3. STORYLINE
• The film, starring Irrfan Khan and actress Saba Qamar, shows the plight of parents who aspire to send
their daughter to an English medium school.
• The film is about a couple who dream to give the best education to their daughter and the problems
they face.
• From changing house and moving to a posh neighbourhood in south Delhi to come within the 3 km
radius of the school, to bribing the school principal and asking an MLA for help.
• His worker’s son gets admission in a reputed school under the quota reserved for economically weaker
section (EWS). He also decides to take the EWS route.
4. HIGHLIGHTS
• The film highlights the pressure build up on children to speak English and how
education is creating a divide within the society.
• It also points out at the increasing ambition of parents from EWS to send their
children in English medium schools.
• The RTE Act mandates reserving 25 percent seats for such children, but
corruption and scams act as roadblocks.
5. LINKAGES WITH HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
• In India, English is glue which binds India’s administrators and other elites. But at the same time, it
creates a class divide between richer and poorer Indians. It’s a big question why schooling does not
make children from lower socio-economic strata proficient in English.
• This film tells this story of major systemic failure in this regard. This film shows poor condition of
government schools. According to this film, Government schools means lack of learning which will
lead to poor proficiency in English language and one will not be able to fit into a high class society.
• Female lead of this film rightly points out, that “English is not just a language in this country, its class.
Best way to be part of this class is to study in a good school”.
6. CONTINUED…
• As we can observe that not being able to speak English in India restricts some major
capabilities which ultimately leads to some major unfreedoms as this movie points out- Not
getting into good nursery school means not getting into good college and then not getting a
job in an MNC.
• Not only this, if your parents are not well educated then you cannot get into a top nursery
school because nowadays schools conduct interviews of parents also to take admission of their
kids in nursery school. It happens under the assumption that if parents are not well educated
they won’t pay much attention to their children’s education.
• At the end, it seems a vicious cycle if you are not well educated your children will not be well
educated and so on.
7. CONTINUED…
• There is hardly any doubt that being literate, knowledgeable and “having access to an education
that allows a person to flourish is generally argued to be a valuable capability” (Robeyns 2005a).
• The relation between the capability perspective and education is already acknowledged in the
2002 UNESCO Report “Education for all”. This report also suggests that policies regarding this
should considered as successful only if they have enhanced people’s capabilities.
• From the Capabilities Approach perspective education is important for several reasons. The
human capabilities approach to education recognises that education is an end in itself.
8. CONTINUED…
• The most distinctive feature of this approach is that it assesses the policies on the basis that
whether or not they expand real freedoms of the people that they value.
• Nussbaum’s list of central capabilities includes adequate education as an important capability.
Here, she explicitly mentions that education should not be limited to just literacy but it is more
about imagination and freedom of expression.
• Rawls in his Theory of Institutional justice, includes structure of educational institutes. His approach
obviously comes close to the claim that individuals’ equal opportunities are equivalent to their
equal command over resources. In this movie not only lead character forged the documents to
snatch the rights of poor people which could have helped them to break that cycle but schools
also knowingly supported this.
9. CONCLUSION
• This movie shows how even if a child is taking admission through EWS quota, school charges
hefty amount in the name of co-curricular activities which acts as hurdle in admissions under
this quota. Even though the crowd aspiring to take admission under this quota is increasing
year by year.
• This movie not only highlights the problems of commercialisation of education and poor
quality of education provided by government schools but also gives a very interesting way
forward.
• At the end when lead character being guilty of taking away opportunity from a poor kid
decides to fund a government school for its renovation and necessary infrastructure, he also
admit her daughter in that school.
10. CONCLUSION
• This can be a way forward to improve the quality of education in government schools.
• In 2015, Allahabad High Court gave a verdict that the children of politicians and government
employees (including civil servants) must mandatorily study in government schools.
• Though, this is an extreme solution for this problem and it also restricts freedom of parents to
provide their children with best quality education they can afford but it would definitely solve the
problems of poor infrastructure and quality of education in government schools.
