Govt seeks aid for schools but experts say it’s govt’s responsibility
Experts say the Union government’s Vidyanjali 2.0 scheme, seeking volunteers for teaching and public contributions towards books, equipment, infrastructure and repairs in government and government-aided schools, is nothing but an abdication by the government of its responsibilities.
The Education Ministry, through its Vidyanjali 2.0 scheme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September, has sought volunteer teachers to offset vacancies, and public contributions towards books, equipment, infrastructure and repairs in government and government-aided schools.
In September too, letters were sent by the ministry to bodies like the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and the NCERT to popularise the scheme.
While the government’s view is that there is nothing wrong in seeking help from citizens to revive government and government-aided schools that lack teachers and basic infrastructure, educationists say it is a move towards.
Delhi University executive council member Ashok Agrawal told The Telegraph that the “government is duty-bound to provide education to all”.
He also said that that connecting “members of the public” to schools “individually” will be “counter-productive”, primarily for two reasons: it will be “mostly people with vested interests” who will offer to volunteer, and “some people will teach without any training, and quality will suffer even more”.
The general secretary of a civil society watchdog in Tamil Nadu called State Platform for Common Schooling System, Prince Gajendra Babu told the newspaper that when education is “funded by the government, the objective of education as a fundamental right can be fulfilled”. “Opening the school system to a contributory model will weaken it,” he added.
Another expert The Telegraph spoke to also criticised the move. Mitra Ranjan from the Right to Education Forum, an NGO, said Vidyanjali 2.0 is a step towards “informalisation” of the education system, a move that will “further undermine the role of the schools, of regular and well-trained teachers, of the proper educational environment, and of the formal schooling system”.
He pointed out the stark facts regarding teaching and infrastructure in government schools: that nearly 11 lakh teaching posts were vacant in the states, and only 25.5 per cent of government schools are fully compliant in terms of facilities like classrooms, a playground, toilets and drinking water facilities.
