Busting the Myth of Education for All

November 11, 2011

It is beyond any doubt that the politicians realize the wrong they do, yet they also acknowledge the fact that their wrong policies often prove to be politically beneficial for them and they always remain alert to make best out of their wrong and immoral policies. Such is the face of democracy, people vote for those who rob and exploit them the best and they do not have any other option because all politicians are robbers.

The current case of election-bound UP, India is an excellent example of this fact. All the major contesting political parties are trying to prove that they brought the “Right to education”¹ and “Education for All” policies in action and they are fighting for this because they know it will provide them a good vote bank in UP elections.

What is Right to Education?

Right to education is a false assumption that education can be and should be provided free for every Indian citizen and it is the responsibility of the state or the government to provide enough resources and human efforts to educate all. Obviously, it allows government the power to decide what and how to educate or indoctrinate the upcoming generation of citizens. Right to education also means that governmental education is compulsory.

It is a false assumption which is being enforced by the crooked politicians for their own profits at the expense of the citizens to whom they say that “Education for All” will help the poor, the impoverished, and will bring equality in the country.

Real Meaning of Education for All

‘Education for all’ means that the government is owner of the citizens and citizens are the slaves. When politicians say that government will provide education for all, it means that there will be a government monopoly on education sector.

That is, while there will be private schools and colleges, they will be controlled and administered by the government as they will be required to have a permission, license, approval and affiliation with either the central or state government’s education board. That is, education is completely centralized which is the reality in India. Centralized education system means that either the state government or the central government and the bureaucrats will decide the course and pattern of education and every education institute, private or public, will be forced to follow the orders of education boards. Education boards are a gang of few politicians and bureaucrats who believe that they are godly people with all knowledge to decide what, when and how to teach the students. They decide what students should learn and what is profitable for the students. Obviously, these few people are believed to be the ‘Mai-Baap’ of all students.

Education for All is Extortion of All

We all know that government doesn’t produce anything yet we expect that government can magically provide things for free. But the reality is; Government always increases the expenses and wastage. Government realizes that a big portion of Indian citizens are living under poverty and hence politicians make use of these poor people by claiming that they will provide free education to all these poor people at the expense of those who are earning well. That is, government robs (through taxation) the middle class and upper class to educate the poor class. Or, government robs Ram and Shyam to educate Ghanshyam. Obviously, government has no way to spend all the money that it robbed for improving the conditions of poor. Rather, politicians and bureaucrats embezzle almost all of this robbed money through various scams, frauds and mismanagement. So, Education for All is certainly extortion of the middle class and upper class families.

The idea behind ‘education for all‘ is an observation that a skilled worker can produce greater amount of wealth. Often ‘skilled’ is misunderstood as educated and hence government and common people also start believing that if everyone will be well educated, everyone will be producing and earning enough wealth and that will reduce poverty, increase the living standards of everybody. However, this is not true.

Governmental education enforces students to forget about attaining better skills and encourages them to waste their big portion of time in learning that which the government wants them to learn. Government has no way to actually realize what teachings will make a student more skilled or better prepared to produce more wealth and earn well.

Education for All is Detrimental for Poor People

Irrespective of politicians’ claim that right to education is meant to help poor, it is not the reality. The reality is that governmental education, ‘right to education’ increases poverty and unemployment. The central and states government education boards these days are busy in announcing new rules every other day such as; No exams up to some level, no marks and only grades, optional exams, etc.² The recent rule was that no student will be failed in any class up to XII standard. So, no matter if a student studies or not, if he learns anything or not, he will get pass to enter in higher classes. After all, all students have right to education and if a student fails to learn anything, it is not his fault but the fault of the teacher.

This means that every second person will be eligible to attain higher education too, I won’t be surprised if after a few years government announces “Higher Education for All.” But what a person howsoever poor he is, will do with education if he cannot attain any job?

Government can rob middle and rich class and force them to pay for their scams and for the education of poor students but government can certainly not create jobs. Every year, Indian schools, colleges and universities offer hundreds of thousands of students, who are supposed to be well qualified, but the reality is, a big portion of these Indian graduates and post graduates are neither educated nor skilled and hence, they fail to attain any job. That is the reason why even the Indian companies are starting to appoint workers not from India but from other countries like Philippines and Nicaragua³ .

This situation is detrimental for poor people because while trying to make profits of government education, they do invest a huge period of time without actually learning anything that may help them in earning a living. After all this Free Education, not only the poor students, but the middle class and rich class students attain no actual skills but just degrees and certificates.

On the name of progressive education policies, government is actually ruining the whole education sector and making Indian educational institutes and teachers impotent to create any significant number of skilled and competitive citizens. So, while after liberalizing and disinvesting a few sectors, government really brought a stream of economical progress for Indians, now our own government and politicians have planned our way to poverty again by strictly regulating the education sector.

Education for all and all other governmental education policies are really hurting poor because when government robs (taxes) middle class and upper class, it decreases the ability of rich and middle class to create job opportunities for poor people. No one becomes rich by attaining a degree or school certificate, to earn, one needs opportunity or a job. But government kills the power of rich and middle class people to create jobs and opportunities. While doing so, it hurts the poor who could have earned a job and hence a respectful living if, the middle class and rich people weren’t being robbed (taxed) by the government. The same poor student could have earned better skills with the help of some private educational institute with complete freedom to decide for its own curriculum and education policies if the government and educational board hadn’t completely regulated the education sector.