NEW DELHI(PTI): On Sept7, reports say, 46 years after India’s independence the constitutional pledge to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to 14 years of age still remains a distant goal.
Infact, 32 years have lapsed since the 1961 deadline Indian statute makers set for universal elementary education.
Primary education is still beset with many problems, like a low budget allocation, high drop out rates, and what some say, an outdated way of teaching. Disenchantment with studies begins at the primary level with a taxing curriculum for a kid studying in third or fourth standard.
But, where did India’ go wrong. While China pushed up its literacy Tate 10 80% in a population of 1,200 million, India’s rate is a dismal 52.11% in a population of 863 million. According to a World Bank estimate, by 2000 AD India will have 200 million illiterates, more than half of the world’s total, First, allocation for education has not been adequately made, in the first eight year plan, it was 7.5% of the total outlay, and was down to 3.5% in the seventh plan.
When budgets go awry, the govemment takes recourse to pruning allocation for education, according to a senior official in the ministry of Human Resources Development. Ma India invests hardly 3.8% of GNP on education.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 10, 1993
