Need For Increased Participation In Public School Education and Few Sincere Hopes

                 Breaking away from the fortnightly posts, I took a long break since my last column came out. I never intended it that way but I am helpless in this regard. I must confess that these are no ordinary writings and does not happen every now and then as simple as it seems to be. A lot of things need to fall in place and it took a period of five years of work to see the recent series of posts and the aura it created. What I write might be insignificant but the attempt in itself is a big step. There is a difference between insignificant attempt at writing and writing to create an impact. Many people write, but they remain words on paper and mine translate into real world action. The attempt backed by bulldozing work creates impact and not always words. I would have liked to reduce this impact and the levels of risk so that I can be more frequent with penning down my thoughts. But the phenomenon is growing larger and larger day by day and the impact is becoming bigger and bigger which I fear is a perilous place to be in. Moreover, it took two nights of work to make an attempt but these days, without my knowledge, sleep completely engulfs me and I wonder how I had stayed awake earlier. Another point of view is - my earlier posts have given me petrol to get me going for some time and it would be unnecessary for me to write often. These ground-breaking and earth-shattering posts brings along as much risk and I might have to pay for my misadventures. In this kind of position, I am totally helpless to write and hope people will understand my predicament without expecting me to play with fire. That said I never have any control over myself as to when to write and when not to write and some invisible force prevented me from making an attempt all this while. May I never resort to writing unless it is completely safe to do so. In addition, these posts are my lifeline and I live upon them. Without them I am almost nothing. When I am in good company where everyone wishes for my well being, I obviously write which keeps me well. But in the company of bad people who don't wish my well being and growth, I cannot post anything as the negative forces increase. To mention again, a lot of things need to fall in place and even if a small link is broken, I cannot write something. Here I write something again from my recent experiences.

                  As mentioned, from the work I did, I had enough petrol to get me going through this year and beyond. I ran enough, considering the severe circumstances around and I can rest for a while. I was engrossed in lot of activity already and I can afford an extended holiday for a lengthy period. I can be put on bench or removed from the company so that I don't further escalate the situation. Taking these pauses helps you in the long run in the future and puts the situation under control in the present. I wish I can run a marathon at a slow pace and cross the finish line rather than running faster and terminating in the middle. If I follow all these, it would be beneficial to me but I am not following any of these and going on doing activities over and over for the benefit of everybody. I never rested in the house and relaxed for one complete day. Everyday, it is all about going out and participating in events, activities and chores. It has been like this for the past 400 days or more. It is as well a huge risk to me to act as such. I should have been ideally put in jail for sometime which would have resurrected me. Those who really care for me should have put me under house arrest or expected me to be confined within four walls somehow to safeguard me and my heart. This is the huge risk I am taking each single day since an year or more invoking negative emotions from the people. As mentioned, I need not do so much for my own self but working as such for the benefit of everybody. My work benefits all the people and all the states, nations including Pakistan as well. While it is beneficial to everyone else, it is detrimental to my own self and my own people. Simply put, I am working towards the order and progress of the whole world and should have been conferred with Nobel prize or whichever is the highest prize given for making positive impact on the humanity in the planet. There is no meaning to these prizes if they do not recognize my amazing feats each passing day. Just think about it and you will get that I am the order of the day and I am setting the order around the world in the recent past. All the world leaders must thank me as I did their job and made life easier for them. This is my humble contribution to the flat or borderless world. So, on a serious note, please give me my Nobel and enhance the stature of the award.

                  Supreme court has pronounced the verdict on the disputed land in Ayodhya today. Just to re-iterate, since the dispute is settled at the highest level, the construction of Shri Ram Temple should be taken up with a collective movement, consciousness and determination. All my life, I had worked for the cause of ‘Rama’nising the world. Like Tirupati for Balaji which is thronged by lakhs of pilgrims round the clock, Ayodhya should be remembered for the Temple of Lord Shri Ram. A grand temple in his birth place is the highest tribute the country is paying for the greatest of the persons, who best epitomized the culture and dharma of this nation and lead as a shining example of how best an emperor can be and his kingdom will be thereof, in the entire history of the nation. That which is already ingrained in our DNA should come out and mould us into His being. His message has to reach far and wide and every human will be protected who follow his ideals under His aegis. A monumental temple with all the power concentrated in the God to spread his nature to the lakhs of devotees will be a good starting point to mainstream his ideals which are side-lined all the while in the country. Thus said, rather than a mere construction, the temple should be the manifestation of the ideological shift happening in the country and a guiding force for the future generations. If all of this happens in due time, the people lives with boundless happiness and joy. I wish the era of Rama comes to the fore once again in the society symbolized by the construction of the Temple during my lifetime for I had given my life’s work towards this cause.

                 To share some experiences from my work in the recent past, there are few things which are interesting to me. First, to teach the little I know. Second, to play my part in minimizing the adverse effects of poverty, especially in students. I was able to act upon these two interests by teaching students in public schools. Though I do not have much plans in the beginning other than to teach and mingle with the students, over the time it dawned upon me that I can play my part in improving the status quo by working in a mission mode. If you want a better future then invest your energies, resources, money in the schools. Public schools are where there is lot of scope for improvement. 65% of the school going students come to public schools. It is important to provide good infrastructure, ecosystem to the 65% of the students in public schools. This is where spending should increase from the government by providing required resources and teachers need to utilize the money spent effectively. At 2.6 percent of GDP, India’s education expenditure is much lower than the world’s average at 4.815 percent of GDP in 2015. Everyone knows the landscape of public school education in Delhi has drastically improved. As well as the good intent, it came on the heels of increased spending on the student. The per student spending in 2015-16 in Delhi is 36964. To compare the same in other states. Eg. Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh it is 12616, 9167. Hence, the governments in the all the other states can take Delhi as an example and increase the budget to the public school education. There should be aggressive education reforms, improvement in school infrastructure and a road map to further improvement in quality of education. While the present government has implemented many a reforms in other sectors, the all-important education sector especially school education has been a subject of neglect for years. This is the right time to take up the education reforms in the country and each state government must come up with aggressive implementation of the same. The Delhi’s Reading Campaign of 2016 and Chunauti of 2018 are examples of programs to implement innovative ideas to tackle existing problems. As a result, quality of public schools improved and the class-XII public school students outperformed their private school-counterparts and the national average, in terms of the number of students passing the CBSE. Hence, to provide good quality education and eradicating poverty from the country in the future, you need to impart high standards of education to all the students and it needs to be the topmost priority of all the local governments. By imparting quality education and improving learning levels of the lower income students, you are preparing them for the harsh future and helping them come out of their poverty. Poverty and illiteracy are closely coupled and one cannot exist without the other. From the present 75% literacy rate, if you can make the future generations 100% literate by luring them to the public schools, you can certainly eradicate poverty in the future. There are studies which concluded that literacy pulls people out of poverty. The educated unemployed can pitch in to the huge vacuum of the public sector education and help bridge the gap between haves and have nots. There is a lot of work left to be done in this space and it has to be done as quickly as possible. This work must relentlessly go on till we consistently see the future students well-educated and out of poverty.

                    The sister states of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana recently saw lapses in governance which resulted in loss of precious lives due to suicides and shock. First in the residing state, nearly 48,000 employees and workers of RTC public transport had boycotted work and began an indefinite strike from October 5 across Telangana on a call given by the JAC demanding merger of the RTC with the government, pay revision, recruitment to various posts, among others. This has resulted in immense public inconvenience to the lakhs of daily commuters in the festive month. This is already the longest strike Increased by RTC in the history of Telugu states. It all started with Andhra Pradesh merging its RTC with government. Sharing the brotherhood, the RTC in Telengana too demanded to be merged with government. One cannot call it as a fair demand, since they have been looked after well even without merging. Besides this main demand, there are 21 other smaller demands which the RTC asked for immediate action to call off strike. This require 47 crore but the government expressed its inability to do so on the ground that it gave the Corporation more funds than what it owes. As a result the stalemate continued mainly due to Governments reluctance to provide the token amount. This ego clashes resulted in loss of 10 lives who committed suicides or died due to heart attacks. This is a frightening situation to be in. As part of my job, I never would like to be on strike for more than 40 days and see my colleagues losing lives just for work and earn money. I really feel for the 48000 employees who are in such precarious condition who mostly hail from poor communities and families. For whatever the reason, this is definitely a lapse in governance on part of the government which should have handled the situation much better.

                   In the same manner, the A.P. government introduced a new sand policy and revoked the policy of earlier government as part of larger agenda to cancel the decisions taken by previous government. This transition between the rival governments impacted the construction workers hard as lack of sand halted work and put over 30 lakh workers jobless and without wages for four months. Nearly 30 persons killed themselves owing to financial woes and distress. Once again the government failed to avert the loss of lives and improve the sliding construction activity. It is always the poor people who suffer when policy of government fails them be it RTC or construction workers. I lead a normal life and I pray that normal life and living conditions are given to all the people around without much sufferings. The fruits of hard work, struggles and risks must be directed to make the lives of poor easier and smoother. This is the bare minimum motto for any government and all development must come after meeting these minimum requirements. The struggles should be for the clever, wise, educated and brave and easier, smoother, happier lives should be for lesser fortunate people and not vice versa. I sincerely hope that RTC ends strike immediately and construction activity returns to normal in both the states respectively.

                   In another world, another great person, the POTUS is being ill-treated by his political opponents. He has a great year, makes up for a brave President who took some amazing decisions. I am always amazed by his tweets in which he shows results of development in the country, takes great decisions, warns rival countries just like nothing, decimates his opponents in his inimitable style among many other things he does on a regular basis. A person who is striving so hard needs to be supported but not tried for impeachment. How can you remove the best performing President from his job? He has been making a stamp of his own even at his old age. The most powerful person needs to be treated with respect with constructive opposition. I thought the democrats are sane people but never imagined they would come up with sinister conspiracies. Under his administration, 6.7 million jobs are created, African-American unemployment, poverty rate became historic low, 2.5 million people lifted from poverty among many other achievements. These are not ordinary, every day facts you would see but extraordinary results coming from his decisive actions. You should see the results on the ground before making attempts to impeach. I hope he would defeat the trial for impeachment and continue to rule the great land like he is doing at present.