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Address
by Mr. Champak Chatterji
at the third National Learning Conference
It is singularly opportune that the third
in the series of National Learning Conferences on Equitable
Education for Equitable Society organized by the Azim Premji
Foundation is being held at a time when three overarching
matters which will have a vital bearing on the future evolution
of Indian education have come into sharper focus.
The first is that this year marks the beginning
of the 11th Five Year Plan. In so far as universalisation
of elementary education is concerned, the new plan will mean
that increasingly quality of education will come to centre
stage but the stubborn problems of access, gender and social
gaps will continue to worry. Even if we look at estimates
optimistically we have to get 7 million children to school
– marginalised, hard to reach disadvantaged children.
The 11th Plan will also mean taking steps towards universalisation
of secondary education where enrolment is low and all the
problems associated with universalisation of elementary education
are further exacerbated. The new plan will also mark a period
of significant change in the tempo of public private partnership
in education.
The second is that this year also marks the mid-point of international
resolutions on Education for all, we took in Dakar. The six
point educational agenda of Dakar-how are we measuring up?
We need to look at the picture not only of India as a whole
– but the disaggregated picture – of States and
districts that are lagging behind and find out reasons why.
Dakar makes us look at the larger picture of basic education
as a whole – universal elementary education as embedded
in adult education.
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The third is of course MDG – Millennium Development
Goals, where also this is a stock taking year. The educational
goals are somewhat similar to that of Dakar but the MDG broadens
the horizon still further. It looks at health and at poverty
to see the bigger picture of education.
Three factors then, one national and the other two international
all interconnected makes 2007 especially significant for the
holding of this Conference for which the Azim Premji Foundation
should be congratulated. The choice of the topic ‘Equitable
Education for Equitable Society’ makes it even more
significant since the call has gone out from the highest in
the land that economic growth is not sufficient. It has to
be inclusive growth as well. Equity denotes fairness and I
see from the list of sub-themes and topics to be covered that
there will be an in-depth review of what we are doing by way
of establishing an educationally fair and inclusive society.
I hope however, as the overarching theme is equity that as
this Conference proceeds that there will be occasion to look
deeper into issues of rural and urban poverty and its pervasive
effect on education, particularly on elementary education.
Inside the large box of poverty there would also be need to
look at some areas conjunctively in so far as school education
is concerned, in particular health and nutrition. I don’t
think we can do justice to this whole area of equity in education
without going into issues of classroom hunger, hidden hunger,
protein energy deficiency, anemia and such like.
The Preamble to the Constitution of India enshrines the principles
of justice, liberty equality and fraternity. Our national
charter carries forth this philosophy in the Directive Principles
and buttresses it with the Fundamental Rights. They echo what
Pandit Nehru had said as part of his famous “Tryst with
Destiny” address that “all of us are equally the
children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations”
and that the goal was to bring “freedom of opportunity
to the common man to fight and end poverty and ignorance and
disease, to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive
national and to create social economic and political institutions
which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man
and woman”.
Equity means fairness. Locke had phrased it as the “just
precedence of society”. The Nehruvian vision of freedom
of opportunity to the common man and the creation of institutions
that would ensure justice and fullness of lift to every man
and woman defines the ends of equity aptly. Clearly it is
much more than equality or egalitarianism. To create a just
social order it is imperative to reduce inequalities and go
in where required with measures of positive discrimination
founded on the bedrock of social justice.
The National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986 as modified in
1992 while recognizing that education refines sensibilities
and perceptions that contribute to national cohesion, including
the cultivation of a scientific temper and independence of
mind and spirit thus furthering the goals of democracy, explicitly
recognizes that education must play a positive role and intervene
in creating social and regional balances, reducing gender
gaps and securing a rightful place for the disadvantaged and
the minorities. It lays special emphasis on the removal of
disparities and for the equalisation of educational opportunity.
The National Policy has identified the groups that required
focus are women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, minorities,
children with special needs and other educationally backward
sections and areas.
The Government of India has in accordance with its constitutional
mandate and NPE taken several initiatives to spread literacy,
promote educational development and bridge disparities. Principle
among them has been the endeavour to provide free and compulsory
education to all children in the age-group 6-14 which is now
an inalienable constitutional right.
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The main vehicle at present for taking
elementary education to all children is the comprehensive
programme called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). This was launched
in 2001-02. It was designed in a way that it built upon experience
of prior primary education programmes including DPEP, Shiksha
Karmi and Lok Jumbish. SSA is a partnership programme between
Central and State Governments. It seeks to improve the performance
of the school system through a community – owned approach,
with specific focus on universalized elementary education
and to bridge gender and social gaps by the year 2010. SSA
covers the entire country and includes :
• National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary
Level (NPEGEL),
• Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative
Education (EGS & AIE),
• Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs
(CWSN), and
• Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV)
The SSA Programme seeks to open new schools, strengthen existing
school infrastructure through provision of additional classrooms,
toilets, drinking water, maintenance grant and school improvement
grants. Existing schools with inadequate teacher strength
are to be provided additional teachers. Capacity building
of teachers, development of new teaching learning material
and academic support are part of the overall plan. Equity
is a fundamental feature of the SSA framework and its implementation
at the State and district level. “Special Focus Groups”
notably girls, SCs, STs, minorities, migrating and urban deprived
children have been given focused attention in the framework.
SSA has led to significant achievements in the field of elementary
education and clearly most benefited are those from deprived
sections of the society. SSA has made conscious efforts to
bridge social category gaps. The Gross Enrolment Ratio and
the percentage of SC/ST students at the elementary level indicates
that it is in proportion of its share in the population. The
specific strategies under SSA for improving educational attainments
of SC/ST children at elementary level are : providing adequate
infrastructure for elementary schooling in 51 districts with
concentration of SC population and 74 districts with concentration
of ST population and 74 districts with concentration of ST
population, Education Guarantee Scheme in remote, sparsely
populated regions otherwise ineligible for schools, with relaxed
norms for tribal areas, back to school camps, bridge course
and other alternative schooling facilities for children of
migrant families, dropouts, older and never enrolled children,
working children.
Free Textbooks to SC/ST students from classes I – VIII,
provisions of Rs. 15 lakh to each district for special innovative
activities to promote education of scheduled castes and scheduled
tribe children, special coaching/remedial classes for improving
learning outcomes, teachers’ sensitization programmes
to promote equitable learning opportunities and address issues
of discrimination within school, recruitment of local tribal
teachers, providing adequate representation in school based
bodies like village education committees, school management
committees etc., are the other key interventions. Both under
NPEGEL and KGBV schemes scheduled castes & scheduled tribes
girls are focused upon to offset their relative deprivation.
Multilingual equity is another key concern of SSA. To make
learning for the tribal child nearer to his home language
special efforts are being made. There has been development
of specific modules for training of teachers in tribal areas
in States like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Orissa. Some other
States organize 2-3 days special capsule for teachers teaching
in tribal areas within the annual general teacher training
module. Interventions also include development of primers
in tribal languages to help in better transition of children
to the State language of school instruction such as:
• Andhra Pradesh in tribal languages of Banjara, Gond,
Savara, Adivasi Oriya and Kui,
• Gujarat in tribal languages of Bhilli and Kutchi,
• Jharkhand in tribal languages of Mundari, Oraon, Kharia,
Santhali,
• Orissa in tribal languages of Bonda, Koya, Kobi, Juang,
Saora Desia etc.
There is an increased focus on Muslim minorities under SSA
as educational indicators show the relative backwardness of
Muslim minorities. 88 Muslim minority concentration districts
(with a population of more than 20% Muslims) are being focused
on and more than 20% of SSA funds are provided to these. Through
Madarsa/Maktabs, efforts are being made to provide children
regular mainstream education. Urdu medium books, teachers
grants and the opening of 529 KGBVs in educationally backward
blocks with Muslim concentration will further help towards
narrowing the educational gap and promoting equity in this
domain.
The National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary
Level (NPEGEL) with an exclusive focus on gender equity is
an important sub-component of SSA, introduced with the objective
of providing additional support for girls’ education
over and above the investments for girl’s education
done through normal SSA interventions. It focuses on promoting
schooling for girls through a range of strategic interventions
in educationally disadvantaged pockets. Targeted provisions
for girls under SSA are free textbooks, separate toilets for
girls, recruitment of 50% women teachers, early childhood
care and education centers in/near schools, teachers’
sensitization programmes to promote equitable learning opportunities,
back to school camps for out-of-school girls, bridge courses
for older girls, gender-sensitive teaching-learning materials,
intensive community mobilization efforts and special fund
for innovative need-based interventions for girls’ attendance
and retention in schools. It targets over 3000 most educationally
backward blocks.
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The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Scheme,
launched during 2004-05, aims at setting up more than 2000
residential schools in educationally backward blocks for older
girls who would otherwise be unable to study. KGBV is targeted
at girls mainly out of school and gives priority to SC, ST,
OBC and Muslim minority girls. A national evaluation of the
KGBV Scheme has lauded its efforts to bring girls of marginalized
sections to mainstream education.
The Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative
Education (EGS & AIE) are designed to provide access to
elementary education to out-of-school children, and those
who live in school-less habitations. The scheme supports flexible
educational strategies such as bridge courses, residential
camps, drop-in centers, summer camps and remedial schools.
In the areas of disability equity the SSA aims at ensuring
that every child with special needs is provided education
in an appropriate environment. There is a zero rejection policy.
This includes children suffering from any kind of disability.
The thrust is on providing integrated and inclusive education
to all children in general schools, as far as possible adopted
where necessary. Interventions include resource teachers,
ramps, teaching – learning material, equipment and in
severe cases education being provided at home.
India has made enormous progress in terms of increase in institutions,
teachers and students at the elementary level. The number
of school has increased from 2.31 lakh in 1950-51 to 10.42
lakh in 2004-05, almost 5 times. While enrolment has increased
from 1.92 crore to 13.08 crore at the primary stage the increase
has been from 3.1 lakh to 51.2 lakh at the upper primary level,
almost 16 times. Access to school has been largely addressed
96% of habitations have a primary school within 1 km distance
of habitation and 1.00 lakh Education Guarantee Schools serve
the rest of the habitations. 85% of habitations have Upper
Primary Schools within 3Kms. In this connection it would be
important that this exponential increase in the public provisioning
of elementary education should be seen in the light of the
fact that the government is by far the biggest provider in
this area.
A major gain has been in the reduction of out of school children.
As per Census 2001 there were 53 million children that were
out of school. A survey conducted in 2005 through an independent
agency, estimated 13 million (6.7%) out of school children
in 6-14 age cohort. These figures have further gone down because
of continuous efforts made in respective States. It is the
result of various flexible strategies under Alternative &
Innovative Education Component of SSA, from Bhonga Shalas,
Sakhar Shalas of Maharashtra, Boat schools of Andhra Pradesh,
Tent schools, Sandhya Kalike of Karnataka, Human Development
centers of Madhya Pradesh, bridge courses all around the country
& many more such child centric intervention that the present
number has come down to 7 million, about 3.5% of total cohort
in the 6.14 years age-group.
The dropout rate at the primary stage has declined by 11 percentage
points between 2001-02 and 2004-05. Compared to this dramatic
decline, during the decade 1990-91 to 2000-01 the dropout
rate had declined by only 2.3 percentage points. Improvement
in dropout rates for girls at 15 percentage points was more
than for boys during the period 2001-02 to 2004-05. Reduction
in SC dropout rates was at par with overall dropout and that
in ST dropouts at 10 percentage points was slightly lower.
Similar trends are reflected in student school attendance
as well, where on an average girl’s attendance is better
than that of boy’s, attendance of SC children is at
par with overall and those of Scheduled Tribes slightly lower.
Over 10 lakh additional teachers have already been sanctioned
across the country under the SSA, to improve the pupil-teacher
ratio, which at the primary level is 41:1 very near the norm
of 1:40. More than 73,000 academic resources centres have
been established at block and cluster levels to provide academic
support to primary and upper primary school teachers. All
teachers are provided grants for developing teaching-learning
material, leading to improved teaching learning methods and
outcomes. All teachers receive 20 days of in-service training
and free textbooks are distributed to all girls and children
belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In
addition, a maintenance grant and a grant to improve existing
infrastructure are provided annually to all schools.
School infrastructure has been improved through provision
of about 7 lakh additional classrooms, and 1.8 lakh school
buildings, 2.3 lakh toilets and 1.7 lakh drinking water facilities.
The participation of girls in education has increased significantly.
While in 1950-51 girls’ participation at the primary
level was 28.1%, 16% at the upper primary, 13.3% at the secondary
and 10.0% at the degree level. This increased in 2004-05 to
46.7% at the primary level, 44.4% at the upper primary level,
41.5% at the secondary level and at 39.4% at the degree level.
This is almost an increase of 3 times at upper primary and
4 times at the degree level. The strides in women’s
education are reflected in the Gender Parity indicators, which
show that:
• Gender Parity at primary level increased to 0.93 in
2004-05 at elementary level from 0.38 in 1950-51. 27 States/UT
have gender parity above national average.
• Female literacy has gone up from 39.2% in 1991 to
53.67% in 2001.
• The growth rate in female literacy at 14.39% has been
higher than for males at 11.13% during 1991-2001.
• Gender gap in literacy has declined from 24.85% (1991)
to 21.5% in 2001.
• Gender gap in dropouts has come down to less than
3% points at secondary level, and it stands almost eliminated
at the primary level.
• Increasing number of female teachers, which at the
school level has increased from 20 in 1950-51 to 60 in 2004-05
against every 100 male teachers.
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Equity in education has been significantly
promoted by the National Programme of Nutritional Support
to Primary Education commonly known as the MDM, which was
started in 1995 to give a boost to universalisation of primary
education by increasing enrolment, retention and attendance
and simultaneously impacting upon the nutritional status of
students in primary classes. The programme now covers the
entire country along with children in EGS & AIE Centres.
Feeding more than 100 million children every day it is a unique
programme in that it addresses two of the most pressing problems
for the majority of children in India, namely, hunger and
education by :
1. Improving the nutritional status of children in classes
I-V in Government, Local Body and Government aided schools,
and EGS and AIE centres. A Calorific intake of 450 along with
8-12 grams of protein are being provided in every meal.
2. Encouraging poor children especially girls belonging to
disadvantaged sections, to attend schools more regularly and
help them concentrate on classroom activities. The scheme
also provides nutritional support to children at the primary
stage in drought-affected areas during summer vacation.
The rationale for the hot cooked Mid Day Meal lies in: promoting
school participation, preventing classroom hunger, facilitating
the healthy growth of children, promoting the intrinsic educational
value of cleanliness, hygiene and nutrition, fostering social
equality by breaking the barriers of caste and class among
school children as children learn to share a common meal.
The MDMS facilitates cognitive, emotional and social development.
Jean Dreze has said that the tremendous popularity of the
mid-day meal among disadvantaged sections of the population
is one of the strongest arguments for consolidating and expanding
this initiative. MDM idea is simple but its impact has been
significant in elimination of classroom hunger, increase in
enrollment, more significantly of girls, surge in daily attendance,
particularly of girls and children from poorer sections and
narrowing of social distances. A number of State have further
built on this Central initiative by augmenting the meals and
providing for health interventions. This has also been a fruitful
area of public private partnership.
Adult education programmes have also equity, especially gender
and social, as its main focus. Through country-wide total
literacy campaigns, post literacy and continuing education
programmes which cover almost 600 districts there is a pronounced
edge on empowering the disempowered. This is sought to be
further reinforced by providing for vocational training of
neo-literates through nearly 200 Jan Shikshan Sansthans. During
the 11th Plan period, literacy programmes will converge with
other national development programmes like NREGA, NRHM and
such like to empower beneficiaries of such schemes with literacy
inputs. With 300 million illiterates an equitable society
with equitable education faces its strongest challenge in
the area of adult education.
The Mahila Samakhya programme currently covering 60 districts
but poised for a significant expansion during the 11th Plan
focuses on socially and economically disadvantaged and marginalized
women groups and is a strong force for equity. It uses education
as a tool for empowering women and emphasizes the process
of learning, besides seeking to bring about a change in women’s
perceptions about themselves & the perception of society
in regard to women’s role.
I have indicated elsewhere in my speech that SSA targets its
funds to bridge gaps. Major flows go to educationally backward
States like UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, MP and West Bengal to provide
for school infrastructure, for recruitment of teachers and
to provide for quality interventions. Intensive planning at
district levels and below is being done to ensure that such
funds reach those areas and sections which are most disadvantaged.
States on their own are also taking systematic measures for
equity through scholarships, bank deposits for girl’s
education etc.
Hitherto I have talked only on the supply side. To stoke the
demand side, SSA gives primacy to village communities. Village
Education Committees spend more than 50% of SSA funds and
under supervision of PRIs will increasingly come to monitor
school outcomes looking at chronic issues of student attendance,
dropouts, teacher absenteeism etc. Women/SC/ST are represented
in VECs/PRIs.
I have not touched so far the issue of hierarchies in out
education system. There is this whole issue of better private
schools versus ‘public schools’ with ramshackle
infrastructure and indifferent teaching. Since the public
education system is by far the biggest provider, the SSA and
MDM together with other State level initiatives is trying
to improve this state of affairs. Gaps remain. There is some
cynicism but increasingly community oversight and that of
civil society including NGOs should make things progressively
better. The Right to Education Bill consequent on Article
21 A of the Constitution will further strengthen this movement.
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I have attempted to cover here in a broad
brush kind of a way what we have been doing in the sphere
of school education and literacy in the field of equity. I
have talked about programmes which will impact on gender and
social equity, equity for those disabled and equity for the
minorities. This, however, is not all.
Schools are expected to not just impart education in its narrow
sense but, more broadly, to mould children’s attitudes.
Egalitarian values, compassion, tolerance, concern towards
others, respect for cultural diversity, gender sensitivity,
and health education must therefore be integrated in the curriculum
at the elementary stage itself to help develop healthy attitudes
and promote. Equity. The same ethos must inform textbooks,
syllabi and even assessment systems. Classroom transactions
must address issues of equity in multigrade and multilevel
teaching.
I would like to close with a comment from Woody Allen, actor
and philosopher who once said, ‘one half of the world
is hungry, the other half is on a diet’. Nothing sums
up the enigma of equity better. I wish this Conference all
success.
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