How state-level school boards can promote educational equity
Mission drift, a phenomenon wherein an organization starts focusing on activities that do not align with its foundational mission, has severe consequences for organizations. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins highlights how companies can falter by straying from their core values and missions, a concept linked to Aristotle’s idea of “telos," or an entity’s ultimate purpose. Aristotle believed that losing sight of this purpose leads to dysfunction and unrealized potential, mirroring the effects of mission drift seen in modern organizations.
This issue is notably problematic within public sector institutions such as state-level school boards in India. Established initially to set educational standards, develop curricula and oversee school administration, these boards have increasingly focused on conducting examinations. Such a narrow focus can overshadow broader educational goals like encouraging critical thinking, creativity and holistic development, relegating the original mission of enhancing the educational experience to a secondary role.
Ironically, this examination-centric approach dates back to colonial times, stemming from the Sadler Commission report of 1919, which advocated a board of secondary and intermediate education to manage and conduct examinations. While the Commission also emphasized the need to oversee educational quality, over the years, mission drift has led many state boards to primarily function as exam holders in practice, moving away from their foundational educational objectives. This drift impacts the overall quality of education, reducing its scope to standardized testing.
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