Sri Sri Ravi Shankar!! Keep silence!! Don’t utter non sense!! Please mind your business!!

My letter to The Hindu dated 30-03-2012

This refers to the editorial “The art of schooling” (March 29). Sri Sri Ravishankar's remark that students from government schools become naxalites and take to violence is irrational and unwarranted, particularly at a time when we need to encourage public schools to end the monopoly of private schools which have become educational shops. Privatisation of education would mean denying the fruits of knowledge to the marginalised sections. Many people occupying some of the highest posts in the country are products of government schools. Moreover, naxalism is not the result of a lack of ideals in public schools; it is the result of exploitation by corporates and governments, leading to the displacement and oppression of the marginalised. The government has a moral responsibility to provide the kind of education one could expect from sophisticated private schools.

In response to the Editorial in The Hindu dated 29-03-2012

The art of schooling

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A good public education produces citizens who think freely, show initiative and possess a questioning mind. That progressive idea is increasingly under threat from lobbyists for market dominance. But even these campaigners would be surprised at Sri Sri Ravishankar's bizarre logic for privatisation — that students from government schools become naxalites and take to violence. Foolish though they are, such assertions prop up the falsehood that government-funded education is a ghettoised ruin, while private sector institutions uniformly make the cut. Such a proposition is particularly offensive because it strikes at the heart of the belated effort by the Indian state to make tax-funded elementary education free and accessible to all children as a right. The national goal is to rapidly expand quality education on an unprecedented scale and reach out to the remotest parts. There is a role for private schools in the overall scheme, as laid out in the approach paper of the Planning Commission on the Twelfth Plan, but it can only be to top up a sound education system run by the state. Genuine thought leadership must, therefore, dwell on questions such as improving the skills of 600,000 teachers in public schools who are officially described as untrained.

The logic that public education as a system is below par stems from the neoliberal idea that government works less efficiently compared to private entities and even non-governmental organisations. It is unsurprising that Sri Sri Ravishankar's NGO tried to explain away his controversial remarks on Twitter with the argument that it was running 185 free schools in “naxal-affected” areas, and the comments were not directed at all government institutions. Even if that were true, it is no reason to dismantle the government education system in conflict zones. If anything, weaknesses underscore the need to bolster the education infrastructure in these parts, with the active participation of local communities. Also, contrary to the pernicious logic advanced against public education, the beneficiaries of that system work harder to overcome their social disadvantages, compared with well-to-do counterparts in private institutions. As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, elite education is oriented more towards preserving the status quo, and emphasises the following of orders, control and discipline. This is antithetical to the concepts of freedom of thought, challenge and inquiry that are the core goals of education. India's public education lacks adequate human resources and infrastructure, and it evidently needs supportive policies to achieve its potential. What it does not need is a sermon on things that it is not.