Education of marginalised groups in India: From the perspective of social justice

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that education has an important role to achieve a greater degree of social justice. The educational institutions are expected to equip children to the best of their ability for securing a meaningful place in society and thus fostering a process of developing an egalitarian society. However, a large number of children in India are still excluded from the educational system and hence cannot participate meaningfully in the economic, social, political and cultural life of their communities. It appears that current educational programmes might have failed to address the needs of children who are vulnerable to marginalisation and exclusion. Some of the educational programmes might have provided inadequate services that have affected the interest of these children leading to further social exclusion and injustice. With this backdrop, the paper analyses the trends in participation of disadvantaged children in school and examines the issues relating to the expansion of quality education for these children. The paper gives an insight into the policy and practices to examine the extent to which these facilitate their education. It argues that while unplanned expansion of educational facilities along with inadequate financial investments may dilute the quality, it may also fail to address the right of learners in accessing worthwhile knowledge and skill. The paper also intends to outline the appropriate strategies for education of all the children to promote social justice in and through education.