Commitment to education: are we failing?

The idea of a democratic state has its basis and its goals in freedom, equality of opportunity, agency and justice which requires the participation of all its citizens. There are various ways in which this idea has been expressed, the most remarkable being the preamble to the Constitution of India. It is a declaration by the people of India of forming themselves into a group that would give each individual certain equal rights and equitable opportunities. The key terms in the preamble to the Constitution are justice, liberty, equality of status and opportunity, and fraternity. As is clear, each demands from the citizen concern for other citizens underpinned by an understanding of the meaning of these terms. It also expects the governance system to respond to the challenge of making each of us aware, knowledgeable and capable of striving for these goals. We have committed to social, economic and political justice and equality of status and of opportunity in our preamble. This promise in a caste-ridden, extremely gendered, culturally diverse, economically highly stratified, politically divided unequal society showed far-sighted vision. To understand the perspective, meaning and implication of the ideas enshrined in the preamble, as well as for citizens to have the capabilities to make it possible, education is the central tool.There are other crucial considerations in the relationship of educational processes and inclusion of the diversity of children equitably. These relate to the nature of knowledge and the way it could be transacted in the classrooms and the school. It also relates to the nature of the structures that provide educational experiences. Only a few critical aspects of these have been considered here. There are many steps to these critical issues, but they are all clearly only a product of the larger concerns of convictions and beliefs about diversity and equity and in the will to make it happen