Introduction

India is the only country where policy makers seem to be in utter chaos and confusion and often have to rethink and revise the policies that cost the nation a considerable amount of resources and yield no or the results equal to nothing . History reveals that many a times we as a nation had to remorse on the faulty and fragile policies that the govt. of India made and the state govts adopted blindly without considering the financial and socio-ethical implications. So we are compelled to sense a political and bureaucratic hoax in such policies. I feel very humble to say that around 2000 AD, the govt of India launched SSA throughout the country with the purpose to Enbridge the gender and social gap in education sector. And to reduce the dropout rate was the special purpose of this scheme. When it comes to the actual impact factor, the results are totally disappointing. And this can be visualized by analyzing the following data. I am going to discuss each and every comment of education system to make a judicial analysis of the topic under discussion and try to maintain a balance between pros and cons of the policy that has been in vouge since 2000s.

Analytical- Survey

A report, National Educational Policy: Why educational Reforms Failed to Make a Grade, published in EPW-engage, reads as:The 2018 Pratham–Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) report highlighted India’s dismal record on the quality of education that is available: 73% of class 8 children cannot read beyond class 2 level material, and only 44% of them are able to solve basic arithmetic. And the irony of the fact being that SSA was launched in 2000. It simply means that during the 18 eighteen years time span the scheme has yielded no desired results. And if we calculate the budget of state on education for the same span that would Definity force every one to put finger under his teeth or bite his own lips. Not only this but ASER 2024 a research based report that has been conducted by Pratham, mentions that overall enrolment dropped from 98.4% in 2022 to 98.1% in 2024 , with govt schools enrolment declining from 72.9% to 68.8%. the report further says that in 2024, 45.8 of Std. VIII students could solve basic arithmetic problems showing slight improvement. And 23.4 % of class III students could read Std. II level text , up from 16.3% in 2022.
So for as Jammu and Kashmir the introduction of SSA, RMSA and other associated initiatives resulted, but in the worse. It became the source of corruption and malpractice. As most of the teachers selected under SSA on revenue village or habitation basis led to the cheapest standard of education. There would be 10 to 15 Intermediates, graduates or postgraduates in a village in 2000s and those who had got the the degrees by hook or crook got the opportunity irrespective of their potential to deliver effective and result oriented service. The tragi-comedy reached its climax when a case from Quazigund area was heard in High court of Jammu and Kashmir and the judge would ask the candidates to compose an essay on ' The Cow' and the irony of the fact being that the candidate who claimed his merit would utterly fail to write down this essay that had been on tip of the tongue of every child in 1990s and 2020s. No doubt, 5-10% teachers were deserving , but they got selected by chance and not by choice. And it is also an undeniable fact that most of those teachers qualified other competitive exams and joined other departments. so, what would remain left , is surely a deadwood. A lot of teachers without genuine qualifications and potential remained there to educate the innocent folk of our nation. After two and held decades Govt. Of Jammu and Kashmir is thinking of closing thsoe schools and most of them have been clubbed with the already existing nearest Middle schools.
Education Guarente Service (EGS) an offshoot of SSA was a bolt from the blue for the whole state education system. As majority of the teachers were 10 2 qualified that too from an era when education was almost on the verge of death - the decade of 1990s, when one would run for life and not for the education. The mass copying and malpractices during the exams from Primary to university level produced a lot of Illiterate Graduates/ Postgraduates/ Doctorates etc. I still remember the case of a candidate from Kulgam District while serving Education Department at 10 2 level as a lecturer on contract basis and while performing an invigilation duty ,I could find that a candidate was appearing in 12th Bi-Annual Exam and on the very date of Math paper he was not even updated about the exam date. And when he would not come the said date , he was informed phonically by the superintendent that his exam was scheduled on that day. After a while he came and he was facilitated with a separate room and related books in order to copy the answers on his answer sheet. This is a simple indication of how much knowledgeable and competent he would have been in his subject that ironically was the basis of selection as an Education volunteer as he was put under a condition that he had to pass his 12th standard with Math as one subject. It would not be fair to say that there is any fault of teachers who got selected, but of the state education policy. So, the improvisation is required in policy not in the section.

Pass-Fail Hypothesis

The most faulty strategy that our education system is following with regard to grading of students to check their learning leave and to award them grades and promotion to next class. The result is that the learners community is all focused on pass or fail with a tendency to high or low marks percentage which furthermore results in memorization and rote learning. So the purpose of education to modify the behavior and develop a progressive mind inside an individual is at the stake. "If children are to learn and understand, they must do so at their own pace, aided by an assessment structure that does not look upon schooling as either a “pass” or “fail”. Writing on the “no detention policy,” Rohit Dhankar argues for an alternative curriculum, which, the author says, should be seen as a continuous curve, and should not be separated by class or year. While as in foreign countries there exists an open book examination that checks the learners power of comprehension, competency and reading comprehension. The responses must not be copy pasted books , hower to answer the question a students has to open type book and answer in a way that reflects his own own potentiality of responding to situation. Here we are creating illiterate Post(graduates) and Scholars.

Are Teachers to Blame for the Standard of Education

Though teachers are called the builders of nation so they mut be strong and competent enough to do justice to their job and they must posses the required trainings and skills in order that he may deliver the service very effectively. They can be held accountable only in respect of results. But the overall assessment depends on the magnitude and ration of budget spent on the basic infrastructure and teacher trainings and overall development of the department. Although the Senior Secondary schools and colleges have a good infrastructure, the primary/middle schools in far -flung areas still lack the facilities that are laid down in SRO-123 that our govt. implements on private schools and fails to implement on her own schools. In this age of postmodern era that fully demands the ICTs and other related tools for imparting education so that there is no ambiguity in class room. The question being that are such tools available in govt schools at Primary / middle level.
"Since teacher salaries occupy the largest share of education budget, Protiva Kundu writes that teachers are constantly criticized for children faring poorly in school. However, Kundu argues that the focus of criticism should be towards the state: poor allocation of funds for teacher training has failed to better teacher education, and state-sponsored measures such as in-service teacher training are only half-measures. Making teachers solely accountable for the poor quality of education in government schools is not only unfair, but also demotivating. Controlling teacher salaries will certainly not guarantee accountability. Rather, there is a pressing need to address the issue of teacher shortage by recruiting a cadre of qualified teachers. Improvement in learning outcomes can only be expected if states allocate a substantial amount of resources in building the infrastructure for teacher training and for the training of trainers."

Is Privatization a Panacea?

Being the denizens of a democratic country we can't justify the privatization of education that has been one of the core developmental programs of our nation since the independence. Although it can be supported as a supplementary sector to help the govt. sector in achieving the ultimate goal of 100% literacy in our country that is one of the motives of Mission-2047 for making our country what our honorable Prime Minister-Shri Narender Modi would call " Atma Nirbar Bharat." The way private education sector of our country is doing its discourse can certainly help our nation becoming more dependent on capitalism and aristocracy. For there is not an open chance for the poor and destitute section of our society. So for as maintaining the education standard in country private sector has been playing a positive role as the latest data shows private sector more results in some parts of our country. At the same time , private sector , as earlier said, is promoting capitalism through the means of education. Only the owners are benefitted and the labor class suffers adversely. There is no job security given to the employees and they are always at the mercy of God. No leave provision and no CPF/EPF/ PRAWN and other perks provision. There is no uniformity in salary of the private sector employees. The dealings are held in a secret way and pay structure is never displayed in front of employees.
"A contemporary education policy needs to consider democratic and educational aspirations of the youth, and provide concrete steps for the realization of these endeavors. S . Ramamurthy and K. Pandiyan argue that rather than address issues plaguing the Indian education system, the National Policy of Education, 2016, looks to privatize education, and create a neo-liberal education system that is market-oriented, and where government oversight is minimal. These manifestations of privatization are: the state’s withdrawal, proliferation of the purely private sector or of self-financing programmers, removal of aided college identity, creation of private universities, deregulation of public-funded institutions through policy neglect, the further strengthening of the private educational management, deregulation of checks and balances, market control of universities and paving the way for the entry of foreign finance capital into the sphere of higher education. Further, Ramamurthy and Pandiyan contend that the state’s inability to spend 6% of India’s GDP on education, as recommended by the Kothari Commission, has led them to invite private players in education." So, it would be sheer injustice to say that private sector is a panacea.
The Conclusion that makes a sense and can be viewed as an way forward to reform our education system in such a way that it beomes reuslt oriented and job creating .It helps us lighting the burden of unemployment rather increasing the burden for the state by creating the educated that can't feed their own mouth , leaving aside their parents and other relatives, despite getting a degree. I have some modest proposals to put forth here that can be summarized as:
Exams system@ academic as well competitive must be evaluating an individuals overall development, not mere information and subjective knowledge. And the pass-fail hypothesis must be eliminated and a grading system without consideration to percentage/ CGPA scale. As such grading system creates division among the same community of students. The grading system should be based on a realistic perspective and relevance of grades with the market. " Three Idiots" movie has been designed to highlight the loopholes of education system , but alas! that remained limited only to entertainment.
The performance of employees of education sector should be made directly proportional to the returns they get for their service. Means that if an employee fails to produce the desired results his salary should be reduced in accordance with the results given that will make the employees more focused.
Private education enterprise must be regulated . A uniform fee structure and salary structure should be designed so that the disparity between govt. and private sector employees is eradicated. it will help to eliminate the inferiority-superiority discourse from the land in a way.
Contractual/adhoc/seasonal arrangements should be abolished and a uniform law may be devised so that the educated youth doesn’t suffer and potential is not let to be wasted. Rather a comprehensive policy with some provisions like a specific probation period thereafter to be regularized and a specific pay structure; thereafter a regular pay scale to be implemented that will help us managing the budget as well as generating employment in a smooth way.
The selection process be made more effective and accurate that is based on overall competence of a candidate and not on the basis of mere qualification and paper passed by means of memorization and rote learning.
Private university education be minimized and the intake capacity of state universities be enlarged that help us generating employment as we may require more and more man power. Otherwise , university level education in private sector has become a matter of business and nothing more than that. Nowadays we see tha the PhD degrees are on sale. And the standard of selection for such high profile degrees is very cheap and mean. And awarding the degrees has become a fashion. Private universities offer a candidate not only admission, but all the formalities like course work, publications and even thesis preparation. A simple question is what can doctorate degree holder create when he doesn’t know who was his guide and what was his research topic and how he worked during the research and which methodology he would follow during his PhD. 90% thesis/ dissertation is done through copy paste tactics.

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