Even though the enrolment of children has improved in schools across Odisha, the children are not learning well. As such, the quality of education and equity in access has been a matter of concern.
The National Achievement Survey for Class-III by the NCERT covering 12 districts, 248 schools and 3,471 students found that the performances of both boys and girl students of Odisha are significantly below the national average in both language and mathematics but students of non–SC, ST and OBC groups have secured higher than the national average.
The Annual Status of Education Report-2016 shows that among rural children in standard three, 9.7 per cent cannot even read letters, 19.9 per cent can read letters but not words. 7.7 per cent cannot recognise numbers up to 99, 32 per cent can recognize numbers but cannot do subtraction. 20.5 per cent cannot even read capital letters, 19.8 per cent can read capital letters but not small letters, only 9.9 per cent can read sentences.
The National University of Education Planning and Administration, New Delhi report 2014 has raised concern over quality and equity for achieving education for all in the country.
The Chairperson of NHRC in its remark on status of education in the State, on hearing of cases at camp court at Bhubaneswar relating to primary education, said that the State has failed to ensure basic infrastructure in schools. He cited the example of Malkangiri district where about 72 schools have no infrastructure. The marginalised sections in interior parts have very limited access to education.
There have been regular media reports on poor infrastructure and vulnerable condition of students and teachers in schools, residential schools in rural and tribal areas where mostly the poor, SCs and STs are enrolled for education. It is a fact that more than 90 per cent of children are in Government schools and less than ten per cent are in private and religious schools. The recent trend shows fastest growth of private schools, mostly in urban and semi urban areas, and the enrolment in Government schools has been decreasing. The quality of education in private schools as well as infrastructural facilities and student-teacher ratio is comparatively better than the Government run schools. Most of the parents nowadays prefer to send their children to private schools but private schools are paid schools and many of them are running like teaching shops. Moreover, the availability of private schools is mostly in urban areas. The people having money in urban areas are major beneficiaries of private schools.
The student enrolment in primary schools of urban areas from 2015 to 2016 has become almost equal between Government and private schools.
Even a few urban areas have more children in private schools than Government schools. So a vast majority of rural poor and people of marginalized communities mostly depend on Government schools to educate their children but the State Government has not yet fulfilled the basic requirement. Even 65 years of planned spending with dedicated departments have not improved much the education system in the context of access and quality.
The condition of Government run residential schools in rural and tribal areas, especially for STs and SCs children, is no better as the quality of education and overall learning environment in these institutions have not been improving to the desired extent due to largely the apathy of the State Government in allocating State share and in recruitment of quality teaching and non-teaching staff. The elected people’s representatives of SC and ST communities never visit such institutions and raise concern in any of the statutory forums.
The allocation of financial resources for required infrastructure from various sources must be available for the education of the children of these communities. The MP and MlA lAD, SCSP and TSP funds and a host of such other provisions must be used to ensure quality education for the poor and marginalized.
A majority of the parents of rural poor and marginalized sections children are illiterate and economically weak. They are mostly wage labourers with low income, lack of awareness about educational system and provisions about their rights and entitlements. They are unable to take decision about the future of their children and mostly succumb to the situation without exploring alternatives because of their vulnerability. It is the Government who has been responsible for building qualitative and ensuring barrier-free access of the poor and marginalized to education. But the role of Government has been limited to routine work while it is doing little in maintaining equity and quality to protect the interest of the poor and marginalized section.
The Constitution of India says that the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interest of the weaker section, particularly the SCs and STs and shall protect to ensure social justice. The Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 has been implemented since 2010 which lays down principles and norms but the implementing agencies have been taking time to following constitutional mandate and laws to ensure rights of the children. The delay in implementation process and negligence in ensuring basic minimum for primary education have an adverse impact on the poor and marginalized sections. The quality of education matters for growth of personality, access to skill, employment, income and quality of life. The poor quality of education in Government schools has been the main cause of dropout and child labour, distress migration and also low skill level among youths in rural areas.
Education is most important and key means to achieve change and progress but unfortunately this important area has been persistently neglected by the Government. The Government must spend on rural educational infrastructure, appoint quality teacher and promote quality teachers training institutions, encourage research in teaching and learning methodology with good payment for the people engaged in teaching profession.
(manasbbsr15@gmail.co)