TBI Blogs: Here’s How We Can Overhaul India’s Education System to Ensure the Right to Education for Everyone

A mass movement is required to arrest the growing educational inequity and falling standards of education in India. Shaheen Mistri, CEO and founder-trustee, Teach For India, explains her vision for transforming the educational sector and helping the country achieve its true potential.

On January 26, 1950, the Constitution of India came into effect, securing citizens justice, liberty, and equality of status and opportunity for all Indian citizens. However, even 70 years after this momentous event, we, as a nation, have failed to secure even the most basic commitments of our Constitution for all citizens.

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I believe that one fundamental right – the right to good education – is the key to securing the constitutional guarantee of equality of status and opportunity. Many complex factors have led to the failure of the Indian educational system, and this has been a factor in India’s growing inequity. A child in India today is not part of a forward-thinking education system, and is unlikely to get 21st century content, skills, and values imparted by a motivated teacher.

From decades ago, when education was the medium for holistic development of an individual, and the guru served as the medium to achieve secular and spiritual knowledge, the purpose of schooling has now been reduced to merely preparing students for exams and joining the rat race, only to perpetuate a cycle where their children will one day prepare for exams and join a rat race of their own.

There is an urgent need to reinvent the education system to prepare our children for the future. The world is changing rapidly, and about half of the jobs currently available would become redundant by the time kids who are now in school graduate.

Unless the education system teaches them values and skills for the future, our kids are doomed to live in a world fraught with exponentially more struggles.

While schools for higher income groups are gradually improving in quality, those meant for the underprivileged are falling behind. The challenges are numerous. In addition to outdated content and methods of teaching, there is a severe deficit of good teachers, especially in schools for the underprivileged. Over and above this, there are other problems, such as overcrowding and run-down classrooms.

Our constant search for quick fixes has been partly responsible for our lack of progress in the education sector. We’ve made significant progress on access through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, building schools, and getting children there. However, we did not focus on quality, and are paying the price for it today.

The need of the hour is to secure for each child – irrespective of social or financial background – an excellent education. Only then, we, as a nation, can find our light and our true potential.

To ensure all our children’s education, whole communities must – together – think of ways to improve the education system.

Each one of us can join the movement by finding ways to engage by contributing our thoughts, time, or resources.

We must build a critical mass of leaders who are clear about the vision and mission. When they are willing to reinvent themselves to achieve the objective, change will happen.

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Channeling more resources into the educational sector, and ensuring that the resources reach the intended beneficiaries, is also critical. The purpose of education itself needs to be more inspiring. There is a compelling need and cogent reason to teach kids about being responsible to others and to nature. Education is about holistic development, not just cognitive development.

However, there is little that organizations can achieve by working alone. Setting aside different goals and philosophies, our children need organizations to collaborate and work together to meet their needs. The Kids Education Revolution promises to be one such early collective.

In it, a group of organizations will come together to transform the lives of 100 million kids through quality education.

Let’s join hands to power a second freedom movement of India, that will secure constitutional guarantees for all Indian citizens. We must help them achieve their truest potential as human beings. Transforming people through quality education is the only way our country can keep its tryst with destiny.

Take up the challenge to lead change! Apply for the 2017-19 Fellowship program online before 7th February, 2017!

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