Unquestionably, the present education system leaves a mighty lot to be desired. There’s a yawning gap between the quality of education imparted by private and public schools. To cap it all, rampant commercialisation of education, especially in the urban centres, is also to blame for exclusively catering to the demands of the affluent students. Unfortunately, however, their marginalised counterparts in the rural areas are denied the luxury. Due to the glaring disparity experts have been harping on the issue of bridging this gap by improving the standard of education to help the underprivileged students.

Since the country is passing through a critical transitional phase, the time is ripe to usher in reforms and streamline the education system. Given the present pathetic scenario, the government should not shy away from shouldering the entire responsibility of basic education so that the marginalised section, too, can reap the benefits. Leaving schools at the mercy of local communities alone is not going to serve the purpose. Instead of advocating the closure of private schools altogether — as is being suggested by a certain section of society — measures should instead be taken to uplift the present standards of public schools. Resources should be diverted towards improving the physical infrastructure and also by giving more financial incentives, quality teachers should be lured into public schools. By the same token, the introduction of multilingual education to increase the number of students merits government’s attention. Drastic reforms are, therefore, essential to break the traditional barriers if the aim is to make the education system more inclusive and result-oriented.