Are the current education drives reaching out to all levels of society?
Depends where you go. Some states have already achieved close to 100% literacy and good quality depth in compulsory education (which generally is primary + lower secondary in india). It is the success in these states that is being expanded to others so they can implement the ideas that work without the need to experiment too much.
Generally the South, West and Eastern parts of the country are the most successful when it comes to education along with urban areas in general. The rural north (except arguably Punjab and Kashmir) is what causes the national average to be dragged down immensely.
It must not be easy with the historic caste system still present.
There are issues of course. But generally primary education is not affected at all given the supply is assured (both through public and private schools) in ample amounts since the 90s. The main issues are rather school quality (esp rural govt schools) combined with teacher quality and absenteeism. The standards leave much to be desired in many of them along with the way teaching is done, which is often stuck in Victorian rote style learning methods (though these are popular even in developed East Asian countries and are not a significant obstacle for future generic manufacturing based jobs).
Caste only really pops up its head in primary level in backward rural areas where programs like the midday meal scheme are often cooked by low caste or untouchable women and some upper caste people cannot tolerate that. But they make news more because such things stand out now because of relative rarity.....most rural folks are relieved that their kids can go to school AND get a solid meal, fruit, milk and eggs etc that would be an expense for them otherwise. Thus they are less likely to keep the kids for work purposes like was done in their youth....since a solid meal for the kid is assured and guaranteed.
Thus it goes a long way to integrating a community and exposing those that still think in a backwards caste-dominated way.
Hence it is supply that is the key. When you have adequate supply, people do not fight for access to something since the cost is lower than when supply is limited in say the tertiary level (and even secondary level in some states).
When supply is limited is when issues like Caste come up....because with scarcity, politicians can play their dirty games to secure vote banks and bring in things like Caste (through policies like reservation etc.) This is a big problem in higher education in India and will take a really long time to solve (through bringing in more supply). But I am glad it is no longer such an issue for the basic primary and secondary for the most part in most states at least.
What role do religious authorities play in the educational establishment?
Traidtionally the christian churches have been very involved in providing education facilities. Their quality is generally quite good and they are mostly secular in nature except for maybe a morning prayer etc. Madrasas are left to each states education board to decide regulation and standards implementation etc. Some states run some very excellent ones that are also quite secular and progressive....others not so much (to secure vote banks etc again).
Hinduism-based schools are very rare...almost non-existent. You can count them on one hand and normally are extra curricular in nature and associated with a local Hindu temple which needs good patronage to fund such religious instruction. It was more popular in the older days (my great grandpa who was my fathers adoptive dad ran one of these being quite a well known vedic scholar in the area)....but now both interest/demand and supply are quite rare or have evolved to simply combine with other religious activities instead of being specifically educationally related.
I would say 90%+ of all schools in primary and secondary are secular in nature by practice overall. The remaining 10% do have to fall under standards set by the state specific to what subjects must be included along with religion.
In Myanmar, the situation was the reverse as the military government was actively trying to dumb down the population and cultivate a culture of anti-intellectualism as they had seen that students and educated persons were the greatest source of dissent to their rule. I think the collapse of the Soviet Union played no small part in this as their attempts to educate the masses had led to the sort of intellectual backlash against Communist Party rule which eventually brought it down. Incidentally that is why China is restrictive on educational freedom and why they emphasise technical and scientific learning rather than critical thinking. Back in Myanmar, it was actually the grass roots effort of the people and the religious Buddhist order, which has always placed a great emphasis on education, that managed to keep the rate of basic literacy at a high level.
Very interesting. To a degree, this phenomenon is there in India too where the elites and politicians surpress cultural identity of Indians when it comes to education (thus diminishing critical thinking and debate about the very nature of Indian society and philosophy etc). The rote type learning has been another factor in accomplishing this. But slowly things are changing for the better and even during the bad days, the silver lining was India's basic adherence to democracy that did allow the best of the best to get some of the worlds best education at a very affordable cost.....not to mention the philantrophists that were instrumental in creating sustainable education models that are now proliferating in the private education sector today.
Ultimately I feel the govt should withdraw its presence in education and should be limited to a direct voucher system to let parents choose their kids schooling from many private providers that compete for it and meet a set of minimum but high standards set by the govt and checked regularly. This idea is however at a very nascent stage in India, just like the complete stripping away of "Caste" politics in higher education which still encumbers us greatly in the long run. But there is a mechanism in place that has been developed over many years that do allow ideas to eventually flourish....so I hope for this and many other things.....its a question of when rather than if.
Who will buy more fighters without any pilot..?
