Dear All,
As you know, we run extensive and exhaustive program for ESSAY every year, it is only natural that we provide the review of this year’s paper too.
Section – A
3)Destiny of a nation is shaped in its classrooms.
Review– This is an interesting essay and probably also the most attempted one. UPSC has asked question on education before and it asked this year too.
We have wrote about it many times and informed our students too – that All the wars that we know are fought in Universities first and then in battlegrounds after. For example- Hitler fought the world wars based upon a theory by a professor of geography.
Freidrich Ratzel, was an eminent geographer from Germany who gave a concept of “Lebensraum” – which essentially means the “state is an organic entity” and as any organic entity it has to evolve and it has to grow or else it will succumb to stagnation and will perish eventually. This concept was furthered by another geographer named Herbert Spencer who gave the concept of “ Social Darwinism“, which had significant influence on Hitler who wanted to expand German territory.
Similarly the fight of Adam Smith’s capitalism and Marx’s communism also started in universities only and propounded by professors, which dominated the “cold war” era.
In sum, universities are the corner stone of everything we do. And classrooms are indeed the fertile ground for innovation too. And that is why , education shapes not only an individual’s life but a nation’s life too.
This is aptly reflected when we embedded the concept of Scientific Temper in our constitution too. Classrooms shape individual’s ethos and in turn the individual’s contribution determines the nation’s destiny. Be it Bhaba or Kalam, without them , India could not have a been a major nuclear power.
It is in the classrooms that the ideas are shaped and the miseries of mankind are solved through innovation. Thus the push for Atal Tinkering Labs in schools.
You can also include examples such as Taxila University, rise of Chandra Gupta and Chanakya who shaped India in ancient times. You can also discuss how the educational background of Jawaharlal Nehru guided India through its turbulent times of partition and reflected in our policies.
Thus they say, you are what you read, what you observe and what you learn from your classrooms. The most genius ideas came from schools and universities.
You can also write about Gandhiji’s view on education and his idea of Nayi-Talim and Rabindranath Tagore’s view on education.
The relevance of the essay is that – A nation will lack moral power if we don’t teach value based education to our children in their schools. Corruption by educated individual is due to the fact that there is no value based education and Gandhiji’s ultimate aim of education was to create a man of character thus you have to give emphasis on this aspect of the essay as well. (Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil)
Also, the classroom is not only about the the students it is also about the teachers too, thus you can cite some great teachers, for example – Socrates taught Pluto, who taught Aristotle, who taught Alexander and who ultimately shaped the Greek nation’s destiny in his times. Thus we not only need good and quality education but also great teachers in it. Then discuss the dismal status of education and especially lack of quality teachers in India. Without a great teacher, there is a very rarely a great student.(Link it with the recent test where only 17% candidates have passed the Bihar Teacher Eligibility Test (BTET)Link-Click Here.
Teaching has become the last resort for individuals due to lack of proper incentive and thus the great talents are usually don’t enter the profession of teaching and this is hampering India and its destiny. You can’t build a great nation without great teachers and great universities. In fact, if you look at the biggest MNCS around the world today (HP, GOOGLE, MICROSOFT, FACEBOOK or any other), they have their origins in the schools/universities. America is at the top end of innovation and this is due to its great teachers, universities and students, who made America what it is today. What would be America without the Havards, Standfords or MITs ?
As always this review is indicative only and not exhaustive.
Hope is helps.
P.S- The Essay Test Series for 2018 is already launched and registration can be done here- Click Here
Thank You
UPSCTREE
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In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)