SOURCE- HINDUSTAN TIMES has published a report on January 15 2012, saying that the number of children joining the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) nursery and primary schools has gone up. Dr. Mahinder Nagpal, chairman, MCD's education committee, said that the number of students in nursery classes has witnessed an increase of over 4000 while primary schools have witnessed increase by 14000 students.
At the outset, this information is a good indicator of the growing infrastructure and the development that is happening in the literacy and educational levels in the country. Although, the enrollment is taken care of by various schemes and facilities launched by the Govt. such as mid-day meals, upgradation of school infrastructure, free books, copies, school bags, dresses, shoes and water bottles, which are given to the students, the actual problem is the huge number of dropouts who drop out of school without completing their education to support their families and find work and for numerous other reasons as well. The number of schools have increased from 1629 to 1740 and the number of students have increased from 9,28,406 to 9,42,135 but how many of them actually remain in schools uptil the basic age of 14 years according to the Right To Education Act is an altogether different matter and the reasons are to find work to support families, baby sit the siblings and such help at home or the mere lack of funds to go to school even if the basic education uptil the age of 14 years is free and in some cases, the unavailability of good quality teachers who can motivate the students to remain in schools.
My opinion in this matter would be that the Govt. Departments or the Govt. as a whole needs to look at the issue on a broader basis so as not to focus narrowly on the enrollment levels only. This is all the more important because there are two sides of a coin and looking only at the input process and not at the failing output defeats the entire purpose of the plan itself. There has to be a more sustained effort to keep the students in school.
Some Suggestions-
The age of 14 years is the lower limit and thus the students have to be engaged and encouraged to remain in school despite their family problems and in this the teachers have a bigger role to play.
Also, their have to be some infrastructure in place to help the students look after their siblings or arrangements made in order to help them.
The very obvious has to be the availability of good and learned teachers who are able to impart knowledge, though the present circumstances present a grim picture at many places throughout the country.
Thus, its important that we focus not only on the enrollment levels but also on the students who remain in school and complete their education.
At the outset, this information is a good indicator of the growing infrastructure and the development that is happening in the literacy and educational levels in the country. Although, the enrollment is taken care of by various schemes and facilities launched by the Govt. such as mid-day meals, upgradation of school infrastructure, free books, copies, school bags, dresses, shoes and water bottles, which are given to the students, the actual problem is the huge number of dropouts who drop out of school without completing their education to support their families and find work and for numerous other reasons as well. The number of schools have increased from 1629 to 1740 and the number of students have increased from 9,28,406 to 9,42,135 but how many of them actually remain in schools uptil the basic age of 14 years according to the Right To Education Act is an altogether different matter and the reasons are to find work to support families, baby sit the siblings and such help at home or the mere lack of funds to go to school even if the basic education uptil the age of 14 years is free and in some cases, the unavailability of good quality teachers who can motivate the students to remain in schools.
My opinion in this matter would be that the Govt. Departments or the Govt. as a whole needs to look at the issue on a broader basis so as not to focus narrowly on the enrollment levels only. This is all the more important because there are two sides of a coin and looking only at the input process and not at the failing output defeats the entire purpose of the plan itself. There has to be a more sustained effort to keep the students in school.
Some Suggestions-
The age of 14 years is the lower limit and thus the students have to be engaged and encouraged to remain in school despite their family problems and in this the teachers have a bigger role to play.
Also, their have to be some infrastructure in place to help the students look after their siblings or arrangements made in order to help them.
The very obvious has to be the availability of good and learned teachers who are able to impart knowledge, though the present circumstances present a grim picture at many places throughout the country.
Thus, its important that we focus not only on the enrollment levels but also on the students who remain in school and complete their education.
No comments:
Post a Comment