Sc. The driver did get his son admitted to B.Sc course but could not afford to buy books and readings. And I again repeated myself saying “but sarkar ki EWS students ke liye yojnaye hain na..apne unki sahyta kyun nahi li..free kitabein milti hain” and he replied dissapointingly “sab koshis kiya betiya kuch nahi ho paya, sach toh yehi hain ki garib ka beta humesha garib hi rahega” and then he said he has a daughter. This time I did not dare to ask till which class his daughter has studied for the fear of the reply that “ab beta ko toh padha nahi saka, beti ki shaadi ke liye paise chahiye..padh likh kar kya karegi”.

As I walked down the auto to get into the college, my eyes fell on girls with blackberry in their hands and guys parking their bikes rushing into the college to catch all the fun. A contrasting sight when compared to the poor fellow who couldn’t even afford to buy books for his only son. In a city which is the capital, where you have countless number of schools, where you will find coaching centres for IIT preparation after every 4 km, which boasts of universities like DU, DTU and JAMIA, you have an auto driver who cannot educate his son due to lack of money and did I hear the ruling party shouting slogans – “Education in India for all under our rule”? There would be few who might argue that the government is doing enough for education but after this incident it is difficult for me to agree with them.

Probably after few years the auto driver’s son would take over his father’s legacy and drive another girl to one of India’s best colleges and wonder if he could just complete his B.Sc. It leaves us to the question – Education in India—is it for all?? Goldman Sachs had counted the lack of quality education as one of the major factors holding India back from rapid economic growth last year and that is indeed the case. With 50% of our population under 25, can we hope for an educated India in our lifetime? Or are we going to witness the continuation of age old legacy of a cobbler’s son being a cobbler, a driver’s son growing up to be a driver and only a doctor’s son being able to be a doctor!

14 Responses to Education in India – Is it for all??

You have asked a really valid qs here….

Anuj
February 1, 2011 at 4:23 pm
- Yup Anuj..n this question arguably is the most important question among others for India’s development..
  
  Angana Das
  February 2, 2011 at 5:38 pm
its pretty visible, education is only for the rich here.

farhan
February 1, 2011 at 9:20 pm
- It is only for the rich..only for those who can afford it n sadly so..
  
  Angana Das
  February 2, 2011 at 5:39 pm
  - Really a nice write up !
    But, Anjana, I think gone are the days when money was really a major constraint for poor parents to get their children educated.
    I do not wish to completely rule out the possibility of some of the parents facing problems in getting their wards pursue their education. This may be an exception.
    Things have changed now. People just need to have adequate awareness and a strong will to get their child educated.
    
    Prakash Kumar
    Principal Correspondent
    Deccan Herald
    New Delhi
    
    Prakash Kumar
    February 3, 2011 at 2:34 pm
    - Thanx a lot for the appreciation Sir..
      
      Well, I do hope that this case is an exception and that things have changed now..because educated India is surely the need of hour for the progress of our country and sadly that is what we have not been able to acheive yet..
      
      Regards,
      Angana Das
      
      Angana Das
      February 3, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Education system in India is pathetic and education has transformed into a business….

abhi
February 1, 2011 at 10:53 pm
- It indeed has become business now..even the auto driver said the same to me..
  
  Angana Das
  February 2, 2011 at 5:46 pm
That’s the condition in every place. We have to look at two possibilities, Auto Driver could have fought with government schools or whoever is offering free education and admitted his kid there. Or He should have approached some Organizations which could have come for help. Anyways,

Good writing, but please add English translations in the brackets for Hindi conversations…

Vijay

Vijay
February 2, 2011 at 4:29 pm
- Driver’s son did go to school but couldn’t complete his graduation due to lack of money..this is just one example..there are many..fighting with government schools is not really possible for such people who can’t even afford shelter and food..
  And will surely keep in mind about the translations..
  Thanxx
  
  Angana Das
  February 2, 2011 at 6:11 pm
hmmm, situation has improved in the past few years but not as drastically as it should have. There are number of government schemes to help financially weak students, Implementation is entirely different issue, How many of these schemes are properly implemented ? and does government try to educate people about existing schemes ? I am not sure.

I think the bigger problem is Mindset, there is a negative inertia towards higher education, difficulty in getting job even after graduating is something that makes it difficult for people with limited means to muster enough courage to invest in higher education. Mushrooming educational institutions with little focus on quality could be one reason for this. This has made getting a bachelors relatively easy and shifted focus away from Vocational job related training, making it extremely difficult for someone just out of school to find job and maybe pay for their higher education.

There is nothing wrong in commercialization of education if it leads to improvement in quality of education, however we find most of the private educational institutions are being set up with sole purpose of filling up coffers of their owners, this exploitation has to be stopped and regulated.

Ambuj Varshney
February 3, 2011 at 7:57 pm
commercialization if it leads to benifit for the educational sector is worth it but sadly that is not the case..private institutes are coming up but I am not sure of how much good it is doing to the students in terms of education..

Angana Das
February 6, 2011 at 1:45 pm
we have to move to the system where “each one teach 10″ then only we will be able to provide education to everyone….

fallen angel
February 19, 2011 at 9:43 pm
sad to say but it is that way…

varun
September 9, 2011 at 1:25 am

Education in India – Is it for all??

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