By Krishna Jha
There has been discontent simmering among youth caused by the BJP government’s systematic attack on India’s education system, including against examinations for admissions and recruitments. The recent movement seeking resignation of the central education minister was one example of that when the government was forced to accept the demand of the students and the minister had to leave his post. Meanwhile, the entire education system stands ruined and employment situation also remains unaddressed.
There has been, for example, a significant drop in the enrolment of students in the undergraduate programs in our country. It promises a sort of guided route towards ultimate deprivation. Stunning the students, registered or not, the consequences of deduction in budget has been devastating. All hopes lost, they simply move to have other occupations, which could be physical or mental, endangering their delicate adolescence. They are cruelly pushed to the world of ignorance, a result of government’s studied retreat from the public education. The reduction in total budget of education in schools has been50 percent.
The higher education has been fortunate to have a reduction only up to 33percent. But reduction does not stop here. There is even more to it. Schools have been shut. In their place, 43 thousand private schools have been opened. They are meant to squeeze money, and creating a trained army indoctrinated by Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. Children have been suffering from acute pessimism. They cannot visualize their future, and hence have lost all optimism. There has been a conscious initiative to undermine the education system and that has weakened further the prospects for employment for the youth.
Among students, those who enrolled in undergraduate courses, accounting for over75percent of all enrolments, declined by 93,000(0.27per cent) in the two-year period between2022-23 and 2023-24, according to reports available. This is despite the youth population in the eligible age group witnessing an increase in the country. Same way, the number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) also went up from56,180 in 2022-23 to 59,533 in 2023-24. The decline was mainly in the courses of Arts, Sciences and Commerce. However the government has paid no attention towards decline, and instead played up minimal rise in gross enrolment ratio. There has been insignificant rise in the total enrolment in higher education – including undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma, Ph.D. and other certificate courses, marginally by 3.7 lakh, or 0.08 percent, from 2022-23 to 2023-24.
The decline has been highest in three states of West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, whereas Union territories such as Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir also witnessed steep falls in undergraduate enrolments.
Delhi, the national capital and a major hub for higher education, registered a decline of six percent in students enrolled in undergraduate courses in 2023-24, according to the report.
Only in the states of Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Karnataka and Odisha there has been an increase in enrolment – a fact that has helped increase the country’s overall performance. Tamil Nadu in particular recorded the highest increase of 1.6lakh enrolments, counterbalancing the steep decline of 1.53 lakh reported in Uttar Pradesh.
In fact the states have no more freedom to resolve the blocks on their own, according to the need of the people there. There is visible effort to destroy the purpose of our education system framed according to our democratic demands. There continues a method without any let up to transform the character and aims of the system working till now. The result of all these initiatives is 152 paper leaks in the country in last twelve years. Those really talented and hardworking are left without any earnings since the organizers themselves want to delete their foot marks made while engaged in criminality.
The most horrific hurdle is unavailability of employment, created by monopolization of economy. In recent past, it stood at 40 percent. Students cannot afford to get proper education and training for other jobs and thus are left forced into unemployment. The system itself has shifted beyond the reach of these students. The situation has been worsening with each day. The steps taken by the Centre carry no flicker of hope.
But the government’s approach remains autocratic. Instead of listening to students’ grievances, the government responded with utmost brutality during the recent student protest. Security forces fired metal pellet guns – causing severe eye and soft-tissue injuries – and used electric shock items along with nail-studded batons on protesting students. Almost one dozen and a half metro stations remained closed during the days of protests despite the fact that almost the entire protesting student community present in Delhi was on the streets. In addition during the peak days of protests, at least 17 metro stations had no proper arrangement for availability of food, water, two basic fundamental needs.
The government has now opted for superficial measure like bring in a bill that would increase the punishment for those found guilty of leaking papers. Even now there is no intent to take any serious step to address the real crisis in which paper leak is only one of the symptoms.
In fact education itself does not seem real, as the flaws in it are basic and to get rid of them, an initiative is imperative to bring a total change. Also there has to be a strict law to deal with such practices of unfair means. Unless the crisis is addressed in totality, people would not have faith. Education has to be employment oriented, and beginning from the first step towards schooling, the child must evolve charting a new path, and this has to be facilitated by the ruling establishment. (IPA Service)
