Context

• To create the foundation for the next century, we need to invest in equitable education and health care in the next 25 years not just for the elite, but for all.

What is current status of education?

• Expenditure on Education: The expenses on education as a percentage to GDP, India lags behind some developed/ developing nations.
• Infrastructure deficit: Dilapidated structures, single-room schools, lack of drinking water facilities, separate toilets and other educational infrastructure is a grave problem.
• Student-teacher ratio: Another challenge for improving the Indian education system is to improve the student teacher ratio.

What is current status of healthcare?

• Weak delivery: Current health infrastructure in India paints a dismal picture of the healthcare delivery system in the country.
• Unpreparedness: Public health experts believe that India is ill-equipped to handle emergencies.
• Technical glitches in urban areas: It is not prepared to tackle health epidemics, particularly given its urban congestion.

A systemic approach to reforming education system in the country needs

• Dynamic pedagogy: Academic interventions involve the adoption of grade competence framework instead of just syllabus completion.
• Directional efforts: Effective delivery of remedial education for weaker students like after-school coaching, audio-video based education.
• Administrative reforms: that enable and incentivize teachers to perform better through data-driven insights, training, and recognition. Example: Performance based increments in Salary.

A systemic approach to reforming healthcare system in the country needs

• Universal health coverage: Access to healthcare in India is not equitable—the rich and the middle class would survive the COVID-19 or any other crisis but not the poor.
• Increasing healthcare professionals in numbers: India has handled the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally well. However, India is in dire need of more medical staff and amenities.
• Revamping medical education: If the government wants to stay successful in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it needs to rapidly build medical institutions and increase the number of doctors.
• Cross-subsidization of health-care: How the poor managed without, or even with, any government insurance scheme is a big question. They can make up for the loss by cross-subsidizing treatments of patients with premium insurance policies.

Recent initiatives

• PLI scheme: In view of these challenges, the government announced various policies like PLI scheme for domestic manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
• National Digital Health Mission: It also announced the National Digital Health Mission.

Way forward

• India’s healthcare system is too small for such a large population.
• There seems to be a long battle ahead. The public healthcare system cannot be improved overnight.
• The country needs all hands on deck during and after this crisis—both public and private sectors must work together and deliver universal health coverage for all citizens.

Conclusion

• Providing expanded access to high quality education and healthcare supports—particularly for those young people who today lack such access—will not only expand economic opportunity for those individuals, but will also likely do more to strengthen the overall state economy.

Mains question

Q. To create the foundation for the next century, we need to invest in education and health in the next 25 years not just for the elite, but for all. Critically examine

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