Sunday, January 24, 2010

Bleak State of Education in India's Rural Areas

India has certainly touched several new highs in the field of education, especially technical education, for which UNESCO and Barack Obama has also praised Indian students and has asked students of his country to learn the lesson of devotion and hard work from Indian students.
This is not the only truth about education, its system, and condition in the country. There is another aspect, which has been revealed by a non-governmental organization "Pratham."
HRD Report 2009
The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has recently released its annual report for the year 2009. The contents of the report may come as a surprise for UNESCO, Obama, and those Indian politicians and bureaucrats who decide policy and direction of its implementation, sitting in their air-conditioned chambers. But even urban people who have seen rural schools and their standard of education in Indian villages, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra would not be surprised by this report.
Yes, they could certainly shed tears over the picture that has emerged if they are sensitive enough. Only office-bearers of Pratham would know how much time it actually took them to prepare this report, but the gist of it is that though a village student is declared passed, he has still failed.

Adoption of Indian Constitution
The question that arises is even after six decades of adoption of the Indian Constitution, why does this situation prevail where a student who has passed fifth standard in a village school cannot read a book of second standard? Only 44 percent children of the first standard know the English alphabets.
Most students cannot add and subtract even small numbers. Even in rural areas, the tendency to get tuition is being encouraged instead of learning through the traditional method. Is it not indicative of people losing their faith in our educational system?

Hope of Change
But what could these children and their parents do? There is neither adequate number of teachers nor enough educational material in any school.
And teachers that are there can teach children only when they get free from their work, or from politics or Panchayat. This situation prevails because of unequal educational systems in our country and there is no hope of any change in it at the moment.

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