The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Spend at least 5% of GDP on education: Jayati Ghosh

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Saturday, Dec 06, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Spend at least 5% of GDP on education: Jayati Ghosh

Staff Reporter

‘Differences between strata of schools must be eliminated’

‘Globalisation has deepened social discrimination’
‘Quality of education depends on resources’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The “tsunami of globalisation” has created different strata of schools in the country with differing access to resources and in doing so has accentuated the existing systemic and social discriminations against the poor, according to Jayati Ghosh, Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

She was presenting a paper on ‘Towards a New Paradigm: For Ensuring Universal Access to Quality School Education’ at the ongoing international seminar on ‘Democratic and Secular Education — Kerala Experience,’ organised by the State government on the Karyavattom campus of the University of Kerala.

The idea that the children of the poor can make do with poor quality education has been the determining feature of both the private and public education systems in India. If the country is to make its public education system universal and democratic, money should be put into the system and all the differences that now exist between different strata of schools should be done away with, she said.

This would mean a significantly higher allocation of resources for education that what is presently conceived. It would mean much more than a doubling or trebling of allocation. It would mean allocating 5 per cent of the GDP for education; something which is essential and normal. All developed countries that have universal education spend a minimum of five per cent of their GDP on school education.

Quality of education is hugely determined by the quantity of resources the nation is going to provide to this sector. Quality depends on whether you have enough classrooms, with enough physical materials, trained teachers, and enough toilets. There needs to be much more flexibility in the way resources are given to educational institutions. There is too much rigidity now in dealings between the Centre and the State and the State and local governments. The school system is itself very rigid now and excludes many categories of people such as the children of migrants, children of nomadic people and children of Scheduled Tribes. Schooling has to be more sensitive to language and the local requirements of the people.

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