Analysis of India’s education crisis, exploring NEET exam reforms, federalism, institutional apathy, and the Jantar Mantar protests
Satya Narayan Misra
There is a sense of dejavu amongst Modi baiters that the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, a long standing confidant of the PM, formation of a Committee under Nandan Nilakeni to stem the rot in conduct of NEET examination under the aegis of NTA, the hurriedly passed anti paper leak bill by a harried treasury bench and victory of Prashant Kishore from Bankipore, a citadel of BJP, are the beginning of the end of an autocratic regime. Many also see a parallel between the anti-Mandal agitation in September 1990 by upper-caste Hindus about their dimming prospects in public education and employment due to OBC reservation and the Jantar Mantar protest spearheaded by upper-middle-class, English-speaking meme-making students. While some consider the protest as a passing sandstorm and Prashant Kishore’s victory as a flash in the firmament of our fickle political landscape, one also discerns the proliferation of many ideas from pundits from the pulpit of a glass house and the tickle of social media without soiling their slippers in the field and the larger systemic concerns that engulf our education system. Jantar Mantar sit-in can be a tornado which can wreck the solid propaganda machine of the BJP as it happened in Dhaka, Colombo & Kathmandu & can usher a new political dawn.
Political Priority
Firstly, we must disabuse ourselves of the notion that the serious crisis in our education system owes its origin to Modi, but to Nehru, who did not look at ensuring quality public education in schools and colleges as ’ temples of Modern India’ but the steel plants and the IITs . His lack of priority for education reflected in the meagre allocation of 2% of GDP to school education as against the recommendation of experts based on global benchmark of 4%. This was the beginning of this rot and his elitist thinking about education without fixing the grassroots. Mrs Gandhi, despite the Kothari Commission’s recommendation to allocate 6% of GDP to education in 1966, did not give priority to this. The subsequent governments through the NPE 1986, RTE Act 2009 have made universal access to public school education and gender equity their twin trump cards, without addressing the quality dimension. The independent findings of ASER surveys clearly reiterate the plateau in learning outcomes in our government schools. The NEP 2020 ‘s primary thrust to ensure foundational literacy and numeracy by the age of 8 to all children studying in public schools by 2025 is yet to see the light of day. NEP also makes a fervent plea for ramping up the allocation to education to 6% as against around 4% by the Centre & the States. This is yet to be followed up by the Centre & the States.
The Continuing Neglect
This is where the customary alacrity of Mr. Modi is missing, despite the signal achievements India has made in terms of infrastructure improvement by making double the allocation in the budget, from 12% of Central Government Expenditure under the Manmohan era to 23% now, a sharp reduction in NPAs, huge collection through the GST regime and massive digital transactions in the financial sector. The fundamental issue that needs to be kept in mind is that the right allocation to the education sector is not a magic bullet. Education is like a ladder where school education is the step leading to the next steps, viz secondary and college education. And the foot soldiers for ensuring quality education are the teachers who must be well paid, well trained and periodically updated, and technologically savvy. When one takes a look at public schools in Odisha, one comes away with the most mortifying experience of poorly equipped teachers, mostly devoted to dispensing midday meals and dysfunctional computers. The hardware is not wired to secured and functional communication system. The government colleges, barring a few elite ones, are no better in terms of dispensing quality education or preparing students for competitive examinations. The resulting apathy has led to the mushrooming of coaching centres and commercialisation. Some estimates put expenditure in coaching centres at more than government allocation to school and college education.
The Quest for Federalism
There are, however, outlier states in the matter of school education, like Kerala, Tamil Nadu & Delhi, where the quality of education being imparted in government schools is of a high order. Though in Kerala 36% of schools are run by private institutions, this does not take away the stellar role played by public schools and the high allocation of around 19% by all these three states out of the state budget, as against 13% being spent by states like Odisha, Bengal, Bihar& UP. The North-South divide clearly manifests in the kind of education dispensed by the public schools and engineering and medical colleges that dot them. That takes us to the demand of Stalin from Tamil Nadu to decentralize the NEET tests back to the states and strengthen the roots of federalism. It makes eminent sense and must be given serious consideration transcending political affiliation.
Beyond Technology
Radhakrishnan Committee, which went into the paper leaks in 2024, made five fundamental recommendations, viz, have ten specialised verticals, reduce reliance on outsourcing, adopt a hybrid testing model, digital transmission of papers, and a grievance redress system. Like Committee after committee gathering cobwebs, no serious follow-up action was taken on the Radhakrishnan Committee recommendation. The famous biologist EO Wilson had observed:” We have stumbled in the 21st century with stone age emotion, medieval institutions and godlike technology.” The solution for the rot in NEET examination is not technology and perpetuating a centralised system but decentralising such examination, and making states responsible for dispensing quality education through school and college education and conducting such examination transparently without being hijacked by venal and unscrupulous private agencies.
Beyond Jantar Mantar
It must be noted that out of 2.2 million who appeared for the NEET examination, only 5% finally make the grade. Of this, only 50% are government medical college seats & affordable to 80% of the parents of modest means, while the balance of 60000 seats in private medical colleges, which charge around crores of rupees, is within the reach of the real affluent families . In this dichotomy of affordability and hope of the most vulnerable sections of society to get a government seat, the script is being waylaid by the chicanery of colluding coaching institutes, outsourced agencies and state apathy. This has given the actual ballast to the Jantar Mantar movement and their shrill cry for fairness, accountability and justice. The Constitution in Article 38(2) states that ‘The states shall endeavour to eliminate inequality in status, facilities and opportunities’. It is this transgression of promise by the State to provide quality, affordable education & conduct them in a transparent manner that lies at the heart of the seething cauldron of frustration that manifested in Jantar Mantar. It is beyond the pyrrhic victory of Pradhan resigning & Prashant Kishore trumping the BJP juggernaut.
(Satya Misra teaches Constitutional Law & is deeply involved in Development Studies. Views expressed are personal.)