Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “needs a lot of improvement” is a strong recommendation by the teacher. The teacher is none but the Global Civil society engaged in ‘Education for all’.
India ranked 9 out of 14 countries in the Asia South Pacific in a ‘school report card’ investigating developing countries’ commitment to basic education. The report is being released today by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) — a coalition of development organisations and unions in over 100 countries and Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE).
The report release coincides with two other significant global actions on education and poverty being organised across the world. The children in over 100 countries are presenting the paper cut-outs depicting a child demanding ‘send my friend to school’, to the embassies of G8 countries. The leaders of the richest 8 countries are holding their summit next week, in Scotland. Remarkably over two million children participated in ‘send my friend to school’ campaign, in over 100 countries, organised by GCE. Now they are demanding the world leaders to fulfil their promises by committing adequate resources on basic education for over 110 million children whose basic right to education is denied.
Another event under the banner of ‘make poverty history’ is also organised where the children, activists, teachers and workers would be wearing a white band on their arms to remind the world leaders to honour their promises for the realisation of 6 Millennium Development Goals including ending poverty.
The school report card has been released by the International President of Global Campaign for Education Mr. Kailash Satyarthi. Mr. Satyarthi said’ the world’s children don’t want to wait anymore. They don’t want hollow words, but money on the table and action on the ground to protect themselves and their friends from the vicious circle of child labour, illiteracy and poverty. ‘ A mere three days of military expense is good enough to educate all the children on this planet, but a lack of global political will and honesty to the children are the biggest obstacles’.
The report uses the format of a ‘School Report Card’ to rank the leaders of these developing countries as ‘class leaders’ or ‘poor performers’. Countries are graded and ranked based on their performance on: Complete Basic Education, State Action on Free Education, Quality Inputs, Gender Equality and Overall Equity.
The ‘Teacher’s Remarks’ section for Manmohan Singh reads: “Has the potential to perform better but has problems with attention span. Shows eagerness at the beginning, particularly in expanding primary education — but lacks the necessary follow-through. He must show more effort in equalising girls’ chances for basic education — by, for instance, recruiting more female teachers and ensuring more girl-friendly environments — which can impact tremendously on reducing illiteracy and improving overall educational access. Significantly lowering the number of adult illiterates in India (the highest in the world) and improving the quality of education are tough challenges that require consistent hard work and integrated focus on Manmohan’s part. While he spends more per pupil than most of his South Asian classmates and has even started an innovative ‘education cess’, he continues to charge user fees; this hinders access. Manmohan needs to put his financial expertise to good use by making each rupee allocated for education deliver quality inputs and putting more Indian girls in school. Needs a lot of improvement!”
India scored 43/100, and received an ‘E’ grade. It is no consolation then that neighbours Pakistan (14th, 24/100, ‘F’: “Back to basics, Pervez!”) and Nepal (11th, 35/100, ‘F’: “Definitely needs remedial classes.”) have fared much worse. Sri Lanka (3rd, 79/100, ‘B’, “…classmates can learn more from her splendid work”) and even Bangladesh (7th, 50/100, ‘E’, “You need to work harder Begum Khaleda!”) fared better.
Ms. Suman, Convenor, National Coalition on Education which is GCE member coalition in India, said ‘ we welcomed the announcements of UPA Government on basic education but the results are not showing on the ground and thus NCE has brought this input in the school report card’. “I want to go to school, so that, I can learn how to live with dignity, and unfortunately my parents are not willing as education is very expensive and of poor quality, said 11 year old Seema. In India the children presented ‘ send my friend to school’ paper buddies to the German Embassy today, whereas the other G8 country’s embassies have declined to meet the campaigners.
For more information please visit http://www.aspbae.org
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