Chilly winter
mornings when I stride towards the country side, it is much more than a relief to
see that we are not alone. The pink uniformed army of the education departments
is to be seen everywhere, at bus stops, on pocket-sized snacks counters or
overladen in the big autos (better known as dukkad here) or in bunches sitting
on strikes. These are the non-permanent members of education department, the
front line functionaries, ‘the
shikhakarmis’ as called by many.
The Shiksha
Karmi Project is an innovation of Rajasthan Government with SIDA to counter the
problems of teacher absenteeism, poor enrollment, high dropout rates, and
inadequate access to education in remote economically backward areas, where
formal primary schools are either non-existent or dysfunctional. So the major
issues identified were poor quality of education for poor and lack of
accountability for this position; the answers to these questions were decentralization
and primary education reform. It was to validate the hypothesis- demand and
hunger for learning exists in all segments of society and that ordinary persons,
appropriately selected, trained, and supported can function effectively as
teachers and agents of social change.
The implementation
did counter the problems to a certain level; the average enrollment rate rose
to 76% and completion of primary education (with the synergistic effectuation
of midday meal scheme, monetary and non-monetary allowances and the compulsory
free primary education bill) ascended to a meager 46% from 24%. Most of these
improvements were found in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and the mother state
of Rajasthan; northern and central India remain unspoken of. So again the localized segments dominated the results.
The accountability
for educating children clubbed with providing children food in the school
became the main chore of shikhakarmis; and
later became the only work they were required to do. In words of a few of them;
“job we are required to do, as said by the sarkari people is to feed the
children as per norms, we report the same. Education doesn't stand a chance
with MDM in competition”. These have been converted to target based jobs, where
teachers are required to look for children, convince parents to enroll their
child with the school, because that ways they don’t have to worry for their
food one time a day, throughout the year and also the child gets remuneration
in cash or kind for attending school. These so-called trained teachers don’t have
any motivation of teaching children, improving their lives or even inspiring
them to become better citizens.
Then there came
a time when the housewives took a plunge into the teacher hood, as all it needs
is to make the children eat and they can be back by midday for their afternoon
nap. Now all we are looking at is the brobdingnagian
bunch of educators with no future. They conduct strikes for salary hikes,
improvement in working conditions; but what baffles me is never for better
training or grooming or improvement in the status as teachers. At places
incidences have come into play where the children have refused to study or even
to give them a social station or respect as ‘teachers’.
Its time
questions need to be asked by everyone; policy makers to make the reforms look
like reforms and not a daily soap with unappeasable script, government hiring
the candidates with minimal eligibility criteria on a first served basis; and
the sikhakarmis, seeking respect
doing it through their work and not conducting on and off strikes. And as far
as it is concerned for rest of us, we need to treat this as more than daily
news with tea.
This blame game
needs to be rooted off; hiring minimally skilled teachers, poorly training them
and sending them off to improve the primary education of the least literate of
countries will not yield sustainable results. This might lead to some degree of
prosperity in the short term but we are going to lose in a big way in the long
run unless we totally overhaul our basic education system at primary and high
school level. It’s useless to cut the roots and then water on the top.
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