Village
Schools Survey Report
The
education survey was conducted with a view to finding out the adequacy
or otherwise of the schools in the sending villages. Many children of
migrant workers migrate with their parents while many do not. We have
seen that the overall ratio of their
respective numbers is 60:40 i.e. 60% of the children in the 1-14 year
age group migrate and 40% do not. We have also noted that this ratio
falls from 90:10 in the 1-4 year age group to 70:30 in the 5-6 year or
balwadi age group and to 48:52 in the 7-14 or primary school age group.
In fact, in the 11-14 age group 60% of the children do not migrate. This
points to the effort on the part of the parents to continue their
children’s schooling as far as possible. As we have also seen, the
foremost reason given for some members of families not migrating with
the rest of the family was ‘education’. Regarding problems faced
with respect to education of the children the main problem has been that
of access to a school whether in the village or at the factory sites.
This was the problem mentioned by all groups of respondents - parents,
teachers and mukadams. Although, as we have noted, few of the respondents have expressed any
dissatisfaction about the quality of schools and schooling offered, this
is likely to be because their focus is first on the availability of the
facility and secondly because many of the respondents may have no
standards with which to compare the facilities available to them.
We must also note that various factors will influence the decision
of parents to leave children behind in the village to go to school. This
implies that it cannot be assumed that all children of school going age
will stay behind if schools with hostels are made available. Hence,
while considering ways of improving educational standards of children of
migrant workers, attention must be given to both setting up of quality
sakharshalas as well as to improving
accessibility and quality of the mainstream schools if necessary and
possible. The survey was expected to reveal the shortcomings
of the schools and, thus, help to decide what intervention is necessary
to overcome them. The survey included 180 schools of 173 villages.
These were all Government schools run
by the Zilla Parishads. The majority of these schools, 157, 87%, are 25 to
100 years old and 8 of them are even more than 100 years old. Only one
has been opened in the last 5 years. Thus, most of the schools can be
said to be well established. Table E 1: Age of schools
However, 110, or 61% of these schools have classes up to Std IV only. Another 65, 36% have classes up to Std VII and only 5, 3% are High Schools, that is, they have classes up to Std X. Table E 2: Number of standards
in a school
Distance
of Schools
Almost all schools 164, 91% are located in the village itself. Only one school is 3 kilometers away from the village. The same is true for children of migrating families as the distance of the schools from their settlements averages only 0.28km. In most villages 123, 68% the migrating families live in the village itself. Accessibility of
schools The fact that
there are only 65 upper primary schools for the 110 lower primary
schools implies that children
from 115 villages have to travel outside their own village even to
complete their primary education; and, that children from 175 out of 180
schools must go outside their village to attend high school. Even if
we assume that the distances between these villages may not in
themselves be prohibitive, they effectively prevent
many girls from going to school
because parents are likely to give priority to their daughters’
security over their education. Sending younger boys out of the village
may also be a problem for many parents unless there are older brothers
or other reliable means of sending children to school.
This may be even more of a difficulty when parents migrate. Classrooms
and Class teachers
Let us now consider the provisions made within the
schools themselves. We find that the strength of the schools ranges from
less than 60 (the minimum in any one school is 30) to more than 400
children. (Table E
19c) In general, we
should expect to find at least one
teacher and one classroom for every standard in the school. In fact,
there are 74, 67% lower primary schools with less than 4 teachers and
24, 37% upper primary schools with less than 7 teachers. There are also
52, 47% lower primary schools with less than 4 classrooms and 29, 45%
upper primary schools with less 7 classrooms. However, according to Government
norms the teacher-pupil ratio must be 1:40 and generally in the
lower primary schools there will be only one teacher appointed for 40
children irrespective of the fact that the school has 4 standards. Apart
from these teachers, a school may or may not have a headmaster/mistress
with a lighter teaching load than that of the other teachers, in view of
the administrative responsibilities and duties that go with the
appointment. However, in the experience of the supervisors there are few
lower primary schools with independent Heads.
Thus, in
schools with less than 80 children we should expect to find a maximum of
2 teachers and a school head even if there are 4 standards. This
provision is not as inadequate as it appears to be. The curriculum
of Stds I to IV is competency based and is not rigidly divided
into portions for Stds I, II, III or IV
so long as all the competencies are acquired by all the children by the
time they complete Std IV. At the age
levels of which we are speaking there is likely to be great variation in
the competencies achieved by the children within any group, and dividing
into different classrooms is an imposed and administrative measure
rather than an academically meaningful one. Moreover, and perhaps
keeping just such contingencies in mind, primary school teachers are
trained to handle multiple class teaching as part of the D. Ed. Training
programme. The two teachers in the lower primary school can therefore be
expected to manage the teaching of four classes if the numbers of
children in the school are not big. They may do this by conducting
classes for the different standards at different times or if the numbers
are really small even combining different classes and teaching them
simultaneously in the same classroom. If there is a head of school
appointed with the provision of an additional room the three-room school
and the additional help with the teaching makes the school capable of
handling at least 100 pupils comfortably. If classes are thus to be combined a shortage of
rooms also may not be a serious educational handicap and obviates the
need for having as many classes as
there are standards provided that the numbers of children that a teacher
is expected to handle remains within limits. Keeping these factors in mind we can say that
whether or not the number of teachers and rooms in a lower primary
school is adequate or not is dependent upon the particular combination
of numbers of children and classrooms in the
school. The relevant factors here are thus the prescribed norm of a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:40 and to a lesser extent the number of classrooms in a school. Number
of teachers and the teacher-pupil ratio Now, of the 110 lower primary schools in this
survey, there are 23 schools with an enrollment of 90 or less children.
But there are 54 schools with 2 or less staff members. (Table
E 3) Thus, if we assume that the smallest schools are the ones
with the least number of teachers we find that there must be about 31
understaffed schools.
There are also 6 single-teacher schools that are definitely understaffed.
(Table E
3, Table
E19c) Teacher-Pupil ratio in
schools up to Std IV We
find that the overall teacher-pupil
ratio at 1:33 is definitely better than the prescribed norm but there
are 22 schools where the ratio is less than 1:40. Ten
schools have an unacceptably low ratio of 1:50.
(Table E 4) Some would say that even this is no worse than many
urban and so-called good schools where teacher pupil ratios are often
lower than 1:60. However, the situation is different in urban areas.
Parents there are themselves educated, and can and give much time and
attention to their children’s studies. If this is not possible help
with schoolwork, even if not of the highest quality is easily available
in the form of tuitions or coaching-classes. As against this, in
villages, the schoolteachers are perhaps the only people capable of
providing any educational inputs at all, considering the low levels of
education or even literacy of all adults including the parents of the
children in the schools. Thus,
low teacher-pupil ratios are absolutely unacceptable in
rural areas. In fact, it could be argued that teacher pupil
ratios should be higher so that more children can get more individual
attention which could help to compensate for the disadvantage of their
educationally impoverished environment. The
22 schools mentioned above are at a definite disadvantage in
providing good schooling. Another 33 schools with 31-40 children /
teacher can also be said to be lacking in teachers. Table E 4: Teacher-
pupil ratio in schools up to Std IV
Number of rooms and
classroom space per child in schools up to Std IV There
are again 23 schools with enrollment up to 90 children and 37 schools
with 2 or less rooms. Thus 14
schools can be said to be definitely lacking in number of rooms. Table E 5:
Table E 19 c However,
we find that the floor space
available to each child is 12.2 square feet, in schools in which
there are as many rooms as there are standards. This is well
above the prescribed norm of 8 sq. ft. per child showing that on the
whole classrooms are large enough. Only
10 schools do not meet this norm. Table E 6: Classroom area per child
School timings We
also find that most of the Std IV schools, 103/110,
94% work for more than
6 hours every day. Thus conducting classes for different standards
at different times should not at all be difficult at least for Std I to
IV. Table E 7: School time in hours
Teacher qualifications So
far as quality of teaching can be ensured by appointing teachers with
the proper educational qualifications, we find nothing wanting. (Table
E 8) Of the 337 teachers employed in these schools, only 12
appear to be inadequately qualified. However, these teachers are
probably the more senior ones employed according to the norms prevalent
at the time they were appointed. Table E 8: Qualifications of teachers in schools up
to Std IV
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