Answers: Mains Marathon – UPSC Mains Current Affairs Questions – January 30, 2018

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Q.1) Education is a fundamental right for those aged between six and 14 years, but there has hardly been a coordinated effort to better the lot of teachers who teach these children. In this context discuss the reasons for poor quality of teachers training in India. Suggest some measures to improve education system in India. (GS 1)

Education is a fundamental right for those aged between six and 14 years, but there has hardly been a coordinated effort to better the lot of teachers who teach these children.

The reasons for poor quality of teachers training are discussed below.

• For years, certain institutions which impart teacher training courses have failed to get the necessary recognition from the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
• The future of those who graduate from such institutions, which are funded by the Central/ State government or Union Territory administration concerned, has been in jeopardy.
• Certain institutions failed to obtain recognition and permission from the Council, though they continued to admit students for teacher education and training courses.
• Irrelevant licensing and privatization of Teachers Education Institutes leading to low quality training of teachers.

Huge number of TEIs being either corrupt or dysfunctional.

• Increasing number of teachers with substandard training because of lack of faculty in TEIs.

Measures to improve education system in India.

• There is need for urgent reform in the education system.
• Strict laws and regulations should be implement.
• Designing effective exam mechanism to avoid under qualified people to enter into the system.
• Periodic training & workshop should be given to enable teachers to be aware of latest ongoing to improve education system.
• Aligning national teacher education system with global education system
• Emphasis should also given to moral & ethical aspect of teacher’s training
• Need for an comprehensive policy to address the corruption in education field
• 360 degree performance evaluation measures linked with outcome will have a significant impact on teacher quality.
• More spending towards education sector, appointment of ombudsman, setting up a legal framework to address the issue.
• Need of HEERA (Higher education empowerment regulation agency) for replacement of UGC and AICTE, 360 degree appraisal cycle etc can be taken into consideration.
• Conduct various seminars , training procedures to improve quality of teaching
• Promote and conduct innovation and research in various areas of teacher education.

Conclusion:

• Education is the only tool which can bring out a human being from most of the miseries in life. If the proper education can be given to the children & youth of our country we will be able to appropriately use our demographic dividend. The war against the corrupt system has already began and we have to support it by all means despite of all odds. It is only possible when the mind of the people behind the rotten system is changed and for it proper steps should also be taken by the government.
• Education is one of the basic needs of human being. To provide quality education should be the priority of every nation. Quality of education is depends upon the quality of teacher and quality of teachers is being shaped in teacher education programme. Teacher education program is the backbone of education system of a nation.

Q.2) India recently host heads of 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the Republic Day celebrations to boost India’s ties with Southeast Asia. In this context, discuss where India lacks to strengthen the India-ASEAN relationship. What is the way forward to boost further strengthen ties?(GS-2)

India recently host heads of 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the Republic Day celebrations to boost India’s ties with Southeast Asia.

Where does India lack to strengthen the India-ASEAN relationship?

• India’s capacity to provide development assistance, market access and security guarantees remains limited.
• Also ASEAN’s inclination to harness New Delhi for regional stability remains restricted by its sensitivities to other powers.
• There has been a shift in emphasis, with India moving away from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and asserting its centrality in the evolving geography of the Indo-Pacific.
• India’s economic focus too is not in tune with other regional powers which view ASEAN as an important market for exports and investments.
• India’s export sector remains weak and the government’s focus has shifted to boosting manufacturing domestically.
• As India’s gaze shifts to the Bay of Bengal, Myanmar and Thailand have emerged as key players in its southeastern outreach.
• The hope is to use these nations as a bridge to ASEAN.
• The temptation to prioritise these countries over others in ASEAN may also prevent others from looking at India as a regional stakeholder.

What is the way forward?

• It is important for India and ASEAN to chart out a more operational, though modest, agenda for future cooperation.
• The three Cs of commerce, connectivity and culture have been highlighted but a more coarse perspective is needed in terms of a forging a forward-looking approach.
• India as a facilitator of the ASEAN-wide digital economy would not only challenge China but also emerge as an economic guarantor of its own.
• India needs to focus on more effective delivery of projects it is already committed to.
• In this context, prompt completion of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, which will run from Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar, is key.
• With China having three times more commercial flights than India to Southeast Asia, improving air connectivity between India and ASEAN countries should also be high on the agenda.
• While India offers scholarships to students from ASEAN states to study at Nalanda University, this initiative should be extended to the IITs and the IIMs.
• Tourism too can be further encouraged between India and the ASEAN with some creative branding by the two sides

Q.3) The National Commission for Women (NCW)  recently proposed a special law to punish honour killings incited by khap panchayats. In this context discuss the meaning of honour killing. What are the reasons for honour killing in India?(GS-1)

Eight years after the National Commission for Women (NCW) proposed a special law to punish honour killings incited by khap panchayats, the Supreme Court has said that adults are free to marry persons of their own choice and hurting couples, or summoning them before clan members, groups, or a khap, is “absolutely illegal”.India registered 251 honour killings in 2015, recording a big spike in murders carried out by people professing to be acting in defence of their family’s reputation.

Honour Killing

• Honour killings have been reported in northern regions of India, mainly in the Indian states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, as a result of people marrying without their family’s acceptance, and sometimes for marrying outside their caste or religion
• An honour killing or a shame killing is the homicide of a member of a family, due to the perpetrators’ belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonour upon the family
• Honour killing involves murder of a woman or girl by male family members
• The significant feature is the connection of honour killings to the control of individual’s behaviour, in particular in regard to sexuality/marriage, by the family as a collective
• The perpetrators often do not face negative stigma within their communities, because their behaviour is seen as justified
• Honour killings are also widespread in South India and the western Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat
• In 1990 the National Commission for Women set up a statutory body in order to address the issues of honour killings among some ethnic groups in North India
• This body reviewed constitutional,  legal  and other provisions as well as challenges women face
• The NCW’s activism has contributed significantly towards the reduction of honour killings in rural areas of North India

Reasons to Honour Killing

A crime in the name of ‘honour’ is one of a range of violent or abusive acts. This includes emotional, physical and sexual abuse and other coercive acts.
1. Caste system: The killing continues to take place is because of the continued rigidity of the caste system.
2. Mentality: The mentality of the people till now such that they will not be ready to accept the marriages which have taken place in the same gotra or outside. The society still negatives the right of choice in marriage.
3. Lack in Governance: The root of the cause for the increase of it is because the formal governance has not been able to reach the rural areas.
4. Khap Panchayat: The absence of the formal institutions as panchayat Smiti or a constitution gathering leads to the brutal governance of the illegal and extra-constitutionalized panchayat.
5. Sex ratio: The increase in the difference in sex ratio is reason to it. Honour killing are happening in the area where the sex ratio is low and girls are being bought for marriages.
6. Illiteracy : Unknown about the  rights which are made to protect them in our constitution incapacity due to lack in education. The honour crime violates Article 14, 15 (1) & (3) 19, 21 and 39 (f) of the Constitution of India.
7. Politician future: Reason to protect Khap Panchayat by politician is mostly for their own future votes because majority in those areas are ironically basis for their livelihoods.
8. Status : A person’s ascribed status is more important than the achieved status.
9. Prestige of every caste: It is not limited to the higher caste but in a section even among oppressed communities like Dalit’s and tribal too are indulging in “honour” crimes in a bid to prove that they are no less “honour bound” than the upper caste.