The Hindu : The education challenge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 20, 2003

Opinion

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The education challenge

THE UNESCO EDUCATION For All (EFA) report on the elimination of gender disparities in enrolments raises many questions for governments and civil society in India and other developing countries. Fifty seven per cent of the estimated 104 million children in the 5-10 years age group who are out of school worldwide are believed to be girls. The enrolment of girls in many countries is only three-fourths that of boys. The report cautions that the 2015 deadline for achieving 50 per cent improvement in adult literacy and universal primary education may remain a dream for one-third of the world's population. The 164 national governments that adopted the Dakar Framework of Action at the World Education Forum in Senegal in 2000 committed themselves to putting in place policies to facilitate these goals. The international community also held out the assurance that resources would not be a constraint. But the EFA report notes that aid flows have been disappointingly low in recent years. Paradoxically, this comes at a time when the accent on primary education has been high on the agenda of many developing countries.

In relation to India, disparities persist in enrolment rates between boys and girls at primary and secondary school levels. As a consequence, the country will not meet the 2005 deadline to achieve gender parity in enrolments. Although many of the findings in the report are but a reflection of the gender inequality prevalent in developing societies generally, the persistence of this inequality in the arena of children's education must not be treated as inevitable. Fifteen States and four Union Territories in India have adopted legislation making primary education compulsory. They must closely monitor the implementation of the law to be able to realise tangible results even in the short term. Civil society institutions need constantly to reinforce the moral and legal duty cast on parents to ensure quality education of their wards. The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has expressed concern that the report does not take due note of the increase in the literate population revealed by the Census of 2001. International bodies must do their best to ensure that their findings are based on the most recent data.

To be sure, the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Bill adopted by Parliament in 2002, is an endorsement of India's commitment to the Dakar Framework: it entrenches school education as a fundamental right. However, the ambit of this law is restricted to children between the ages 6-14. The 0-6 segment that has thus been omitted from its purview is roughly 16 per cent of the country's population. There is no justification for taking such a compartmentalised view. The demand for pre-school education and alternative avenues of child-rearing has expanded vastly in recent decades and the corresponding need for streamlining these services is just being recognised. Parliament is going to take up for consideration shortly the enabling legislation for the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act. It should take on board some of these emerging issues and provide the basis for an action plan that could make all the difference to the future of India's children.

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