As India celebrates 75 years of Independence and embarks on the journey to a new India@100, as an Educationist, it’s imperative to look at education sector of the country which will play a key role in nation building and lead the country towards a better and a brighter future.

Education is our fundamental right. According to 93rd Amendment, Education for all has been made compulsory. The elementary education is a fundamental right of all children in the age group of 6-14 years which is also free. To fulfill this obligation Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has been launched. Education is the only tool that can drive the country out of exploitation and poverty and for that the Government has always given importance to education. From a country with 19 percent literacy in 1951 to a country with around 75 percent literacy in 2011 (As per Census 2011) is a great achievement of which we can always be proud of.

To streamline the Education system, the successive governments implemented the recommendations of Kothari Commission under ‘National Policy on Education’ in 1968 to the NEP of 1986 which was updated in 1992 and finally the New Education Policy of 2020 has brought in a range of changes in the sector. There is absolutely no doubt that our public education system has grown many folds over the years where we can see the expansion of General Education, Development of Technical Education, Women education, Vocational education, Growth of higher education, Non-formal education, Encouragement to Indian Language and Culture, Adult education, Improvement of Science education, Schemes for Elementary, Secondary and Higher Secondary Education and so on. And all these efforts are getting the results but not as desired or it should have been. All these are on the piece of paper but practically the Education is the most neglected area of our country.

Lack of funds, Expensive higher education, Neglect of Indian languages, Problem of Brain drain, Mass illiteracy, Wastage of resources, Problems of primary education are some of the areas one has to really work on with the real desire of bringing a change in this sector.

We are making people literate not educated. For that whole mindset of the people in general and the society in whole has to change. And it will not come in a day or two. For that we have to start from NOW else it will be too late and then only we can celebrate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav in real sense.

VIVEK KUMAR
EDUCATOR