SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES IN EDUCATION BE MORE FOCUSED? G.BALASUBRAMANIAN

From the time I heard the slogan “Minimum government, Maximum Governance” I have fancied adoring the concept. That possibly clarifies what a government should be doing, and what it should not be doing. Given the fact that the lakhs of schools being run by the Government both at the state and the center have a large number of visible issues relating to the quality of infrastructure, quality of facilities, quality of academics and the absence of support systems – one really wonders why after so many years of attempts they cannot be set it in order. Possibly, ‘there is maximum government and minimum governance”.

The government, whoever in the saddle, have a great responsibility of defining the policy perspectives of an educational process and the directions of growth – and mentoring and monitoring their implementation. The several arms of the Government should be exactly addressing to this issue, apart from supporting the process of quality audit, empowerment, research and designing the future vision. The magnitude of the research work that could be done, given the multi-dimensional nature of the country with its multi-lingual and diverse cultural perspectives is huge and calls for a focused and targeted work.

The quality of teachers need to be improved and the methods of training have to be relevant, current and enabling. There is always a mismatch between the Quality and quantity.  

It is indeed sad that many of these organizations have gone out of focus and engaged in the production of textual materials and catering to the needs of some unmanageable figure of the population of the country. While I salute their tireless efforts in this direction which is multiplying by leaps and bounds, the fundamental question is – whether they should engage in providng a leadership by developing quality materials so as to guide the several stake holders engaged in the industry, or should they take the singular responsibility for the market needs? They may have the entire wherewithal to do a magic, but is that the objective of such organizations? Are there better things to do? Where is the kind of quality research in education happening which can impact the local needs? Do our research orientations and problems meet our current and futuristic needs?  It is time that we shed our tradional approaches and take a leap to demonstrate a leadership in the educational processes and systems. 

The various mistakes that have surfaced in the materials developed by the government agencies all across the country and had become a matter of serious debates is proof enough that the process are quite mediocre and needs a better focused attention. ( Not that others are perfect!)

Further, with the pace of knowledge dynamics, it may indeed be like running a marathon and one does not know whether the existing rules and regulations are good enough to facilitate the academia managing these organizations to be a part of this running race.

It may be a good idea to reconsider the existing system so that the government and its arms are empowered to mentor and monitor what others are doing. Wherever necessary, regulatory mechanisms can always be put in place…

The future of education needs such a paradigm shift!.