| October 13, 1997 | ||
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AGENDA Class StruggleFifty years into Independence, India's children have little to celebrate: 6.3 crore of them are still out of school. This despite the constitutional directive urging all states to provide "free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years". The Constitution envisaged fulfilling this promise by 1960. Yet, if present trends continue, India is still 50 years away from reaching the goal. Meanwhile, the absolute number of illiterate people in the population is steadily rising year after year. At about 50 crore, the number of illiterates in today's India is larger than the total population of the country 30 years ago. Even in the younger age groups, illiteracy remains endemic. About half of all
adolescent girls, for instance, are unable to read and write. That so many children are out of school is a profound tragedy. Education is a basic tool for self-defence in modern society. The feeling of powerlessness that goes with being illiterate comes through loud and clear in any conversation with ordinary people. As Shankar Lal of Gadaula village in Banda, Uttar Pradesh, put it, "Anpadh aadmee jeevanbhar kasht mein rahta hai (An illiterate person is handicapped all his life)." Lal was one among 1,221 Indian parents who were interviewed in a recent survey planned by a group of researchers based at the Delhi School of Economics and the Indian Social Institute. The survey covered all the schooling facilities in a randomly selected sample of 188 villages in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The survey's findings will be released soon as part of the Public Report on Basic Education (PROBE). The probe findings provide a startling picture of the schooling situation in India's villages. To begin with, they shatter two myths that are often invoked to "explain" the slow progress of elementary education: one, a supposed lack of parental motivation; two, that work keeps children from going to school. The survey gives an eye-opening account of the appalling condition of elementary education in rural India -- and of the government's apathy. It makes it clear that the battle against ignorance is a grim one. INDIA TODAY presents an exclusive preview of the PROBE findings. PROBE survey team: Kiran Bhatty, Anuradha De, Jean Drèze, A.K. Shiva Kumar, Aprajit Mahajan, Claire Noronha, Pushpendra, Anita Rampal, Meera Samson. Even illiterate parents value education It is often said that poor parents, perhaps illiterate themselves, are not interested in education. The same excuse was invoked by colonial authorities. The Lucknow District Gazetteer of 1940, for instance, claimed, "The mass of the lower classes is ignorant, superstitious and unambitious, and cares nothing for education." This perception is still popular. In an analysis of India's failure to achieve universal elementary education, The Times of India (August 15, 1997) argues, "Illiterate and semi-literate parents see no reason to send children to school." Contrary to this claim, most probe respondents were very keen to enable their children to acquire education. A resounding 80.2 per cent of parents felt primary education should be made compulsory for all children. While 98 per cent stressed it was important for sons to go to school, as many as 89 per cent felt similarly in case of daughters. A small minority, admittedly, did not consider it important for a girl to be educated. These parents often said: "Ladkiyan padhai karengi to ghar ka kaam kaun karega? Ladki ko kaunsa padh-likhkar naukri karni hai? (A girl's proper place is at home, doing domestic work. Anyway, she isn't going to take up a job)." Parental motivation for female education is thus lacking in some cases. But the general pattern is one of loud clamour for better educational facilities. Work does not keep children from school Another myth is that children are unable to go to school because they have to work. Organisations such as the Coalition Against Child Labour claim there are seven to eight crore child labourers in India, working, on an average, 12 hours a day. This sweeping statement is not supported by the probe survey. It is true that some children -- for example, eldest daughters in poor families -- work long hours, making it difficult for them to go to school. But the general pattern is surprisingly different: a majority of out-of-school children in rural India have plenty of time on their hands. Among out-of-school children, about half worked less than three hours on the day preceding the probe survey. Only 18 per cent worked more than eight hours. One-third had not done any work at all during school hours on that day. Girls tend to work more than boys (mainly at home), but even they usually have enough spare time to attend school. Indeed, school hours in rural India are effectively quite short -- say four to five hours a day for 120 days in the year. Only a small minority of children are so busy that they cannot make themselves available for such a limited period of time. Moreover, when children work rather than go to school, it does not necessarily mean that work requirements are to blame for their failure to attend school. In many cases, it is the other way round: children work because they are unable to go to school. Eight-year-old Manoj in Karanjia village (West Singhbum, Bihar), for instance, dropped out of class after being teased and beaten by other children; now he spends the whole day grazing cattle. Despite claims, primary education is not free
If parents are interested in education, and if child labour is not a major obstacle, then why are so many children out of school? To understand this, the first point to remember is that regular school attendance requires a great deal of effort on the part of parents as well as children. To begin with, education is expensive. While free education is a constitutional right, the probe survey suggests that north Indian parents spend about Rs 366 per year (see graphic) to send a child to a government primary school. This may seem a small amount but can prove a major financial burden for millions of poor families with several children of school-going age. For an average agricultural labourer in the probe survey area, sending two such children to primary school would mean 30 to 40 days' wages. The financial burden has a particularly harmful effect on the schooling of girls. While most parents recognise that it is important for a girl to be educated, many feel that the benefits of a girl's education will be enjoyed by others, since a daughter, typically, leaves her family after marriage. As one respondent from Kaudaha (Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh) bluntly put it, "Ladki ko padhaane ke baad bhi woh apne ghar chali jaati hai. Padhaane se koi faida naheen (There is no point teaching a girl; she marries and goes away)." This outlook leads to a reluctance to spend on a daughter's education. If resources are scarce, the tendency is to give priority to boys. In addition to the financial burden, much day-to-day parental effort is required to motivate a child to go to school, to ensure that he or she makes good progress, and to free him or her of domestic chores. Effort is also needed from the child, especially when the schooling environment is hostile or boring. The willingness of parents and children to make the required effort depends on what they can expect to get in return, in terms of schooling quality. The quality of schooling, more often than not, is abysmal. Creaky system, crumbling schools
The poor quality of schooling in India has many aspects. For a start, the physical infrastructure is woefully inadequate. If all children were in school, as they are meant to be, school buildings would burst at the seams. In some villages there is no infrastructure worth the name. In Vidiya, a village in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh, for example, there is no school building. Children are huddled in a dark, tiny storeroom and an adjacent open space where the owner keeps domestic animals. Teachers said the state of the premises was the main reason why children didn't come to school. In some villages, the building is used by the teachers for residential purposes. Elsewhere, the school premises are used as a store (Sarwana in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh), police camp (Baruhi, Bhojpur, Bihar), to dry cowdung cakes (Mujahidpur, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh), as a cattle shed (Belri Salehpur, Hardwar, Uttar Pradesh) and a public latrine (Vangaon, Saharsa, Bihar). These are extreme cases but even the "typical" school boasts little more than two classrooms, a leaking roof, a couple of blackboards and a table and chair for the headmaster. The probe survey found 82 per cent of the schools needed repair. Two-thirds had leaking roofs, making it difficult to hold classes during the rains. |
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