Education for All

The following article appeared in our partner Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra’s newsletter.

Education is the key to the development of an individual, society and the nation as a whole. All the social evils, law and order problems, corruption and in fact all the issues that impede the growth of a nation are linked to education.

Government Initiatives

The government initiatives at the policy level seem to be quite impressive. The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, and its Programme of Action (POA), 1992, providing diversity of educational opportunities, clearly spelt out the constitutional directives that envisage free compulsory and universal education to all children up to the age of 14 years. In the ninth five-year plan (1997-02) the focus broadened in the three areas universal access, universal retention and universal achievement. Now more and more programmes have poured in; the Non Formal Education (NFE), the National Program for nutritional support to primary education, District Primary Education Program (DPEP), Teachers’ Education, National Elementary Education Mission NEEM etc. They are all the components of universalisation of elementary education. Currently the country is focusing on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan with the ‘Mid-Day Meal’ to achieve the goal of providing quality education to all the poor children between 6-14 years by the year 2010.

Quality Education

There has been a constant increase in the percentage allocation for primary education against total central government budget. Last year the total budget for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was £ 386 million while this year it is £903 million. Similarly there has been a double fold increase in the mid day meal scheme. Last year it was £211 million while this year it is £380 million. The total union budget allotted this year for primary education comes to £1.25 billion. At the same time we find an increase in the total number of primary schools in the rural areas and the enrolment figures since 1986 shows that there has been a rise in the enrolment of students over the past years. A passing glance on these statistics do reveal somewhat positive picture of education sector in our country, however they do not reveal much about quality of education. The pass percentage and the scoring are always low and the drop out rate is high in rural areas.

Alternative Approach

Jharkhand Education Project Council spends around £5.5 million every year in every district. That comes to around £ 1.26 per student per month. Besides, it employs para teachers, runs bridge camp schools and forms village education committees but the quality of education remains almost the same. One needs to explore alternative approaches to increase the quality of education. For instance one can enrol them in a private school and provide other requirements as well for children without increasing the cost. Similarly, exploration can be made in financing through individuals. Anyone who thinks of supporting one child from the rural areas can send £15 per year to the voluntary organisation working in this field. The voluntary organisations can provide regular updates on the progress of the child. Currently Action village India (AVI), a UK based agency is adopting the same strategy with Stri Shakti, the sister organisation of NBJK to educate girls from disadvantaged families in Hazaribag district of Jharkhand.

These are just a few thoughts to solve the problem of education at the national level, more and more ideas need to be explored both at the government and the non- government level. It is only after a concerted effort that we would be able to achieve the target of providing actual quality education to all the poor children in India.

AVI has just agreed to expand its support for girls education through NBJK and its small groups from 40 to 200 girls.