LITERACY FOR ALL: EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IN RURAL INDIA

BY: Aakansha Baisla Basma Binbrek Dipika Kumar

What is literacy and why is it important?

DEFINITIONThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines literacy as the "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society."

In simple words, literacy is the ability to:

1. Read

2. Write

3. Use numbers

4. Handle information

5. Express ideas and opinions

6. Make decisions

7. Solve problems

IMPORTANCE Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational

opportunities depend on literacy.

Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy. There are good reasons why literacy is at the core of Education for All (EFA).

A good quality basic education equips pupils with literacy skills for life and further learning; literate parents are more likely to send their children to school; literate people are better able to access continuing educational opportunities; and literate societies are better geared to meet pressing development .

Illiteracy in India

Every issue that our society faces is like a link of a chain. Each issue is connected to another, either directly or indirectly. The chain of issues in this society that we live in, the strongest link of that chain is illiteracy. Illiteracy is the mother of all issues as it gives birth to many other issues like poverty, unemployment, child labour, female foeticide, population burst and many more.

It is very hard to digest that the land of the Vedas is one of the countries with the highest illiteracy levels and shows the inability of our government to utilize programs like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Literacy Mission. Even countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and the like have achieved, in lesser time, a much better percentage of literacy. Literacy is a reasonably good indicator of development in a society.

Spread and diffusion of literacy is generally associated with essential trait of today’s civilization such as modernization, urbanization, industrialization, communication and commerce. This fact can be clarified as all the developed countries like America and Canada have very low illiteracy rates, whereas countries like India, Turkey and Iran have a very high rate of illiteracy. World Bank studies have established the direct and functional relationship between literacy and productivity on the one hand and literacy and the overall quality of human life on the other.

Illiteracy in India is characterized by wide gaps between the urban and rural populations. The rural population depends mainly on agriculture and the rate of illiteracy is high, while the urban population is more of the ‘employee class’ and also more educated. Even amongst the male and female population, there is a wide disparity in literacy. The male literacy rate is 75.96% and female literacy rate is 54.28%. The social system in India promotes education for the male gender while the female population, especially in the deep interiors of the country, is kept away from schools.

The Supreme Court in its 1993 ruling held that children had a fundamental right to free education. Ex – President A.P.J Abdul Kalam gave his assent to the Constitution (83rd Amendment) Bill, 2000, and the “right to education” was incorporated in the Constitution as a fundamental right. The country had failed to implement the provisions of Article 45, providing for compulsory and free education of children up to 14 years of age within 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution.

Here are some facts about different states literacy rate.• Kerala is the only state in India to have

100% literacy rate. It is followed by Goa, Tripura, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra, Sikkim.

• The lowest literacy rate in India is seen in the state of Bihar.

• We also need to think why is the literacy rate is low here in India compared to other developed countries. Basically the population in India is very high. Being the 7th largest country its population stands 2nd in the world after China. There are over 1 billion people in India.

• The number of schools and educational centers especially in rural areas is less. Even today many people are below the poverty line.

• Also people aren't aware that children should get free education according to the law.

India is a vast country with a large population of about 65 crores. About 90 per cent of the people live in villages so the topic of rural education in India is of utmost importance.

India fails to recognize and learn about the benefits of education with so many countries playing as important lessons.  The goalpost of free and compulsory education to all till the age of 14 has been shifting since 1960.

Its commonly heard during every poll that youth are the future, they should be empowered etc. yet the Indian government has failed to show any considerable improvement in the child literacy rates.

The reasons why literacy rates are so poor include the dismal state of the school building, poor teaching aids, demotivated teachers, reluctant parents, and scared children. The rate of torture in the schools on rural areas is so high that it acts as a detrimental force towards the child attending schools. Even school enrolment does not necessarily translate into school attendance. There is lack of accountability a teacher faces, hence enjoying a soft constraint. There are incentives for inefficiency, as rewards are not result based but based upon the experience.

India Needs Education, Especially Rural Education

The importance of education is not hidden. An educated person is better equipped to participate in the modern economy and society. He can overcome the vulnerability and marginalization in modern society and makes the citizen more aware of his rights and duties. Even female education is very important. In a patriarchal society as ours, female education has been neglected for ages. There are two myths relating to education. Firstly that the parents have little interest in education and secondly child labour reduces school enrolment. However studies such as the PROBE survey shows that even amongst the deprived section of the society, the willingness to send their children to school is as high as 98% for boys and 89% for girls. However, this interest has not translated into practical efforts due to various reasons such as lack of opportunities, and various social constraints such as caste barriers. India seems to be getting caught in a circle, where unaffordability of private schools leaves no option but that of government schools where poor quality of education prevails. As a result, there is a low economic return which in turn fosters low motivation to study. It is important the government learns from its own experiences and improves the literacy scene in India. It can be called the need of the hour as it is important that the country grows and develops by involving the mass.

Why are 39% of the world’s illiterate adults found in India?

The improvement in the amount of literate adults from 48% in 1991 to 61% in 2006 has been counteracted by a demographic increase, in such a way that the total of illiterate adults in the country has not varied by much in this period of time.

39% of young people in India between 15 and 19 years old leave school before finishing secondary education. Financial hardship can restrict their access to school and depending on the help they get, students have to pay between half and the total of costs; even though they are inferior to conventional secondary education costs. Students from low income families are not able to manage them.

Urban education v/s Rural education

There is a difference between city and village student not in terms of brain or development but their initial environment, skills, learning ability, availability of infrastructure, and access to different facilities. All of these must be considered while making the curricula which should not be different but how it is going to be taught would make the difference.

1. Computer education is given high importance in urban areas where as very few schools in villages give computer training.

2. School education in urban areas is more advanced especially since there is a lot of computer aided teaching. Due to lack of money majority of people living in villages are not able to send their children to private schools and hence depend upon government schools for education.

3. Basic amenities like drinking water is not provided in some of the schools in villages. There are very few school buildings. Classes are generally held either under a shed a tree or in the open

4. Apart from the course curriculum rural schools are not able to involve children in other activities like sports, co-curricular activities and competitions. 

5. Level of education in urban schools is far advanced as compared to the basic level taught in rural schools. More than half of the students in fifth grade are unable to read a second grade text book and are not able to solve simple mathematical problems.

6. The drop-out-rate at the secondary level is extremely high in villages. Only parents who can afford college education send their kids to secondary schools. If parents are not able to send their wards for higher education then all their previous efforts get wasted as completing just secondary education means a low paying job and the person is again struck in the same never ending cycle of money, life and poverty.

7. Usually an average class strength for an ideal Indian school is 35 students. In rural India the schools are overly packed with students, leading to a distorted teacher- student ratio. In one such remote village in Arunachal Pradesh there are more than 300 students in class X which makes nearly 100 students in each classroom. In such a situation it is impossible for teachers to pay full attention towards each and every student, even if they are willing to help.

8. Quality and access to education is the major concern in rural schools as there are fewer committed teachers, lack of proper text books and learning material in the schools.

The Misconception There is a misconception among people in Indian society that women

should not be allowed to study as they are expected to manage domestic chores. So their education is just considered as a wastage of money as well as time.

The development of any nation or region is indicated by the level of education and that too of both genders. That is why ‘education for all’ is strongly recommended and focused on by our government.

First of all, the progress made in this sector is very slow. Secondly, there a considerable gap between male and female literacy

rates in India.

It has been estimated that at the current rate of progress, India will attain universal literacy only until 2060.

Though there has been seen a substantial increase in the number of literate women and this gap is narrowing, it still persists. Among such figures, there exists a ray of hope as well. According to the 2011 census, since year 2011, 110 million additional women had become literate as compared to 107 men that means that the number of literate women is increasing.

Females constitute about 50% of country’s human resource but lack of education snatches their chance to be a part of the progress and development of India. This means our pace of progress is less than the required pace. Even if females do not use education to work, total illiteracy has a huge negative impact on our society. Lack of education means lack of awareness. Illiterate women are not aware of their rights. They know nothing about initiatives taken by the government for their welfare. Illiterate women keep on struggling hard and bear harshness of life, family and even their husbands.

GOVERNMENT SCHEMES

SCHEME LAUNCHED ON

PROVISIONS

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya

July 2004 Educational facilities (residential schools) for girls belonging to SC, ST, OBC, minority communities and families below the poverty line in Educationally Backward Blocks

Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana

1999 Scholarship program to encourage students to take up research careers in the areas of basic sciences, engineering and medicine

Midday Meal Scheme

August 15, 1995 Lunch (free of cost) to school-children on all working days

National Literacy Mission Programme

May 5, 1988 Make 80 million adults in the age group of 15 - 35 literate

National Adult Education Programme (NAEP)

October, 2 1978 Aimed at educating 100 million non-literate adults in the age-group of 15-35 years within a time frame of five years.

Rural Functional Literacy Project (RFLP)

- The objectives of the scheme were: to impart functional literacy to all illiterate persons in 15-35 age group who are living in the rural areas by organising specified number of literacy centres in accordance with the norms and guidelines issued by the then Department of Education, Ministry of HRD from time to time.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

2001 To ensure that all children in the 6–14-year age-group attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010

NGOsSCHEME LAUNCHED ON PROVISIONS

Sammaan Foundation Jan 25, 2007 To empower the downtrodden and link them with the main stream through education, training and financial support

Smile Foundation 2002 Target of providing universal education and healthcare services to the underprivileged thereby changing their lives forever

Udaan Welfare Foundation 16th March, 2008  Launched various health and education initiatives involving children and destitute women.

We believe……India is developing but at a very slow rate, this is not the fault of a corrupt government; it is due to this problem of illiteracy only. Literacy enables a person to think rationally, to be understanding, to be more responsible and to make his/her own decisions. A literate person is aware of all his fundamental rights and duties. Literacy is the ultimate solution to fight problems like communalism, terrorism and under development. Our government is of the people, for the people and by the people, but what is the use if people can not even make the right choice?

Illiteracy can bring down even the most powerful nations down, so if we are to become a developed nation, the government should first remove the problem of illiteracy by introducing effective programs with proper implementation and budget. It is ironical that even today, our leaders and people’s representatives give literacy a very low priority, pitting poverty alleviation, food, clothing, shelter, work, health etc. above it. They fail to perceive literacy as part of the development process, as an endeavour to improve the quality of life, as the process of building awareness among the weaker sections, as part of democratisation of political power, as the arrangement to give their due, to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. They are unable to appreciate the relevance of literacy in matters like infant mortality, immunisation, children’s participation in primary schools, population growth, family planning, women’s emancipation, social evils like child marriage, dowry, bride burning and so on. Neglecting the issue of illiteracy can hurt the development of India very badly.

Not only the government, but every literate citizen should contribute in battling with the demon of illiteracy. Our motto should be “each one teach one”, if we are to become a developed nation.

In the words of Barack Obama “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”. The time for the change is now, we are ready for it, are you?

Literacy is a “climb” because it is something we continuously work to achieve, but it changes with time. We can’t give up, we have to keep going.