‘Learning Is The Key, Merely Putting Children In School Doesn’t Work’

Anil Swarup, secretary - school education, MHRD, in conversation with Chahat Jain of BW Businessworld. To educate people anywhere in the world, one must first have proper infrastructure in the first place, Swarup says.

Excerpts:

There is a thin line between getting educated and actual learning. Do you think we should focus more on skill enhancement of children?
 
Absolutely right. I think learning is the key, merely putting children in school doesn’t work and there’s evidence to prove that. I totally agree with you that the focus has to be on learning.
 
We are developing our infrastructure. But do you think there should be more investments in this sector for faster growth?
 
I agree with you. To educate people anywhere in the world, you must have infrastructure, else how do you educate them? So, it is a necessary condition, but not the only one. The focus is now gradually shifting to learning from pure infrastructure.
 
The new education policies is in the drafting stage. How do you see it coming and what changes will it bring to the current education system?
 
I think more than the policy what is required is action on the ground and we’re moving in that direction. In the context of ensuring to get the learning outcomes in position, the government has recently notified these learning outcomes. We are focusing on action to make it happen on the ground level than just on policy. Policy will take time… but more than that, the focus has to be on making things happen on ground level.
 
When do you see India become a world-leader when it comes to education?

India is already a world-leader in a number of contexts. But in the context of primary and secondary education, I think it will take a some time. The fundamental groundwork in terms of getting the child to school has happened. The next stage would be to get him/her to learn and that’s when India will become the world leader.