Putting Compulsory Primary Education on the Political Agenda Myron Weiner On educating its children India remains so behind the rest of Asia that it will take a major infusion of resources and political leadership to catch up. Deep class/caste divisions have been barriers to the development of a national drive for mass education by those who have made it to the upper strata. As the economy opens and employment opportunities grow with the expansion of the country's consumer industries, the governing middle class may recognise that the country needs a more literate population and therefore must invest in its children. But it will take a major coalition of locally based groups, the active participation of the media, the contribution of researchers and the information they disseminate, the support of investors, educators, social activists and trade unions and international donor agencies to get India to address the way it treats the children of the poor.
