To encourage students to go to school, we must invest more at the basic level: Teacher training and infrastructure
Parents of children in Nagfena, a small village in Bolangir district, Odisha, have to pray for their children's safety every day as they leave to attend Government-run primary school. The school had 65 students enrolled from class one to five. However, now, only 36 students regularly attend the classes. Classrooms with damaged roofs and no safety measures in place, compelled many parents to take the decision of not sending their children to school at all. They did not want to compromise on the safety of their children.
Dismal infrastructure, damaged roofs made it impossible for the kids to study, especially during monsoons. Persistent complaints by the community to the head master yielded no results for two years.
However, with the intervention of CRY-supported project ADHAR, the community, the sarpanch and the school management committee met the block education officer and submitted a complaint for immediate redressal. Finally, a new school building was allocated and the damaged building was repaired. Of course, the attendance became remarkably better. It saw an increase of 44.62 per cent.
While repairing a damaged roof drastically improved attendance in this small village in Odisha, the installation of a tube-well brought adolescent girls back to school in a small village situated in a high stony area in Jharkhand. When water availability became an issue in the Nawadih village of Giridih, this impacted the school children in more ways than one.
No drinking water meant that preparation of mid day meals was affected. Three borings and installation of a hand pump proved futile. On the other hand, due to the lack of boundary wall, tube-wells were being stolen. Mid-day meals were prepared by fetching water at a distance of half a kilometre. Children brought drinking water from their homes which did not last for the entire day. lack of water also meant difficulty in accessing the toilet, especially for the girls, who started dropping out of school.
After failed attempts to convince the authorities to provide water, the newly elected panchayat finally got the Zila Parishad to take notice and two tube-wells were constructed at a distance of 100 ft from the school. With the availability of water, especially for toilets, girls began attending school regularly.
Both the cases go on to highlight the strong linkage between student attendance and lack of proper infrastructure in schools which impacts the quality of education. One cannot expect the students to stay in schools without basic infrastructural facilities like safe classrooms, electricity, clean drinking water and functional toilets.
Despite Government initiatives and good intentions, lack of basic infrastructure is a hindrance towards achieving educational goals for children. Schools with good quality infrastructure indicate overall commitment in providing quality learning environment. It is an established fact that appropriate learning environment plays an important role in improving learning outcomes. The Right to Free and Compulsory Education 2009, makes it mandatory to have a set of infrastructural arrangement. However, even after six years of its implementation, these requirements have not been met.
While most schools have been able to address the issue of drinking water, separate toilet for girls and boys and proper boundary wall is still a problem in many States as per the Ministry of Human Resource Development Right To Education 4th Year status report 2014. In a recent study of about 2,813 schools across various States, CRY found that about 26 per cent schools were without girls toilets or functional toilets and 37 per cent did not have a compound wall or gate to ensure safety of students.
Teacher availability and training is another core aspect to ensure quality education to the students. The RTE had set deadlines to address the issue of teacher availability and training, which have not been met. Even after five years of commencement of the RTE Act, there is a shortage of 9.4 lakh teachers in Government schools. Around 8.3 per cent of primary schools are single teacher school. Among the existing teachers in Government schools, about 20 per cent are untrained and the proportion of trained qualified teachers has been almost stagnant since last five years (MHRD, 2014).
After commencement of the RTE Act, there was an inflow in budgetary allocations for provision of infrastructural facilities in States. They were supposed to meet the RTE norm by 2015. In the school education budget, the largest portion is allocated for salary component of teachers and overall, less than 15 per cent is allocated for infrastructure. This because of various reasons. While some States prioritise and meet the deadline of infrastructural-related facilities to provide school education, others, where infrastructure is in place, focus on the costs of repairs and maintenance.
It is important that the States give priority to two things. First, bridge the absence of infrastructural facilities by investing. Second, pay equal attention towards maintenance of structure, toilet facilities, library, playground, fencing etc.
Also, despite a lack of trained teachers, adequate budgetary allocation on teachers’ training has been neglected. This needs to change since teachers are central and possibly the most essential aspect to realise the goal of quality teaching and learning outcomes. It is only when the schools have adequate infrastructural facilities, which are functional, and teachers are trained and qualified to act as agents of change, will the children enjoy learning.
(The author is director, policy, research and advocacy for CRY — Child Rights and You)