Sometimes, a legislator, whether intentionally or unintentionally, asks questions in the assembly that completely expose the flaws in the government's development plans. One such legislator is Pratap Grewal from the Sardarpur constituency in Madhya Pradesh, who represents the Congress party in the assembly. Incidentally, the experience in Chhattisgarh suggests that when the Congress is in power, it follows the BJP's lead with complete reliability. However, not all Congress representatives can be judged by the same standard, and it's highly likely that he asked this question specifically to embarrass the BJP. The question he asked about the model of education and the answer given by the BJP government clearly reveal the extent to which the BJP and its government have ruined the education sector.

The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has no grounds to blame the Congress party for the deplorable state of school education, as the BJP has been continuously in power since 2003, with only a brief interruption. Since 2014, it has also had the support of the central government, and therefore cannot even argue that the central government did not cooperate with the state. According to the shocking information provided by the government in the Legislative Assembly :

1. A decade ago, there were 1,14,972 schools in the state, but today that number has decreased to 82,128, meaning 32,844 schools (28.56 percent) have been closed.

2. With the decrease in the number of schools, the number of teachers was bound to decrease as well. In 2014-15, there were 2,91,992 teachers in the state, but today that number has fallen to 233,817 – meaning 61,175 school teachers (20.95 percent) have been decreased in the last decade.

3. The decline in schools and teachers was inevitably reflected in student enrollment figures. In Madhya Pradesh, where there were 133.66 lakh students in 2010-11, that number has now dropped to just 79.39 lakh – a decrease of approximately 54.27 lakh students (40.61 percent) in ten years.

4. The decline in student numbers has also impacted scholarships. Ten years ago, the government provided scholarships to 82 lakh school students, but this number has now decreased to 58 lakh. Thus, 24 lakh (29.27 percent) school children have been excluded from the scholarship program.

A report indicates that a plan has been devised to gradually close 90 percent of government schools in Madhya Pradesh and operate with only 12,000 schools. These remaining schools will be developed along the lines of private schools. This effectively means the complete privatization of the entire school education system.

Some people might find this report exaggerated. But then consider the information provided in the Lok Sabha, according to which 89,441 schools have closed across the country since 2014, with 60 percent of these closures occurring in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. This has resulted in more than 20 million children in claas 1 to class 8 being forced out of government schools between 2021 and 2024 alone. Therefore, this report should be considered accurate, suggesting that the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is diligently implementing the policies of its central government.

The population of Madhya Pradesh is increasing, but the number of students and teachers in government schools is decreasing. So where are the students going? They are going to private schools that are mushrooming in villages, and most of these schools and the teachers who work there are affiliated with the Sangh Parivar. In these schools, under the guise of moral and spiritual education, books are being taught that are different from the government curriculum and are full of unscientific and Hindutva-oriented perspectives.  These books present myths and mythological stories as history, instilling communal hatred in children and ultimately serving the agenda of the Sangh Parivar.

But have all 5.4 million students in Madhya Pradesh enrolled in private schools? Currently, there is no government data available to indicate the exact number of students attending private schools. The average enrollment capacity of government schools in the state is 96 students per school. If this is used as a benchmark, the maximum enrollment capacity of the state's 25,000 private schools would be only 2.42 million. This means that far fewer than half of the students who dropped out of government schools have had the opportunity to enroll in private schools, and these are undoubtedly from privileged sections of society. Almost all of the children permanently excluded from the education system are from Dalit, tribal, and socio-economically disadvantaged communities, and given the patriarchal structure of our society, it can be confidently stated that the majority of those dropping out of school are girls. Some data also supports this assumption.

According to data from the Madhya Pradesh government itself, 11.07 lakh girls enrolled in schools in 2010-11, but by 2021-22, only 3.4 lakh of them had reached the 12th class. This means that 68.21 percent of the girls dropped out before completing their secondary education.

Let's look at the reality of another scheme for girls in Madhya Pradesh under BJP rule, the Ladli Laxmi Yojana, launched by the then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. This scheme was designed to improve the sex ratio and encourage girls to enroll in schools and pursue their education. The plan was to deposit Rs. 1.43 lakh into a girl's account upon her birth, enabling her to receive scholarships of Rs. 2,000 in the 6th class, Rs. 4,000 in the 9th class, Rs. 6,000 in the 11th class, and  Rs. 25,000 upon reaching college. The scheme was launched in 2007, and in the first year, 40,854 girls were registered. However, only 1,477 of these girls have reached college, which is a mere 3.61 percent of the total. The Manuvadi government is not concerned about the future of these girls who drop out of school. In Madhya Pradesh, 60 percent of girls from Dalit and tribal communities are forced to drop out of school due to the lack of scholarships and delays in obtaining caste certificates. Now, the Mohan Yadav government probably doesn't even know whether this scheme, created during Shivraj Singh Chouhan's tenure, is still active or defunct. This is the reality of the "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter) slogan under BJP rule. This is the practical implementation of the Modi government's new education policy in BJP-ruled states.

The new education policy that the Modi government is presenting as a package to promote culture and Indian values has a real, ulterior motive : to cripple government schools and promote private schools run according to the RSS agenda. Madhya Pradesh is the testing ground for the effective implementation of this policy. The constitutional directive to provide free and compulsory education to school children has been completely disregarded. The forces of the Manuvadi ideology know that they can only secure their power by keeping the majority of the population uneducated.

Upon investigation, a similar situation will be found in Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and all other BJP-ruled states. The Modi government is pressuring non-BJP ruled states to implement this same policy that aims to keep the public uneducated and ignorant. It is a relief that the Left government of Kerala, which boasts nearly 100% literacy, has announced its rejection of this education policy. All the non-BJP ruled states in the South have also declared their intention to follow Kerala's lead.

The situation is similar in higher education. A report by a task force constituted by the Supreme Court states that approximately 13,000 students committed suicide in 2022. This task force's interim report has exposed the Modi government's claims of revolutionary reforms in the education sector over the past decade. The steps implemented by the Modi government in the name of the New Education Policy are purely driven by the motive of turning education into a commodity and privatizing it to shirk the government's responsibility. The reality is that the government's entire education policy is unscientific and is ruining both school and higher education. On one hand, education is becoming increasingly expensive, and on the other hand, students are being denied timely payment of their scholarships under various pretexts. Students are unable to cope with this financial stress and are driven to suicide.

In reality, the ignorance and illiteracy of the masses are the BJP's greatest asset, which it is trying to strengthen through the new education policy. Manu's caste system sought to structure society on the basis of this very ignorance and illiteracy, a system that the BJP governments are promoting in the name of Hindutva and the creation of a Hindu nation. In this context, the pretense of announcing education budgets, student welfare schemes, and other such initiatives in the name of development becomes irrelevant. Lenin, the founder of the workers' and peasants' state in Russia, said that the people are gunpowder and education is the spark. Therefore, to prevent an explosion, it is necessary to keep the people (gunpowder) and education (the spark) apart. This is precisely the objective of any dictatorial, fascist, and communal-corporate-friendly government.


The author is an independent writer on politics, social and agrarian issues. The views are personal.