Turning adversity into opportunity

There is some good news. For a change! That too in such a critical part of life - Education.

Education will find its way to our homes through the internet.

Our country is on the verge of educational revolution. And technology would help it; internet, fibre optics, bandwidth are the keywords. There is ambitious plan of connecting all the 700 Universities and almost 26000 colleges in next two years. HRD ministry is working on the modalities and implementation details.

Now the stark reality - gross enrolment ratio of India is 12.4. It is very poor in comparison to 80 of more developed nations.   

Moreover who enrol do not essentially complete. On national scale 47% students opt out after the 7th Class. Approximately 20 crore Indian youth don't go to college! For Maharashtra the drop out rate is 30%.  

Government has taken a concrete step and done nice thing to pass Right to Education. Then there is Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). The focus is to expand and improve the standards of secondary education — classes VIII to X.  

The government has set up a Rs 700 crore National Innovation Fund (NIF) to encourage ideas to improve enrolment levels and the quality of secondary education in government-run and government-aided schools.

The basic aim is to increase access, equity, quality and improve management at the high school level.  

I am one of those who feel that education is very important to lead decent life, apart from basic necessities - Roti, Kapda aur Makaan.

Let's hope everything works out well to convert hardship in to growth prospect.

Current degraded affairs

It is said that in this day and age of 21st century, change is the only constant. So almost everything modifies. For good or bad. 

There are few things that remain constant, with respect to our great nation. The corruption charges against people from Congress are always there. Even if this is 2011, the ghost of Bofors still haunts the grand old party. The 2G saga continues relentlessly.

The opposition is adamant on a JPC. There are internal frictions within BJP. Murali Manohar Joshi, old and almost retired, found a lifeline as the PAC chief. And Mr. Manmohan Singh delivered a masterstroke - ready to appear before the PAC. It took Sushma Swaraj & Co. to intervene vehemently.     

The confession by Assemanand has hit the BJP-RSS parivar hard. It would be difficult for the right wing party to keep distance from the likes of Indresh Kumar and Assemanand. Ironically Mr. Digvijay Singh seems to be vindicated.

It would do well for our country, if CBI and NIA investigate all the bomb-blast cases and come out clean with unbiased results. Let there be no colour of terror. Punish and prosecute every extremist. 

In all this political turmoil, the otherwise problematic conditions for common public are ever increasing. The food inflation has its worse effects. Onions can really induce tears. But surprisingly there is no debate, action or anything on this front. Neither by the opposition nor by government.

It will be the nastiest thing to happen to our society, if majority of our public cannot afford 'food'!

We as citizen should not become unconcerned. We can keep raising the issues on individual and collective levels.