This is once again school admission time! Admissions to schools (Be it LKG/ 8th standard/ PUC etc.,) has become an ordeal for the parents as every year routine. Even, those students who have succeeded in getting distinctions find it very difficult to get the admissions in the Institutions of their choice. This is a time for a politician to earn the wrath of harrowing parents, and derisiveness from the Educational Institutions. Hundreds of parents with their eager looking wards approach the politician seeking recommendations and they feel, it is his responsibility to get their wards the admission. It’s a difficult time for the Institutions to oblige the various pressure centers, viz., the politicians, local leaders, local police, higher ups of the Educational Institutions and other bureaucrats. At the same time, they have to ensure quality education. My sympathies with them!
Infact, it is the season of resentment for us, who are in politics.
-S Sureshkumar.
5 comments:
Thanks for taking time off to sympathise with the agonies of hapeless parents. Yes it may make them feel better to realise that someone among the powers-that-be at least understands their woes. But anyone can express mere sympathies, you can do more...
I am not suggesting that you can help each and every aggrieved parent but something else. For some time now, a few people in Karnataka and elsewhere have been advocating the cause of common education. Now many people would dismiss this idea as impracticable given the enormity of the resources required. But a former member of the planning commission had calculated it all and suggested that it was feasible and possible (I hope you would have read this interview in DH some time ago). May be not overnight. But please think in this direction. Please initiate or kindle the spark for a movement for common education. It has been a practice in all developed countries: education up to 10+2 is free, be it the US, the UK or Scandinavian countries. If we have to claim a place as an emerging super power, we need to think about this and not about bombs and IT alone.
Leaders like you should think big, at least move a brick in the direction of bringing big changes. Assemble at least a group of people interested in this and generate a few ideas. Then you may suggest them to your party leaders in Delhi. Yes, you can do this. If you cannot, perhaps no one can.Not that they cannot but they may not appreciate the importance of things like common education.
What are the events which changed the course of history in the recent past? In the 1990s it was liberalisation and decentralisation (thanks largely to Rajiv Gandhi/Manmohan Singh); in the 2000s it was IT and infrastructure boom (thanks to private sector and largely to Vajpayee)and in the 2010s let it be common education and thanks largely to .......(let your name be among those to be figured along this dotted line)...
I know you have always taken more interest in civic issues and urban governance. Leave these to local governments/leaders. You are needed for a greater service to India
Sir,
needless to say, we need more and more schools. The current budget allocation is less than 6% - which is considered appropriate in most developed countries... - Also, please co-ordinate with few good NGOs to provide more access to schools and also lift the standard of education in public schools.
We look up to people like you for such initiatives.
If the government implants quality education in government schools it will be of great use to many parents and politicians can be free from the ire of the parents mico raghu
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