3 min read
Well thought of Philantrophy

Azim Premji has given to India much more than his money.His $2 Billion donation has to be appreciated for more than its financial value.He deserves an additional applause not for the ‘How much’ but for the ‘How’ of his outpouring. The $2 Billion which he donated will be given to the Azim Premji Foundation.It will be used among other things,to set up and nurture the Azim Premji University .The focus of this foundation and also of the university is primary and school education. If you search,you’ll find that the only programs that are offered are those related to bolstering the reach of India’s primary education. The programs offered are Masters in Education,Masters in Teacher Education and Masters in Development. No, none of these programs produce ready to employ people for India booming IT sector neither do they aim to create tomorrows corporate hotshots . The effort addresses just one grave need ;the need for every child in India to have the opportunity to a quality education.The Right to education for all children below 14 years of age is promised by our Constitution but our politicians have guaranteed that even 60 years after Independence only the privileged or lucky kids get an education worth talking about.

Our education system sucks from top to bottom.Even the best colleges in India struggle hard to compete globally.But to get to college you have to get past school and that for the average Indian is the trickier part.We have excellent schools in our cities but step into the countryside and suddenly you find rampant absenteeism amongst teachers,forged marks,poor education standards,etc.Some studies have shown that kids in rural schools in the 10th grade scored as much as the urban kids did in the 4th grade.This is more than clear sign of how the quality how education suffers as we enter rural India. Well,primary education isn’t the only area where our education system falls behind but it is the the one that hurts the most.Many reports indicate that many graduates from India’s numerous engineering colleges lack sufficient skills to be directly employed.But the good part is that the corporates themselves make up for this lack of quality.Well, MNC’s want cheap employees and if they cant find them,they will create them.A good example would be the Infosys Global Education Center in Mysore.A huge machine which will produce cut and dried employees ready for hire. But Azim Premji has decided to look the other way.He has left any vested corporate interests behind.By singularly focusing on primary education he has decided to take on the harsh challenge of improving the quality of India’s primary education system,the level of education at which any shortcoming severely restricts a persons choices in life. Kudos to Azim Premji because he put both his money and his mind where his heart is .