Not about competition

Private schools and academic institutions are mushrooming in both the rural and semi-rural areas of Manipur. There are also government schools but parents prefer to send their children to private institutions. These conduct classes up to the primary level with teachers employed mostly on a contract basis. Most government primary schools in areas like Churachandpur district are closed and, once shut down, no efforts are made to revive them. Security force personnel occupy these school buildings.

Children in villages go to government-run primary schools and after that there is no opportunity for them to pursue further education. Those who can afford it send their children outside but not many like this idea because they expect their children, when they grow up, to help at home and in cultivation activities.

Of late, there has been a largescale migration from rural areas to towns and cities, not for education but for livelihood, says Gouzamang Guite, executive member of the Churachandpur Autonomous District Council. According to him, “it is because their main occupation — jhum cultivation — is uncertain. Most of them end up as vegetable vendors, domestic helps and cycle-rickshaw operators. For villagers who can hardly afford two square meals a day, educating their children does not arise”. He adds that there were many dropouts due to migration and unstable livelihood even after they went to towns.

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Talking of education in the hill areas of Manipur, Guite, who has gone to the extent of providing land to initiate the first Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in New Lamka, Churachandpur district, feels that it is not only about enrolment in schools or sitting in a classroom, it is also about development and social justice. “Education is not only about merit, it is the fundamental right of children. The very concept of education as a competition also needs to be re-looked, otherwise it deepens the hierarchical divide within society. A residential school, such as SSA, is an attempt at promoting social justice through basic education. In a situation of poverty, particularly in the hill areas, the SSA is one alternative development.”

The SSA was launched in Manipur in 2004-05 to ensure enrolment and provide education for children in the six-14 age group under the provisions of Article 45 and the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act. It was conceptualised to bridge social, regional and gender gaps with the active participation of the community in the management of schools to provide useful and relevant education.

In the current scenario, where competition is the mantra and where government schools lag far behind the private institutions, both in terms of quantity and quality, there are challenges for Guite. The SSA in New Lamka has completed two years and he says, “There are over 100 students already, and there is a huge demand from communities for more enrolment and upgradation.”

Speaking about the SSA as a community-based centre of education and learning, Guite says that “the SSA at New Lamka ensures that there are teachers for all subjects. There is also an equal number of male and female teachers.”

Interestingly, the SSA residential school in New Lamka has many girls. Free education has provided an opportunity for them. As per Guite&’s observation and findings, the SSA system of compulsory and free education has an indirect positive impact, apart from academic learning. He explained that “a poor family who sends their children to SSA for free education is saving their small income. Apart from a welfare approach, it is an investment, children are our future. There is a need to change the very meaning of education — that is an all-round development — and the misconception about government schools”.

The UN Millennium Development Goal Report 2014, released in July last year, shows India&’s poor performance. It figures in the top five countries with extreme poverty. It is important to note that enrolments in schools have considerably improved but simultaneously with a high dropout rate. Only one among Scheduled Tribe girls in rural India passed Class XII. Dropout students are mostly in conflict areas, the UN report found out. Moreover, about 50,000 became mothers at the age of 15-19 in rural India.

The writer is a Delhi-based freelance contributor.

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