Talking Education with People’s Representatives

Last week, the Private Schools’ Association JK arranged an interaction with some of the people’s representatives in the present government at the Conference Hall of the Institute of Hotel Management, Srinagar. For many, it might sound like a routine event that ends up with a news story in the local media or some sound bites in the social media. May be it is actually that, but there is another way of looking at it. It can become a part of a vibrant civil society dialogue over matters that really matter, and education is a priority area.

In the room–conference hall– there were well-meaning people, all accomplished in their respective fields, and watching them face to face with people’s representatives, holding a candid conversation on the state of affairs related to the handling of private schools in J&K, was soothing to the eyes.

A celebration of sorts

To begin with, if there was one solid piece of education for all in the room, it was the value we can experience in the live interaction between the people’s representatives and the people who they represent. This interaction was something to be celebrated. And we all know why, at the moment, it is a celebration with a capital C.

And that puts an extra burden on both, people and the people’s representatives. And that is to be truthful to each other. There might have been times for ‘privileges’ and ‘concessions,’ but that is certainly not there anymore. We should now develop the habit of building an argument and working in a normative, not to be confused with regulatory, atmosphere. The regulatory requirements are a small part of that normative framework; may be there are glaring contrasts between the two, at times. This normative framework is more about societal expectations and the very essence of the thing called education. On either side we should identify the relevant questions and collaboratively find answers to them. Without each other, we will only be harming each other. It is in that spirit that I look at schools and the functions they render.

Regulation, a faulty idea

As an independent observer, I may agree with the things people associate with private schools, or I may disagree. But in the larger scheme of things, our approach to private schools is inadequate and mostly faulty. The idea of ‘strict control’ smacks of intoxication of power, whosever enjoys it, and at whatever level it is enjoyed in the bureaucracy. What is being projected as ‘Regulatory Requirement” and what are the actual requirements of a school to impart education-there is a huge mismatch. There is also a mismatch between the societal requirements of education and the way government may want us to run a school. A dialogue can happen only if people are allowed to talk, and those in the government have the will to listen. The regulatory framework should evolve from that dialogue, and not be imposed from the top with a humiliating disapproval of the larger societal mind.

Organic, Autonomous, and Authentic

When I was lining up my idea on this, my daughter, student of a private school, was singing this line with herself: ‘Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader.’ If that is what education should aim at, we need to reconfigure our approach towards schools. Leaders are not born in an atmosphere of control, in an atmosphere of disrespect and limitations. Leaders are born in an organic, autonomous, and authentic space. Schools should be treated like that. The government and those who run the private schools should work collaboratively to ensure that schools become organic, autonomous, and authentic spaces. By reducing this lofty ideal of education to things like NoCs, fee fixation, and a strict adherence to the govt announcements on when to go for summer and winter vacation, we make a mockery of everything. One would love to see our schools as organic, autonomous and authentic spaces where teachers are respected and rewarded as they should be, where each service is adequately compensated, in monetary terms, and where those who run these schools are respected for their enterprising spirit.

Build a realistic understanding

If that has to be achieved, the government must simplify the processes, make the systems efficient, and build a realistic understanding around the concepts like Free Education, Charitable Trust and Not-for-Proft. In absence of that, our understanding of education and the private schools will always revolve around things like fee, with a ring of populism around it. Our fixation with the bathtub endangers the life of the baby in it, as we throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Danger of control

More we make it difficult to run a private school, we will see well meaning people, those who really work selflessly, leave this space. More we make it difficult, we will see enterprising people divert their energies and resources towards some other activity. And all this will only result in either our students leaving Kashmir to get quality education or remaining content with a downgraded form of education that will only waste their lives. Let’s pause and dispassionately think about it. A complaint here and there, about a private school here and there, should not guide our understanding about how to deal with private schools. It needs a visionary grasp of what education means, and an actual understanding of how institutions are run. You cannot squeeze such a vast territory within the noose of regulation. The government shouldn’t look at the private schools just through the prism of regulations, and the private schools also shouldn’t look back through the same prism. Make this discussion wider and focus on where the focus should be – education of our children. Future, in a word.