Primary Education in rural Haryana - A Glimpse
A. N. Maheshwari
July 1997
Context
An impression is carried that India has had the tradition of
giving education an important place in the society. Weakness in the educational
system, especially of its reach, that was seen at the time of independence
could be attributed to the lack of support given to it by the colonial
government. In a few months India will be celebrating 50 years of governance by
the people of this country as the largest democracy of the world. In the
constitution of the republic the state had taken upon itself the responsibility
of providing free and compulsory education to all children in the age group
6-14 years. Although, in the past fifty years there has been an unprecedented
expansion of education, especially at the primary level, yet the attainment of
the constitutional commitment has remained elusive. Perhaps, the situation is
like that of a runner whose goal line is receding away at a speed greater than
his own.
In the wake of the 1900 World Conference on Education for All
and the Delhi Declaration made by the nine high-population countries of the
world at the Education for All Summit held in December 1993 there is serious
thinking in the country for making
primary education compulsory. It is important to find what exactly is taking
place in the rural primary schools. Of the 8,25,707
primary schools 6,99,616 are rural. In these schools 73,435,414 children study.
They are taught by 1,342,249 teachers. These numbers, given in the Provisional
Statistics of the Sixth All India Educational Survey on a base of 30 September
1993, reveal that on an average education of about 89 children is handled by
1.6 teachers in the rural primary schools. So the general picture is that in a
rural primary school at best two teachers may be available for performing an
unenviable task of education of about 100 children enrolled in classes 1 to 5.
They are required to manage their school and provide child centred education
and joyful learning. Through their effort each pupil is expected to attain the
prescribed minimum levels of learning in language, mathematics, environmental
studies, and in non-cognitive areas of art, health and physical education.
Towards this end schools were strengthened under the Centrally Sponsored scheme
of the Operation Blackboard and the District Institutes of Education and
Training (DIET) were set up for in-service and pre-service education of
teachers.
Recently, for improving the quality of primary education
another important initiative taken up by the Ministry of Human Resource
Development is the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). The distinctive
feature of the new initiative is that it is result oriented. The initial bench
marks of learning attainments obtained by employing tools for measuring
achievement levels in language and mathematics of pupils, who have completed
one year and four years of education in primary schools, are targeted to be
improved through interventions provided at the district and subdistrict levels.
Such bench marks were identified in 42 districts about three years back. The
follow up measurements of learning attainments of pupils studying in these
districts has become due and has planned to be taken up shortly. There fore,
there is an urgent need to for finding out the reality of the situation by
taking up micro studies, as large scale achievement surveys tend to smear out
not only the innovations but also the factors responsible for poor performance.
Also, widely divergent claims of successes and failures of school education are
being made by proponents and critics of the government, as only it can be held
accountable. When education is being accepted as human right and its assurance
is being given to the people by making primary education compulsory, it is
necessary that its quality is also fixed. It is not enough to enrol a child in
school. It is equally important to create conditions for her learning. Unless
measurable reference standards of learning are spelled out children will come
to school and leave it without realising that they might have been short
changed by the inadequacies in their learning conditions.
SCHOOLS
In the context of what has been said above it was decided to
visit a few rural primary schools in Haryana in the vicinity of Delhi for
finding out the quality of the learning environment available to children and
for measuring their learning achievements. Three primary schools in the Manesar educational block of the Gurgaon
district in Haryana were selected for visit largely because of their relatively
easier accessibility from the Delhi-Jaipur highway.
These were the government primary schools at Dhani
Shankar, Bilaspur Kalan and
Binola. The main purpose of the school visit was to
get the first hand experience of a
typical day in a rural primary school and to find out the quality of learning
by administering the standardised tests in Hindi language and arithmetic to the
children of class 5 of the three schools. Tests were taken by 20 children of
class 5 who came to these schools on 12th May 1997.
The brief description of these schools is as follows. All the
three are two teacher schools. Therefore, teaching style adopted by the
teachers out of necessity is multigrade and multilevel.
The Government
Primary School at Dhani Shankar has a compound of about 400 sq
yards enclosed by a boundary wall. It has four rooms with a long veranda,
drinking water facility and a toilet. The school courtyard has been made into
an attractive garden and gives the impression of a good school setting. The
total enrolment of the schools comprising classes 1 to 5 is 78. Of these 10
children are enrolled in class 5. Its two male teachers have put in more than
10 years of service. They live in nearby villages.
The Government
School at Bilaspur Kalan has a
compound of over 1000 sq yards enclosed by a stone boundary wall. Its two rooms
and the running veranda in front are on a raised platform. The school has many
trees. One of the teachers pointed out with pride the arbour is used on bright
and sunny days for the Shantiniketan style of teaching. Both teachers of
this school, of whom one is female, have put in more than 10 years of service.
The school has strength of 68. Ten children are in class 5.
The Government
Primary School at Binola could not be visited because of the constraints
of time but its students of class 5 were brought to the school at Dhani Shankar for taking the test. Like the other two
schools it also is a two teacher school and has three rooms with a running
veranda in front. The total enrolment in the school is 50 out of which 7
children are in class 5.
When we entered the school at Dhani Shankar the school had been functioning for two
hours. As it was the harvesting season only about 40 children had come to
school on that day. Children though not smartly dressed had shine in their eyes
and brightness on their face. Both the teachers were present. There was order
in the school. Our presence was largely ignored. As courtesy, water to drink
was offered to us by the children, perhaps under the direction of their
teachers.
Children were sitting in groups in the
veranda and inside the classrooms. The two teachers were attending to two of
the groups and the children in the other three groups were on their own. One of
the groups led by a student monitor was reciting multiplication tables. The
children of class 1 were sitting by themselves huddled up in one of the
classrooms.
The school at Bilaspur
Kalan was no different from the school at Dhani Shankar. The lady teacher in this school mentioned,
“Children of class 1 are left on their own or at best with some senior students
in their first three months as they are afraid of school and cry when
approached by the teachers. After the children lose their fear of the school we
start interacting with them.”
It became obvious that when teachers are
teaching some groups of children some others will have to fend for themselves.
Our romantic notions that a few tips from us on seating and learning resource
management will enable the teachers to handle effectively the teaching of
multigrade groups evaporated on watching them perform their onerous task. It
also does not take long to realise that monitoring by the two teachers the
individual learning in a heterogeneous group of over 80 children can be
possible only in theory as real life situations in rural schools are too
difficult to grapple with. Therefore, one can but feel amazed at the tenacity
of the primary school teachers who keep doing their work in spite of the near
impossibility of the tasks expected of them. The thought of handling 80
children alone when the second teacher is absent may produce shivers even in
experienced pedagogues. This situation is more the rule than an exception. The
disparity in the learning conditions between a typical rural school and urban schools
become more glaring when it is realised that the children of the rural schools
rarely have the good fortune of home support for their learning. We, therefore,
wanted to know for ourselves the level of learning achievement in children who
have studied for four years in schools like the one at Dhani
Shankar.
ASSESSMENT
We had brought with us textbook free
tests in arithmetic and language at the level of learning expected of children
who have had four years of primary education. The test in language was in two
parts. The first part measured the word knowledge and the second part measured
the reading comprehension. The second test was in arithmetic. Twenty children
of class 5 of the three schools took the test. As an incentive the children
were allowed to keep the pencil and the eraser which were given to them for
writing the test.
The test of word knowledge contained 35
pairs of words. Children were asked to identify whether they were synonyms or
antonyms. At least 50% of the children could identify correctly 23 of the 35
pairs. The test of the reading comprehension was based on a passage. Children
were asked to read the passage and answer questions some of which were direct
and others required reasoning ability. About 40% of the students could give correct
response to the direct questions, but less than 20% could answer correctly the
indirect questions. The overall language competency of the 20 children was far
below the criteria for qualifying at the mastery level.
The arithmetic test was around the four
basic fundamental operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division, unitary method, place value, simple fractions, geometrical figures,
units of measurement of mass, length, area and volume and their conversions.
Although, 18 children could answer correctly 7895-5704, only 13 could find
7097+1903. Twelve children could write in words 2200805 and write a similar
number given in words in digits. Five or less could answer correctly questions
on subtractions stated either in words or in the vertical form involving
borrowing of numbers from the next place. One can safely surmise that the
children could not handle addition involving carrying of numbers nor could
handle subtraction involving borrowing of numbers. In all other items of the test
less than 15% of the students could give correct response. The test though not
being diagnostic revealed that by and large children are extremely weak in
arithmetic.
It can be convincingly argued out that
children cannot be faulted for this dismal situation. Support of the teacher or
of the parent for learning concepts which require reasoning was generally not
available to them. In this regard two learning situations observed during the
school visit are worth sharing. A child not more than 5 years old was sitting
with a morose look. When we asked his name and what his father did he gladly
opened up. He told his name and answered that his father grazed goats. When
asked whether he knew counting, he said that he could count up to one hundred.
When asked to count from 90 to 100 he promptly counted correctly. When asked
what followed 24, he said with confidence 25. To the question what number
preceded 24, he said with confidence 23. As he was a student of class 1 and was
admitted to the school barely one month back we wanted know where he had learnt
the counting. This was explained by his teacher as an outcome of indirect
learning at the school. The boy used to accompany his elder sibling in the
preceding session.
Another experience was to watch one of
the teachers in the Dhani Shankar school teaching
arithmetic to children of class 4. Teacher asked, “If you buy two kilogram of
sugar at Rs. 10 per kg and hand over a 50 Rupee note
and the shopkeeper returns you the change in notes of Rs.
5 denomination, then how many notes will he give you?” Promptly, many hands
were raised. One of the children replied ‘6’. To the other question whether
they could tell the colour of a 20 Rupee note almost all children raised their
hands. These two incidents of learning provide a glimmer of hope. Not all is
lost. Children have the intrinsic ability to learn. Instead of imposing the
requirement that all competencies listed in the MLL document be targeted
uniformly by all schools a pragmatic approach will be to identify the competencies
that can be achieved within the constraints of that school and gradually
improve upon them by experimenting with the teaching learning process.
At the Bilaspur
Kalan one of the teachers remarked, “What is the use
of this beautiful setting of my school when villagers do not want to send their
children to the government schools.” We asked, “Where do they send their
children to study?” We were given the most unexpected answer, ‘to the private
English medium school.’ We were aware of this urban phenomena but were least
prepared to be told that farmers and workers, who were not literate themselves,
preferred to educate their children in private English medium schools by paying
high fees. To our query, “How far is the nearest English medium private school?”
We were told that an English medium by the name Shanti
Niketan Public School is in the vicinity and is 4 km
off the Delhi-Jaipur highway in the village Pathreri. Gazing our interest the teacher offered to
accompany us to visit that school.
ENGLISH MEDIUM EDUCATION
Shantiniketan Public School, Pathrehri
As
we approached this school, from a distance we saw two parked yellow coloured
school buses. The school’s iron gates were closed. We were allowed entry on being
introduced by our escort. We went to call on the Principal. The Principal was
happy to know that we were from the NCERT. He said that in his school the
English medium books are used including those of the NCERT. His school was from
lower kindergarten (LKG) to class 8. Children come to his school from as far
away as 25 km by school buses. They undergo two years of pre-primary education
before starting studies of class 1. He said that his pupils are from
neighbouring villages and their parents are mainly workers and farmers, and a
few do service. The tuition fees varied from Rs. 85
to Rs. 115 per month and transportation charges were
extra. Education was in English from the LKG itself. School uniforms, books and
stationary were to be purchased from the school. The principal said that he
also charged admission fee, which varied with the paying capacity of the
parent. It was a substantial one time payment used for development of the
infrastructure and creation of essential facilities. He emphatically said that
parents did not speak English at home but were particular that their children
spoke English at the school. He preferred admitting children of workers as,
unlike farmers, they paid school fees regularly each month. He had to make
adjustments in the schedule of payment
of fees for the farmer-parents. He claimed he had 20 teachers for the total
strength of over 500 children.
We went with the Principal
for a round of the school. In contrast to the children we had seen at the
government primary schools the children here were smartly dressed. Girls wore
skirt and blouse, and a tie. Boys were in shorts and shirts, and wore a tie.
They appeared much neater than the children we had seen at the schools in Dhani Shankar and Bilaspur Kalan.
We noticed that here also
children sat on mats but classrooms were crowded and cramped. We were told that
two sections were placed in the charge of one teacher, as not all the teachers
had to come to school on that day. The situation was similar to that of the
government primary school, as 70 children were with one teacher. The difference
was that all the children were in the same grade. We could observe that the
children had picked up smattering of English. They greeted us with the words,
‘Good Morning, Sir’, and also a little girl asked permission of her teacher
using the words, ‘May I come in, Ma’am?’
We could not assess the level
of learning in the school because it would have been preposterous to suggest
that we may be allowed to administer achievement tests to the children. Instead
the Principal posed to us a peculiar problem. Though children in his school
studied in the English medium they had to write at the end of class 5 and class
8 district level qualifying tests administered in Hindi. He wanted to know
whether the NCERT could sort out this anomaly with the Department of Education
of the State.
We witnessed a phenomenon
totally negating the national curricular framework. According to it, the
primary education should be in the mother tongue of the child. We show surprise
when told that illiterate farmers and workers prefer English medium education
for their children. We might feel condescending towards them at their plight
for they have to pay through their nose for educating their children in such
schools. But we hardly feel disturbed by the urban parents, who also do not
speak English at home, patronising English medium education for their children.
We were told that what we had
seen on that day is typical of education scenario in the rural areas of
Haryana. Situation is extremely complex and confusing, to say the least. Where
do we go from here? Is there a road ahead?
ROAD AHEAD
To
discover the road ahead it is necessary to carry out the strength, weakness and
threat (SWAT) analysis of the
primary education in Haryana. The State has created the required physical
infrastructure for its primary schools. Schools have two or more classrooms,
playground and toilet. The school buildings meet the norms of the Operation
Blackboard (OB). They have been supplied science and maths kits and other
equipment as per the OB scheme. At least two qualified teachers are posted in
each school. The glaring weakness is that though pupil to teacher ratio is
around 40:1, teachers have to handle large multigrade groups. Comparison with
multigrade situation in Scoula Nuova
in Colombia may be misleading as there teachers handle small groups. It is
possible there for a teacher to keep track of the progress of each child. Here
it is impossible to adopt such a pedagogy because the number of children to be
handled are far too many and teachers too few. Another weakness is that many
times one teacher is absent leaving the burden of handling total strength of
the school to a single teacher. Also, the monitoring of the functioning of the
schools is poor. It is not uncommon to find closed schools on a working day
when all the teachers do not show up or to find them closed in the middle of
the school day. As it is, children study without the essential conditions for
their learning in their school but their added handicap is that very few get
home support because generally their parents or their elder siblings may not be
educated themselves. On top of it all, the state has
laid down minimum levels of learning valid for good urban schools equally applicable
to rural primary schools. It is well known that when unrealistic tasks remain
unachieved the self-esteem of the executor gets lowered.
Therefore, the concern is
that the products of the type of primary education that we saw in the three
government primary schools may not be able to achieve in life all that a good
primary education can give. What therefore is required is to make primary
education contextual and set for it realistic targets which could be attained
by the rural learners within the constraints of their prevailing learning
conditions including poor learning climate at home. The learning should be
related to life skills. It is desirable that children are helped to master
functional concepts in mathematics before teaching them concepts not commonly
used.
Towards this end some of the
broad measures that can be taken up are to tune the teacher training to the
learning conditions in the schools and to keep the schools open as stipulated in
the academic calendar. Instead of relying on theoretical pedagogy, teacher
educators must practise first the teaching strategies in the schools where
participants of their in-service and programmes generally teach. It will be
necessary to involve the community for ensuring that school functions for the
full working time and all the teachers are present in the school. When minimum
learning outcomes have been realistically fixed, accountability could be fixed
on the school system including its teachers to ensure that all children achieve
the essential curricular expectations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The
author is thankful to Professor Ved Prakash, Dr. I. K. Bansal and
Mrs. M. K. Bhalla for arranging his visit to the
schools in Haryana, for administering the tests and for analysing the test
performance. He thanks Professors Kuldip Kumar, Venita Kaul and V. K. Raina for their critical comments on the manuscript.