I see education as the key to development. We need serious educational reforms to equip tomorrow's citizens to cope with a fast changing world.

It is time to review and replace standard syllabi with more contemporary education that emphasises a more vigorous approach to learning. Better teacher training and remuneration is essential. Vocational skills and practical experience must form an integral part of any qualification. A huge but well directed investment in education is needed to create more and better facilities, revamp the syllabus, recruit better skills and provide learning opportunities.

Officially there are only about 70 lakh children outside the school system. But of the 13 crore children in elementary school, we have a drop-out rate of over 50 per cent. Worst of all, the government education that we provide is entirely meaningless. The syllabus is over 30 years old, the books are written by bureaucrats or their relatives, the information is skewed and inessential.

The debate that the Education Ministry generates is never about the quality of education and whether it equips the poorest child in the poorest village with the requisite knowledge to cope in the outside world. The debate is simply about how many exams we should have in one year, how many schools should be built, whether and what student quotas or reservations should be introduced, whether the midday meal should consist of fresh or packaged food, and whether it is getting past the principal’s family or not. The quality of teachers and teaching material is seen as irrelevant. So our children will graduate from school with full stomachs, but empty minds.

At present of a graduating class, the brightest go to IITs, IIMs and medical schools to become professionals, the next brightest go to business schools to become entrepreneurs, the third level enters government services and, finally, it is the remainder that get into politics. So how does this translate into real life? The bottom of the class makes the rules. The slightly brighter ones implements them over those more intelligent, and the brightest end up being governed by those far less able than themselves. It is time to turn that equation the right side up. And to do so, its important to develop and create a positive attitude towards politics so that more educated and honorable young people are encouraged to join the process and make a difference.