Education and the Library are two complementary conceptions that are fundamentally and synchronically tied to and co-exist with one another. One cannot exist apart from the other, and the presence of one is impossible without the existence of the other. Neither is a goal in itself. Instead, they are both a means to an end. The one dies as soon as the other dies.
The education system in India is diminishing with time.
In India, excellent public education is a primary right, and there is a strong link between public investment in education, child development, and empowerment.
The country’s economic progress is dependent not just on natural resources, technology, and capital but also on the amount and quality of worker.
Despite our most significant efforts, our educational development remains stagnant.
India’s economy is one of the world’s ten largest, yet it ranks 99th out of 142 countries regarding social capital. Entrepreneurship and opportunity, government, education, health, safety and security, and social capital are all examples of social capital.
There is considerable evidence that the Indian youngster is just as capable of learning as any other child on the globe.
However, a lack of real opportunities have maintained the ordinary Indian child’s education at relatively low standards – evidence of disinterest in government.
India lags behind other countries by around 50 years in supporting multidisciplinary learning, independent thought, and the ability to learn from mistakes. Instead, our colleges continue to funnel students into narrow streams, taught by a few high-quality schools and sought by tens of thousands of nervous students.
Students attend lessons more for the sake of attendance than for the love and enthusiasm for listening to the professors. The primary issue is the poor quality of governance, with politics infiltrating every facet of school administration.
Other factors beyond merit have a significant role in the administration of affairs; suitable governance norms, with adequate incentives and checks and balances, have not been implemented, maybe on purpose!
The minister, secretary, and educational regulatory institutions emphasize the whole structure at the Centre and the states, not the student, teacher, principal, school, and academics.
The state’s failure to support the increasing higher education system has resulted in the fast expansion of private higher education. Furthermore, reduced government financial support harms small and rural educational institutions.
A rising number of public universities are being pushed to provide self-financed courses with hefty tuition fees.
Donations, capitation fees, and excessive charge rates are the principal forms of financing for the private sector. This, in turn, restricts widespread access to higher education by catering to a select few.
The biggest issue in the growth of education is a lack of appropriate money. Education spending in Five Year Plans has been declining.
Most educational institutions lack infrastructure, science equipment, and libraries, among other things, due to a lack of money. As a result, the required effects cannot be achieved.
What has gone wrong with India’s education system?
According to surveys, around 50-60% of Indian donors do not become aware of enough reliable organizations to support and would donate more if these organizations were open and responsible. This is both a chance and a struggle.
Our institutions’ governance would have to improve, and the government would have to become a facilitator (rather than a controller) of higher education. The functional autonomy granted by the government must be used to enhance the university’s procedures and systems.
For decades, India’s education system has carried the colonial baggage that we have borne. It is a framework designed to generate civil employees, clerks, and bureaucrats who could do regular tasks.
Even now, the goal of our educational system hasn’t altered much. Engineers are now mass-produced, creating an imbalance in the employment market’s demand and supply.
At this moment in time, India has the world’s most prominent young population. When the topic of India’s failure to have a global impact comes up, we casually disregard this age group.
2020 is almost here, and we’re probably not even close to where Dr. Kalam intended us to be. Where did things go wrong? What are the causes for our lack of advancement while having the most prominent young population?
A considerable number of institutions have constructed new facilities to house new courses. However, neither the classes nor the buildings were ever started, and grass has been laid over the freshly erected structures.
Why was so much public money spent on these structures if they weren’t meant to be used in the first place?
The same old rote learning attitude of pupils to achieve the top grades takes precedence for the kids and their guiding angels (parents and teachers).
There is a fine line between being educated and brilliant, and a first-class degree is favored over a dedicated and talented student who scores in the middle of the pack.
Education, which was intended to improve human conduct, appears to have failed to achieve its aim, instead further perplexing pupils on their planned route. The lack of standardized learning/teaching has resulted in ‘a specific course’ being distinct for each individual.
The government’s Draft New Education Policy, unveiled in May 2019, proposes boosting education expenditures from 10% to 20% of overall government spending by 2030. However, there is no financing available in India’s current education budget for such an increase.
Despite the government’s promises to increase education spending, according to budget documents from 2014 to 2020, the share of the union budget allocated to education fell from 4.14 percent in 2014-15 to 3.4 percent in 2019-20, the period during which the Bharatiya Janata Party-led, the central government.
The union budget allotted to education in the 2019-20 budget stays at 3.4 percent, indicating that the government is not providing additional money to education this fiscal year, as the new education policy would demand.
The education program also encourages local contributions; but, given the structured character of Indian society in terms of caste, class, gender, and religion, such local contributions may exacerbate inequalities in access to education.
Vanshid is being installed in India’s prestigious libraries.
Today’s public libraries are at a crossroads. As the millennium approached, there was significant concern about whether public libraries would become outdated. There were ongoing debates about how libraries might remain relevant in the age of internet knowledge.
Nearly two decades later, libraries have effectively transitioned from being primarily concerned with resources to becoming community anchors for formal and informal learning, technological access, career development, and community participation.
Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, the library was a type of hangout for public workers, physicians, police commissioners, film stars, scriptwriters, and college students. Books were and continue to be meticulously wrapped in protective plastic sheets. Members can rent them for 10% of the book’s price after submitting a refundable deposit.
There’s something about a library that instantly relaxes you. Whether it’s the enormous District Central Library in Simmakkal or one of the city’s few remaining neighborhood libraries, entering one puts all anxieties on pause.
Despite India’s great library culture dating back to the late 18th century, and despite the city’s reputation for promoting literature, tiny private libraries are vanishing in the city.
As we have known them for so long, Libraries are disappearing one by one throughout the world. Estimates from watchdog organizations like the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and the Global Library Statistics suggest that the number of libraries has decreased from, say, five years ago.
While over four lakh operational libraries globally a little over a decade ago, the number is currently frighteningly low at just more than three lakhs. In the current environment, an attempt has been made to understand the current state of the public library system in India and its challenges and potential.
It also discusses the role of the central government in the development of public libraries in the country and the current status of public libraries, including numbers, acts, financial resources, and infrastructure facilities. Finally, a few essential suggestions are made for the future development of public libraries in India.
Role of Central Government
Following independence, the Central Government of India took significant measures to strengthen India’s public library system. At the moment of freedom, India was confronted with a slew of problems on several fronts. Nonetheless, the situation in India’s public libraries improved significantly after independence.
A special mention should be made of the Delhi Public Library. Under the combined patronage of UNESCO and the Government of India, it was established in 1951 as the first UNESCO Public Library Pilot Project. The library’s mission was to adopt “modern techniques to Indian conditions” and serve as a model public library for Asia.
Journos have yet to conclude this, but there are arguably many reasons, including the apparent (funds shortage, rise of digital books and online lending libraries) and the not-so-obvious, such as the decline in the number of people who read (seriously) and the increase in incomes of emerging economies and even the third world, where the number of people who can afford to buy personal copies of books has increased.
Indeed, there is widespread agreement that one of the primary causes of the decline is the refusal of funding organizations (primarily governments) to provide funds for the improvement and replenishment of libraries.
Just last week, JK Rowling, Neil Gaiman, and Philip Pullman led an effective campaign in the United Kingdom pushing for library funding to be ring-fenced. Due to decreases in social sector funding and the government’s unwillingness to invest in libraries, India’s library system has recently faced significant threats.
The danger is obvious and evident in private lending libraries as well. The recent death of the 27-year-old Eloor library (more of a bookshop) in Chennai’s T Nagar made headlines and brought to light the need to protect our book shops and reading rooms.
One of the greatest benefactors of libraries, particularly public libraries, has been the poor, particularly impoverished children who cannot afford to buy or borrow books privately. That is why, at times, the upper-middle and ‘affordable’ classes would like to see the library close.
That explains the attitude expressed in a now-deleted, contentious piece published a few weeks ago in a renowned business newspaper, which stated that all taxpayer-funded libraries should be closed in favor of Amazon book stores.
Indeed, sociologists argue that public libraries must continue because, as Public Libraries News points out, libraries provide a vital service to individuals who are marginalized by society – the lonely, the jobless, those with mobility challenges, and even those with IT access concerns.Â
A library is also a location where people go when they have nowhere else to go. In reality, the United Kingdom has established a Libraries Taskforce to investigate methods to revitalize public library services.
India may show a similar body to assist its deteriorating public library system to begin a new chapter in its history.
