Wake up India!

Just analyze these 2 stories – one is very recent and one is from 2006. 1st one from US and 2nd one about India

“Feb 25, 2009 (Hindu): US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said that his administration would focus on energy, health care and education to not only revive economy of the United States, but also to make sure that these are investments into America's future.
The US President said the current education system is not able to meet the growing challenges of the world. "This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education," Obama said.
He said the budget creates new incentives for teacher performance; pathways for advancement, and rewards for success. "We'll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we will expand our commitment to charter schools."
Obama said his plan would make sure that by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. "These education policies will open the doors of opportunity for our children," he added. “

January 30, 2006 (rediff)
“Senior ministers of the Indian government told a group of international investors on Saturday that India was committed to more reforms in the education sector to ensure that there was no shortage of skilled manpower to sustain an annual growth rate of over 8 per cent in the coming years.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram said of the 500 industrial training institutes that were to be offered to the private sector, the handing over of 80 had already been completed under the unique public-private partnership initiative.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia added that a new policy on beefing up the education sector was expected to be finalised soon by the Knowledge Commission, set up at the initiative of the prime minister.”

So whats the difference?
One is recent and about future. One is past. Both are discussing focus on education for growth of the country. Very nice till now!
But, 3 years passed since the 2nd story and almost no progress made by Govt of India on education reforms; and this is when the head of government himself is a teacher for last 5 years! Recommendations of Knowledge Commission are gathering dust as other reports and documents on education in past.
Surprisingly, in India, there are no significant policy and framework for early childhood education. There is large amount of poor quality education being provided at primary and secondary level. Furthermore, there is no common school system; instead children are channeled into private, government-aided and government schools on the basis of ability to pay and social class. There is significant amount of political interference in curriculum and content to be taught.

There is severe shortage of quality teachers and there seems to be no authentic planned development and growth for teachers & school leaders. Most of the teacher training programs are out-dated and obsolete.

Situation in higher education is as bad as the school education. The curriculum taught in most of the top colleges is almost that of British era and not relevant to anyone. Students just read books and pass exams without gaining any knowledge required in real world. Politicians announce opening of colleges to gain public votes, without realizing the need for quality teachers and considerable shortage of them; not only in technical colleges, but also in arts & commerce colleges. Teaching is not a preferred career by many as it’s not respected and compensated adequately.

Quality and quantity of research is extremely poor and not at all focused. Those who wish to do serious research go towards west and many don’t come back.

In 1986, Late Rajiv Gandhi announced a new education policy, the National Policy on Education (NPE), which was intended to prepare India for the 21st century. The policy emphasized the need for change: ‘Education in India stands at the crossroads today. Neither normal linear expansion nor the existing pace and nature of improvement can meet the needs of the situation.’

Someone can say that - we are doing so well as a country and we have so many successful people in all sphere of life. That’s the beauty of a large country. It’s the efforts of individuals and few progressive educationists that we are able to reach where we are. We achieved because the students and their teachers took interest and they succeeded inspite of all the above. But in future, things are different. Change is required at a very basic level, for India to reach a developed country level. May be India could have reached there early, if things were better!

I am not a pessimist, but feel sad that an educationist as PM could not do much in education and almost wasted 5 years as head of government. I think the time for action has come, wherein government has to begin systemic education reforms. The process of change will take at least a decade to show results, if it starts now.

So wake up India, before it’s too late!!