The major reason why students drop out is NOT because they cannot go to school it is because of a lack of teachers. Competition amongst private schools is a terrible idea because there will exist no “choice” as such for a poor family living in a slum. Competition being efficient is built on the idea that people can choose; but it needs to be explored whether people really can choose and whether this choice is necessarily the best one.

Can you expect uneducated low skill individuals without any exposure or understanding of the education that their kids will recieve being able to make a good choice?

”We are the only nation in the world, where people fight to be called backward rather than forward.”
- Narayan Murthy

“India is ready to discuss racism as long as it is in other countries, but not caste in its own backyard.”
- Dipankar Gupta, professor of sociology , J.N.U. New Delhi

”In place of appealing for removal and abolishing this old curse on India, all the Indians have been shamelessly accepting the caste system imposed upon by their Religion. People are fighting against the reservation quota. Is there a single sensible person who wants to fight against the caste system which is the main reason for the quota ? ”
- Damien Rebello

Caste conscious lunatics and live in this lunatic asylum, of course against our will, and ‘blessed’ with an eternal curse of associating with the insane. The Indian caste system is pointedly diabolical. It is a real curse.
- Swami Vivekananda

Year 2006 : Indian newspapers carry daily stories of atrocities against Dalits or young couples being killed, sometimes by their own families, for daring to fall in love with someone from another caste. The caste based communities in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have militants to terminate people belonging to the other caste. In spite of all this the Indians think that they are making progress.
- from DailyNews U.K.

Nobody is saying that the caste system should be praised, for it has indeed degenerated India’s self-pride.
- Francois Gautier

Without question, caste system is the curse for India, and it has humiliated millions through the ages. Caste is India’s sorrow, the apartheid that makes Indians hang their heads in shame. Caste serves as the prime reason for conversions even today.
- Barbara Crossette

So you see to what extent this disgraceful caste system has taken us? Our political parties trade on it, our governments use it, our police connive at it. There is a nexus of criminals, police and government, as everybody knows, and we suffer.
- Shri Parthasarathi

India’s real curse lies in the fact that, 57 years after Independence, people continue not only to face daily injustices, but they can be murdered, raped and viciously humiliated merely because they have tried to break out of the caste trap to assert their rights as equal beings.
- (Human Rights Report)

Development Economist Atanu Dey, envisions a world where education vouchers solve the prob [...]

I believe, education acts as a refuge in adversity; it empowers the people and is a tool, which breaks the chains that resist a nation’s development. Don’t you? Well, quite unpleasant to know but the fact is that 30% of the world’s illiterates come from our country, India. Now, undoubtedly this is the biggest weakness in the development of our country.

Illiteracy has proven itself as a major handicap here and everywhere and as you know lack of education has many disadvantages in every aspect of it. Most of the voters here (in India) are illiterate too and so the nation often ends up with a government being made out of a mistake. Evidently, illiteracy dominates India.

I would appeal to all to help eradicate illiteracy as it sets big drawbacks to our society and will pull our country back; no matter how hard the we try. Connect with me to kill illiteracy in India to make it a 100% literate country at http://www.jantaraj.com/sapankumar/defaultpet.asp?pid=106

Many people here live below the poverty line and thus can’t afford to educate their children. And as always, the funds raised by our Government for the same, exhausts’ before reaching the right place and people. Well, as usual it finds its way into some corrupts’ pockets.

I think, education up to standard X must be made mandatory by the government and particularly free education must be provided to the poor. Now, we all know, the future of a nation is molded and chiseled by its youth and the student of today is the future of tomorrow. Therefore, to secure a bright future for India – The youth of today must be empowered by giving the essential education – only then will they be able to create a secular, civilized and developed India in the future.

Thanks & Regards,
Karan K.

Atanu Dey arguments against reservation: Is there no role for the government in the e [...]

2.What if Anu wants to learn singing instead of engineering and Abhi wants to be a journalist? How does your story read then?

Looking forward to your reply.

Kartikey

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The fact that without a formal engineering degree I (self-admittedly) still managed to well, points to the very necessary need for emphasis on vocational education, rather than the standard textbook education, where all the focus currently tends to be.

With the congress and like powers in governance, Stupid Trolls, Other Bashed-up Classics -by vision 2020, the percentage begging for will touch 90%. In 2050, there will be a mound of shit, as one has to just check out what the express highways of bombay are reserved for 5am – 8am.

Once BPO / IT goes to Vietnam and China,… ???

Lost a deal from a british firm in IT, certain regional engineering types in chequed greed shirts, blue trousers, red and yellow loud ties smoking cigarettes, and singing regional songs got the client worked up. Maybe we are too good for our own selves. Maybe with time and numbers, our way of living will be what others could aspire for.

Keep it up Sonia-ji / sardarjee / and jo-bhi-dekhna-karna hai jee.

Can’t help feeling that the solution is idealist, that translating it into a pragmatic framework still remains. Will comment in a little more detail later. Basic criticism: the incentives of the politician do not seem to have been considered. But later on that, and then if time and space permitting.

I would definitely feel a lot less enraged if my tax money ( and of million others) is used to subsidize and educate crores of underprivileged children, instead of unnecessarily funding the higher education needs of a blessed few.

I had one comment, how can we prevent Anu or Abhi’s parents from ‘generating’ multiple Anu’s & Abhi’s (real or virtual) to generate a living out of the vouchers?

After all…we Indian’s are the best at beating the system (I guess that’s why Indian’s are hot in computer systems)

I was referring to private schools, not the farce that the government runs.

The argument that one generation is sufficient for a poor family to become non-poor sounds appealing, but it is only after a wide spread implementation of privatized education (as you mentioned) has taken place. How many years do you think that would take to go “critical” such that masses from around the country can benefit? Even if it is, say, five years from concept to completion do you think the vote-bank-eyeing politicians have the nerves to go for it? Ever since they land in power, half their thoughts are on how to retain power after five years and (I’m sure) a significant portion of the other half on how to “earn” during this tenure.

Five years to privatized education may be attainable in Maharashtra, but would it be so in UP? How differently would Anu and Abhi fare if they stayed in a village in Bihar as opposed to a village in Karnataka? A generation’s worth of time in the latter might be sufficient to move up above the poverty line, I don’t know how many generations it would take were they from the former!

Lastly, this comment is not meant to be critical of your post. Your ideas are quite good and your style of communicating in layman terms (for people like me) is impressive, but I see this unaddressed area… an area I can think of no solution to in the first place.

Yes, it would be nice to imagine a country without reservations. (I am sure we all have our share of stories about encountering reservations in schools and colleges.Yes, there is such a thing called reverse discrimination.)

Great job analyzing the situation. I think the current involvement of the Government in education does not yield effective results. The government had a role to play in the initial years when the country was involved in nation-building etc etc.

I agree with you about IIT. The IIT model does not represent the Indian education system as it currrently obtains. It is an outlier, if you will.

But here is a problem…there are no neat or clean-cut solutions to manage this reservation issue (resolving it would be a Heruclean task). I believe you have indirectly hinted at it. Yes, you do offer the voucher solution, but I think it is difficult to come up with a comprehensive solution. (Remember when the voucher system was first introduced in Milwaukee county, WI, years ago and the challenges involved in implementing it?) In a country like India there is no neat formula that can be applied for various reasons: fragmented education system combined with the political forces that influence/color the policies in this area. The interesting trend is the increasingly fragmented education systems, where the faultlines are becoming rather well-defined. For instance, there is a trend now where private schools in India are charging about $15,000 to $30,000 a year…why that is almost on par with Philips Academy in Andover or other private schools in the US. Then there are private schools that regular middle-calss folks send their children where they pay $1,500 to $2,00 a year, and this does not include the capitation fee. There are so many examples of this fragmented education system…

I believe you hit the nail on its head when you linked the education/reservation policy to the voting block/group. That is the nexus that needs to be addressed. Question is how do you resolve/handle this Gordian Knot?

Kamla

Leave [...]

Prasanna, regarding the point on corruption, its more likely that a family will take the ‘voucher’ and the promised Rs 600 and then NOT send the children to school.

Its unlikely that a family that earns well will want to send their children to a Govt school. The average Indian values education highly – the problem is he does not have access to quality and meaningful education that will help him earn a living.

But, I think you’re analysis of a daily wager earner – and the solution is simplistic and just wont work.

Here’s why:
1. Most daily wagers are illiterate. And consequently are – and will be – unaware of their rights until someone fights on their behalf/educates them of their rights – in every nook and corner of India.
I dont think India has that many crusaders.

2. Corruption. How much money does it really take to put out a certificate saying that someone actually earning crores a year as earning sayin 20K rupees? probably 10K rupees – lesser even, if you have the right influence.
So what’s stopping those same corrupt bastards from doing the same – and misappropriating, and denying funds for the poor families? little, very little. After all the law enforcers are their contemporaries – and colleagues and pals at times.

So your solution wont work, until we revamp our adult literacy programs.

What we need is a serious focus on Adults being literate – and educated enough to know, and ask for their rights. And only in such a case can we then think of your plan. Otherwise just more taxpayer money down the drain.

As always a great a post. BTW was choice of names Abhi and Anu for the kids a random one

- Pankaj

If I am not mistaken you also imply that one has to pay for the university education including IITs.
To implement your model you need the accord of people of different social levels, and especial those who contribute more by taxes.