Tasks Ahead for Indian Education

Abstract

Educationists can nowhere rest on their oars, because each generation sets new tasks for them, even before the old tasks are completed. In India for the present the old educational problems are so complex, and the policies and schemes take so long to show results, that by and large the decisions made in the 1970s and even much earlier are likely to get more attention than the formulation of new aims in the near future. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the penultimate decade of the present century fresh examination of the old nagging problems as well as impediments to be faced remain important for persons who are interested in Indian education or engaged in the educational enterprise here. The 1980s will be characterised by educational controversies and disagreements, much fiercer although not so new. Harsh choices will have to be made. While new strategies are hammered out some pet schemes and old notions will have to be jettisoned in the light of the not-so-reassuring educational development and pervasive disillusionment. Universal-literacy figures of affluent countries like the USA and the spectacular achievements of the USSR and Japan, with education as a tool of national development and social transformation, engendered in many a developing country the belief that miracles could be wrought with education as a change agent. However, economic and social measures complementary to educational planning and decisions were ignored as irrelevant or peripheral. Legislators and administrators fondly hoped that the sacred cows of Indian economy and tradition, such as the outmoded social structure, would remain as sacrosanct as ever, because these were considered not incompatible with what is called modernisation. This illusory belief was the basis of too much dependence upon education as a panacea, and it also stood in the way of progress towards attainable objectives. During the last 30 years or so impressive progress has been made in the national economy, industrialisation, and technical and higher education. India has won some recognition for its 'green revolution', for one of the largest networks of railways and roads in the world, for electrification, the industrial base, the infrastructure of technological and scientific studies and research, for the development of knowhow, etc. The brain drain shows lack of adequate opportunities for worthwhile employment; but it also indicates the availability of highly trained experts and manpower up to international standards. There are 3-5 million teachers, 100 million students, and the educational expenditure (Rs. 25,000 million) is second only to that on defence. However, the principal beneficiaries of the economic growth have been the moneyed classes. Hardly any percipient observer of the Indian scene has expressed any doubt