RE:Our 'lust' to educate the poor (and spare the rich!)

["Tiwari, Umesh K" <UKTiwari@pcgb.com>]

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Dear Sanjeev,
"...And btw, WHERE is the exact law on compulsion that Iasked for, weeks
ago?Please tell me precisely WHAT any of you mean bycompulsion. How will
Iimplement it tomorrow if I were in charge of Educationin my state? Justlike
Universal Civil Code, this is so much shallowrhetoric without
anysubstance..."
I think I tried to articulate a proposal which would go towards formulating
a language for a child's right to education. The way I look at it is quite
different. I see complete local control in enforcing a child's right to
education just as I see complete local control on enforcing law and order,
and state or national leaders or debate about rich and poor does not come in
the middle at all.
In my opinion, as I had written at length before about police system reform,
where it would be city administration of elected representatives out of
local citizens would control law enforcement machinery, and hence, the
police would not only be answerable to local city administration and
indirectly to the local citizens, but even be dependent upon them to
function properly. This approach somewhat addresses the issue of "...police
shooting poor like ducks and sparing the rich....".
Also, my proposal to make it a child's right to get primary education was
based on the already established practice of keeping records of birth and
death at local registry. The same records (more useful when computerized)
can be used to obtain the information about every child in the village who
would be of a school going age at a particular school session. It can be an
annual exercise that a village clerk may undertake that verifies with all
private and public schools in the neighborhood that all of the children of
school going age are enrolled in one of the schools. For the children found
missing from the school enrolment lists, the City administration should ask
their parents to answer as to why the child was not enrolled in the school,
which ought to be the right of the child. There could certainly be genuine
medical or financial reasons for which the city could make provisions to the
extent possible. But one of the reasons could also be the non-availability
of the school in the vicinity, and at least such an exercise will allow the
city administration to have factual basis to appreciate the need for a
school in a particular locality. 
Primary education ought to be treated as a right of a child and not a
discretionary provision made by their parents. It is a matter of fundamental
principle and belief. Yes, the state, meaning the big government at the
state or central government level should have no business telling citizens
how to raise their kids, but there is a certain conflict of interest when
the rights of children are taken into account. Therefore, in the spirit of
partnership, the local citizens should be allowed to enforce their will
through their strictly local city government to ensure that children do get
educated at least so much that they learn how to read and write, how to
communicate with the world and know the basics of their own history,
culture, geography, freedom, constitutional rights and their individual
responsibility towards their village and nation. 
Free market and economic reforms? By all means, and I am all for it. But the
logic that someone from outside is going to come and make the poor people
rich simply because the free market reform takes place is debatable. Also,
free market reform is not a recipe to make everyone rich, and the nation
ought to think of imparting education to all and not just the rich. Besides,
free market reforms might start showing results at some time down the line,
which could be years, while the education has to there right now. I don't
support big government at all, and I am convinced that a government should
not be in the business of car manufacturing, steel production, or cloth
manufacturing or paper mill. However, since the present government of India
and various state governments have their hands stuck in these and several
other areas, the champions of free market reform should work overtime to
kick the government out of everyone of these ventures, and I guarantee it is
going to be at least a decade before most of such business enterprises get
controlled by private shareholders. While this exercise goes on, a higher
education reform also should start, that which completely privatizes higher
education and only provides grants to the Universities, soft loans to needy
and talented students. 
Imparting primary education to every child in India, if only to educate
him/her to be an informed citizen, has to be national endeavor, and
entrusting the city/village government of elected representatives of local
citizens with the task to ensure that it takes place is the best approach,
which guarantees maximum amount of freedom and control in the hands of voter
parents, and yet at the same time, entrusts the society of local citizens
represented by the local government, to make sure no child remains uncared
for. 


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