Education For Different Facets Of Development
By Swaleha Sindhi & Adfar Shah
11 October, 2013
Countercurrents.org
Introduction
Educational inequality in India involves more than social class and gender. Backward caste groups such as the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward classes (groups that are constitutionally recognized for certain preferential policies) lag behind the higher castes with respect to both enrolment and completion at each educational transition stage. Moreover, within these backward communities, women suffer an additional disadvantage (Sengupta and Guha, 2002; Agrawal and Aggarwal, 1994; Acharya, 1994; Dreze and Sen, 1995; Vaid, 2004). Viewed in this background it may be argued that equality is a stronger expression of equity and similarly equality of opportunity is more difficult than equitable distribution. With the prevailing social syndrome of inequality in various facets of life, the distribution between "haves" and "have nots" is becoming more glaring.
In such a situation giving equal opportunity will imply giving more to those who already have it and giving less to those who do not have it and, therefore, equality to all is a concept which is not conceivable because the category of "all" itself is not a homogeneous one. It consists of heterogeneous groups having disparate levels of socio-economic development. Therefore, equality is unjust when it is perceived to be distributed in the groups which themselves are unequal. It implies that equal distribution among unequal will lead to perpetuation of inequality. "Growth with equity" is now considered one of the major objectives of planning, including educational planning. It may be noted that in the Indian context there is no contradiction between the demands for equity and growth. Equity without growth is a stagnant cesspool wherein only misery, ignorance, obscurantism and superstition can be equitably distributed. Growth without equity leads to the accentuation of the structural disequilibrium, which constrains growth itself. The social concern for the two can be handled together, sustaining each other and sustained by each other.
Equity in Education
A primary and explicitly stated objective of education policy of a welfare state must be to ensure equality of opportunities by way of securing that all citizens have access to the resources necessary. The countries of the third world are passing through a serious dilemma resulting from the inherent social contradictions between the principle of equality and the principle of equity. This calls for a distinction between equity and equality. Equality means that every person would receive same treatment irrespective of status, caste, creed, etc. Equity means fairness or "recourse to principle of justice", which implies that a policy of protective discrimination has to be adopted if this is deemed fair or just. While equality has a quantitative meaning, equity is a qualitative concept. Education policy need not necessarily aim at achieving identical results for all, but rather aim at equivalent outcomes. It assumes a strong emphasis on identical treatment of all students to greater individual autonomy and diversity. The aim of equity should be all children will complete the equivalent of higher secondary school and that all be given the opportunity to pursue higher studies if they desire.
Obstacles to Equity
Whether we like it or not, today education has become a marketable commodity. The quality of this commodity in general depends upon the cost of it. There is a plethora of schools catering to the students with varying paying capacity. Normally the Government schools are for poor people, Government aided ones are for middle classes and the unaided are for the rich and super rich population. These categories of schools in general sequentially offer better quality. Thus there is a great disparity of educational achievements between good public schools and government run institutions in rural and metropolitan areas. One finds its expression in large-scale teacher absenteeism in government schools. Another issue is that students do not inherit only economic status from their parents they inherit social divides like cast, religion, gender, level of urbanization and the customs and biases based upon all these divides as well. Students coming from rural background, lower casts, belonging to minority religions and of feminine gender are a disadvantaged lot.
Conclusion
Development and empowerment of socially disadvantaged groups a commitment enshrined in the Constitution, and education is the most effective instrument of social empowerment. Schemes for the educational uplift of the SCs and STs have borne fruit but still the gap between the general population and SCs and STs are at unacceptable levels. Some minorities have fallen far behind the national average in education. It will be necessary to go to the root of the problem and examine the reasons for the decline so that remedial measures can be taken in future. Today, the thin line separating privatisation and commercialisation is getting blurred and merit alone does not remain the only criteria for moving upwards in education. There is a visible loss of credibility of existing systems of imparting education in schools and also in institutions of higher learning. On one hand, we are short of basic infrastructures and on the other hand, optimum utilization of existing infrastructures has not been ensured.
(Ms.Swaleha Sindhi is Assistant Professor in The M.S.University of Baroda & Mr.Adfer Shah is Research Assistant in SNCWS New Delhi.Email:[email protected])
Comments are moderated