Sample Materials of SSC CGL (Tier -3) Study Kit

Subject: Essay

Topic: “Education For All” Campaign in India: Myth or Reality

In nation building an educated person plays a very important role. It is the one who makes the society civilized and a pleasant place to live in. When India achieved its Independence in 1947 the number of educated people was very less and the country was in a need of such educated class people who could help in building the nation. The literacy rate was only 6-7% which has now risen to 74% according to the 2011 Census report. The reason for such a low literacy rate was the suppressive policy of the Britishers. They hardly took any effective measure to curb this situation. All they wanted was a class of English educated people who could be loyal to foreign rule.

Low literacy was not the only challenge in the campaign of “Education for All” in post Independence era. It was accompanied by very low literacy among the women. The growth rate among the women literacy was also very slow. The status of women can be regarded as the main cause for such a low growth rate. The Indian women were debarred from education and were mainly accustomed to household works. Changing the thinking of the people was the major obstacle in educating the girls. Another problem prevailed was a great divide among the people of the society. It was believed that only the upper section of society had the right to education. This led to a class of people who became backward with respect to others and found it difficult to compete with them. There was an urgent need for education in the country. And this responsibility was taken up by the government of India. It took many steps to promote education such as opening of new schools, universities and providing them with proper facilities. These steps would have remained ineffective if along with them the mentality or thinking of the people of the society would not have changed.

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A campaign was launched in 2002 thus to provide proper shape to its ideas. It was called “Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan” (Education For All) with the aim to Universalize Elementary Education (UEE). Under the programme proper civic facilities were provided to schools. A school was made in reach of every child of every village of the country. Various programmes such as ICDS, AAGANWADI, KGBVA (Kasturba Gandhi Ballika Vidya Abhiyaan) were started under this programme. It aimed at providing 5yrs of primary education by 2005 and 8yrs of schooling by 2010. This mission has been to a large extent successful in implementing its basic goal. Today majority of the children are able to go to school. Looking at the success of the mission and increased pressure on the secondary education the government in its eleventh five year plan started another programme called “Rastriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyaan” aimed at providing secondary education. Kendriya Vidyalaya and Navodaya Vidyalayas were opened under this scheme. The 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act, better known as the Education Bill has now been enforced in India. Under the new Act, education has been made a fundamental right. It is now a cognizable offence to deprive a child of education - parents having to ensure that their child is at school. On the face of it, the Bill has made free and compulsory education available to all children between six and fourteen years….” an obligatory function of the State in such manner as the State may by law determine.” From an Endeavour it has become a commitment. An additional clause inserted in article 51(A) exhorts parents or guardians to ensure appropriate opportunities for the education of their children.

Proponents of the Bill say it is a milestone, and enthusiastically spell out its very optimistic features. For the first time, it makes it constitutionally binding upon the Government to provide services for all children between six and fourteen, a task that it set out to achieve in the fifties but failed. It also sets out a conceptual framework within which this function of the State would be accomplished. Organizations that work at the grassroots however, say that it is a fallacy to call the Bill a milestone. It is not even a yard stone! The Bill’s complete silence on the matter of minimum quality education has left the whole issue of excellence wide open to a range of interpretations, particularly in that it has pushed the onus of curriculum and classroom process management to the vagaries of the State. By doing this it has offered the states a clear escape route through the passage of low-grade education or cheap alternatives where quantity will be traded off for quality.

According to the Bill, the State is now no longer accountable to the society to build its social capital from the early childhood years, a period when brain pathways or synapses are said to be on their sharp upward growth curve. This omission, according to National Alliance For the Fundamental Right To Education (NAFRE), a federation of 2500 NGOs across the country, besides being at odds with the National Policy on Education is likely to add to the dropout pool. Moreover, stimulation of the young children is known to shape their interest in learning activities.

EFA in India: Myth and Reality

The official estimates of enrolments give reasonably sound reasons to believe that India will achieve the UEE as the exercises of enrolment projections and additional population needs to be enrolled are based on past trends and present status of elementary education in India. Also, it is interesting to note that in 1986-87 (NSSO 42nd Round), except for the age groups 0-5 and 6-11, the proportion of illiterates steadily goes on increasing with age. This also certainly indicates that there is an increasing trend over time in the children getting access for learning. However, if the Official estimates are corrected with respect to the children outside the prescribed age-group and the age-specific population is also corrected, there are enough indications to believe that the stipulated targets cannot be achieved by the turn of the present century.

It has been observed that multiple data collecting agencies found to have created problems for data users and educational planners. The Department of Education enrolment figures at Primary level have been found to be over-estimated by 1.22 million compared to Fifth Survey figures. In some states, the variation obtained is large and significant. Even the Age- specific enrolment ratios (Fifth Survey) at the Upper-primary level (Tripura and Karnataka) have been found to be more then hundred per cent.

It has been noticed that there was a significant difference between the age-group population used in computing enrolment ratio in Official and Census of India/Standing Committee estimates. The official estimate of age-population, especially in 6-11 age-groups, has been found to be under-estimated. By under-estimating the child population and thus reducing the denominator in calculating enrolment ratios, part of the educational progress in recent years is merely illusory, this has been done deliberately or inadvertently is a moot question. However, it is revealed that in the recent years, the discrepancy in population estimates have been reduced to a significant extent.

In a number of states, the GER at the Primary level has been found to be more than hundred per cent and it ranges between 146 per cent in Lakshadweep to 60 per cent in Chandigarh and states having small base population in a age-group are found to have high amount of over-age and under-age children. The Working Group (1989) and Eighth Five Year Plan document while estimating additional number of children needs to enrolled used 22 per cent and 15 per cent estimate of over-age and under-age children at all the levels of education as against found more than 30 per cent elsewhere.

When Official enrolment ratios are corrected on the basis of over-age and under-age children and the age-specific population, the difference obtained between Official and Corrected ratios has been found to be significant and alarming. As against the 95.30 per cent Official enrolment ratio at Primary level, the corrected ratio was only 73.30 per cent. The corrected enrolment ratio at the elementary level showed that it has increased from 48.00 per cent in 1980-81 to 65.00 per cent in 1991-92. On the other hand it has been revealed that at the Upper- primary level, the discrepancy noticed is negligible and insignificant.

Based on the actual progress of enrolment at different levels of education during 1989-90 to 1991-92, it has been observed that Eighth Plan targets for Primary, Upper-primary and elementary classes would have to be revised upward. The revised targets would be 2.25, 6.47 and 8.72 crore as against 2.02, 3.59 and 5.61 crore which are 11.39, 80.22 and 55.44 per cent higher than the previous targets, which needs more rigorous efforts in the plan period.

To achieve these additional targets during 1992-97, attention would have to be focused on educationally backward states and their districts, as all but two of the 100 and four of the 150 and nine of the 200, most backward districts are from the educationally backward states. It has also been revealed that except West Bengal which has no district in first 100 and only two in 200, the educationally backward states still uniformly lag behind. Also enrolment campaigns similar to total literacy campaigns at the grassroots level would have to be launched for which community support would have to be mobilized through Village Education Committees. It has been further revealed that the State and Union Territory level enrolment targets provided in the Eighth Plan document when added together did not match with the targets at the national level and the deviation found is significant, hence pro-rata adjustment is needed. Unless the children outside the education fold, especially those from educationally backward states are brought under the education fold, the dream of UEE cannot be realized. For out- of-school and dropped-out children, non-formal education system would have to be strengthened and all the educational programmes would have to be coordinated. Not only this, compulsory education through strict law enforcement would also have to be thought upon and also internal efficiency of education system would need to be improved to a significant extent by covering all the schools under Operation Blackboard and also by providing access to remaining uncovered habitations.

When Official estimates are corrected, there are enough indications to believe that the stipulated targets of UEE cannot be achieved by the turn of the present century. However it is interesting to note that except for the age groups 0-5 and 6-11 years, the proportion of illiterates steadily goes on increasing with age. This indicates certainly that there is an increasing trend over time in the children getting access for learning.

Recently, for the first time literacy rates have been calculated for population aged-7 and above but a large number of children in the age-group 0-5 years have been found to be literate and the percentage of literacy was 12.63 and 17.96 per cent respectively in rural and urban areas. Based on the exponential rate of growth of literacy (aged-7 and above), it is likely that India would attain 85 per cent literacy status some time near the year 2018 and 100 per cent by the year 2027. Kerala has already attained 85 per cent literacy status. Of the educationally backward states, only Arunachal Pradesh and West Bengal would be able to achieve the target by the year 2009, all other states would achieve 85 literacy status somewhere between the years 2031 to 2034. Thus the momentum and awareness which has been generated through total literacy campaigns in different districts would have to be sustained otherwise the neo-literate will very soon relapse into illiterates for which more facilities for continuing education would have to be provided.

What will the Bill do for the Girl child?

According to NAFRE activists a reality check indicates in a village, by the time children are six they are already engaged in some form of employment, with or without remuneration. Without dropping the lower cutoff age to zero instead of six, it would not be possible to lure a large number of children to school, leaving unaccomplished the umbrella objective of the policy which is to provide education to all.

Ending the educational obligations of the State at 16 years is being unfair to women and older kids. Says Sanjeev Kaura, the national convener of NAFRE, “ When the UN convention defines a child below the age of 18 and when India is one of the signatories to the Convention, it cannot disregard the recommendations by fixing the upper-age limit at 16 years. Ideally, the Fundamental Right to Education should be from 0-18 years.” One of the major sore points in the Bill say experts is the insertion of an additional clause that transfers responsibility of guaranteeing education to children on to parents and guardians. While there is no denying that parents need to be made conscious of the value of education for their children, it is often their economic conditions and lack of child care services in the communities that prevents them from sending their children to school. The ‘poor-unfriendly’ Bill is compounded by deficient classroom quality, teacher attitudes and the high rate of unemployment of the educated. All these factors blend with other reasons for parental disinterest in schools. With the State unable to guarantee employment to all its citizens, poverty levels continue to be high. It would be unrealistic for all parents to send their children to schools even though the awareness that education is as important as food and clothing has steadily grown amongst the lower income strata of society. Experts say this Bill also absolves the state from bearing the sole responsibility of providing education to children and can be an instrument for harassment and pressurizing the parents. The word ‘free’ that has been incorporated for the first time in any Bill relating to education is also misconstrued. Because currently free education implies only the waiver of school fees but parents have to bear the costs of all other expenses, which at times are higher than the school fees.

The budgetary allocation for education in our country is pitiable and is grossly insufficient for providing even basic facilities to children. The new Bill while making education mandatory for children between the age group of six to 16 does not provide for any financial mechanism on how this will be accomplished. Without proper funds, experts fear that states will adopt cheap alternatives just to fulfill their constitutional obligation forgoing the real objective behind the passage of the bill.

Fund for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is an initiative to provide 8 years of quality education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years. The programme seeks to bridge gender and social gaps with active participation of the community. It also aims at mobilizing resources-human, financial and institutional-necessary for achieving the goal of Dr Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE).

Definitely, the objectives are laudable. But the real question is: Will the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy (under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development) that has launched this ambitious programme be able to fulfill the objectives. Moreover, how is this programme different from the ones launched earlier to ensure universal elementary education, which has now been recognized as a Fundamental Right by the Constitution? The earlier literacy missions, launched with much fanfare, were exciting initially. People had started sending their children to school; women had looked upon literacy classes as a means of emancipation from age-old bondage; they had enjoyed sitting together every evening, learning, talking and interacting with one another. Yet there was a U-turn when it came to any follow-up action or reinforcing the learning process. The National Literacy Mission (NLM) had committed itself to following up the e literacy programmes with a post-literacy programme, leading to the setting up of continuing education centers in villages. Funds were sanctioned by the Central Government, but were not released for another two years. This led to lapse into the old non-literate days. Women and children could not sustain their fragile literacy skills. Even the much-tented 100 per cent literacy districts in Kerala and West Bengal could not keep up with the momentum of the literacy missions launched by the Government as well as several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). But delays in the release of funds, long gaps between different phases, overnight decisions to shut down programeness and con-fused priorities between the Centre and the states crippled the momentum that was generated. Another question coming to mind, is the Sarva shiksha Abhiyan really ‘universal”? A cursory reading of the document shows that the term ‘sarva’ is a misnomer as it refers only to children between 6 and 14 years. Adults, especially women, do not feature anywhere in the programme. The justification for the overarching focus on element ‘try education at the cost of adult education is captured in the supposed truisms like, “We need to shut the tap rather than keep napping the floor.” According to-the Census 2011, the literacy rate in India is 65.38 per cent-75.85 per cent for males and 54.16 per cent for females, Kerala comes on the top with 90.92 per cent literacy. The State also occupies the premier position in both male literacy (94.20 per cent) and female literacy (87.86 per c mt), Kerala is followed by Mizoram (88.49 per cent) and Lakshadweep (87.52 per cent).Bihar with a literacy rate of 47.53 per cent ranks last preceded by Jharkhand (54.13 per cent) and Jammu and Kashmir (54.46 per cent) Bihar has also the lowest literacy rates both in case’ of male literacy (60.32 per cent) and female literacy (33.57 per cent).

Despite several commissions and committees appointed to improve the state of education as well as several literacy programmes launched to bring the people closer to education, not much headway has been made in this direction, with the result that nearly half of the over one-billion population of this sub-continent is illiterate today. We have failed to realize that education plays significant role in the life of a nation and its importance in a country like India cannot be under-estimated. The character and quality of the people greatly depend on the education imparted to them at different levels. If we fail and flounder at the elementary level like the NLM and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, his generations to come will not forgive the political leadership. So this was an essay on Education.

Whether this Bill is publicity stunt or whether it will have the desired effect remains to be seen. Millions of children across the country meanwhile wait with anticipation to finally see the light of a new dawn in their lives. Apart from these only providing educations does no good. What if the people get educated and still have no work according to their capability. Thus, providing employment to the people also became very important. The rate of growth of employment in India has been around 2% right from the period of Independence. This is a remarkable figure in such a vast country like India. The development in the Service sector has opened up a new dimension in the employment opportunities. Even the contribution of women in this sector is relatively high with respect to other sectors of the economy. To tackle problem of unemployment, the government has taken many effective steps. Private sectors have also contributed a lot in generating employment within the country. Since 1991, after adopting the new economic policy multinational companies came to India which in return provided job opportunities to the Indians. 

Simply imparting knowledge to the people is not the ultimate goal of education. Its emphasis is on making the person sound with its full development and making him a civilized person of the society. Educating him with all good deeds and evils, how he can work for the betterment of the society, country and human kind. This can be achieved by the proper guidance of an able Teacher. 

In the hope to impart education to each and every citizens of the country we have achieved a great success. Today 74% of the people in the country are literate. If every person follows the policy of “Each One Teach One” then we can be definitely be able to achieve high education and have a well civilised and developed society. If we along with the government make some initiative the “Education For All” campaign can become a reality. It’s just a few steps away.

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