Vasanthakumar critiques how many families move their children to private schools in search of better education. Even these institutions, however, often fall short of providing high-quality education, perpetuating the cycle of educational inequity. Additionally, he points out: “While the joint family system has been touted as a great and important aspect of Indian tradition and also as a site of education, little is spoken about the detrimental effects it has on children’s self-esteem and agency, and in some cases on educational outcomes as well, especially on the girl child.”
The politics of education in India are intertwined with issues of affirmative action and the myth of meritocracy. Vasanthakumar argues that affirmative action policies, while necessary to address historical injustices, have created tensions among different caste groups. Therefore, education politics become a humiliation and exclusion, where he contends that “globalisation was meant to benefit everyone and integrate everyone into a global economy.
There is, however, sufficient evidence to suggest that globalisation and the forces of globalisation have contributed to new dimensions of inequality and stratification, which have implications not just for education but for politics and culture too”. This creates a class of “wasted humans”—as described by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman—who are excluded from the economic cycle.
Finally, The Smart and the Dumb captures the multifaceted nature of education in India, documenting stories like Nisha’s to portray the political and cultural processes influencing education vividly. It challenges readers to think critically about the role of education in society and its potential to reinforce or dismantle socio-economic inequalities. The book will appeal to a broad audience, including educators, policymakers, sociologists and anyone interested in understanding the intricacies of the Indian education system.
The language and narration are simple, making it accessible to a large population. However, given that the book discusses the Indian education policy landscape in a unique storytelling format, it could have benefited from more comparisons with the development trajectories of other countries and their best practices that could be implemented in the Indian educational context.