India’s education policy discriminates against children from poor families. Government schools serving them are badly run and the medium of instruction is usually the regional language even when parents desire a transition to English. But change could be on the anvil. In Andhra Pradesh this month, the Chandrababu Naidu government began the process of moving municipal schools from Telugu to English medium. Separately, a committee of bureaucrats recommended that there should be at least one English medium school in all blocks and science ought to be promoted. These developments are welcome.

A sound public education system is the best guarantee of equal opportunity for all. Successive governments have failed children and society on this front and tried to compensate through irrational reservation policies. This has opened up new fault lines in society as fresh caste agitations keep undermining social stability. Governments may finally be waking up to the problem by pushing back against nativism and emphasising on learning outcomes. To illustrate, a new initiative which asked schools to devise a format to allow students to rate their classroom experience is a step in the right direction. Learning outcomes and teacher accountability should be the government’s priority, not school infrastructure which is a focal point in the Right to Education Act.

India’s education policy needs radical reform. Government must let private institutions be as micromanaging them is counterproductive. Instead the focus should be on public schools which today languish for want of attention. If accountability is enforced and learning outcomes improved, it will directly benefit children from poor families and bringing about a fairer society. Education is in crying need of big bang reforms which move away from hackneyed solutions of reservations and heavy-handed state control. In this context, Naidu deserves credit for boldness.