How Elite Section of Society Can Collectively Complement Teachers and Schools in Reforming the Education

Mukul Dhariwal

In our Constitution the right to education is not defined expressly as a fundamental right; it is derived from the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The right to education has been treated as one of transcendental importance. It has fundamental significance to the life of an individual and the Nation. In fact education is enlightenment. It is the one that provides dignity to a man. The fundamental purpose of education is the same at all times and in all places. It is to transform the human personality into pattern of perfection through a process of development of the body, enrichment of the mind, sublimation of the emotions and illumination of the spirit. Education is a preparation for a living and for life. Education is social necessity. It is in this context that the Government is duty bound to ensure education for all section of the society.

Now next question arises is about the quality of education. The elite and privileged section of the society is having all the facilities to get quality education. As the high cost is involved in getting quality education, it is not affordable for the poor and low income group of society unlike the elite class.  Since the beginning education delivered to the elite class is through quality schools, highly supportive for the learning as well as for personality development. Atmosphere at home is also highly conducive for learning because both the parents are qualified. Such children would not only be provided with the best curriculum but would also have access to different types of literatures improving their domain of knowledge. Various electronic facilities are also available with them for incremental enhancement of their personality and skills. So these children always have an edge over the children from low income group. Inequality in the society is a fact of the life and cannot be eliminated overnight. The only way to come out of this unpleasant situation is to improve the quality of education for under privileged children. The Government, with various means is trying to encourage and motivate the children from the low income families towards education by disbursing the scholarships and giving incentives like mid day meal etc. But, poor quality of education in the Government schools is nullifying these initiatives. There are various reports which reveal that the students of these schools are not able to perform the basic mathematics and even they cannot read and write properly in their mother-tong. This adversely affects their performance in the later stage and put them in disadvantageous position at the time of enrolling for the higher education and later in the jobs. The quality of education, commitment of teachers, and infrastructure of these Government schools are so poor that it almost destroys the potential of the students. This is having a long lasting impact on the intelligence and performance of the students and ceases their growth potential.

Improving educational quality is more challenging than building classrooms, as it is often less visible and can be more complex. It is important to consider how to improve learning outcomes is underdeveloped, particularly in resource-limited settings. Even when promising interventions are identified, results may not come quickly enough for the persons complementing the education for the low income group children. There are many similarities in the broad types of education reforms. Most common reforms planned are those related to system strengthening, efforts to improve teacher quality, directly train the students in the spare time and interventions aimed at addressing educational inequalities.

These can be achieved by making special efforts to improve teachers’ quality and direct intervention with the student to train and motivate them. The qualified person can directly co-ordinate and may provide his services part time, which could be quite useful for the schools, teachers and the students. Now-a-days life span of human beings has increased substantially. For the persons working in the Government and private organisations, retirement age is around 60 years. At this stage of life one needs busyness with the lightly loaded assignment to keep him physically and mentally fit. Financially also such persons become self sufficient. So his vast experience of the life, knowledge and qualification can be utilised for complementing the education and such persons can become an asset to society instead of a liability due to his old age. After the retirement a person can commence second inning of his life with a motive of giving back to the society. We all know that Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, when he was the President of India, had expressed his desires to serve as a teacher. Behind his desires he cited the reason that for his success in the life and for his interest in the space technology, a teacher in his small village had played a major role. He emphasised that a good teacher at the primary level can play a crucial role towards positive development of the child. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in his home town Plains, Ga. Involvement of successful personalities in mentoring the young generation is very valuable to the society. Childhood is an appropriate period when a child can be groomed to become a responsible citizen possessing high value such as honesty, sincerity and integrity. There are various examples when a spark of motivation resulted in transformation of a child.

There may be many ways to achieve the reforms and complement in the existing education system through schools, teachers and the students. Elite Group of society could supplement the efforts of teacher as well as directly benefit the students. These are briefly discussed below:

·         To adopt a school and provide the financial support. The school may be made a model school which may inspire  others to work for the benefit of the society.

·         To develop a library in the school for enriching the knowledge of the students and to develop a habit of reading in them this would be beneficial throughout their life.

·      Donate the books to the schools or directly to the students. This can be done by a single person, but if taken up collectively then it would have more impact.

·      To make available facilities and equipments etc for the sports related activities for personality development of the students

·         To finance the educational tour for such students.

·         Taking the classes on honorary basis. Such persons would be self motivated without any external pressure and their work would be more fruitful as it would come from their soul. It would definitely deliver better results.

·         Take onus of expenditure towards education of a child belonging to a poor family.

·       Direct interaction with the child to motivate him towards studies and for making him more responsible citizen of the country. He should be guided to become a courageous personality possessing a fighting spirit.

·         To listen the problems and issues of the child/student and to take action to resolve the issues.

·         To provide good story books, self help books and biographies to the children for development.

·         Emphasis should be given in developing leadership skills in the children. We may arrange interaction of the children with the successful personalities in the town for creating hunger in the children to do something big in the life.

·         Teach students how important it is to be a person of self confidence and train him in this regard.

·       Train the students about the moral values in life. They may be taught through our Puranic books like Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata and through heritage of our country.

·         To form group of likeminded persons who can move forward for assisting the students in imparting quality education.

·         Motivate the teachers and to make them aware of the important role that they can play in building character of the new generation and future of the nation.

·        To support with money, time and mentoring the NGOs, group of people and individual person who are already playing a vital role in area of teaching and training the low income group children.

·         Make best possible utilization of IT environment for remote mentoring of students right from place of work or stay. It is a viable solution to bridge the gap in imparting quality educations.

These are some of the ways through which we can support and motivate children from low strata of society so that they can change their fate and could enjoy the life with happy living. Our support would be a little but a concrete step to elevate our society and build a strong nation with equal opportunity for all sections of society and pave the way to bring more and more families out of the poverty.

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