27 Education for All: Schools for Deprived Sections

Poornima Chikarmane

epgp books

 

Content Outline

 

1.    Learning Outcomes

2.    Introduction

3.    The Right to Education

4.    Alternate Schools for Deprived Sections

5.    Conclusion

 

1.           Learning Objectives:

 

After completion of this module the learner will be able to:

1.    Understand briefly, the historical context of educational exclusion in India

2.    List the constitutional provisions related to education for deprived sections

3.    Understand the relevant provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009

4.    Describe some of the important educational initiatives for deprived children

 

2.            Introduction

 

India gained independence from British colonial rule in August 1947. The erstwhile rulers, both Indian and British did start schools and other educational institutions in pre-colonial and colonial times. Access to education however was restricted to castes, groups and communities that were higher in the social and economic hierarchy. Learning was considered the privilege of the Brahmins. They were the ones who interpreted the scriptures and texts and advised the princely ruling classes. The ‘untouchable’ castes or dalits as we shall refer to them henceforth in this module were considered to be outside the caste hierarchy, beyond the pale of caste. Their very presence was considered polluting. Their houses were located beyond the boundaries of the village. They were not allowed to use the common water facilities. They were condemned to menial jobs. They were denied the opportunity to educate themselves. The indigenous communities of India or the adivasis as we shall refer to them henceforth in this module were forest dwellers. They carried on their forest and land based livelihood activities and for the most part remained excluded from any kind of education since there were no formal schools in the forests.

 

In colonial times, mass education was never the intent of the British government. Schools and colleges were started to accommodate the need for educated Indians to run the colonial administration. The focus was on creation of a clerical cadre ready and willing to do the bidding of the colonial masters. It is for this reason that the British government did not interfere with local customs and cultural taboos surrounding the

 

education of specific groups such as women and the “untouchable castes”.

 

In pre-independence times, there were Indians, some of them of royal lineage and others, ordinary people, who took up cudgels on behalf of the excluded and worked for their inclusion. Notable among them were Mahatma Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule who started the first school for erstwhile untouchable girls in Bhidewada in the city of Pune. In the same region of western Maharashtra, Rajarshi Chatrapati Shahu Maharaj

 

implemented Mahatma Phule’s revolutionary idea of 50 per cent reservation in education in his own kingdom of Kolhapur in 1902. Several decades earlier, Travancore ruler, Maharaja Swathi Tirunal established the Raja’s Free School at Thiruvananthapuram,

 

Kerala in1834. The history of education in pre-colonial and colonial India has been the history of privileges and exclusions rather than of mass education.

In many ways, the title of the module “Schools for Deprived Sections” is somewhat self

explanatory. It tells us that even in independent India there are schools for children from the deprived sections that are different from regular mainstream schools for other children. Children are either unable to enrol in regular schools or are unable to complete their education which is why there is a need for separate schools. Evidently the legacy of inequality has still not been completely erased. The questions that we will address in this module are: Who constitutes the deprived sections? How have social, economic, cultural and political factors contributed to their deprivation? Why are their children excluded? What measures and provisions have been taken to include them in regular schools? We will look at some examples of separate schools for deprived sections.

 

3.           The Right to Education

 

1.1 India’s international commitments in independent India

 

Soon after independence, India was among the 48 countries of the world that signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Article 26 of the Declaration asserted that everyone has a right to education. More specifically it referred to free and compulsory elementary education and equal access to technical, professional and higher education. Some decades later, in 1990, India also endorsed the World Declaration on Education For All, at the World Conference on Education for All that was held at Jomtein in Thailand. The movement of Education For All (EFA) was launched by UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, the World Bank with UNESCO as the lead agency. Education For All (EFA) refers to the provision of basic education for all children, youth and adults. Basic education is education that encompasses early childhood education and primary (or elementary) education for children as well as education in literacy, general knowledge and life skills for youth and adults. In some countries it extends to secondary education as well.

 

1.2 Constitutional provisions for education

 

Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, carried forward Mahatma Phule’s legacy in post independence India. Born into an ‘untouchable’ family, he suffered ignominies all through his school and college life in India and abroad. As Chairperson of the Constituent Assembly he is credited with drafting one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. The Preamble to the Indian constitution incorporates the core values of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity framed within the rule of the people, by the people and for the people. The Rights to Equality, Freedom, Right against Exploitation, Freedom of Religion and Cultural and Educational Rights are the inalienable Fundamental Rights guaranteed to all Indians by the constitution. Interestingly, there is also the right to enforce the fundamental rights.

 

In addition, there are Directive Principles of State Policy that are not justiciable but are nonetheless meant to guide law making. For example, the directive principle that the state shall provide free and compulsory education to children till the age of fourteen years was codified into law in 2009. The law incorporated the concerns about the weaker sections as expressed in Directive Principle number 46, which is given below.

 

The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.

 

 

1.3 The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE)

 

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) was enacted in 2009, six decades after India gained independence. The Act guarantees an elementary education from class I to VIII, in a neighbourhood school, to every child aged between 6 and 14 years. It also assures the child freedom from the liability of having to pay any fee or charge or expense that would prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.

 

The Act also specifies the parameters of disadvantage for children. Children belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the socially and educationally backward classes or any other group having disadvantage owing to social, cultural, economical, geographical, linguistic, gender or such other factor, as may be specified by the appropriate government by notification, would be considered disadvantaged. Children, whose parents’ income is lower than the minimum specified threshold in the notification issued by the appropriate government, would be considered as belonging to the weaker section. By all accounts, those considered disadvantaged as well as those from the

 

weaker sections would count among the “deprived children”, meaning those deprived of an education.

 

The Act covers four categories of schools.

 

i.        Schools established, run and controlled by government authorities;

ii.         Schools receiving government grants or aid in full or part;

iii.         Sainik Schools, Kendriya Vidyalays and other special schools and

iv.        Schools not receiving any kind of government grants or aid to meet their expenses.

 

  Under Section 12(1)(c) of the Act, the special schools in the third category and unaided schools in the fourth category, are expected to set aside 25 per cent of the seats in class I or in kindergarten as applicable, to accommodate disadvantaged children and those from the weaker sections, and to provide them free education. This radical provision of the Act purports to change the terms somewhat, by offering “deprived children” an education that is not “alternative”, but formal and mainstream. SOTN RTE Section 12(1)(c) pp.70-72

 

1.4 The significance of the Section 12(1)(c) for children from the deprived sections

 

Post independence India never had a common school system. Most schools in the country were government run or government aided. The latter had private managements but received government grants and were referred to as aided schools. There were also a few schools that did not receive any government grants and were therefore referred to as private schools. In the decade of the 1990s India embarked on economic liberalisation. This impacted the education sector as well and led to the proliferation of private educational establishments, particularly in the urban areas.

 

Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act makes it possible for children from the deprived sections to sit at the same educational table with the children of industrialists and business tycoons in the most renowned educational institutions. Its significance lies in the fact that it challenges the prevailing practice of private schools for the privileged and government schools for the rest.

 

As mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, ‘disadvantage’ and ‘weaker sections’ are to be notified by the appropriate government, in this case the state government. For example, the rules notified by the Government of Maharashtra in 2013, state that

 

“child belonging to disadvantaged group” means, a child belonging to,—

(i)  the Scheduled Caste, the Schedule Tribe; and

(ii)  Child with disability; defined in section 3 and 4 of Amended Act, 2012.

(iii)“child belonging to weaker section” means a child including a child belonging to the Vimukta Jatis and Nomadic Tribes(VJNT), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Special Backward Classes (SBC) and the religious Minorities specified by the State Government, annual income of whose parent or guardian is below one lakh rupees;

 

 

The 2014 notification of the Maharashtra government prevents subversion of this radical provision, by prohibiting the diversion of vacant seats meant for those from the weaker sections and the disadvantaged, to general students.

 

1.5 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

 

Children may have special needs on account of physical and mental impairment because of which they cannot enter regular schools. Other children may not be in school because their families send them to work at construction sites or in the fields or because of financial problems. Girls especially may be kept at home to do the household jobs of cooking and cleaning and caring for their younger brothers and sisters. Sometimes there may be cultural reasons such as purdah for girls being kept out of school. Girls may also be withdrawn from schools after puberty. Parents who migrate for work might not be able to send their children to school because they keep moving from place to place to find work. Educational deprivation is therefore also a consequence of other kinds of deprivation.

 

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is the flagship programme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India for universal elementary education in mission mode. The mission seeks to implement the 86th constitutional amendment that made education for children in the age group 6-14 years, a fundamental right. The Abhiyan is implemented by the central government in partnership with the state governments to address the educational needs of 192 million children in 1.1 habitations in the country. The provision of infrastructure such as classrooms, toilets, drinking water is an important component of the Abhiyan. Appointment and training of teachers and provision of teaching learning materials are other important aspects. The programme takes into account the needs of girls as well as children with specific needs. While the Abhiyan seeks to overcome the educational deficit by ensuring access to education, there is also increasing emphasis on provision of quality education.

 

4.           Alternate Schools for Deprived Sections

 

There are two important schemes in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan that are designed to meet the needs of unreached, underserved populations or those with special needs. They have been implemented from April 2001.

 

1.  Education Guarantee Schools

2.  Alternative and Innovative education scheme

The schemes incorporate four main programmatic areas:

i.       Full time schools for children in unserved areas where there is no school within 1 km of the habitation

 

ii.       Bridge courses for entry-re-entry into full time regular schools

iii.       Outreach to children in special circumstances such as street children, working children, children of migrant workers

iv.       Innovative programmes for teaching-learning methods, curriculum design, language specificities or pedagogic practices

The programmatic schemes of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan draw upon the learnings from the experiments and experiences of government and voluntary organisations. Many of these experiments have been undertaken and documented as part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and will be covered in this section.

 

Enrolment Drives

 

There are various reasons why children are not enrolled in school. In the early nineties in the course of our work with the adult education department of SNDT Women’s University

 

in Pune, we encountered child waste pickers at our non formal education centres. As the interaction increased we realised that many of their parents were actually willing to send them to school. They had been turned away because they had no birth certificates. Along with other organisations, we organised enrolment drives in slum areas. Enumeration of children of school going age, liasing with the district hospital to provide age certificates on site and meetings with the school and education board authorities, led to mass enrolment of out of school children.

 

Besides, schools were not really welcoming of the children. The school teachers had many doubts and prejudices about children from poorer families. Some of the common  complaints were “the children come to school with uncombed hair”, “they don’t bathe before school”, “they come late to school”, “they don’t understand Marathi”, “they. The parents too had similar complaints about the teachers. The teachers had to understand that the parents lived extremely precarious lives, having to leave for work at the crack of dawn before the children were even awake. Likewise the parents also had to understand how to establish contact with the teacher such that mutual understanding and dialogue became possible for ensuring enrolment and retention of children in school. Parent education is also an important area of intervention as they now have the space to be represented on the school management committees.

 

Enrolment drives have been successfully implemented by many organisations across the country. The government machinery has also played a role in that. It is not as if the problem of access is resolved. It is also important to ensure retention of children through provision of quality education so that they do not drop out.

 

Schools for children of migrant workers

 

Work led seasonal migration of workers is a characteristic feature in India. There is geographical and occupational specificity in migration patterns. Some of the major migrant populations are sugarcane cutters, construction workers, brick kiln workers, stone quarry workers, agricultural workers and salt pan workers. Entire families migrate during the season, usually leaving the elderly and the infirm behind in the villages. The title given to the school usually denotes the distinct occupational category of the students’ families. For example, in Maharashtra, the Sakhar (sugar) Shala are schools for children of sugarcane harvesters; Pashan Shalas are schools for children of quarry workers; Bhonga Shalas are schools for children of brick kiln workers.

 

1.  Sakhar Shalas, Maharashtra

 

Sakhar Shalas are schools in the habitations of sugarcane cutters in Maharashtra. They provide ‘second semester’ primary education to the children of sugarcane cutters who migrate to the factories during the cane crushing season which generally extends from October to April each year. The migrants are usually from the drought prone poverty stricken Marathwada region of the state. The activities in the school are reading, writing, arithmetic, value education and physical fitness.

 

 

2.  Bhonga Shalas, Maharashtra

 

Bhonga Shalas are regular primary schools for classes I to IV that function for children of brick kiln workers between December and May each year in Maharashtra. The children in these schools are mainly adivasi migrants. The main adivasi groups are the Warlis, Katkaris, MahadeoKolis, Malhar Kolis, Thakurs and Kokanas from the forests in the Sahyadri Hills in the state.

 

3.  Twinning to educate children in brick kilns

 

Bolangir, Naupada and Kalahandi, are the three districts in Western Orissa from where an estimated four hundred thousand workers migrate to brick kilns in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Their impoverished state and few local employment opportunities leave them with little choice. An elaborate system of advances from the contractors keep them in bondage, working long hours without a break through the seven month season.

 

The Sakhar Shalas and Bhonga Shalas draw intra-state labour meaning labour from the neighbouring districts. Although the dialects may be different, the language of communication and instruction is Marathi. Migrants from Orissa to Andhra Pradesh on the other hand, are inter-state migrants. So there is no way the children can attend schools in Andhra Pradesh during the migration season because the medium of instruction is Telegu, while their language is Oriya.

Action Aid and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan units in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa partnered to ensure the education of children who migrated from Orissa to Andhra Pradesh. The Educational Volunteers from Orissa travelled to Andhra Pradesh to run the schools during the migratory season. Teaching learning materials, midday meals and everything that is to be provided under the SSA were provided. Early childhood care centres were set up for children in the age group 3 to 6 years. Children in the age group 6 – 9 years were accommodated in residential and non residential bridge schools. Examinations were conducted and certificates were issued. Many children were also encouraged to take the examination and get promoted. The effort was hugely successful in enrolling children back into their original schools in their home state.

 

4.  Tent Schools, Karnataka

 

Like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka too has large migratory populations coming into the state from within the state as well as from other states, for between six to nine months to work in brick kilns, quarries, mines, and construction and sugarcane factories. An Inter-State Task Force was set up to coordinate the intervention of schools for seasonally migrant children. Representatives of the states of Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were included in the Task Force. Schools were set up in tents and buses to circumvent the problem of space in the urban areas. The tent schools operated in the shanty colonies of migrants. The tents were made out of tarpaulin sheets much like the shanties. The parents of the children in the Tent Schools were reluctant to get them enrolled in regular full time schools because their shelters were not permanent, lockable or secure. Besides, the children were expected to do household chores. With the fear of theft of their meagre possessions ever present, the children were expected to guard their own homes, take care of younger siblings, and perform household chores and other sundry work whilst attending the tent schools.

 

The buses were donated by the Bangalore Municipal Transport and redesigned to serve as classrooms and functioned as mobile classrooms. The drivers were paid by the SSA and voluntarily doubled up to collect the children, serve midday meals and helped the children to bathe before class.

 

Schools for difficult to reach children

 

1.  School on a boat

 

This is a fairly unique situation of fishing families in Andhra Pradesh, that migrated from their original villages because the high tide made fishing a very expensive proposition. They migrated to other villages to fish in the sea but were not permitted to do so by the locals there. They were also not allowed to settle on the mainland. Their fishing rights were confined to the four kilometre estuary leading to the sea. They were however allowed to live on their boats or “donelus” as they were called. All domestic activities including cooking are carried out on the boats.

 

Under these circumstances it is expected that education was either non- existent or far down on the list of priorities of the parents. Children spent their time helping their parents or just loitering around the area. The SSA officials built a beautiful ‘donelu’ boat with games and toys that attracted the children. Encouraged to get onto the boat, the children were engaged in singing, dancing, playing and storytelling. The transition to the non residential school in a thatched hut on the mainland was accomplished once the children learnt to enjoy this experience. The three month Non residential Bridge Course was followed by enrolment in the nearest Residential Bridge Course. Parents and children were allowed to visit each other. This phased preparatory process finally led to the enrolment of children in regular formal school.

 

2.    Vindam Chaduvukundam –Let’s listen Let’s learn

 

The Vindam Chaduvukundam programme is extremely interesting. It uses the medium of the radio to reach out to children in remote areas. It brought together the All India Radio, the District Institutes of Education Technology and academicians to develop radio programmes that would encourage children to enrol in school. The ninety day programmes of talks, recitations, songs, dramas were targeted not only towards child labourers but also towards their parents, employers and communities at large.

 

 

3.  Residential Bridge Course schools in Assam

 

Residential schools require heavy investment of human resources, funds and infrastructure. They become necessary for children who are hard to draw into the educational system. In Assam, schools for child labourers in the age group 10 to 14 years and living in extreme poverty were started in 2002-03. Identification of the children was carried out by the Village Education Committees, the Tea Garden Committees and the Ward Education Committees. Assam set an example by combining resources from different government departments and programmes to run these schools. Unused primary health centres, schools, and government buildings were used to accommodate the children. The army chipped in with computers. The district administration provided mid day meals and the Autonomous Council of Karbi Anglong provided beds and other materials. Civil society organisations also contributed their mite. Teaching learning material in Bengali, Bodo, Garo and Assamese was prepared so that the learners would be comfortable in the schools. Special attempts were made to involve the parents as well.

 

4.  Non Residential Bridge Courses (NRBCs)

 

Non residential bridge courses serve the needs of two groups of children, those in the 6-7 years old age group and those in the 8-14 age groups. These course offer programmes of accelerated learning that is intended to mainstream the children in regular schools.

 

Those for younger children are of shorter duration of up to six months because the children can be enrolled in primary school itself. Those for older children sometimes extend to 18 months of two years because they need to cover many more years of condensed schooling. Children who have never enrolled in school or have dropped out for some reason are included in the schools.

  1. Conclusions

 

In this module we have looked at the range of attempts that government and civil society organisations have used to reach children outside the school system. This includes those who were never enrolled in school as well as those who dropped out of school before completing their elementary education. The context of the entire effort is the enactment of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act in 2009. The innovative ways that were used in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to address the educational needs of children living in difficult circumstances have also been covered.

you can view video on Education for All: Schools for Deprived Sections

 

References