India is one of the elite nations to successfully land on the moon as the Chandrayaan 3’s lander module made a soft landing on the lunar surface on Wednesday 23rd August 2023 at 6:03 pm. Prime Minister Modi addressed the nation following the successful landing on the moon surface. “India has reached the South Pole of the moon where no country could reach to date with the dedication and talent of our scientists. On September 2, 2023, India also launched the Aditya- Li to probe the sun. This is a highlight of India’s quality education with regards to experimentation, innovation and discoveries at premier institutes and organisations.
NEP 2020 states that ‘the education system must aim to benefit India’s children so that no child loses any opportunity to learn and excel because of circumstances of birth or background.” This vision document highlights the importance of giving education to all the children in India for a better future. India has the potential to provide quality education for all the children. World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise states, “By showing that learning really matters to them, countries can realize education’s full promise. Beyond being a basic human right, education—done right— improves social outcomes in many spheres of life. For individuals and families, education boosts human capital, improves economic opportunities, promotes health, and expands the ability to make effective choices. For societies, education expands economic opportunities, promotes social mobility, and makes institutions function more effectively. In measuring these benefits, research has only recently focused on the distinction between schooling and learning. But the evidence confirms the intuition that these benefits often depend on the skills that students acquire, not just the number of years in the classroom.”
The ASER 2022 report states that Children in age Group of 6-14 years enrolment levels has reached 98.4% in 2022. Substantial number of children are in school as “in 2022, for the first time, the percentage of children currently not enrolled in school has dropped to 2% or below” reported in ASER 2022. The attendance of both students and teachers have fare well according to ASER 2022 report states, “all-India (rural) figures for children’s attendance remains close to 72% while that for teachers is a little above 85%.” In the same report, ‘at the level of competence, only 1 out of 4 children in Grade V in India can read simple English sentences and out of those who can read sentences, 62.3% can comprehend their meanings.’ In terms of learning, there is much to be done.
In higher education, the report of AISHE 2020-21 states, “Total enrolment in higher education has increased to nearly 4.13 crore in 2020-21 from 3.85 crore in 2019-20 (increase of 28.80 Lakh).” There has been a substantial increase in the number of students going for higher education. On the other hand, India Skill Report 2023 states that ‘In India, the overall young employability is 50.03%.” There is a need to improve the employability of the graduates.
School Education Quality Index by NITI Aayog (2019) states, ‘schooling should result in tangible learning outcomes.” In its report the ‘overall performance score for large States ranged from 76.6 percent for Kerala to 36.4 percent for Uttar Pradesh” and ‘among small States, the overall performance score varied from 68.8 percent for Manipur to 24.6 percent for Arunachal Pradesh.” In UTs, the overall performance score ranged from 82.9 percent for Chandigarh to 31.9 percent for Lakshadweep. There is a substantial difference in quality education across the states and UTs.
This highlights the disparity in access to quality education in various states and UT. The premier institutes are also taking India to the sky but those in the geographical peripheries are perhaps left to fend for themselves.
World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise states, “Schooling without learning is a terrible waste of precious resources and of human potential. Worse, it is an injustice. Without learning, students will be locked into lives of poverty and exclusion, and the children whom societies fail the most are those most in need of a good education to succeed in life. Learning conditions are almost always much worse for the disadvantaged, and so are learning outcomes.” In 2023, due to violence in Manipur the life of students is affected to a large extent. The Wire reports, ‘at least 10,000 children have been staying in relief camps.’ It will have a huge impact in their learning.
The promise of India has to reached to all the Indian Children whether they are in coaching centres in Kota aspiring to study in India’s best engineering and medical college or in the remotest corner of Manipur of who are in relief camps due to violence.
The government must ensure that there is peace and development in all places of India. The promise of India’s growth and development should not be concentrated to few states and the quality education should not be confined to only premier and prestigious institutes. There is a need to usher in equal focus on all the students studying in different schools across India.
The writer is an Asst. Professor, Department of English, St. Joseph College, Ukhrul
