ALONE MONEY OR LEGISLATION CAN"T HELP THE CAUSE OF LITERACY

No body disputes that in the recent years literacy has been the priority area for the Governments at the center which is manifested by the increasing public expenditure on education and according to one estimate it is more than Rs 60000 crore in a year. That may be fine, but it’s no longer enough which is reflected by India ’s ranking in the fight against literacy which has slipped from 100 to 105. Point is that making funds available for Sarva Shiksha Abhyan or making legislations to make Education a right is just not enough to ensure that everybody irrespective of the financial background, place of stay, cast, creed and religion gets education or in other words education is universalized.



As we see, problem is not with the funds. If the corresponding outcome is not there then the culprit is the failed delivery system. What are the maladies which continue to plague the system? A careful survey brings to light the three main impediments. First, the government schools where the poorest of the poor get education are still bereft of the required infrastructure, the condition in many being nothing short of appalling. Here, it is important to remember that when it comes to infrastructure there is a big difference in the government schools located in the cities and those in the rural and far off areas. For example in city schools there is a surplus staff as all teachers want to be in cities and in rural areas most of the times there are one or two teachers actually present to manage all the classes. To summarize-either building is not there and if building exists teachers are not there. Second, even where infrastructure exists these schools are not allowed to function by our state governments. There is a holiday on the silliest excuse. Impact is horrible. In 150 teaching days available in a year (30-40 days go for conducting examinations etc.) it is just not possible to complete the courses. Those students who stay in cities and are well off make up by turning to the private tutors but others continue to suffer and a stage reaches when they lose interest in studies and their parents in order to save them from idling away their time put them on petty jobs. Third impediment is the very high teacher absenteeism in the government schools ranging from 20-60 per cent in different states, even if government teachers earn thrice or more than the private sector teachers. To make the things worse many cases of sub-letting the jobs by the high paid govt. teachers are coming to light.



But thanks to our growth story of last 20 years, one very heartening development is that even poor and illiterate want to give education to their children including girls even if it means stretching their resources. Under the situation, what can be done to make Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan a grand success?

First, there is an urgent need to change our mind set. Today when we are convinced that education through Government schools is a failed delivery system which gets reflected by the fact that even the government teachers send their children to private schools, there is no wisdom in keeping education in the govt. sector. There is a fit case for handing over the school education to the proven NGO’s on the condition that those below poverty line will continue to get free education and the children of lower middle class families will have a subsidized fee structure. NGO’s will be too happy even if parts of the funds which it spends on Government schools are provided to them.



Second, it is very important to assess teacher’s ability to teach and his knowledge of the content he is expected to teach. How a teacher who himself doesn’t know the subject can do justice with the children. Therefore it is important to introduce written test for the teachers at the time of the recruitment and at periodic intervals say once in two years.

Third, before talking about computers let us first build buildings with roofs, provide black boards and books. There has to be same facilities in all schools whether these are in the cities or villages.



Forth, access to private schools should be available to the poor children as well. Let govt. work out a mechanism under which their fee is paid by the Govt. directly to the private schools. Fifth, schools should be allowed to have their own calendar as industry has. Govt. holidays should not be forced on schools. If a Minister dies why small children are expected to mourn his death? The whole purpose is that unless schools have minimum 250 teaching days, courses can not be completed.





Last it is a fallacy that teachers with ornamental degrees like PhD’s etc are better teachers. Let us not forget that these are for the personal benefit of the teacher and seldom help the students. All that we need is committed teachers who are interested in teaching and are endoed with a skill to transfer their knowledge.



Crux is that alone money and legislations can’t help the cause of literacy; we need to make the schools functional.



BHARTENDU SOOD