Away With Chacha's "Education"

The must-read article of this morning is by Rajiv Desai in the ToI – an article on the Right to Education Act titled “Trick or Teach.” Desai argues that the RTE Act is a “trick” – designed to benefit baboons and political thugs.

Desai begins his piece with a bang:

Here is an incontrovertible fact: the majority of children between the ages of eight and 14, rich or poor, attend private schools. Even poor families shun government schools and willingly pay fees to enrol their children in private schools. To cater to this demand, private schools are flourishing, not just in cities and small towns but in villages as well. These schools have been established as commercial ventures. They are of two kinds: recognised and unrecognised by the government. To obtain recognition, private schools have to fulfil impossible criteria…

Desai continues with a blistering attack on government schools:

The government school system is broken beyond repair and everybody knows that, including the poor. Yet the new Right to Education (RTE) Act turns a blind eye and instead seeks to impose impossible burdens on private schools, not just elite institutions but others catering to the common man. Recognised or not, these schools are filling the gap that government apathy and ineptitude has created.

The finale is also very much to the point:

The RTE Act is poorly framed. It is currently being translated into policy under the ministrations of half a dozen bureaucrats. Like all well-meaning legislation, it will only create more problems. Government schools will remain non-functional. Private schools will have to face, in addition to highfalutin government influence over admission policies, the spectre of dealing with low-level bureaucrats and local politicians (read thugs).

Thus, as with the NREG Act, so too with the RTE Act, the only aim of The Chacha State is to increase the powers of sarkaari baboons and associated political thugs.

In any case, neither employment nor education are “rights.” The very idea is nonsensical. The truth is that the entire effort on the part of our rulers is to hoodwink the people while simultaneously assisting the corrupt. Their intentions were bad to begin with.

Actually, why schools, even the State-owned universities are beyond redemption. I once met a chancellor of a private “deemed university.” I asked the man why he used the term “deemed,” which implies some “recognition” from The Chacha State. The reply: We want to distinguish ourselves from the “doomed universities.”

Thus, Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi has got it all wrong, as usual. To progress, Indians need knowledge. They can get this knowledge either from The Market or The Chacha State. As Rajiv Desai says, as far as schools are concerned, rich and poor are opting for private schools. It is this trend that we must encourage.

Away with Chacha-style “education.”