The central government continues to pretend that all is well, barring some minor issues, if any. In the CBSE evaluation issue, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party chose to accuse the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi of spreading misinformation and propaganda.
Similarly, when teenage students took to social media to complain about the evaluation of his paper, the enraged right-wing ecosystem reflexively branded them with choicest epithets, including of being “Pakistani”.
How can a government fix an issue if it does not acknowledge its existence ? This government is not known to accept when things go wrong, leave alone hold concerned ministers and senior bureaucrats accountable.
This perceived impunity seems to be one of the primary reasons for decline in governance. Added to it is the absence of political and electoral costs to be paid by the ruling party for mismanagement and governance failures. This lethal combination encourages, and even incentivises, political inefficiency, administrative negligence, and misconduct.
As has been the norm with this government, it went to town about CBSE’s digital evaluation system to be a revolution of sorts, which will ensure improved accuracy, speed and transparency. It turned out to be a fiasco with complaints of bungling at multiple levels.
The selection of the vendor for doing this mammoth task seems to be flawed. The new system may not have gone through the required number of testing iterations, and worst of all, the digital security system was so poor that even amateur hackers could gain access to it.
Similarly, NEET-UG conducted by National Testing Agency, too, came a cropper this year following reports of massive question paper leak leading to the cancellation of the examination. While the CBSE goofed up by going digital without evident preparation, the NTA continued with the pen-and-paper system despite persistent problems of paper leaks, which it fails to plug. It is ironic that a “powerful” government is unable to cleanse a system to conduct a high-stakes competitive examination in a foolproof and credible manner.
It also fails to rein in coaching centre mafias or avert avoidable technical glitches.
Besides these systemic issues, there are problems spawned by the political culture. Political leaders and officials seems to have stopped worrying about consequences of potential failures.
If something worked, it was an exception, a miracle. And if something failed, it could always be managed through propaganda, manipulation of public opinion, and fear of retributive action.
Governments need political will, governance acumen, and a fear of political survival to deliver good governance. Instead, there has been extreme centralisation, the debilitating top-down approach, and a talent deficit that adversely affects planning and execution of large projects or initiatives across domains, including education.
The ruling party needs to broaden and deepen its talent pool and create an environment where fresh ideas bloom.
Likewise, the party should not think of itself as a sole repository of wisdom, which would only lead to hubris. It must be humble enough to be open to consultation and dialogue with all stakeholders, especially those who have divergent and contrarian views.
Moreover, at every stage, it must provide space for honest feedback without fear of retaliation. Finally, in a healthy democracy, it is for the voters to ensure that the electoral fortunes of a party are tied to its government’s performance and delivery of good governance.