Privatisation doesn't guarantee quality education, govts need to spend more: Rahul Gandhi

Quality education cannot be achieved through privatisation and financial incentives Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said Saturday underlining the importance of governments spending more on education and strengthening public institutions In a conversation with IIT Madras students held sometime back the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha talked on a host of issues including on the changes he would want to initiate to improve the education systemI believe it is one of the foremost responsibilities of any government to guarantee quality education to its people This cannot be achieved through privatisation and financial incentives We need to spend a lot more money on education and strengthening government institutions he said in a post on X while sharing an edited video of his conversation with the students On his WhatsApp channel he said they discussed discuss redefining success and reimagining education in IndiaOur conversation centered on empowering students to explore paths beyond traditional careers encouraging them to embrace innovation and pursue their passions By prioritising fairness fostering research nurturing creativity and driving production we can position India as a true global leader Their insightful perspectives made this dialogue deeply inspiring and hopeful for the futureAsked by the students how the Congress and the BJP are different in terms of how they operate he said the Congress and UPA generally believe that the resources should be distributed more fairly and growth should be wider and inclusive The BJP he said is more aggressive on growth They believe in what in economic terms is tripledown On the social front we feel that the more harmonious society is the less people are fighting the better it is for the countryOn the international relations front there are probably some differences with regards to the way we relate to other countries but it will be similar he said On how to promote higher education he said a country needs to guarantee quality education to its people I dont think that the best way to guarantee quality education to our people is to privatise everything Frankly when you bring some sort of financial incentive into the game you dont actually give quality educationI have said this many a times that the best institutions in our country are government institutions yours being one of them I argue for much more money being spent in education by governments he told the IIT Madras students Gandhi said he has serious problems in the way the countrys education system is set up I dont think our education system allows the imagination of our children to thriveYou might not agree with me I think it is a very restrictive top down system It is very narrow he said Gandhi said that during his Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra he talked to thousands of children and asked them what they wanted to become They said they wanted to become a lawyer doctor engineer or an army soldier he told the studentsIt cant be that there are only five things to do in this country But thats what our system is pushing he said noting that the countrys education system measures success only if one becomes an engineer or a doctor or join the IASIPS or get into the forces which is just one percent or two percent of our population and 90 percent of our population is never going to do thisHe said the system should allow kids to do what they want and allow them to experience and do multiple things Our education system disregards many things it undervalues many professions and overvalues these four or five professions So those are the types of things that I would like to change he said On the international front he said the single most important thing going forward is how India balances China and AmericaIn a situation where the two superpowers are going head to head we have a balancing equation a balancing abilitySo India is in a space where it can get quite a lot more than its power would give it So if India intelligently navigates through this thing without getting stuck or without making a major mistake then we might benefit from it Gandhi saidNoting that the countrys education system is a very hierarchical structure he said its traditional system focusses on introspection looking inside and self observation Gandhi favoured pushing children for innovation saying it can only come if they actually start production and their skill is respected and investment is made in itOne of the things that I want to push is moving more into the physical production space To me real innovation comes from that space Put as much money you want in RampD if you are not actually producing the thing it will just be a budget Gandhi saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in 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