(Sanjay Kumar is currently a Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University. Apart from his current Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School, he holds a PhD degree from JNU, New Delhi)
Reading New York Times on Saturday, March 21 was not the same for me. As soon as I turned to page A9, I saw a photo captioned "Go to the Top of the Class" that said, "young people climbed the wall of a building on Wednesday to help students taking an examination in Hajipur, in the Eastern Indian state of Bihar. Education authorities said that 600 high school students have been expelled after they were found to have cheated on pressure-packed 10th grade exam".
Coming from the same state and currently a Mason Fellow and a student of Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School, I thought that I should make an attempt to analyze about the issue. In 1987, I also took the same state-board school-leaving exam in a small town called Katihar. The situation was the same then as it is now. It does not mean though that everyone was a product of the 'cheating system'. But this photo reminded me of the scene outside the examination halls which has not changed in last 27 years.
Whenever I visit my hometown, I make it a point to visit my old school, Harishankar Nayak Government High School, just to be reminding myself of my old school days. We were free to attend or not to attend classes, taught by teachers who were more keen on giving us private tuitions than teaching us dutifully in class rooms. Parents were never bothered about the quality of education, but were only concerned about the output and their expectations of us; the government monitoring was non-existent. Overall, we were left to our own hard work and fate. One could well imagine the response of students at adolescence age in this circumstance. Many students who have gone through this type of education process including myself could well empathize with the circumstances which lead students to get into cheating.
The Government of India launched the Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan or the National Secondary Education Mission as one of the flagships program in 2009. According to RMSA, Bihar has not only performed poorly but has been unable to utilize its allocated funds and in 2013-14, out of 315 girls' hostels approved, only three have been completed. 38 schools for coverage of vocational courses were cleared but no work has begun. A high drop-out rate of 30% between classes 7-10 is an area of concern. There is a huge vacancy of teachers even against the RMSA approval. Teachers' training, critical for implementation of the mission and improving the quality of education, is very poor.
Secondly, the teachers will have to be responsible and understand the fact that education is not a business. This is the backbone of our progress and prosperity. They are building the future of the society and thus should be committed to the role they are supposed to play. Private tuitions must be banned. It is unethical to teach the same students by charging fees and not teaching them properly at the school
The media can also play a strong role by running campaigns to improve education system. Many social issues have been fixed by media campaigns in our country. Their role in highlighting the wrong-doings in the mid-day meal scheme, for example, is praiseworthy. But they should try to work closely with students and parents to highlight the shortcomings in schools on regular basis. This can be a great contribution from their side.
I am sure that the next generation of Bihari students can prove their potential with the same vigor and hard work as we have proved in the past. They just need opportunity and the level-playing field.
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