Education in Rural Region: Some Additional Thoughts
Posted : June 27, 2010 at 7:34 pm [IST]
In many of the rural schools such as the one in the photograph in my earlier entry, there is plenty of land to be converted into playground or to develop a good enough nursery to improve the ambiance to make the students learn better. Unfortunately, the school hardly gets a motivated school administrator or headmaster who takes initiative. In good old days, some were easily available as there were missionary educationists at heart inspired by great political leaders such as Mahatma who has social issues as his priority.
English can’t be the right medium till the student understands it as proficiently as his own mother tongues. Unfortunately, in India, many a times, the mother tongues are different than the language used as medium. In Hindi belt itself, the mother tongue is different. Students find it difficult to pick up the matter taught even in Hindi. With Bhojpuri at home and Hindi as medium of instruction, the students find it difficult to grasp the subject taught in Hindi. The school must focus to teach the language of its medium of instruction in the first five years for effective understanding of what is taught. It’s unfortunate that the students even after 10 years of schooling don’t become proficient in the language used as medium, say, Hindi or as second language, such as English. It is only because of the scarcity of good trained teacher. Only the use of technologies both at school by teachers and at home by tutors or guardians can overcome the problem. India had this problem since ages and so is its illiteracy so high. India must learn some lessons from the developed non-English speaking countries. India has wasted 60 years and has still failed in reaching at the right policy on the medium of instruction.
For the students in rural school, the English has been the toughest subject to pass the tests and the reason of shunning the schooling. Interestingly, with emphasis on English they do neither become proficient in Hindi nor in English. Still in hope of better employability in present situation, the English medium schools are mushrooming all over the country, even in rural region.
All the political parties and administrators must agree that the system of temporary or contractual teachers for cutting the cost of educating is not the answer for enhancing the accessibility of education for a larger population. It has made the mess of teaching; Let all the teachers be on regular agreed or better scale to attract the best stuff in teaching. One can’t expect good teaching from third class input of teachers. It’s not only the qualification judged by the certificates and degrees but the aptitude for teaching should be the criteria to select teachers for the rural schools. If anything it is the technology that can facilitate the accessibility of education for all. But it requires a change in the mindsets of those in education sector and setting up of the facilities. Alumni of the schools and the local donors can participate in big way to overcome the financial constraints.
It must be mandatory for the school to impart some skills before a student completes the class x or xii or before he leaves the school even midway.
In good old days, someone in the village used to donate the land and or get constructed the building. The first high school at Samahuta, a village near my own village came up because of the endeavour of one Late Dharamraj Rai. The only girls’ high school there was the work of another person named Raja Rai. The story of BHU that was the handiwork of Madan Mohan Malviya is well known. The education policy for the rural India must emphasize and encourage the role of the locals without which education will not reach to every child of every household.
The school premises must become a place of pride for the community and must come up as a place of worship that provides knowledge as well peace of mind.
Even after the passage of the Right of Education Bill, I doubt the education to spread the way it is intended if the community doesn’t participate positively for educating its children rightly.
I wish the education at rural schools is under an independent group selected by the parents of students and out of the manipulation of the heads of panchayat system that has gone political and so extremely corrupt. People of the community that the school serves, are not bold and conscious enough to stand against the malpractices that the panchayat heads in collusion with the government officers are inflicting on schools and education.
I wish the people are alive to this major issue of building the future generation and find the effective solution to attain 100% literate, enlightened and empowered community through good education from the rural schools.
- Indra
Category: Government Policy/Administration, Employment/Education |
2 Comments »
Pratul Birla commented on “Education in Rural Region: Some Additional Thoughts”:
“An article in Economic Times could be of interest to you. Sunil Mittal has taken a big initiative . He plans to have 550 free schools to target 100000 students . The article says that 200 plus have already been executed . I hope the governement at least has the courtesy to refund him the 2% education cess which they may have charged . Hopefully , many more big industrialists could take this lead.
My thinking has been that for true and sustainable enlightenment of the population the attainment of skills is as much necessary as education. It gives a sense of security and therefore independence. Employability also brings about a lot of self education. A skilled person is less likely to be a victim of corruption as well. On the other hand unemployment creates a lot of hazzards for the growth of the country. They are like a “chicken or egg first ? ” kind of thing. It is ironical that on the one hand it is difficult to get competent worksmen even in the cities and on the other , the government doles out so much money for NREGS just to create temporary employment and defer discontent.
I wish that the ruling party could be less populist and opportunist and used the money to create human capital. They could do well by overhauling and expanding the ITI program for example.”
Posted by: Indra at June 28, 2010 @ 11:31 am
Rajesh Sharma’s comment on “Education in Rural Region: Some Additional Thoughts”:
“I can’t agree more with you on two of the biggest stumbling blocks in the spread of effective education across the masses:
(1) The inability to impart education in a medium that is the natural language of communication for the students…especially the early age students. Looking back I can say with a lot of conviction that our infatuation with English as a medium to incorporate education *and* as a benchmark of being educated is a big handicap. I mean after having spent a good amount of time among students and professionals from various nationalities and culture who can hardly utter a complete English sentence the one thing that is obvious is that it just doesn’t matter what language you express you ideas in. If you are passionate about what you are trying to express then folks will understand the idea irrespective of the language. Imparting knowledge doesn’t require language, it requires articulation of ideas that is comprehensible by others. Einstein learnt his maths and physics in German, Aryabhatt and Bhaskar learnt their maths in Sanskrit and Musa Ibn Khwarzimi learnt his maths, astronomy and geography in Persian.
(2) Any education policy, framework and/or guidelines has to recognize that education is a community driven initiative. We can build the most state-of-the-art school in some remote village of Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh. But it amounts to nothing if we can’t get good educators for such a school. And good educators can not be imported to remote and far flung villages. So, you are on the money when you talk about the “role of locals” in rural and suburban education. But there obviously has to be the right incentives in place for students to want to go to school, for the parents to send their kids to school and for individuals to invest in pursuing the profession of an educator to meet that kind of demand. And, as we all know, the incentives are economic in nature.
Yes, as you point out and Pratul bhaiya articulates, there are things beyond basic education that needs to be taken care off. Things like employability for example. But lets face it - there is a massive “Opportunity Divide” for all those rural and suburban students who want to capitalize on their knowledge and wares. I mean I saw so many folks during our student life…extremely brilliant students from village background who just cudn’t pursue higher ambitions just because they have to go back to their village or small town and stay close to their families. Now that’s sheer waste of human resource. And these are students who actually made it beyond the confines of their village and actually attended schools like IITs, BIT and RECs. Just imagine all those students who couldn’t even do that since they just can’t leave their village or town for obvious/not-so-obvious reasons.
Guess the point I’m trying to make is any education system has to be holistic enough to not only provide an infrastructure to impart education but also an ecosystem, close to homes and communities, where these students can practice their trade. Bottom line, we can’t forever expect huge swathes of educated rural India to emigrate to the 5 or 10 or 20 big cities in search of employment. Ultimately, education like any business enterprise follows a self-sustaining cycle. If any part of the cycle is missing or weak then we just end up with a lop-sided supply-demand mismatch. Yes, it is a chicken-and-egg problem. Rural India needs schools and colleges but it also needs industries, small and big businesses, entrepreneurs…a rich self-sustaining community that can generate its own supply and demand for goods, services…and innovation. “
Posted by: Indra at June 28, 2010 @ 5:07 pm
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