RGICS Seminar on "Economic Reform for the Poor"

Monday, 7th December 1998 (Universalising Education)

Chairperson's Address

Mr Vaghul,

Participants of this Seminar,

Friends

I spoke yesterday of the background to the two-day seminar on "Economic Reforms for the Poor" being organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies.

Today's discussion is on another crucial element to gage the success of reforms for the poor, that of "universalising education."

The Education challenge in India is a daunting one. Forty-eight percent of the Indian population is illiterate and there is a strong gender bias. There are districts where the female literacy rate is below four percent. There are States where the problem is particularly acute - Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. I have seen figures that 25 to 30 million children in India are out of school. Even when they enroll in school, there are dropouts, especially among girls. We cannot move into the 21st century and expect to be a powerhouse of world economic growth with such a state of human resource development.

How can the education challenge be met? In a country like ours, the Government will obviously have a central role to play. But rather than just reaching for numbers it needs to rectify the inadequate quality of education it provides. For example, if the government runs the schools, should not there be decentralisation of accountability so that school teachers are accountable to target beneficiaries like local bodies? Is there not a link between the government and the community whereby we can take advantage of the Panchayati Raj system to provide appropriate monitoring and supervision?

At the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, we have operated a number of successful experiments in systems of non-formal education - amongst street children, in remote rural villages and among communities where the girl child does not normally have full access to education. Based on these experiments, there seems to be evidence of a significant role that can be played by well organised non-formal education channels. Can we scale these up and take them out of the clutches of inefficient government processes so that local bodies like village education committees can receive, organise and redistribute the full extent of the intended benefits?

These are some of the questions that have come to me from my travels around our country and my interaction with people from different walks of life. I know that Mr Vaghul has applied his mind to the challenges of education in India and I look forward to hearing his keynote address on "Universalising Education."