The education of the marginalised is the responsibility of the Government but there has been a continuous to hand over the responsibility to private sector under the plea of quality education. There has been an impression that the Government-run schools are not capable of providing quality education where as a vast majority of students still depend on Government managed institutions. For a long time, there has been growing involvement of other actors along with Government such as international organisations, DFID, World Bank, UNICEF, private foundations, corporates and public sector undertakings, religious bodies which are actively involved in education sector in many ways especially in promoting education among the marginalised poor in remote and inaccessible areas. But still the impact of these agencies has been very insignificant. The post globalization era has created conducive environment that paves the way for private education business organizations in the country as well as in Odisha to tap both private and Government resources such as land, finance and a host of other benefits in form of grants in the plea of education of the marginalized.
Taking the advantage of large presence of poor Adivasies and Dalits in the State and support from both private and Government sources, these private organizations have been instrumental in providing education to the most marginalized section of our State. The shifting of responsibility of Government to private sector with handing over State resources will have wider implication on education of the marginalized poor of the State. There are a number of private residential schools coming up in Odisha and a very few of them are growing in a mega way by accommodating very huge number of students from marginalized sections. But ideally, the education facility should be made available at doorstep at Panchayat, block and district level. It is surprising why the Government grants, from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, public sector and corporate, besides of the State Government, are being channelled to very few private institutions without decentralizing the resource distribution mechanism to institutions in all parts of the State. This has been creating regional disparity in access to quality education for all people in the State as well as the marginalised sections. The Government has also not developed adequate monitoring and accountability mechanism for private institutions.
It has been observed from various reports and news in media that the status of Government run schools are qualitatively deteriorating and still there are many children out of school and the problem of drop out and child labour is still a matter of concern, mostly in rural areas. The attempt of the State Government to give encouragement to private run schools will deprive further the poor and marginalised from getting quality education.
It is found that the scope of education for marginalized section is not universal and not based on principle of equality. It is graded into different categories based on its available unequal opportunities and access. The recent State Government’s decision to launch Anwesha scheme to provide free education to SC and ST students in selected private English medium schools is a welcome move. Under the scheme, around 5,000 ST and SC children will be enrolled annually into standard I in leading private schools in urban areas of the State. There are interior pockets without schools and teachers are not willing to continue there for long. There has been lack of sufficient qualified teachers from among the marginalised community in the locality to be appointed as teachers.
The allocation of budget for education and functioning of education administration has been subject to number of criticism. The State Government has not allocated adequate financial resources, trained and dedicated manpower and necessary basic infrastructure for ensuring quality education for all in the State. The State should not encourage disparity in education system while providing education to the students of the state and there must be always an attempt to build universal education system as well universal access to education by all to minimize disparity and inequality.
The poor economic status of the parents and their vulnerability in socio-economic situation has been largely impacting on the education of children. It has been said in number of cases that the number of enrolment in schools has increased due to mid-day meal that means children are coming to school out of poverty and hunger.
For last several years lakhs of migrant families have been leaving their village with children in search of livelihood. The children of these poor families are being deprived of education and all other child rights to build a life for the future. A major chunk of migrant workers is from marginalised sections and from the backward regions of the State where there has been poor educational infrastructure. Residential schools are highly required to ensure education of poor children. The children of farmers, share croppers, agricultural workers, construction workers, fisher folk, NTFP collectors, with low and fixed wage are struggling hard to meet the educational expenses and many of them are leaving school due to financial distress. The socially excluded groups are facing problems of social discrimination.
The private English medium schools are routinely increasing school fees and the educational expenses become costly. Children education budget becomes a lion’s share of the income of economically poor families in both rural and urban areas.
The State Government has not seriously implemented the provisions in laws such as Right to Education Act to minimise social discrimination, reservation, stipend and all other benefits for the marginalised section.
It is suggested that now there are district mineral development foundations in each district and major mineral bearing district will have more financial resources available for the development of the districts, and this district mineral development fund should be allocated for education development of the district. Especially the education of the marginalised section should be in focus to provide quality education at their doorstep at block and district level by opening residential English medium schools in the district. The children of SC, ST, SEBC, religious and linguistic minorities and women should be supported additionally to ensure their fullest participation in access to education. The financial resources from other available resources can be pulled together in building a common State wide plan for the educational development of the whole State. The ST and SC Development Department, School and Mass Education, Mines Department and other related departments can plan this scheme by involving all stakeholders for education development of the State.
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