Haider Ali Askary
The School Education Department of the state this past week announced a “reform” in the education sector. While observing the Village Education Committee (VEC) day, the Minister for Education Naeem Akhtar, has proclaimed to formally constitute VEC’s for schools, so as to take part in the educational process under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
According to a notice issued by the Government, a VEC will be headed as chairperson by school headmaster, three members of Panchayat/ Municipal wards (one female at least), one respected person of village, one person from SC/ST community, two retired teachers or Government officers or alumni or academicians, one gentleman and lady from parents, one Health worker/ Filed worker and one Anganwadi worker and Halqa Patwari. While,a teaching official of one of the schools, store keeper (CAPD) and village level worker will be ex-officio members of the committee. However, the representatives of parents will be nominated by the chairperson and nomination of all other members will be made by the concerned Zonal Education Officers, for one academic session, on rotation basis.
The Government has claimed that the idea is aimed to bring in more reforms and make education more participatory. Elaborating on the subject the Education Minister said “VECs will play a key role in the development of localized education and school improvement plan and also monitor enrolment, retention, education of girl child and utilization of grants and constructions to attain objectives of Universal Elementary Education (UEE) in the state”. Looking at the face value, this seems to be a welcome step at a time when the education sector of the state is under attack from every corner. However, this alone will not solve the problem inherent in education system. With this regard certain things need to be clarified here.
The Government schools are getting less attractive for the parents with each passing year.This is taking place despite spending a fair amount from the annual budget by the Government on education. There are numerous reasons for this. Part of the problem is the callousness and lack of sensitivity of the educational administration and teachers. This has been contested and challenged for long time now but the mere fact remains that most of the Government teachers and people working in Education Departments send their own children to private schools. It is apparently true that teachers at Government school are more qualified with high degrees in hand. But that alone does not ensure a productive end result. The private schools are mushrooming. They have better infrastructure in place. Most of the private schools secure better results during board exams. Students from private schools outshine the ones from Government schools in securing admissions into higher education in colleges and universities (though these alone are not sufficient criteria to judge quality of education). But unfortunately, even this is not true about majority of the Government schools.
Being a member of the VEC from the past one year in my village in Kargil, I have personally observed few things very contradictory in the proposed policy regarding VECs. A year ago we a group of simpatico people went to visit the schools in the village to form the VEC. The immediate response from the school authorities was positive. But they straightaway suggested us to gather parents, villagers,and village headman etc. to become active members of the committee. Our hard-worked attempt went futile when most of the peopleof the village declined the offer. They were simply not ready to take active part in it. The obvious reason cited by them was that their children are not part of the Government school. Rather most of the people send their children to private schools. This is the case almost everywhere now. The acute dichotomy between private and Government school has now become a clear demarcation between the haves and have-nots. This has resulted in leaving out only those children ending up in the Government schools whose parents could not afford the burdensome fee of the private schools. In such a situation the proposed “Re-constitution of the Village Education Committees” by the state Government seems futile. It is because, calling unsympathetic people, who don’t even wish to be on board, to be members of the VEC won’t yield better results.
Therefore, the feasible solution is to make the VEC an open forum, where like-minded people can come together and work. It should be a platform where people from everywalk of life can gather with a sense of dedication and honesty with the aim of making a better future for those students. Young people in their respective villages who are willing to voluntarily work in improving the education system would be a reasonable and achievable goal.
To believe that keeping a group of people (selected few) from here and there at the helm of affairs,with a mission of vibrant education,will produce a better result is a mistaken belief. It is high time that the Government come up with out-of-the-box ideas to improve the education sector.
(The author is Research Scholar at University of Delhi)
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