UNIVERSALISATION OF EDUCATION : REMOTE VILLAGES IN TEHRI SHOW THE WAY

Manoj Pandey *

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A nation-wide campaign to provide education to every child has been running for the last two years as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. It aims at seeing every child in the country enrolled in a formal or alternative school by the end of this year. Over the years, retention of children in schools is to be ensured so that by the year 2010, every child in the country has had elementary education.

The success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and complementary or supplementary programmes run by various governments and organisations towards universalisation of elementary education will depend a great deal on the participation of the community and focussed attention on vulnerable sections of the society. One witnesses a surge in literacy wherever it has been accepted willingly by the society and supported by the government, and not the other way round.

Tehri district of Uttaranchal is not among the well-developed districts of the country. Its montane terrain and dry weather make farming unremunerative and life difficult; naturally, the living standards are woefully low. Facilities are often wanting in the clusters of houses that can hardly be called villages that dot the slopes here and there. Though schools are there, the small number of children poses problem of sustaining educational infrastructure at the lowest levels. While men tend to while away time or indulge in alcoholism, women sustain the village life-line through hard work, which includes combing barren slopes for fodder and fuel-wood, rearing cattle and children, and looking after the household.

1. students participating in newspaper making competition at Ma-Beti mela at Surans Sankri village

Education, especially girls’ education would look impossible in such circumstances; but, fortunately, almost every child in the district is attending school.

2. girls and their mothers busy in writing stories at Ma-Beti mela at Surans Sankri village

Part of the credit for this success in the field of education should go to the Mahila Samakhya programme which has made women appreciate the value of getting educated and also ensuring their children’s education despite the additional hardship it brings to them. Then, the participative programmes such as representation of parents in school management committees, and educational fairs under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan [or the old District Primary Education Programme or DPEP which has now been brought in the ambit of the SSA] have brought the villagers face to face with literacy.

The synergy between these two programmes, and their further integration with health and ICDS infrastructure, have made an ever-lasting impact on women and they are seen more active than men in developmental and social activities. They participate in education-oriented cultural events such as the ma-beti mela [mother-daughter meet], some travelling miles of hilly footpaths to reach there. Even when they themselves are illiterate or semi-literate, mothers insist that their children go to school; and they feel immensely proud of their young daughters writing a story for them or helping them write a letter.

3. Kunjapur model shool at Suran Sankri

As hill villages are at times perched on the cliffs and similar inaccessible locations, sustaining normal educational infrastructure is difficult. The Kunjapuri model has been innovated keeping the local realities in view to teach children through a highly participative approach. In such model schools, a lone Guruji can be seen engaging tiny tots in learning activities, with the help of inexpensive models and techniques that would put the costly metropolitan play-schools into shame.

Literacy among women is low in Tehri villages owing to historical reasons, but is rising fast. Women travel long distances to attend literacy camps, and overwork on other days in the fields and jungles to compensate for the time spent in the camp. The joy of recognising alphabets, then joining them to make sensible words, and then being able to read seems to sweep over the inconvenience, tiredness and worries.

4. a Mahila Samakhya literacy camp at Dandsari village

Education has generated momentum in villages towards women's empowerment in its true sense: women participate in decision-making, unitedly fight against social evils, compete with men in elections, demand their rights, resist male dominated social norms. They have organised into groups that challenge the wisdom of the panchayat leaders, politicians and bureaucrats in providing local solutions to local problems. Age seems to be no bar when it comes to talking of their rights.

5. old women listen attentively to the proceedings of a Sahara Sangh court at Jakhwal Gaon

6. a Sakhi [friend] raises an issue at the Sahara Sangh meeting at Jakhwal Gaon

When there are sittings of Sahara Sanghs [women's self-help groups initiated by Mahila Samakhya and now nearly self-sustained], women decide how to deal with corruption in the panchayat or alcoholism or atrocities on women. Kishoris [grown up girls] take the lead in spearheading social awareness among their village aunts and grandmothers.

Tehri district boasts of one primary school within a radius of a mile from every habitation. With more and more children coming out of schools thus, the focus is gradually shifting to vocational-isation and improving the quality of education. A concern for quality is indeed perceptible in schools in remote villages of Tehri, as is also echoed in discussions with the State Project Director for SSA. Only if the education inculcate values and provide employment will the bold writings on the walls of schools in Tehri villages, shikshaarth aiye, sewarth jaiye [come to learn, go to serve], have a meaning. As far as spread of education goes, villages having poor child literacy, located elsewhere, could perhaps take a leaf from the poor villages of Tehri.

7. moving ahead on the path of education: children on way to school at Ronsal village

The feature is available on feature section of PIB’s website at pib.nic.in; photographs are also separately available on the same website’s photo section.

* Feature by Manoj Pandey (DPR) PIB, New Delhi

Photos by Shivraj