Vice President’s speech on the Launch of EQFI
Shri Mohd. Hamid Ansari Honorable Vice President of India Address Note
“Commitment to Excellence and Equity in Education”
“Professor
Krishna Kumar, Dr. Anjlee Prakash, Mrs. Meera Balachandran, Ms. Anuradha Sen, Prof.
Siddiqui, Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. This is a distinguished gathering
of professionals and I am happy to be here on the launch of the quality program
of the Education Quality Foundation of India.
The centrality of the education in the well being of a society can not be overstated.
It is a public good, a basic human right, a fundamental right and an important instrumentality
for social and economic empowerment. When one looks at the status of education and
literacy in our country, some facts stare us at the face.
One- third of India’s adult population is illiterate. Only twelve percent of the
eligible children at school complete the tenth standard.
About 2 crore children are born every year. Around 7 percent of the children do
not attend school between the age group 6 to 14. Of the one’s who do go through
the primary and secondary schooling, about 75 lakhs appear in the class 10th
and 38 lakhs in class 12th examinations. At both levels the pass percentage
is between 50 and 55.
And thirdly, the percentage of children who don’t attend school between the age
group 6 to 14, from minorities, SC and ST communities is higher than that of the
general population. For long and justifiably the entire focus of the Governmental
efforts in education has been on equity and access. At the same time, there are
other questions that relate to the content and quality. Who teaches in these schools?
What is the teacher pupil ratio? What is taught? How is it taught? Are the teachers’
adequately trained? Are we training them in sufficient numbers? The tenth plan data
shows that the school education suffers from lack of access, low participation and
from equity and quality issues. Official assessments also suggest that budgetary
outlays are not transforming fully into program outcomes. Ladies and gentlemen National
Knowledge Commission address some of these issues in its recommendations for school
education. The focus of these is on more resources, more decentralization and more
flexibility. It would be useful to revisit some of the issues on quality raised
by the knowledge commission.
Firstly, school education is highly segmented and various systems must be integrated
to give all children access to schools of acceptable quality.
Secondly planning for schools must take into account the ecology of education and
the need to adjust school systems to local conditions without sacrificing quality.
And thirdly, there is an urgent need for the national body to monitor both government
and private schools to ensure that the minimum standards are met in terms of learning
outcomes. All this leads us to the conclusion that the emphasis in quantitative
gains must be complemented by a commensurate focus on quality. It is here that the
initiative taken by the Education Quality Foundation of India for accessing institutions
on the quantifiable performance criteria is timely. It would help in better understanding
and implementation of the quality of education imparted to our young citizens.
Friends, quality education must be demystified for it to take roots in the education
sector. The advocacy research and the analyzing role of the foundation and its ilk
in the broader civil society should leave every child having access to education
of acceptable quality in every region of the country.
I thank the foundation for inviting me today and I wish it every success in its
endeavors. I think that the work you do today would determine the quality of India
tomorrow.
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