Defining Quality in Education - Unesco.DOCVIP

Quality of Education at the Beginning of the 21st Century Lessons from India Krishna Kumar Central Institute of Education University of Delhi Quality, conveys difference in worth, in relation to what is common. If something has quality, it is perceived as being less accessible than a variant of the same object, which lacks quality. Thus, the notion of quality implies two or more versions of the same thing, arranged in a hierarchical order implying the relative presence of a valued characteristic. Given this implication, it is hardly surprising that in the long history of education, the anxiety to ensure quality has surfaced relatively recently, against the background of universal access. In ancient and medieval systems, education was a privilege which usually went with elites, and by itself conveyed quality or distinction. The legend of Eklavya, which figures in the Indian epic, the Mahabharata, illustrates the association between education and elites with cruel precision. In this story, a tribal boy is openly denied the opportunity to learn archery from a famous teacher who was appointed to train the local princes. Refusing to be discouraged, the tribal boy attains mastery by self-practice, in the symbolic presence of a clay idol of the famous teacher. When this secret self-training is found out one day, the teacher asks the boy to cut off his right thumb and give it as a ritual gift. This way, the teacher reinstates the social order which allowed only the royal sons to receive archery instruction of the highest quality. Modernity has disturbed the hierarchical principle of the distribution of educational opportunities. The pervasive impact of modernization continues to unfold worldwide; the unfolding has not ended even in the fully industrialized societies where universalization of literacy and basic education started in the 19th century, in response to the needs of industrialization and the socio-political and cultural dynamics it had triggered.