Completion of school education is costly for these tribal region students

Nestled in the lap of western ghats are many tribal villages and one such village -- Doddamanju tribal panchayat village -- looks quite beautiful here with its vastly varying culture and dialects. However, when it comes to children's education, villagers continue to lag far behind. With just one high school in the panchayat, students, completing their high school (Class X), drop out of studies and start doing odd jobs.

According to students and their parents, the problem of truancy can be solved if authorities concerned arrange bus transportation to a higher secondary school in the nearby village Natrampalayam, among other requests. The school in Doddamanju panchayat in Anchetty taluk is about 110 km away from the district headquarters of Krishnagiri and 20 km away from Doddamanju.

School Education Department said that the government high school in Doddamanju tribal panchayat was upgraded to high school in 2011 and since then a total of 213 students have appeared for the class X exam. Though 174 students -- 92 boys and 82 girls -- passed the boards, only 45 students have joined for higher education (class XI and other ITI courses). There is only one boy who has completed his post-graduation from the village.

In the academic year 2019- 2020, 46 students appeared for class X exam and attained all pass, only seven students joined for class XI and four for the Industrial Training Institute said an educational department source.

TNIE trekked to the village to find out the condition and found out that a few students after completing their boards switch to jobs in spinning mills at Erode, Tirupur and Namakkal districts.

One of the students who completed class IX from Doddamanju GHS and went to a spinning mill near Erode during this lockdown said that he earned `8, 000 each month for two months. However, he joined class X at his school after permission was denied for him to reach his native.

Similarly, Chinnan from Onnepuram village, said, "My daughter completed class X a few years before, but since we had no road facility, let alone bus facility, students walked eight km to reach Sivalingapuram and then boarded the bus for Anchetti, which is 12 km away. This tedious and strenuous trekking led to reluctance in parents and students," he said.

A mini-bus facility was started by the TNSTC from Anchetti to Doddamanju in 2018 and that has led to to a few admission to class XI in the school.

Cases of Child Marriage

Meanwhile, due to early drop out from schools, many cases of child marriages have been taking place in the village. Apart from this, three girls have killed self over love disputes. Frightened parents are thus reluctant to send their wards to faraway schools and urge the government to upgrade the school in Doddamanju to a higher secondary school.

A school teacher said that though the government should arrange a bus facility to the government higher secondary school at Natrampalayam, which would prevent drop out after class X. Teacher also mentioned that a junior assistant should be appointed administration work as there are only five teachers for the total 304 students.

Denkanikottai District Education Officer Jothi Chandra said that they are processing the work to upgrade the school and have communicated at the State-level authorities.

Thally constituency DMK MLA Y Prakash said that he would speak about the transport issue to the district authorities and try to arrange bus facility from Doddamanju to Natrampalayam.

Trouble for students in continuing higher education

A major problem faced by the students is that the higher secondary schools run by the State government are present in Anchetti, Natrampalayam, Denkanikottai, Thally, and a government model school at Bodichipalli. Hostel facility for boys is only available in Anchetti and for girls, it is there in Bodichipalli near Kelamangalam, Thally and Denkanikottai.

Cabinet approves school education reform project

The Union Cabinet has approved a project partially funded by the World Bank to carry out a reform agenda in the governance of school education, and improve data and assessment systems at the national level, as well as teaching and learning outcomes in six States, especially for early childhood and vocational education.

The project includes an emergency response component to help the government respond to disaster situations which lead to school closures and loss of learning, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, according to an official statement issued after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project will have a total project cost of ₹5,718 crore, with the World Bank’s support amounting to about ₹3,700 crore ($500 million), said the statement.

A major component of the project is the establishment of PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) as a National Assessment Centre. Included in the National Education Policy 2020, this autonomous institution under the Union Education Ministry will set norms for student assessment and evaluation for all school boards across the country, most of which currently follow norms set by State governments. It will also guide standardised testing to monitor learning outcomes at the State and national levels, according to the NEP.

The other major initiative at the national level is to strengthen the Education Ministry’s data systems to capture information on the retention, transition and completion rates of students.

At the State level, the project seeks to improve education outcomes and school-to-work transition strategies for better labour market outcomes in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha.

A similar project to be funded by the Asian Development Bank will cover Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Assam and every State will partner with one other State to share best practices, said the statement.

Education governance reform will be a major focus, with the World Bank’s project document estimating that 83% of the project will be dedicated to the public administration of education. Other areas of focus are assessment systems, teacher development, early childhood, foundational literacy and numeracy, and vocational education, which are all highlighted in the NEP as well.

The World Bank’s latest status report for the project, released earlier this month, also includes plans to include private sector players in the government school system, in “the area of school education governance, management, monitoring, teacher training, school service delivery reform, and overall education service delivery.” This component has raised concerns among some education activists, who have also raised red flags about the emphasis on standardised testing and the use of information and communication technologies in teaching.

Over 90% govt school students connected to classes remotely: Education dept survey

Around 90% of government school students in Gurugram district now have remote access to online lessons through various mediums, according to a survey carried out by the department of education.

This is a significant improvement from a month ago when the survey was initiated, when only around 60% were aware of or were taking part in distant learning initiatives via WhatsApp or televised programmes, department officials said.

The survey was started in May to familiarise students with remote learning processes during the lockdown, imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, and monitor their progress, especially those students who did not have access to technology. As part of the ongoing-survey different education officers, from school principals to block-level officers, reached out to families on a daily basis to find out if students are facing any hurdles in remote learning.

Officials handling the survey said that easing of lockdown restrictions had played a role in bridging the gap between students and remote lessons. With the easing of restrictions, students who did not have smartphones were able to reach out to friends and family for sharing of resources, said officials.

“When we started over a month ago, only around 60% of students were aware of remote lessons that were taking place. Our recent assessment has shown that around 90% of the students surveyed daily are aware of remote lessons and are connected with distant learning in some way or another,” said Ravinder Alawadhi, deputy director, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and the survey in-charge.

SCERT officials are conducting the survey on behalf of the education department.

Alawadhi said teachers were connected to students, be it via WhatsApp or phone calls, due to which a regular learning momentum was being maintained. “Students who don’t have smartphones or television sets receive daily calls from teachers and are kept in the loop about homework. Even if they are taking lessons through television broadcasts, teachers call and inform them about the homework that needs to be done,” he said.

He added that the easing of lockdown restrictions had enabled students to step out and reach out to classmates and relatives from whom they could share notes and status of the day’s class work. “If children don’t have smartphones at home, they are able to go out and obtain resources from neighbours. Earlier, with the lockdown in place, this was not possible as people were confined within their homes,” said Alawadhi, adding that the survey would continue for now.

District education officer Indu Boken couldn’t be reached for a comment.

Suman Sharma, principal of Government Model Senior Secondary School in Sector 4/7, Urban Estate, said that the school was in touch with a good number of students with teachers apprising them about daily lesson updates. “Most students are getting lessons through WhatsApp. For those who don’t have smartphones, we are advising that they tune in via television. On a daily basis, we call a fixed number of students and share the homework for the day with them,” said Sharma.

Lalit Kumar, a painter, whose daughters study in a government school, said that accessing lessons was a challenge for families like his in the absence of a phone and television set. Kumar’s daughters, however, borrow smartphones from relatives to catch up on lessons occasionally. “Lessons are not taking place as before. There is disruption. Officials have asked my daughters to watch lessons on TV but we don’t have one. My daughters try to exchange notes with friends, whenever there’s a chance,” said Kumar.

While the department estimates that more children are gradually being covered through remote lessons, volunteers who are working on the ground with students of government schools said that challenges remained due to the digital divide.

Viren Jain, a class 11 student of a private school carrying out a volunteer-driven programme as part of which government schoolchildren are taught over the phone, said that remote learning was challenging for many students. “Online classes have been very limited. Some of the active teachers have been doing it. But there are students who are in need of additional support, due to lack of resources. Many of them have gone back to their native places and are no longer taking any classes due to the absence of internet and smartphones,” said Jain.

He added that many children being taught under this initiative had dropped out due to accessibility issues. “With their families moving, some students dropped out. For others, finding the right time for teaching is a challenge. Most of these children come from families where there is only one phone at home, which needs to be shared with others,” said Jain.