12-14-2005, 03:42 AM
Equal access to education: the last chance
D. Raja
The amendment to ensure admission to educationally and socially backward classes in all educational institutions is a revolutionary step.
PARLIAMENT WILL have the last word on one more occasion. This time on a matter that will affect millions of poor and socially oppressed people. The ushering in of yet another Constitution amendment, necessitated by a judicial pronouncement, shows the alertness of the polity in protecting the rights of the under-privileged. The amendment to Article 15 of the Constitution, by insertion of clause 5 to ensure admission to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and educationally and socially backward classes in all educational institutions, both private and public (except minority run-institutions), is a revolutionary step more than five decades after we adopted the Constitution.
The first-ever amendment to the Constitution in 1951 was as a result of a Supreme Court judgment in the case of Champakam Dorairajan vs State of Madras, which set aside reservation of seats in educational institutions on the basis of caste and community. We had the insertion of Clause 4 to Article 15 moved by none other than Dr. B.R. Ambedkar himself.Probably this is the first move by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government, which has the support of the Left from outside, to check the forces of privatisation and globalisation at least in the area of access to education. The influence of the booming market forces and crass commercialisation of education has caused a great rift between the haves and have-nots with respect to quality education. One question that will haunt us is: would the amendment to throw open private educational institutions to all have been initiated but for the Supreme Court judgment in the P.A. Inamdar vs State of Maharashtra case? Should not governments have incorporated such a provision much earlier?
The unanimous judgment by a seven-judge Bench in the case in August 2005, declaring that the state cannot impose its reservation policy on minority and non-minority unaided private colleges, including professional colleges, was a severe blow to the concept of right to education. Even capitalistic countries, which are driven by the private sector, ensure that everyone has equal access to educational institutions. The winds of globalisation and privatisation of education in India seem to have influenced one and all, including the Judiciary.
Legislation enacted to enforce the provisions in the amendment should ensure that access to education in all institutions (aided and unaided), should be complete. The Delhi Government had a bad experience when it tried to implement the directions of the Delhi High Court order in January 2004, which ruled that 25 per cent of seats in all educational institutions should be provided to under-privileged children. The brazen violation and failure to implement the mandatory clause for providing 25 per cent seats to the poor by private schools, who were allotted land at concessional rates by the Delhi Development Authority, is another issue. Some schools hold separate classes after school hours for poor children to fulfil the norm, and refuse to admit them along with regular students.
Fee regulation is yet to become a reality, notwithstanding the Supreme Court's positive judgment in the case of Modern School versus Union of India & Others in April 2004. The middle-class dream of providing `quality' education to children in private institutions is yet to be fulfilled. Delhi private school commercialisation has assumed an abhorrent proportion, as the state machinery has failed to regulate the schools. Will the proposed amendment suffice? Can the States implement it effectively?
The case of the IITs
As the Government embarks upon legislating `freedom of access to education' in all educational institutions in the country, it is worth looking at the status of implementation of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Indian Institutes of Technology. M<b>ost of the time, the seats are not filled citing merit. The IITs have a strange practice. The SC and ST students are forced to undergo a five-year B. Tech programme whereas other students undergo the regular four-year course. The admission process to M. Tech in IITs is so skewed that SC and ST students lose most of the seats.</b> If the administration in government-run IITs can play such games to deny admission to the under-privileged, we can guess how private educational institutions will behave.
In 1944, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who benefited by scholarships for his education, created a scheme called `Post Matric- Scholarship.' Based on this model, several variant schemes were evolved. But these scholarships are inadequate to take care of a child's education in government-run schools and lack adequate funding. Successive governments failed to match the scholarship with the rising consumer price index. A landless labourer or an urban labourer should be compensated for the loss of income where all the family members work during agricultural season or construction activities in cities.
This would be the appropriate time to reassess the scholarship needs of the poor and socially oppressed. A massively-funded programme would be needed for the under-privileged in both government and private schools to continue. Bureaucratic exercises of revamping such schemes have severe limitations of vision and are often the reason for the failure of schemes and pilferage of funds.
The polity again needs to jump in, to carry on and continue this revolutionary step of equality in access to education, hitherto inconceivable, given the wave of globalised commerce of education that has hit India. No law will be of any help unless there is a punitive clause against erring educational institutions. Disaffiliation to bodies such as CBSE, ICSE, and State Boards through which schools get recognition and punishment for not fulfilling the constitutional mandate should be introduced.
We should all live to see the day when a child of the richest man in Delhi and the child of a Safai Karmachari of the Municipal Ccoporation of Delhi attend the same school.
(The Author is National Secretary, Communist Party of India.)
D. Raja
The amendment to ensure admission to educationally and socially backward classes in all educational institutions is a revolutionary step.
PARLIAMENT WILL have the last word on one more occasion. This time on a matter that will affect millions of poor and socially oppressed people. The ushering in of yet another Constitution amendment, necessitated by a judicial pronouncement, shows the alertness of the polity in protecting the rights of the under-privileged. The amendment to Article 15 of the Constitution, by insertion of clause 5 to ensure admission to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and educationally and socially backward classes in all educational institutions, both private and public (except minority run-institutions), is a revolutionary step more than five decades after we adopted the Constitution.
The first-ever amendment to the Constitution in 1951 was as a result of a Supreme Court judgment in the case of Champakam Dorairajan vs State of Madras, which set aside reservation of seats in educational institutions on the basis of caste and community. We had the insertion of Clause 4 to Article 15 moved by none other than Dr. B.R. Ambedkar himself.Probably this is the first move by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government, which has the support of the Left from outside, to check the forces of privatisation and globalisation at least in the area of access to education. The influence of the booming market forces and crass commercialisation of education has caused a great rift between the haves and have-nots with respect to quality education. One question that will haunt us is: would the amendment to throw open private educational institutions to all have been initiated but for the Supreme Court judgment in the P.A. Inamdar vs State of Maharashtra case? Should not governments have incorporated such a provision much earlier?
The unanimous judgment by a seven-judge Bench in the case in August 2005, declaring that the state cannot impose its reservation policy on minority and non-minority unaided private colleges, including professional colleges, was a severe blow to the concept of right to education. Even capitalistic countries, which are driven by the private sector, ensure that everyone has equal access to educational institutions. The winds of globalisation and privatisation of education in India seem to have influenced one and all, including the Judiciary.
Legislation enacted to enforce the provisions in the amendment should ensure that access to education in all institutions (aided and unaided), should be complete. The Delhi Government had a bad experience when it tried to implement the directions of the Delhi High Court order in January 2004, which ruled that 25 per cent of seats in all educational institutions should be provided to under-privileged children. The brazen violation and failure to implement the mandatory clause for providing 25 per cent seats to the poor by private schools, who were allotted land at concessional rates by the Delhi Development Authority, is another issue. Some schools hold separate classes after school hours for poor children to fulfil the norm, and refuse to admit them along with regular students.
Fee regulation is yet to become a reality, notwithstanding the Supreme Court's positive judgment in the case of Modern School versus Union of India & Others in April 2004. The middle-class dream of providing `quality' education to children in private institutions is yet to be fulfilled. Delhi private school commercialisation has assumed an abhorrent proportion, as the state machinery has failed to regulate the schools. Will the proposed amendment suffice? Can the States implement it effectively?
The case of the IITs
As the Government embarks upon legislating `freedom of access to education' in all educational institutions in the country, it is worth looking at the status of implementation of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Indian Institutes of Technology. M<b>ost of the time, the seats are not filled citing merit. The IITs have a strange practice. The SC and ST students are forced to undergo a five-year B. Tech programme whereas other students undergo the regular four-year course. The admission process to M. Tech in IITs is so skewed that SC and ST students lose most of the seats.</b> If the administration in government-run IITs can play such games to deny admission to the under-privileged, we can guess how private educational institutions will behave.
In 1944, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who benefited by scholarships for his education, created a scheme called `Post Matric- Scholarship.' Based on this model, several variant schemes were evolved. But these scholarships are inadequate to take care of a child's education in government-run schools and lack adequate funding. Successive governments failed to match the scholarship with the rising consumer price index. A landless labourer or an urban labourer should be compensated for the loss of income where all the family members work during agricultural season or construction activities in cities.
This would be the appropriate time to reassess the scholarship needs of the poor and socially oppressed. A massively-funded programme would be needed for the under-privileged in both government and private schools to continue. Bureaucratic exercises of revamping such schemes have severe limitations of vision and are often the reason for the failure of schemes and pilferage of funds.
The polity again needs to jump in, to carry on and continue this revolutionary step of equality in access to education, hitherto inconceivable, given the wave of globalised commerce of education that has hit India. No law will be of any help unless there is a punitive clause against erring educational institutions. Disaffiliation to bodies such as CBSE, ICSE, and State Boards through which schools get recognition and punishment for not fulfilling the constitutional mandate should be introduced.
We should all live to see the day when a child of the richest man in Delhi and the child of a Safai Karmachari of the Municipal Ccoporation of Delhi attend the same school.
(The Author is National Secretary, Communist Party of India.)