Editorial: An Education Audit in Disguise

Shimla, June 27 Ritanjali Hastir

The district administration deserves appreciation for placing a public pledge board outside Shimla’s Gaiety Theatre as part of the anti-drug campaign for ten days  i.e June 17 to 27, 2026. The idea was simple: sign your name, pledge your support against drugs, and become part of a larger social movement.

Unfortunately, the public had a different interpretation.

At the end of the campaign, the pledge board had become a free-for-all. Love confessions, doodles, random signatures, oversized autographs, personal messages, and everything else that had absolutely nothing to do with the campaign found their place on the canvas. It didn’t take long for a public pledge to resemble the back page of a classroom notebook.

Which brings us to Himachal’s much-celebrated literacy rate. Every year, we’re reminded that we’re among the most literate states in the country. Awards are collected, statistics are quoted, and achievements are celebrated. Yet, standing before that pledge board, one couldn’t help but wonder whether we’ve spent years measuring literacy while completely overlooking education.

After all, literacy teaches you how to write. Education teaches you when not to.

Ironically, the administration believed it was conducting an anti-drug campaign, but what it actually conducted was an education audit and the findings weren’t flattering.

Perhaps it’s time we stopped mistaking literacy for learning. Because if a simple public pledge board cannot be respected, then all those impressive literacy percentages begin to look less like a matter of pride and more like numbers waiting to be questioned.

The campaign was meant to encourage people to take a stand against drugs.
Instead, it inadvertently exposed something equally worrying—the alarming shortage of civic sense. Maybe that should be the next campaign.