Sunday 19 June 2011

Quality education- only for the High and Mighty?

The news item in Daily Thanthi interested me so much that i decided to write a post on it. Education in India is a multi billion dollar business run by the Education Mafia. The Government stands a lame by-stander watching the game. For the poor and the down trodden, quality education remains a distant dream. I read on Daily Thanthi newwpaper this article on June 16, 2011- http://www.dailythanthi.com/article.asp?NewsID=653531&disdate=6/16/2011. The article speaks vividly about the admission of Erode District Collector Dr Ananthakumar's daughter in a Government Primary School. As we all know about Daily Thanthi and it's constructive(?) journalism, i don't dwell much on the description of the episode.

Collector Dr Ananthakumar fills out admission form and his daughter
attends her classes in Government Primary School.
But the gist of the news is this- Erode District's Collector Dr Ananthakumar was present in Kumalankuttai Government Primary School to acmit his daughter in Second Standard. He was offered a VIP chair to sit, but refused to sit and occupied a bench along with the other parents. He filled up the admission form and asked for school unifrom. The Head Mistress of the school replied that Government supply was only for the children enrolled in Noon Meal Scheme and the Collector enrolled his daughter in the Scheme too, saying his daughter would take food under the scheme. And the high light of the news- " Forgetting the fact that she was the daughter of the District Collector, his daughter Gopika sat down along with other students studying there." Oh my! Daily thanthi and its Constructive Journalism(!) Who knows, the scribe must have thought Collectors and their children descend from Heavens Above!

A welcome move by the District Collector, who has taken the right initiative in enrolling his daughter in a Government School which even the lower middle class would not contemplate! Ask the DC's peon- his son or daughter might be studying in a Residential School with all amenities. Officers like Dr Ananthakumar bring us a whiff of fresh air. While we must congratulate the Collector for his brave and steadfast decision which none of us, including me would take, i am deeply disturbed by Amma and her antics. She vehemently refuses to implement the "Samacheer Kalvi" ( New syllabus). This syllabus is a genuine step in  bringing about a uniform education system in the state. Why should the Education Mafia, who were once thugs selling arrack, rule our education system? If the syllabus is the same for Government and Matriculation Schools as well, why would people shell out tens of thousands for admissions in private schools? Amma's refusal makes one wonder how much the Education Mafia paid as ransom for upholding their monopoly in education business.

Ironically, the Government has gingerly accepted to follow the Samacheer Syllabus for 1st and 6 th standard students, tearing away objectionable portions of the books and pasting stickers on objectionable portions. Now this duty is undertaken by teachers of both classes throughout the State who paste green stickers ( note Amma's favourite color!) and tear off objectionable papers. The Education Department Officials have issued oral orders to ensure that students don't remove the stickers. If books are found with stickers removed, action will be taken against the concerned teacher! Poor teachers... never in their life would they have torn so many pages!
Teachers tearing away pages like mad in a center!
I thank my lucky stars i am a Railway clerk, not a State Government Teacher. Tearing away tickets is better than tearing pages from books;) I earnestly request Amma to change her stance on Samacheer syllabus. It is for the betterment of the people- after all these people voted her to power. Going by her past, it seems Amma has learnt nothing from her mistakes- she loves to continue her Hitler Rule- and now the poor students are caught in the cross fire. God save the children from Amma!



21 comments:

  1. nice post
    yes education has become a business in India as you said it.

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  2. an eye opener post!
    True ! thr is a dire need for change!

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  3. hmmm...its seems same here....

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  4. Mr. Ananthakumar has done good by uprising people men are equal - hope this is heard loud in Erode dist atleast. Amma -- Nivedita why comment on her and lose ur peace yaar -- I do enjoy her rule but then the scrapping seen by TN regime whether it be KK or JJ - people are rats to big mouses.

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  5. Nivedita this is a wonderful post! You know in the US most ordinary people like us send their children to government schools. All government schools are annually rated and ofcourse those which get the best grades are most sought after by the middle classes. The schools there cannot deny admission if you live within a radius of a certain distance of the school. Why cant we have the same system here? In colleges we vie for admission into the government run engineering and medical colleges so why not for the school education? I like the term "education mafia" because that is what these people are!! I think if the government is serious about improving the quality of education instead of getting into this sticker business they might get better quality students. YOu might like to go into this site http://www.asercentre.org/ and take a look at the quality of education rating scores for our state...!!! Not very encouraging!

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  6. nice post nive...in education field the contribution of kamraj was enormous.he ensured that he open a primary school in each and every village.but for him 50% of the state today wud have been illiterate. the performance of dravidian rule in this context is very poor. they abolished three language formula and thus made tamilan to become 'kinatru thavalai'.
    MGR borrowed mathiya unvau thittam of kamraj and made it as sattunavu. except this no other achievement.

    our 'ayya' and 'amma' are playing politics with the life of children.
    its too bad. hope good sense prevails.

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  7. Hats off to people like DC and his daughter Gopika! I wish others too get on track soon...

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  8. 1.Ananta Kumar had done a rte thing. so govt should take it as a chnce to insist all MP,s , MLAs, and GOVT EMployees irrespectiv of cadre and position to put their kids in to Govt school. so that all schools will get straight attention of govt machinery.

    2.In 2004 , CONG torn off some pages frm History book sasying Tat BJP had communalised Edu. so If Antonio is rite.. then extend same right to Jaya aunt...

    3.Who stops govt schools frm running a CBSE/Matric/Anglo indian/ or even International syllabi, as The GOVT school teachers are well paid above all Pvt school teachers..and let the student get a chance to access the kind of edu MK's and Ramadoss grandson enjoying....

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  9. Dear Cloudnine,

    It is not new to Tamilnadu, both Jeya and Karuna are playing the same game when they come to rule. Jaya named the busses JJ transport, MK changed it! Now JJ replaces black and red with green! They forget that these are not their properties!

    I believe, the Samacheer education system might have been developed by a team of experts! Why do these experts allow such controvertial parts (geeting Karuna and his schemes)? To make Karuna happy? Is this the way to make an old man (89Years?) happy? I don't just blame Jaya, as the experts make holes to peep in, thinking that Karuna will be back to rule!

    However, We public and our kid are the end sufferer! No harm to the current and ex- rulers! They play at our cost!

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  10. Cloud nine,

    100% right.. Nowadays it became a business and not as a knowledge sharing..

    Someone is Special

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  11. Read this story in local newsppr. Quite a sad state of affairs in our country where even education is discriminative.

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  12. Gosh! Cloud 9, am always amazed at our similarities! EDUCATION in my country is appalling! They are more business oriented & the rich & leaders children don't attend public schools becox it is nothing to write home about! lol @ constructive criticism & as if they descended from heaven. But run by a mafia? how come? & why?..that reminds me, this is my e-mail kibhade@gmail.com {so that i can reply your question..remb?}....an insightful post..tnx

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  13. Dear Sm, thanks for the comment. Yes, education in India is truly run by retards!

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  14. Dear Red heart, thanks for the comment. Great you accept there is dire need for change.

    Dear Thinking, thanks for the comment. Yes, i know how things are there too...

    Dear Red handed, thanks for the comment mate!

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  15. Dear Meera, agree with you 100%, the system in US is just great and it would be better if we follow the same here. Worse, we know the standards of State board teachers here, who draw excellent pay. Why not make them teach CBSE syllabus to the poor and down trodden too? Uniform syllabus throughout the country is what we must aim for, after the Lok Pal of Team Anna!

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  16. Dear Ramnath, thanks for the comment. Yes, MGR, KK and JJ copy the ideologies of Kamaraj, sad they have no mind or application of mind on their own. Poor children are caught in the mess this time.

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  17. Dear Arthi, thanks for the comment, and i join you in congratulating DC and his girl again!

    Dear Anonymous! Clap clap clap! Thanks for the truly honest comment. This is what i say- Follow uniform syllabus in every school throughout India. Why should we spurn the growth of education mafia by introducing State Board, Matric, Aicse, cbse and icse syllabus???

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  18. Dear Janaki, that is a well thought out comment. Yes, it is ultimately our kids who are the sufferers. MK or JJ, they come and go, but our educational system needs a total revamp at the earliest!

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  19. Dear Sis, yes, education means money minting for the unscrupulous educationists- the well being of the children is often forsaken for material wealth!

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  20. Dear Disgruntled Genius, welcome to my blog and thanks for the comment. Yes, we must hate this discrimination!

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  21. Dear Ibhade...sad, but true, Indian education system is run by so-called educationists who prefer to run education as a business and earn money rather than with a service motive. Quality of education must be the same for the rich and the poor. Noted the mail id. Shall mail you soon sister!

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