New Jersey – Part I touched on the subject of how nations like China and India are emerging on the scene of education in the twenty-first century. Their solutions or themselves should not be perceived as new threats, but rather as a filler of the void in the bigger and more complex world today. The US has faced significant challenges to perform at a level of high expectation as required, so remaining complacent is the last thing the US can afford in this race.
Education, at all levels from primary to higher education, has been seriously taken to task in India. There are many hurdles they have crossed already and many goals required mandatory efforts that courts have imposed upon state and central governments. The Supreme Court provided a landmark decision in 2001 in India, when it imposed the Midday Meal Scheme for the school meal program all over India as a legal entitlement. Over 120 million children are covered today in this project in India, which has proudly become the largest school lunch program in the world.
President George W. Bush introduced “No child left behind” during his term and legislatures in Washington still remain lost on how to provide the money to keep the promise alive. India remained a few steps ahead in taking a lead on the their own program, which can be labeled as “No child attends the school on a hungry stomach.” India is not a very rich country to resolve all problems in a short span, but a patient approach of one step at a time has paid dividends on improving her education goals. Such commitment to free school lunch programs nationwide has an enormous cost (in the billions), but the government has always matched the funds to carry on the job successfully.
The question may arise why a nation should invest so much money in programs which have no immediate return. A country like India has millions of children who are not so lucky to have decent meals everyday. Giving them a free meal for lunch while they are in school is like killing many birds with one stone. It is not just to keep hunger and malnutrition at bay, it also increases attendance at school, improves attention span, sharpens learning skills and the ability to socialize among diverse backgrounds in the school. Some benefits are derived from outside the environment of the school, too. It takes away the burden from many low wage earning families to provide their school age children a decent lunch every day. It provides an opportunity to socially empower women with the lunch programs. If someone dissects the results from the program, it shows positive returns in so many ways that it is hard to ignore the implementation. It creates a new generation of the nation’s wealth with an effective, long term investment.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also pitched in with governmental efforts. They remain on the forefront of battle in improving education. The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, provides over 1.3 million hot lunches to underprivileged school children in India. No wonder that it has become the largest NGO of its kind in the world. Another NGO needs a mention here. Remember ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), which created so many storms around the US with its “Hare Krishna” movement? They are also holding a baton on the improvement of society in India. ISKCON established its own program known as the ISKCON Food Relief Foundation (IFRF) in 2004 to aid India’s socioeconomic development to eradicate hunger and promote education among underprivileged children in India.
Surprisingly, state governments also cooperated in attaining the national goal of free lunch programs and states like Gujarat, Karnataka & Tamil Nadu have excelled with their voluntary participation in other educational programs. Gujarat joined the Government of India’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) program, where states will provide free education to about 50,000 students ages 5 to 14. The costs will be paid by the Governments of India and the state of Gujarat combined.
India has a long way to go to fulfill her dreams on higher education, but it is time for the world to notice her achievements. There is no corner in the world, from Silicon Valley to the diplomatic quarters of the United Nations, which exists without the brilliance of the Indian touch. IITs and IIMs are the product of post-independent India, but there were excellent institutions of higher education in colonial India, masked only under colonial rule.
There is a lot to learn from new entrants China and India in the game. Some of the remedial actions will be tough to negotiate, but nothing in the field of education should remain untouched or dismissed without proper evaluation where the future of younger generations is now at stake.
It is difficult to touch all aspects of school and college education in all nations, but exploring the human elements in snapshots like this brief evaluation gives an opportunity to expand horizons on real education.
Education is an essential element of the nation’s vitality chart. It may not be an entitlement to many, but treating it as less than a privilege is more like inviting a chronic ailment which can destroy the livelihood of many generations. It takes a village to raise a child with proper education. Without all around participation, a nation could come out empty handed in education.
Kirit Desai
Kirit Desai had post graduate degrees from India & USA both - in multiple disciplines. After spending almost 30 years in R & D (as Research Scientist) and research management at a prestigeous Ivy League University, moved into Financial field for past decade & enjoys reading/writing in international business, politics, sports and science/technology. He lives in Delaware valley near Philadelphia.