CHALLENGES AHEAD
 

Inspite of the substantial accomplishments since Independence, India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of illiterates and out-of-school children in the world - 30 per cent of the world's adult illiterates and 21.87 per cent of out-of-school children. About 19 to 24 million children in the age group 6-14 are out of school of whom about 60 per cent are girls; about 121.3 million are adult illiterates in the age group 15-35 of whom 62 per cent are women. Given the demographic pressure the numbers are likely to increase further.

The benefits of investing in basic education, both for its intrinsic value in enhancing human capabilities, as well for its instrumental worth in contributing to social development and economic growth, greater efficiency and better functioning of democratic institutions are well established. Of equal significance is the ability of education to empower women and men to acquire greater control over the circumstances that dominate their lives. It is now recognised that fertility regulation cannot be a matter of mere promotion of contraception but has to strongly promote the socio- economic factors which strongly influence fertility behaviour such as female literacy and education. The low level of social indicators such as fertility rates, Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), sex ratio are related to the failure to achieve Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE). If the East Asian experience has any relevance the criticality of UEE for the economic reform process cannot be over emphasised.

It is evident from the above that UEE has strong regional and gender dimensions. The Indian experience encompasses the entire Third World experience. At one end we have states such as Kerala which has achieved universal literacy as well as UEE in terms of school participation - though not in terms of learning achievement - with social indicators as good as the best among the Third World, if not the Scandinavian countries. On the other extreme we have states like UP, Bihar, Orissa and MP with indicators as worse as Sub Saharan Africa. To the extent that gender disparity is pronounced UEE is the problem of the girl child.

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Teacher competence, motivation and performance are areas which require greater attention. These are crucial inputs in UEE. Whatever policies may be laid down, in the ultimate analysis, these have to be interpreted and implemented by teachers, as much through their personal example as through teaching-learning process.

Except in a few places where the ethos of Panchayati Raj system has been internalised the school remains rather isolated from the local community.

Experience in India and elsewhere has established that universal participation cannot be delinked from the operations of quality and relevance of education and from learning achievement. The challenge before the nation is to enhance universal participation and universal achievement of certain minimum levels of learning. In terms of numbers alone this is the greatest challenge that human society had ever faced - more so if one were to adhere to the goal set up in the National Policy on Education, 1986 of universalising elementary education before the commencement of the twenty-first century.

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