Is Indian Education System ''Inherently Perverse''?

Bangalore: The well-intentioned Right to Education legislation has become marred with controversies. It is hardly the remedy its advocates claim it to be.  Rajeev Srinivasan in his report to Rediff news says there are at least two reasons why the legislation is not right: One, it hands public funds over to private hands; two, it does not address the causes for the rot in the Indian education system.  

He calls the current system of education as ‘’inherently perverse.’’  The system was imposed upon India by the British imperialists, with the sole purpose of creating coolies and clerks to help them run the country. The System’s intention of perpetuating colonialism is demonstrated by Columbia’s Gauri Vishwanathan in her book, ‘’Masks of Conquest.’’ English language itself was forced upon conquered nations: First India, then Ireland.

The system has succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, not even Thomas Babington Macaulay’s. His infamous ‘’Minute on Indian Education’’ wanted to create little ‘brown sepoys’ and make them the cannon-fodder of Empire, metaphorically speaking. You can still see these Brown Sahibs strutting about flaunting their awful ‘convent accents’ and an utter lack of understanding of what the world is all about.

These people have internalized ideas about distribution without worrying about production, quality, or excellence. This is reason why Indian education, post independence, has not produced anything- absolutely anything of global caliber. Not one great discovery, invention or even a theoretical insight!