Why Justice Markandey Katju Disagrees with Kapil Sibal on India's Future
- Can Education Alone Solve India's Socio-Economic Crisis?
- The Reality of Government Schools in India: Infrastructure, Teachers and Learning Outcomes
- Rural Education Crisis: Personal Experiences from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
- How Political Interference Weakens India's School Education System
- Tuition Culture, Mass Copying and the NEET Controversy
Why Katju Believes Constitutional Reforms Are No Longer Enough
Description
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju responds to senior advocate and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal's argument that education is the key to solving India's socio-economic challenges. Drawing on personal experiences, judicial observations, and examples from government schools across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, Katju argues that India's education system suffers from deep structural failures, including poor infrastructure, teacher absenteeism, political interference, corruption in recruitment, overcrowded classrooms and the growing dependence on private tuition. He contends that these systemic problems cannot be addressed through incremental reforms alone and extends his criticism to India's constitutional and political framework, arguing that only fundamental structural change can bring meaningful transformation. The article presents Katju's personal views and contributes to the ongoing debate on education reform, governance and democracy in India.
Which world are you living in, Kapil?
By Justice Markandey Katju
My good friend Kapil Sibal, former Union Education Minister and Senior Advocate, Indian Supreme Court, interviewed me on his show 'Dil se' about 2 weeks back.
While Kapil was of the view that the present Constitutional system in India can be reformed, I was of the view that it is beyond redemption, and no amount of reforms can make any substantial or significant improvement. So a revolution is required and is inevitable.
Kapil repeatedly kept emphasising on education as the means of solving India's socio-economic problems. In principle, I agree.
In his book 'The Republic ', the famous ancient Greek philosopher Plato said, ''With a good system of education, every improvement is possible. If education is neglected, it matters very little what else the state does''.
I discussed in great detail the importance of education in the judgment which I gave when a judge of the Allahabad High Court
The problem, however, is how do we have a good system of education ?
The condition of perhaps 90% of schools in India is depicted in the video below of a high school in a village in district Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh :
The truth about most schools in India is given in brief in this video :
Teachers are often appointed not on their merits, but by giving bribes. The result is that a large number of teachers in India are totally incompetent.
Even in India's capital, Delhi, schools are in a terrible condition, as pointed out by the Delhi High Court :
The same is the situation in Noida, which is adjacent to Delhi
A few years back, I went to meet an old friend in his village, Manjhanpur, district Allahabad, where he is a farmer. One of his grandsons had passed class 7 and gone to class 8 in his school. I asked him to bring to me his class 7 maths textbook, which he did. I then asked him to solve some very simple maths problems in that textbook, but he could not solve them. I then showed him how to solve them. He was a bright boy and picked up the method, and then quickly solved the other problems in the book.
I then asked him did his teacher not teach the students all this ? He replied, ''Master saheb thekedaari karne lage the, aur doosre master saheb school aate nahi hain'' ( i.e. our maths teacher had become a contractor, and the next teacher rarely comes to school''.
This incident illustrates the plight of most of the schools in our country, particularly in rural India, where the majority of Indians still live.
When I was a judge of the Allahabad High Court (1991- 2004), I visited the C.A.V. Inter College, which was once a good college in Allahabad city. I found that in one section of a class, there were 300 students. I asked the Principal how 300 students were admitted in one class when the rules permitted a maximum of 40? He said '' Netaon aur adhikaariyon ka dabaav hota hai '' ( i.e. because of pressure from politicians and officials ).
For imparting good education, personal attention has to be given by the teacher to the student. I remember that when I was a student of Boys High School, Allahabad ( 1951-61 ), the teacher, apart from teaching in class, would give us homework, which we had to do at home, and then submit our copies to him in a day or two. These copies were taken by the teacher to his home, who scrutinised them, and the next day in class he would point out any mistake we had made.
This personal attention is impossible in a class of 300 students. So what has happened in India is the growth of what is called 'the tuition racket'. This means that the real education is imparted by the teacher at his home by private tuition, while what is done at school is just a formality. Of course, not all students can afford paying both the school fee as well as the tuition fee, so only children of affluent students get a real education. The teacher, of course, gets a double income.
One also hears of mass copying and NEET scandals in our educational institutions ( the latter has been highlighted by the ongoing Cockroach Janta Party agitation at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi ).
To change all this would require a huge amount of money, maybe thousands of crores of rupees. Moreover, the focus of our political leaders, of all parties, is not improvement in education, but how to win the next elections, which is done by polarising society and inciting caste and communal hatred. No one is seriously interested in improving the educational system in India.
So which world is Kapil Sibal living in?
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
(FAQ)
Q1. Why does Justice Markandey Katju disagree with Kapil Sibal?
Justice Markandey Katju disagrees with Kapil Sibal primarily on the question of whether India's existing constitutional and political system can be reformed. While Kapil Sibal argues that education and institutional reforms can gradually improve governance and society, Katju believes the current system is beyond meaningful reform. According to him, deep-rooted structural problems—including corruption, political interference and institutional decay—require a fundamental transformation rather than incremental changes.
Q2. What are Justice Katju's main criticisms of India's education system?
Justice Katju argues that India's education system suffers from multiple systemic failures, including:
- Poor infrastructure in many government schools.
- Teacher absenteeism and inadequate teaching standards.
- Corruption in teacher recruitment.
- Overcrowded classrooms that prevent individual attention.
- Political interference in school administration.
- Growth of private tuition as a parallel education system.
- Examination irregularities and controversies such as the NEET scandal.
He contends that these issues disproportionately affect students from economically weaker backgrounds.
Q3. Why does Katju believe education reforms alone cannot solve India's problems?
Katju agrees that education is essential for national development but argues that meaningful educational reform itself requires political will, honest governance and substantial public investment. In his view, political leaders remain more focused on electoral politics than on improving public education. Therefore, he believes that simply advocating better education is insufficient unless the larger political and institutional system also changes.
Q4. What examples does Justice Katju cite to support his arguments?
Justice Katju draws on several examples, including:
Reports highlighting poor conditions in government schools in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Noida.
His personal experience of meeting a Class 8 student in rural Uttar Pradesh who was unable to solve basic mathematics problems because teachers rarely taught in school.
His observations as an Allahabad High Court judge, where he found classrooms with nearly 300 students despite official limits of around 40 students per class.
Concerns about private tuition becoming a substitute for classroom teaching and examination-related controversies.
These examples are presented to illustrate what he sees as systemic shortcomings in India's education sector.
Q5. What solution does Justice Katju propose for India's socio-economic challenges?
Justice Katju argues that incremental reforms are no longer sufficient. He advocates a fundamental restructuring of India's political and constitutional system, describing it as a revolutionary transformation rather than gradual reform. According to him, only such a systemic change can create the conditions necessary for improving education, governance and socio-economic development.
Note: This reflects Justice Markandey Katju's personal opinion as expressed in the article and does not represent an established consensus among constitutional scholars or policymakers.
