IF you had thought that your child was not getting to know enough about economics at school; if you thought an understanding of the economic situation was beyond your child's comprehension, a solution might be right at your doorstep.
The Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies (RGICS), under the aegis of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, is seeking to change the economics curriculum in schools. The aim: to make school-going children understand economic issues and especially the concept of economic liberalisation. According to the institute, one of the difficulties in implementing the economic reforms has been a lack of understanding of the reforms by people who were unaware of the economic situation, and the dire need and rationale for the reforms. This was primarily due to the poor quality of economics education: a problem, that the Institute felt, should be tackled at the grassroots.
Says Bibek Debroy, director, RGICS: "At school, children are still taught about the old concepts of commanding heights and socialism, while modern-day economic reality is totally different and completely missing from the curriculum. This prompted us to introduce modules on the Indian economy with a thrust on economic reforms to bring schoolchildren closer to ground realities."
The experiment began in Delhi on a trial basis in July when RGICS wrote to 30 schools—selected at random from government and private-run schools—seeking their response to modifying the economics curriculum in classes 9, 10, and 11. The programme was open for all students and not just those who were already studying economics.
Out of the 30, 20 schools evinced interest in the project. Unfortunately, say RGICS experts, the response from government schools was poor, while private schools were pretty open and enthusiastic about the idea. Says Debroy: "Initially there was the usual apprehension about the usefulness of such an experiment and whether it was worth spending time on, but gradually the veil of doubt lifted and almost all of them are now part of it." Led by Debroy, the exercise was carried out by a team of economists, which included Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, Parth Shah and Wilima Wadhwa.
The programme crystallised after the trial run in July. The institute then decided to hold six sessions per school on Fridays where economic experts were invited to hold interactive sessions, explaining the basic economic concepts. Most of the subjects taken up at these sessions related to practical economics—economic reforms, public sector undertakings, disinvestment, rupee devaluation and overall economic management.
The first phase of this programme in Delhi will be wound up by September-end, after which RGICS will chalk out a concrete pro-gramme to carry on the crusade to other cities. Says Debroy: "At the moment, the project is extra-curricular, but very soon, we will crystallise it into school curricula all over the country." RGICS is pretty enthused by the initial success. Says an expert involved in the project: "We are overwhelmed by the response. The level of interest and interaction of the students was of a high class and this was visible more in schools with lower brand equity than better known ones."
The programme for the second phase is also in place and will be spread out further in Delhi in October. Here, events like debates, quizzes and essay competitions on topical economic issues like disinvestment and insurance reforms will be organised in addition to the interactive sessions. Plus, there will be workshops on current topics like the East Asian crisis, rupee depreciation, sanctions, PSU disinvestment, small scale industry reservation, foreign direct investment and multinational corporations.
By November, the institute expects to develop a module which can be applied anywhere in the country and the programme will go out of Delhi, to schools in smaller towns, excluding the metros, where, RGICS feels, "there is enough awareness about economic developments".
The obsolescence of the economic syllabus and textbooks in schools was yet another issue that the institute was looking into. However, the responsibility of this has been put on the Centre for Civil Society. While changing the syllabus, which is a mammoth task, is still under discussion with the authorities, an exercise to change the Economics textbooks has already begun. The aim is not only to make the textbooks much more attractive and interesting but also up to date. Debroy cites the example of a student whose marks were cut because he gave the current (1997-98) figures for India's exports while the one given in the textbook was of 1992-93. "This shows the kind of education we are giving our children," he says.
The draft manuscript of the textbooks would be run through students in October and the final version would be out by December. Also, for the first time, textbooks will be introduced in floppy disk and CD-ROM versions, which will be followed by interactive on-line textbooks for schools.
So next time you come across terms like revenue deficit and incremental capital output ratio, run to your child for guidance.
