The role of education in facilitating social and economic progress is well accepted. Access to education is critical to gain insight in to the emerging opportunities for economic growth. Keeping this fact in mind there has been a major thrust towards education since independence; but ensuring quality education in rural India has always been one of the biggest challenges for the government.
The education sector has received considerable attention in the recent Budget (for the year 2011 – 2012) too – which has announced a significant increase of 24 per cent in the total allocation for education sector. The existing operational norms of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan have also been revised to implement the right of children to free and compulsory education and came into effect from 1 April 2010. Allocations to achieve the objectives of the Right to Education (RTE), which has been aligned with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, were hiked from Rs 15,000crores to Rs 21,000crores. While this is targeted at strengthening elementary education, the Centre is now focusing on adding vocational studies at the secondary education level. This will enable students to pursue job-oriented courses as early as the plus two-level. Initiatives have also been taken to increase retention of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students in Class IX and X by introducing a pre-matriculation scholarship.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry’s allocations have gone up to Rs 52,057crores from last year’s Rs 43,836crore. Though the recent budget seems to be providing a major impetus towards the country’s overall educational growth but due to various socio-economic factors, India’s education program continues to be denigrated. Those living in the rural areas are the worst affected by our educational system. To encourage the growth of rural education, policies have been formulated, laws have been introduced but implementing the process in an effective way has been the lacunae of the entire system. There continue to be issues of quality and access and remain areas of concern particularly in the sphere of rural education in India. Children in rural areas continue to be deprived of quality education owing to a lack of competent and committed teachers, lack of textbooks or teaching-learning materials, and so on. A large number of teachers refuse to teach in rural areas and those that do, are usually under-qualified. The much publicized mid-day meal scheme meant to reduce drop-out rates in schools does not seem to be yielding the desired results particularly for underprivileged girls.
Current Scenario:
In India, condition of rural education still has a lot to be desired as the conditions of these rural schools are still very poor. There are very few schools in the rural areas and children have to travel far away distances to avail these facilities and most schools in these locations do not provide even drinking water. The quality of education is also very poor. The teachers are paid poorly and so most of the time the teachers are either absent or do not teach properly. There are many initiatives taken by the government, but they are not implemented in the schools resulting in the condition of the education remaining the same.
Problems faced in rural education in India:
Teachers of rural schools in villages and small towns receive low income so there is a possibility that teachers do not teach well enough or are absent Most of the schools do not have proper infrastructure – they do not have most of the facilities such as computer education, sports education and other extra-curricular activities There are no proper transport facilities and as a result the children find it inconvenient to travel long distances There is no excess to supplemental education 96.5% of children in the 6 to 14 age group in rural India are enrolled in school 71.1% of these children are enrolled in government schools, 24.3 % are enrolled in private schools. The proportion of girls (age 11-14) who are still out of school has declined from 6.8% in 2009 to 5.9 in 2010; in states like Rajasthan (12.1%) and Uttar Pradesh (9.7%), this percentage remains high and shows little change since 2009
Abhishek Mehta is a proud Indian, who wants to spread awareness on girl’s education in India. He is associated with ACES – An NGO, which is run by a dedicated team, who want to enhance level of education of girls in India. If you believe this is important, Support this cause.
