How Allahabad HC order can revolutionise education in India

Finally, the whip has been cracked! A very significant order has been delivered by the Allahabad high court on August 18 which, if implemented strictly, promises to revolutionise the primary education system in Uttar Pradesh. Why only primary education and why only UP? If the ambit of the order is expanded exponentially, then crucial sectors like education as a whole, health, public transport, roads and traffic will also drastically improve throughout the country. This is how:

Education

As per the court order, all government servants, elected representatives, members of judiciary and any other persons who get any benefit or salary from the state exchequer or public fund, are required to send their children to primary schools run by the UP state education board. The order should be made applicable to all the other states. If the children of these elite classes perforce start going to the government-aided schools, there is no doubt that the condition of these institutions will drastically improve in no time. The government will not allow their own schools to run in utter neglect and apathy, as is the case now throughout the country. The facilities which are available in private, "public" (a misnomer) and convent schools would be replicated in the government schools. Very soon, they will become coveted institutions of the nation. The same formula can be applied to the colleges as well, thus, uplifting the standard of education in the whole country.

Union consumer affairs minister Ramvilas Paswan was one of the first politicians to welcome the Allahabad high court order. He is certainly one of the few leaders who have been demanding for a long time that all children should have access to the same quality of education. His political outfit Lok Janshakti Party's slogan is: "Whether s/he is child of the President, peon, rich or poor, all of them should be educated similarly." Paswan expressed his feelings in two tweets posted on August 19. Ironically, he did not send his son Chirag Paswan, a Lok Sabha MP from Jamui, to a government school. Junior Paswan went to Air Force Golden Jubilee School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. But politicians are rarely known to walk the talk.

इलाहबाद HC ने फैसला दिया है कि IAS/IPS/MLA/MP आदि के बच्चे सरकारी स्कूलों में पढ़ना चाहिए ! सैघान्तिक रूप से मैं इस फैसले का स्वागत करता हूँ

— Ram Vilas Paswan (@irvpaswan) August 19, 2015

लोजपा का नारा है - राष्ट्रपति का बेटा हो या चपरासी की हो संतान, आमिर या हो गरीब का बेटा, सबकी शिक्षा एक समान !

— Ram Vilas Paswan (@irvpaswan) August 19, 2015

Health

Like the government schools and colleges, condition of the state-sponsored hospitals, dispensaries and primary healthcare centres is generally pathetic. They lack basic infrastructure and face resource and logistics crunch. A large number of posts, including those of doctors, compounders and nurses is either lying vacant or they remain absent. Even if they attend hospitals, they are rude to the patients (remember, so many women have delivered babies outside the hospitals after being turned away by the staff). The same doctors are polite with their patients when they see them privately by charging fees. Medicines are perennially in short supply for reasons known to most of us, beds are far too less and hospitals are dirty. No wonder, patients of the elite classes get admitted in private and "five-star" hospitals in the country or they even go abroad. The condition of these health centres would automatically improve if it is made mandatory for them to visit only these.

Public transport, roads and traffic

Public transport in metros may be slightly better but in districts and small towns it is deplorable, to say the least. Even in big cities, the metro trains and buses are overcrowded and autorickshaws and taxis harass and fleece passengers. People have to walk long distances to board buses and metro trains. The condition in state capitals, district headquarters is worse. Public transport will witness magical change if it is made mandatory for IAS, IPS, other senior government servants, MPs, MLAs and members of judiciary to use public transport. The condition of roads and traffic will also automatically change for the better if elite classes start using public transport under compulsion.