Liberate Education from the State

Liberate Education from the State by Sauvik Chakraverti

Our socialist State is actually a miserable failure. It started off wanting to make steel – and failed at even this simple task. We are lucky that it was not given the task of cultivating fields and our farms were not collectivized. What is therefore unthinkable is that this failed State should be given the task of cultivating minds, and that all our minds should be collectivized. If we are to save our minds, and the minds of our youth, we must champion a free education system, writes Sauvik Chakraverti

Today, almost all Indians agree that placing the State at the "commanding heights of the economy" was a colossal mistake. Yet, these very same people believe that it is alright if the State occupies the commanding heights of education. It is because every mainstream newspaper editor echoed such views that we Indians are now saddled with the "education tax."

One argument repeatedly totted out in favour of a role for the State in education is that of "maintaining standards". There are people who believe that, without a commanding role for the State, rubbish will be taught. There will ensue "academic anarchy" with each teacher and professor teaching what he deems fit. Under these circumstances, the State must have a role. The Ministry of Education must play the role of Ministry of Truth.

Note that India's vibrant press – the "fourth estate" – works perfectly fine without a "ministry of truth." Each paper publishes its own version of stories, and its own opinions – which may be wrong. However, because of keen competition amongst them, errors are quickly found out. Further, each newspaper acquires its own reputation – one is deemed "free market," another is deemed "socialist," and a third is deemed "pro-BJP." Why should a free educational system not be established along the same lines, with professors, departments, colleges and universities acquiring and maintaining their own reputations, including the reputation of their biases?

There is, of course, a Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. It is rightly considered a propaganda arm of the government. And if it attempts to "muzzle" the free press, every journalist worth his salt stridently opposes it. Why do these same journalists not see that education must be run along the same lines? And that the ministry of education is just another propaganda arm.

Some years ago, Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute and I went to the National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie to deliver some lectures on population (as an asset) and urbanization (as a goal). This is the academy that trains our elite corps of Indian Administrative Service officers (IAS). We were later taken to meet the academy's professor of Economics. All the shelves of his office were filled with communist literature. And Karl Marx's Das Kapital lay open on his desk. And India had been "liberalizing" for more than a decade!

Now, IAS recruits come from a variety of backgrounds. There are engineers, botanists, zoologists and even veterinary doctors who make it to the service. They need to understand basic theories about man, society, economy and state before they are entrusted with the administration of our common affairs. As I liberal, I would insist that liberal theories must be taught. This would give these recruits an idea of how markets work and why they should be left free. A liberal administrator would have a view of man, society, economy and state that would envision a small role for the State in a largely free society. However, what is actually taught is Marxist propaganda. The State is guilty of peddling propaganda to its own elite personnel! What will they peddle if they are allowed to teach the whole of society? Obviously, more of the same.

Academic anarchy can also be looked upon as academic freedom. And this is a freedom that is vital for any educational system. For example: take this year's Nobel prize in Economics, awarded to Paul Krugman, whom I consider to be a dangerous Keynesian. And there are others like me. If we did not have the freedom to criticize this award, if the Nobel prize was awarded by a "ministry of truth," all dissenting voices would be stifled. Public understanding of crucial events would be very poor indeed if academics with differing views were disallowed from publicly airing their misgivings. In a free educational system, there would be many differing "schools of thought." And the brightest minds would gravitate towards those schools which were widely perceived to be teaching the right stuff. Even universities and academics would possess "brand equity."

As the great classical liberal, Thomas Paine, put it in the opening paragraph of his little pamphlet of 1776, Common Sense:

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices…. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

This was "common sense" 250 years ago. We need to regain this same common sense today. Our precise problem is that we have "so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them." The role of government is to punish the wicked. It is the role of society to teach. We as a society have handed over our most important privilege to the socialist State. As my experience at the IAS Academy proves, it is the socialist State that is in need of education; it cannot impart it.

Our socialist State is actually a miserable failure. It started off wanting to make steel – and failed at even this simple task. We are lucky that it was not given the task of cultivating fields and our farms were not collectivized. What is therefore unthinkable is that this failed State should be given the task of cultivating minds, and that all our minds should be collectivized. This is the precise direction that our mainstream press, egged on by that arch-socialist Amartya Sen and his protégé Manmohan Singh, have embarked us upon. If we are to save our minds, and the minds of our youth, we must champion a free education system.

A version of this article was published in the Education World magazine, in October 2008. It can viewed here.

This article was published in the Liberty Institute on Sunday, November 09, 2008.

Author : Mr Chakraverti is the author of "Antidote: Essays Against the Socialist Indian State" and its sequel, "Antidote 2: For Liberal Governance". He blogs at www.sauvik-antidote.blogspot.com.

http://www.indefenceofliberty.org/story.aspx?id=2093&pubid=1886