25 per cent fall in education quality: says TSR Subramanian

Emphasising on the emerging issues over safe and secure education at the panel discussion, Subramanian remarked , “We need a non-negotiable educational environment, I am not sure that this thought permeates within our policymakers in India today. Learning is as natural for a child as eating and breathing.”

Erstwhile Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian pointed out the deficiency in the working of the much lauded reform famously known as the Right to Education (RTE) Act, RTE.

While the former Secretary identified the good work of RTE, he also pointed out for the attention required on the quality of education, citing that India’s education quality has dropped by 25 per cent after the coming of RTE.

A campaign organised by the Care India under the banner “My Safety My Education…MY RIGHT: Making Education Safe and Secure” urged for a focused campaign on the working of the RTE and a decisive action to study whether India is meeting the objectives prescribed under the Right to Education Act 2009.

“We have to address this fundamental issue on priority basis as education occupies the central place in a child’s development. Today’s consultation is a step forward in this direction,” said Rajan Bahadur, MD and CEO, CARE India.

Emphasising on the emerging issues over safe and secure education at the panel discussion, Subramanian remarked , “We need a non-negotiable educational environment, I am not sure that this thought permeates within our policymakers in India today. Learning is as natural for a child as eating and breathing.”

“All the system has to provide is the environment and a teacher, a child will automatically learn. But we have converted it into a very complicated process,” he added.

Below are the excerpts from TSR Subramanian:

• Speaking at the panel discussion, the former Cabinet Secretary laid emphasis on the importance of girl’s education. “Forty years ago when I was in Harvard, even in those days they taught us that education of a girl child is the key to development and prosperity of the country. But we have not understood it till today. We are looking at the economy and bullet trains but the fundamentals are ‘health’ and ‘education’. These should have preceded with every other step that India took and I see that in Asia so many countries have accepted this,” he said
• At the discussion he pointed out the ‘catastrophic’ numbers from Aser’s Education report of 2014 and said it draws ‘disturbing conclusions’ from the educational system in the country. “Aser report of 2014 has some very disturbing conclusions. 50 per cent children in class 5 are not familiar with class 2 study material. Beyond recognising alphabets they haven’t gone further. After eight years of schooling, basics of arithmetic and calculation are not understood by 50 per cent of children. These are catastrophic numbers,” said Subramanian
• Subramanian said that the term inclusion is not understood in India. Referring to inclusion of a healthy education environment he said, “We have failed to understand that one illness in a family and a child can lose whole year of education. There is no formal recognition of students from deprived communities and economic backgrounds.”