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(ESTD 1982) www.dalitindia.com ssc@dalitindia.com *********************************************************************** |
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Guest Paper*
KANSHI RAM ON EDUCATION
ON
THE EVE OF 50 YEARS OF
Education and Health are basic necessities for enlightenment of mind and social
emancipation. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule,
the father of
Education not only widens the mind and
liberates if from outdated thoughts and practices, it enables a man to claim
and occupy positions in life. It is the main instrument of empowerment.
Education liberates one from most of the social barriers like Untouchability. Equal acceptability of the downtrodden in
the society can surely be established by education. An
illiterate man is a permanent destitute in a competitive society. Literacy
improves ability to compete. It is a factor securing social justice and freedom
from dependence.
EFFORTS
TO IMPROVE LITERACY OF THE OPPRESSED
Much
of the planned efforts to improve education standards of the oppressed classes
have remained on paper. Our planners have laid special emphasis on spreading
education in rural areas, particularly areas inhabited by Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes.
Priority
has been attached on opening primary schools in these
areas in every plan. Special Funds have been earmarked
for construction of school buildings in these areas.
Youth
from these classes have been given special incentives to get
trained in Education. Many Scholarships for Higher Education have
been instituted. In most areas of the Country, non-Formal and also Informal Education for the Children coming from
these Classes, through Anganwadi System and Ashram Schools has also been
included in the Plans.
In spite of the above efforts
the actual achievement has not been encouraging at all. In practice
the problem has been gaining much larger magnitude and efforts of government
have not kept speed with the need. This is primarily due to paper planning,
lack of political will to implement the schemes, and perhaps lack of intentions
to implement.
Due to lack of resources and also social acceptability of the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, they have been comparatively more deprived of facilities for
education, than the general mass of Indians.
While the rich classes automatically
started enjoying the benefits of education .and higher educations once the
country became free, the oppressed needed special care.
Dependence on economic resources and
social opportunities, has marred the chances of most
Oppressed Classes to reap full benefits of the Government Schemes. Had there been, a more comprehensive approach the poor would not have
been at the mercy of these factors. It is sad that the gap of literacy level
between the oppressed classes and the general population has increased from one
plan to another.
Sixth
All India Educational survey conducted by NCERT in collaboration with NIC
revealed the startling fact that there was a large gap between the total number
of habitations and those covered by primary schools. What is more surprising is
the fact that there was no data on how many of these uncovered habitations fall
in tribal sub-plan clusters, or Scheduled Areas or areas predominantly
inhabited by the Scheduled Castes. The survey also revealed imbalance between
in the growth of number of schools in urban and rural areas. Considering
that a majority of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes live in rural
areas, these figures were relevant.
Out of a Total of 10,59,191 Habitations
in the Rural Areas only 5,32,962 have Primary Schools, 1,45,824 Habitations
have Upper Primary Schools, 53,174 have Secondary Schools and only 11,955 have
Higher Secondary Schools. Thus there are more than 5 Lakh Rural Habitations in the Country forming nearly 50% of
the Total Habitations, Do Not Have even Primary Schools.
During the Last Decade
the Number of Primary Schools has increased by 19.62% while in the Rural Areas
by 7.57% only. The Argument generally given is that Teachers Do Not Like to go
to Rural Interiors, and therefore even the Schools which
have been opened in Rural Areas, must be Ill Equipped and Badly Run. Very
Little Attention has been paid to Recruit Local
Teachers.
No Incentives have been given to Tribal
and Scheduled Castes Communities to Open their Own
Schools. Such incentives would have gone a long way to improve the social and
educational standing of these oppressed castes at par with upper castes and
well to do sections of the society.
People belonging to
higher and well to do castes have
As
against the National Average of 52.21% Literacy Rate, the Literacy Rate of
Scheduled Castes is 37.41%. Although 2/3rd of all Males in the
Country are Educated; only 50% of the Males belonging
to the Scheduled Castes are said to be Literate. That is they can Sign and
Write their Names. That is the Literacy in this Country, even Now.
As
far Women, more than Three Quarters of Scheduled Caste Women are Illiterate, as
against the Literacy Rate of 39.29% Illiteracy of Women in General. In some
particular States, these figures are even more alarming. In UP, the State with
the Largest Population of Scheduled Castes, the Literacy Percentage of
Scheduled Caste Women is less than 10%.
Literacy Levels of the Scheduled Tribes
is also a sad story. The gap between literate persons belonging to the
Scheduled Tribes, and those belonging to the General Population was 18.15% in
the Year 1971. This gap increased over the Years to 19.88% in 1981 and further
widened to 22.61%. As per the last Census of 1991, as many as
70.40% Tribals were Illiterate. This, as compared to only the 47.79% Illiterate Persons amongst the
general population. This is a sad Reflection on the Nation.
Literacy Level of the Tribal Women shows
even worse statistics. The gap between Illiterate Tribal Women and Women
belonging to General Population was 14% in 1971. And
this Gap Increased to 16% in 1981 and further Widened to 21.04% in 1991. As of
today 8 out of 10 Tribal Women are Illiterate. How
then can the general Parameters of Female Emancipation, hold good for them?
The
Rate of Growth of Literacy among the Tribals, over
the last Three Decades has been very Sluggish, and far
from Satisfactory Levels as would show them the light of Freedom and
Self-Dependence. The Literacy Levels increased by 6.78%, during 1971-81 and
then 16% during the decade 1981-91 for the General Population, while
among the Tribals the Rate of Increase was only 5.05%
and 13.25%.
The Dropout Rate of the Scheduled Tribes,
at the Primary Level is 64.53% as against the 47.93% amongst the General
Category. This is an alarming reflection on the dangerous Socio-Economic Constraints, the Tribals
increasingly are Finding Impossible to Overcome. They continue to be slaves of
these limitations.
Unless Literacy Levels Improve
among the SC&ST Dalits, their Integration in the
Society at large, will not be possible. It is therefore, clear from all the
above figures that, majority of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and
other Oppressed Classes, who live in the Rural Areas
are deprived of, Basic Facilities of Education, even in this 50th
Year of the Nation’s
As for all the Adult Education
Programmes, Rural Education Schemes etc, the least said is better. All those
Teachers and Head Masters and Head Mistresses, who do not want to go to Rural
Areas to Work and Teach, and Pay heavy amount of Bribes and Kick Backs to
remain in their own big Towns, large Cities, particularly to get their Postings
in the State Capitals are Posted In-Charge of these Schemes. Will they be ever Interested or Sincere in any Adult Education Programmes,
Rural Education Schemes and the like. Never.
As Administrators in the Education
System, all those Teachers and the Head Masters and Head Mistresses, who do not
want to go to Rural Areas to Work and Teach, instead of taking up Improvement
of Rural Schools, and suggesting creation of better facilities and good
Developments, will only Sleep and be constantly Complaining. Or
they will only prefer to Close Down and Down Grade, even the existing Schools
than Developing and Improving any of them. They may
Those in-charge of all Adult Education
Programmes, Rural Education Schemes etc, keep avoiding and postponing their
visits to the backward Rural Areas, giving as excuses and complaining about the
lack of Bath Rooms, Toilets, and non-availability of good Food, that too on a
complimentary basis, in the distant and remote poor backward Rural Areas. Hence whenever forced to go to the remote poor backward
Rural Areas, they start from their Residences leisurely around 1000 or 1030
hours, after a heavy breakfast they call as Brunch, where as their daily
Working Hours start at 0800 or 0900 hours. Then also, they move only, when they
manage to get some Govt Vehicles. But they are
meticulous, in applying for TA&DA for visiting the Village Schools in the
Rural Areas. That is only, a big and sheer waste and drain of Public Tax Payers
Money, and diversion into their private pockets, purse and Bank Accounts.
In the above circumstances, nothing gets done, and Literacy hardly improves in the Rural Areas.
In other words, there is No Hope of their Acquiring even the Basic Means of
Empowerment. How can it be expected that in the near foreseeable
future, these oppressed and downtrodden will be able to gain a social status
equal to others, and Live as Free and Self-Dependent Citizens? They obviously
do not have any hope, to Gain Freedom during their life time.
Added to this is the lack of Incentives
and Ultimate Frustration. Those few from the Rural Areas, who somehow manage to
Study and Pass, can not get any Jobs. Only those
Children in the Towns and Cities, like the Children of all the Adult Education
Programmes, Rural Education Schemes etc, the least said is better. For all those big fraudulent Teachers and Head Masters and Head
Mistresses, who do not want to go to Rural Areas to Work and Teach the Rural
People, though working in Education Department of the Govt, for assured better
Salaries, good Working Conditions, decent Perks like Quarters for their
Residential Accommodation, as well as Vehicles, TA&DA for Visits outside
their Schools and Offices, send their Children to Private Schools and
Missionary Institutions for English Education, wanting to grab all Jobs.
Hence many Rural Children, do not get any Jobs even
after their Education in Schools and Colleges. Hence
they are cumulatively cheated and deprived.
It is pity that, all the
High Flown Ideas and Schemes relating to ‘Education for All’ have remained on
paper, without tangible results. It
is also a pity that those who belong to the Privileged Classes of the Society,
have never Understood the Problem that the larger Segments of the Society are
now Alienated from the Mainstream. Caste System, or
rather the vertical hierarchy of the Castes, have always closed the doors of
such interaction, between the communities and classes. Hence, the caste hindus and privileged classes, continue to exploit the
illiterate masses, and the Vested Interests are stretching out the Rural
Miseries, Prolonging the Dependence of the Illiterates on the Exploitative
Fraudulent Literates.’
Kanshi Ram had also written once about the
Governments and Education as follows -
SUCCESSIVE GOVERNMENTS HAVE FAILED
‘Successive Governments have failed, to give Compulsory Education to the Children. As a result,
nearly 60% of Population in the Country, especially Children are still Illiterate.
Why this situation, even
after 50 years of
Today one can see many High School
Studied Children, those who have studied up to Tenth Class, failing. Why? Because their Teachers were not bothered to Teach in
the Class, but Preferred to Give Coaching and Tuition outside the School, and
in many cases in their Homes for a big Consideration, right from the beginning
of Class One.
Most of the Teachers had the Support
Backing and Cooperation of their equally Guilty Irresponsible Head Masters and
Head Mistresses. Hence the Teachers could easily cover up their mistakes and
failures, and the later also shielded and protected
most of the Teachers failing and unwilling to Teach the Children in their
Classes. Hence, the Students who never knew or learnt anything at all, were
merrily and conveniently passed and promoted to the next higher class,
providing them with No Incentives to Learn, or Holding out No Threat of
Detention in the Class for another Year for their Failure.
At times there was also
for some consideration, in passing such failing and failed students, as the Parents
of such Children were willing to Pay or Paid well, and Looked after the Head
Masters/ Head Mistresses and the Teachers with good costly Gifts like
Jewelleries and other Valuables, Cash, or in Kind like Household Goods, bagfuls
of Rice and other Grains, or Ground Nuts, Pulses and Fruits.
Others, mostly Children of poor Parents, such as those from the SC&ST
Communities, could not afford to give any such gifts or other things. Hence such Children were often rebuked in the class, or
publicly before others in the School and outside, or were severely punished.
Capital Punishments to SC&ST Children were frequent and very common. Thus,
many SC&ST Children were failed, made to Repeat
the Class and Study again and again, wastefully in the same Class, till they were
openly and compulsorily pushed out of the Schools. Often, the SC&ST
Children themselves dropped out of the schools, even before the completion of
their First Year in the Schools, or subsequently. For, they Find the Schools
were unfriendly, the class environment bad and not conducive to Study or for
any Learning.
The SC&ST Children
invariably felt and still feel that their Teachers are often bad foolish
negative; most of the times unhelpful uncooperative unfriendly unsympathetic
inhuman and cruel. Hence, most of the
children considered and still are of the opinion that, they are only wasting
their Times in their Classes and Schools. In addition,
they were and even now are facing unwanted humiliations, in the hands of all
the bad unsympathetic teachers, school authorities and their classmates.
Children from brahmin families could get good guidance and coaching
from their learned parents. Even there, those from poor families, and the
children from the savarna communities opted to get
Tuitions from the Class Teachers in their Homes.
The Considerations of the
Teachers, not to Teach in the Class, all their Students in the School, and
choosing to take private Tuitions at their Homes were at times their Caste
Considerations, SC&ST Children could not get any Tuitions from such
Teachers, to Learn and Understand their Lessons which the Teachers were
supposed to Teach in the Class Rooms of the Schools. Most of the Times, the
Consideration for the Tuitions was Big Money. Since
the SCs&STs were invariably poor, and that being
the prime reason for them sending their Children to Govt and Municipal or
Welfare Schools meant for the SCs&STs Backwards
and the Poor, they could not afford to Pay the huge Tuition Fees to the Cunning
Teachers, who were refusing to Teach and avoiding to Educate the Children of
their Classes in the Schools. Hence SC&ST
Children could not Learn their Lessons from their Teachers.
Most of the Teachers in Govt and
Municipal Schools being brahmins and other Savarna friends
of the brahmins, living in upmarket areas, most of
the SC&ST Children could never go to their Teachers Homes for Tuitions,
even when some of their Parents could somehow afford to pay for the Tuitions.
Hence, the Children could not get any Tuitions, in
such cases also to learn and understand their lessons.
The Parents of many SC&ST Children
are poor and illiterate, and their surroundings also do not have any learned,
reasonably educated men and women, to help and guide them in their Lessons, the
SC&ST Children could never Learn any Lessons, or Understand even the small
things they had Learnt to Read Write and Could Remember and Recall.
The Cumulative net result is that the
Teachers, Head Masters/ Head Mistresses, the Schools, Colleges, Lecturers,
Professors, the Principles and the Education System have failed and are failing
our Students. That is how, many of our Tenth Studied Children from many High
Schools can’t count cash, write or read any application or letter, or
understand anything, write anything, or read anything in any language including
in their own mother tongues, or the local vernacular language which is the
medium in their schools. Sadly, many can not even
write their names. So bad is the reality of our Teachers, Schools, Students and
Education System.
We could still see many individuals who
know nothing, passing their High Schools, Plus Two Exams, even going to
Colleges, and getting their Degrees. That is because, someone else in their
families or neighbourhood, appears for them to write their Examinations and
make them Pass. That is a great Fraud and Cheating.
The manipulations within the Education
System are big serious Problem these Days. Many things happen, most of the
times with the help of the Inspectors, Examiners and active Support of the
Authorities.
What then can we say of our modern
Education, which the British so meticulously built up for us, in the face of
many stiff resistances and strong oppositions from brahmins. The later seem to be finally succeeding, in
their desire and determination to deny education to the masses, decades after
their British Masters had left the shores of this Country.’
Kanshi Ram had also said elsewhere –
Sadly for
all of Us, the Education System World-Over does not Teach Us, anywhere at
anytime our Own Individual Values, Ways of Living in our Lives, Rights and Limitations, Women’s Rights,
Family Commitments, Community Rights, and our Responsibilities and Usefulness
to the Society at Large. Hence, most of Us are Unable
to have our Aims Clearly, set our Individual Goals in Life, Family Objectives
and Community Responsibilities. That is why all the Problems of Drifting,
Waywardness, Breaking up of Families, all the Irresponsibilities,
Refusal and Unwillingness to Help the Needy, Extend Assistance and Succour on
our own without being asked advised told to those in need and distress.
The Oppressions of the Weak, Opportunistic Exploitation, betrayals
cheating and Swindling of our own people, and all those who trust and have
faith in us silently go on. That is why today, individuals are found to be
increasingly too Irresponsible, Exploiting, and families breaking down and
collapsing, just as Pack of Cards, unable to withstand any trials tribulations,
testing times, and even small problems. Individuals forget that their beliefs
faith outlooks are not of overriding importance than the family, welfare stability security safety peace and future of their
own Children. Or the desire to take revenge and wreck
vengeance on one another in the family, forgetting that the others hand one had
so eagerly sought and so fondly and gratefully held happily and lovingly not
much long ago.
Many Girls, Women and Lady-Teachers; Mothers Aunts
Elder-Sisters; Cinemas, Dramas, TVs, the Fashion Shows, Music Videos and Media
are so Irresponsible and Dress Badly that they all set bad Examples for other
Girls, right from their young Childhood.
Computers, Internet, Social Net-Works and Blogs
all appear to be adding fuel to the already burning situation. Many of them in fact really appear to be too Provocative to Adolescent Boys and even Girls, if not
setting many men on Fire.
We don’t know why Teachers
even in
Fathers also appear to be very much
Responsible for rapidly deteriorating Situation, since they appear to be
actually accepting permissive and irresponsible for allowing permitting or
keeping quiet and silent as the Mothers and Elder-Daughters, or the Working
Women of the Families going out of their Houses, Dress badly indiscreetly or
even provocatively and indecently, showing-off, revealing, exposing themselves,
and leaving nothing for imagination, guess and thinking.
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