India a rich country with poor people!
Editor,
Apropos of the editorial, “Rationing the poor” (ST November 6, 2023), the Government of India has announced the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) free ration scheme for another five years. The scheme introduced in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic provides free foodgrains to eligible ration card holders under National Food Security Act, 2013. The scheme covers two kinds of ration card holders under NFSA – the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) 35 Kgs of foodgrain per month per family and Priority Household (PHH) 5 Kgs of foodgrain per person per month. The NFSA covers about 20 crore families or a total 81.35 crore beneficiaries, who account for two thirds of the country’s population – 50% for urban and 75% for rural. This free ration was in addition to subsidised foodgrains provided under NFSA.
In the financial year 2022-23, AAY families had annual savings of Rs 2705 crore and PHH families had annual savings of about Rs 11,142 crore. As for the cost of the scheme, the Government of India has allocated Rs 2,87,000 crore for the next five years. The scheme is expected to benefit 80 crore poor people of the country. Whether the scheme is worth the cost is a matter to debate and depends on various factors. It is important to note that the scheme aims to provide food security to the most vulnerable sections of the society and has been extended due to the ongoing pandemic and its impact on the economy and livelihoods of people.
The quality of foodgrains distributed under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana scheme is a matter of concern. The Government of India has taken several measures to ensure the quality of foodgrains. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is responsible for procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrains under the National Food Security Act, 2013. The FCI has implemented several measures to ensure the quality of foodgrains, including the use of modern technology for storage and transportation, regular inspection of godowns and strict quality control measures. However, there have been reports of poor quality foodgrains being distributed under the scheme. To address this issue, the Government of India has launched a mobile application app called ‘Consumer Voice’ to enable beneficiaries to lodge complaints about the quality of foodgrains. The government has also set up a toll-free helpline number (1967) for registering complaints related to the scheme. In addition, the government has taken steps to improve the nutritional quality of foodgrains. It has launched the Fortified Rice Kernel (FRK) scheme to provide rice fortified with iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12 to beneficiaries under the NFSA, as well as Annapurna Milk Scheme to provide milk to children in Anganwadi centres.
We must appreciate the initiatives of the Government of India for extending free ration scheme for five more years which according to some estimates will cost the exchequer of the country Rs 2 Lakh crore annually which means Rs 10 Lakh crore while the poor’s’ saving amount to Rs 69,235 crore in five years. Doling out money in the form of free grains for a rich country inhabited by poor people in the long run will harm the economy as the savings of the poor families does not match the expenditure of the government. Therefore, the editor has rightly pin pointed out that “Government must help create more work opportunities in rural areas and jobs through fast-paced industrialisation in urban areas” so that the poor learn to take the right opportunity made available to them in a rich country like India.
Yours etc.,
VK Lyngdoh,
Via email
Will changing textbooks raise educational standards of Meghalaya?
Editor,
A few weeks ago, a report captioned, ‘Education Upgrade: Meghalaya may adopt NCERT textbooks (ST October 27, 2023) stated that the Education Minister, Meghalaya, had suggested that Meghalaya would adopt NCERT textbooks, “to raise the standard of state education system to a level that is comparable to the national standards,” NCERT has been publishing books since 1961, and there is no question about the credibility of these publications. However, an analysis of this statement raises several questions.
If the State education system is to be ‘at par’ with the rest of the country, then it is an acknowledgement of the poor education system of our State. We acknowledge that the certification received by our students at the secondary and higher secondary level of education, does not guarantee that they have acquired the ‘required’ levels of competence to be at par with students from the rest of India who are have been granted certification at the same level of education.
I presume the Education Minister is suggesting the use of NCERT textbooks because of the content in these textbooks which are well presented, intelligible and comprehensible. These textbooks are also said to promote Constitutional values, provide students with conceptionally clear content, and adhere to the CBSE curriculum. These qualities of the NCERT textbooks, will hopefully provide a competitive edge to students from Meghalaya.
In today’s world of the internet, a comprehensive knowledge of various subject matters is not difficult to come by. However, the process adopted by the students, the learning styles, the teaching strategies, and the pace of learning of each child needs to be given due focus. The 21st century learning skills of critical thinking, reasoning, and inquiry needs to be presented skilfully in the classrooms. The need to change content for learning, especially at the school level, can arise when the existing content no longer triggers the thinking process – skills that are much needed to solve the 21st century problems and provide students with life skills for in these challenging times.
The Directorate of Education Research and Training, Government of Meghalaya which is involved in the process of developing text books and learning material for school education, should have realised the disadvantages of adopting the current syllabus. Time and again, we have seen how textbooks with wrong information and grammatical errors have been prescribed by MBOSE. What sort of an arrangement does the Education Department, Government of Meghalaya and MBOSE have with these publishers? Meghalaya is well equipped with resources to develop content for school learning; content which is nuanced and locally relevant. This, in my opinion will enable critical thinking, inquiry and reasoning among our learners on issues they are more familiar with.
There is need for MBOSE to introspect and tap into our local human resources for material development, and also to train teachers to present content to help students develop the 21st century skills and mindsets? DERT, MBOSE, and the Education Commission of Meghalaya have the expertise and capability to hopefully steer the course of education of Meghalaya.
If the Government, through its Education Department, is serious about raising the standard of education in Meghalaya, then changing text books is only a fraction of what has to change in our education system. The Teachers’ Education system too must be overhauled.
Yours etc.,
Fabian Marbaniang,
MLCU, Shillong