Even though the Indian government has taken steps to accomplish important objectives in the field of education, significant interventions are still needed to address learning poverty and the enduring disparities. Discuss. (250 words)
Answer: The values and ethics of administrators are given a lot of emphasis by the society as they wield extensive power to formulate policies, implement schemes, supervise funds and maintain law and order. The power, which administrators wield can bring the nation great dividends if rightly used: ARead more
Answer:
The values and ethics of administrators are given a lot of emphasis by the society as they wield extensive power to formulate policies, implement schemes, supervise funds and maintain law and order.
The power, which administrators wield can bring the nation great dividends if rightly used:
- Access to basic necessities to citizens: With resources and networks at their disposal, the administrators are able to transform the lives of citizens with respect to accessibility to basic necessities. For example, Santha Sheela Nair saved Chennai city from water crisis in the early 2000s, as she was the brain behind making rainwater harvesting compulsory.
- Empowering the downtrodden sections of society: Due to the initiatives of administrators, various sections of the society are guided towards progress. For example, Kudumbashree project headed by Aruna Sundararajan is a shining example of women’s empowerment.
- Adoption of new technologies: The administrators have played a key role in the adoption of e-governance in the country, which has provided various government services at the click of a button thereby reducing manpower wastage and easing lives of the common man.
- Preventing illegal and unlawful activities: Brave fight of Durga Shakti Nagpal against sand mafia, exposure of the JBT recruitment scam by Rajni Sekhri Sibal withstanding the pressure from the government, etc. reflect the power of administrators in preventing unlawful activities in society.
- Act as role model to the youth: They are the change makers who inspire the youth of the nation to aim higher and turn their lives around. For example, Krishna Gopal Tiwari, India’s first visually challenged Collector has been a motivation to thousands of people.
At the same time, abuse of the power can bring harm and disrepute in the following ways:
- Corruption: Since administrators are at the helm of projects and initiatives, they at times, abuse their power and induce corruption in the system. For example, recovery of unaccounted wealth worth crores of rupees by ED from Jharkhand’s IAS officer, Pooja Singh.
- Hinders development: Abuse of power leads to bureaucratic culture and hampers the reputation of the country with respect to ease of doing business as well as investments in the developmental projects of the nation.
- Security risks: The rampant abuse of power for personal greed by bureaucrats overlooks security concerns and prioritizes personal gains over national risks. For example, payment of bribes to Indian Air Force officers, Ministry of Defence officials, bureaucrats and politicians in the AgustaWestland deal.
- Other issues: It also raises issues such as creeping of criminal elements in politics, monopolization by certain capitalists, increasing inequalities, diversion of focus from reforms, violating various rights of citizens, etc.
Although abuse of power can be reduced by improving transparency through computerisation of the governmental operations and displaying of records on websites, at the end of the day, the key to the problem is the underlying ethics and moral values of the administrators. Without ethical rooting, it is difficult to prevent abuse of power.
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In spite of measures taken by the governments to address such issues, like the Right to Education Act and NEP 2020, factors like learning poverty and educational inequity still remain in countries like India. For example, the World Bank warns that basic reading skills fail only about 55% of the chilRead more
In spite of measures taken by the governments to address such issues, like the Right to Education Act and NEP 2020, factors like learning poverty and educational inequity still remain in countries like India. For example, the World Bank warns that basic reading skills fail only about 55% of the children by the age of 10 in Indian society. This is the case of students coming from the rural parts of Bihar where there are no qualified teachers or proper schools to send provisions for. Due to this many children’s aspirations are cut short at the most lowering of the foundational skills.
Inequality is also pervasive not only in caste systems but also in gender and economic status. For instance, in some states such as Rajasthan, policymakers have noted that many girls do not return to school due to cultural issues and unavailability of facilitating infrastructure such as girls’ toilets in schools. But glamor students in urban cities like Delhi sit in Air-conditioned class rooms with the latest technology thus creating the gap.
To avoid this, building up of teacher training programs, strengthening of rural digital outreach using examples such as Kerala’s digital classroom initiative could improve the situation significantly. Sourcing ideas from NGOs and private companies as is the case with Pratham’s ‘Read India’ initiative could help as it is a cancer in itself and needs a broader base.
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