Let's Teach The Teacher

An expert in education bemoans the low quality of education in our schools and stresses on the need for vocational training in schools.

When children do not have access to schools, it is a crime; when they do not have access to learning despite having access to schools, it is an unforgiveable travesty of justice. 

Much has been written and said about the quality of school education in India and the inequity that it has come to represent. It has taken the country nearly 7 decades since independence to ensure all its children have access to schools; and yet, despite the increase in access, nearly 9 crore children in India, almost equivalent to the entire population of Germany, are out of school today. But what about the children who attend school despite all the odds the system and life throws their way? The inequity in the quality of education offered in our schools should rattle our collective conscience and make us act with a sense of urgency. And yet, one rarely hears of it being an issue that any election is fought on. Our learning achievement surveys tell us that our children from disadvantaged backgrounds are on an average 3-5 years behind their more privileged peers — a gap that proves to be insurmountable as the learning deficit accumulates over the years. Our employment readiness surveys point to the fact that merely 30% of India's graduates are equipped with employable skills - a sad reminder of how broken our entire system is and how the mindless expansion of the higher education sector without adequate quality monitoring mechanisms has thrust generations of under-skilled, under prepared graduates upon the already severely constrained job market.