c# - ODP.NET Oracle.ManagedDataAccess causes ORA-12537 network session end of file -

We are a nation so disappointed with itself that we have become immune to good news. So when it does come, we either ignore it or cynically dismiss it with a shrug. The latest census is an example. It has brought the happy news that literacy in India has jumped from 52 to 65 per cent during the last decade. This means that our literacy growth rate has doubled from 0.7 per cent a year in the past to 1.4 per cent. Millions of children have been liberated in the 1990s from the bondage of ignorance, with the greatest gains having come from rural areas, the Hindi states, and among girls. How did this happen? On the demand end, it is parental motivation--parents are increasingly realising, even in the most backward villages, that education is the passport to their child's future. On the supply side, it is a combination of things. First, Literacy campaigns in some states, supported by the internationally funded District Primary Education Program (DPEP) have begun to make a difference. Their central premise is that teachers must be made accountable to local communities to overcome the problem of chronic teacher absenteeism--the scourge of primary education in Hindi rural areas. Because states are bankrupt, they have resorted to employing para-teachers on performance contracts ("shiksha karmi"), and they are outperforming regular teachers. We now have an astounding 500,000 para-teachers in India today! Second, private schools of varying quality, in towns and villages across India have mushroomed. State schools, especially in the Hindi belt, had grown so rotten that people took matters into their hands and pulled their children out of government schools and put them into these private schools, where, at least, the teacher shows up and some teaching does take place. Third, there have been outstanding initiatives in states like Madhya Pradesh, where mass literacy has risen from 44 to 64 per cent in the 1990s. Against this 20-percentage point gain, literacy had risen only 6 points in the eighties, 11 points in the seventies and 6 points in the sixties. Female literacy has also gone up an impressive 22 points--from lowly 28 per cent, it has risen to 50 per cent. Thus, Madhya Pradesh has begun to replicate Himachal's education miracle, and soon it too will stop being a contemptible Bimaru state. Rajasthan and Andhra too are not far behind. Finding the state treasury empty, subversive warriors inside the M.P. government have created an alternative system of 26,000 schools. This is the famous Education Guarantee Scheme, which I wrote about two years ago. Through it, the village creates its own learning space, hires a local teacher on a performance contract, who is accountable to parents through "shala shiksha samitis". Having recognised that "job security" is partially the cause of the disease, the reformers have now ensured that all future teachers in the formal system will be "shiksha karmis" on performance contract. As a result, primary education is gradually being de-centralised and de-bureaucratised, despite resistance from teachers unions. It is becoming community based and this has visibly reduced teacher absenteeism and improved teaching quality. Some critics are dismissive. They see in these initiatives a conspiracy by the state to off-load the burden of primary education to the village panchayats. They rightly point out that para-teachers are sometimes relatives of the village pradhan. They worry that alternative schools might institutionalise dualism. Also, an unscrupulous politician might make shiksha karmis permanent. These are valid concerns. The critics, however, overlook the richness of the achievement. In tests administered by independent experts, children in non-formal schools run by para-teachers in M.P. have consistently outperformed those in the formal government schools. The "joyful learning" curriculum by an NGO, Eklavya, is also making a significant difference in young children's development. The teacher's commitment is turning out to be more important than a B.Ed degree. High salaries and fancy buildings seem to be less important than accountability. The other lesson we are learning is that instead of flaying the state for the umpteenth time for its failure, let us admit the state's limitations in broadly delivering quality education. If it cannot produce bread how can it realistically develop the minds of our young? However, only the state has the resources for universal primary education in our vast country. Hence, the solution is "state aided" schools--government must gradually give up running schools, and become a non-interfering funds provider. Running schools is best left to education professionals, NGOs and "edu-preneurs". Once this happens, new schools will emerge, creativity will blossom, and parents will have choice. The miserable state schools will also improve when they are forced to compete. And if they do not, then parents will pull their children out, and they will either have to close down or be sold off.