Dr. Kavita Suri
Leh, one of the two districts of high altitude mountainous Ladakh region, is one of the most sparsely populated districts in Jammu and Kashmir. Leh district with an area of 45100 Sqs Kms makes it 2nd largest district in the country after Kutch (Gujrat) with an area 45652 Sqs Kms in terms of area. The density of population per sq. km is 3. The district has six educational Zones i.e. Leh, Karu, Khalsti, Nobra, Nyoma and Durbuk. It has 112 revenue villages with 379 habitations and has been divided into 48 educational Clusters under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), the flagship programme of Government of India for Universalization of Elementary Education. It has one degree college, one DIET, one ITI, one Polytechnique college, 14 higher secondary schools, 24 High schools, 137 UPP schools and 163 Primary schools. As per Census 2011, the literacy rate in Leh district is 80.48 %. The male literary is 89.39 % and female literacy is 64.52 %.
In Leh, much emphasis is being laid on education sector as it remained a neglected sector in the region for many years. The introduction of formal education in Leh district comes into action with the dawn of Indian Independence. Earlier, there was little or nothing by way of formal education except in the monasteries. Usually, one son from every family was obliged to learn the Tibetan script in order to read the holy books. The Moravian Mission opened a school in Leh in October 1889 and the Wazir-i Wazarat (ex officio Joint Commissioner with a British officer) of Baltistan and Ladakh ordered that every family with more than one child should send one of them to school. This order met with great resistance from the local people who feared that the children would be forced to convert to Christianity. The school taught Tibetan, Urdu, English, Geography, Sciences, Nature study, Arithmetic, Geometry and Bible study. It is still in existence today. The first local school to provide western education was opened by a local Society called “Lamdon Social Welfare Society” in 1973. Ladakh was thrown open for national and international tourists in 1974 and with this high altitude cold desert got exposed to the rest of the world bringing with it lots of winds of change.
Today, there is much awareness about education. Perhaps the most important reason for concentrating on education sector in Ladakh today is that more and more young people in the region are now looking for employment opportunities. If treated in the right manner, education could help Ladakhi youth find meaningful work after finishing their studies.
Much has been done to smoothen the rough edge of the educational process, yet it require great efforts keeping in view the geographical condition, ignorance of parents, inadequate infrastructure, lack of schooling facilities in remote areas, lack of qualified teachers, etc which are the main impediment in the way of quantity and quality education.
Though the entire Ladakh has woken up the importance of education and parents are sending their children to the schools, it is still lagging behind for several reasons. The district has struggled over the years to adapt to and eventually evolve an education system, which allows for the capacities and talent in the region to develop naturally and in tune with its own culture, history and social patterns. There is lot of change after the formational of autonomous Ladakh Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Leh which is taking keen interest in this important sector. Yet there remains a wide chasm between the quality of education offered in private schools in and around the capital city of Leh and in the rest of the region, which is rural, agriculture based.
Some of the major problems before the education system in Leh include its population and vastness of the area. The geographical terrain, climatic conditions and vastness of villages and habitations create unique problems in implementation of schemes like SSA Scheme in the district. Due to the vastness of habitations, the number of out of school children in each habitation does not fulfill the norms fixed in SSA Scheme for opening of Primary Schools and EGS Centers. The area and population ratio stands as testimony to the thinness and vastness of the population in Leh. The density of population is just three persons per square kilometer, perhaps lowest in the country. Many habitations have less than 15 children in the age group of 06-14, minimum requisite number of children for opening a Primary School under SSA.
Besides, there are problems in monitoring and supervision. Due to the climatic and geographical conditions, proper monitoring and supervision of implementation of the Scheme under SSA is not possible. The district is spread over 44,000 sq. Kms and there are many inaccessible remote areas. There are many habitations, which are not connected with motor-able roads. Moreover, the supervisors have to hire horses to commute between different habitations.
Teacher absenteeism is one of the biggest challenges in education system in Leh. Ladakh is a small place and people with influence have been known to get continuous postings for their candidates within 30 km of their homes. On the other hand, some teachers are singled out for postings in far-flung places.
Also, much of what is taught in Ladakhi schools today is not relevant to the natural environment of this region, or the occupational future of our children. The education being imparted to Ladakhi children is too far removed from their natural surroundings. Also, there is almost complete attention on academics, with ancillary subjects like art, music, sports and moral studies given little or no respect. This cannot spell anything good for the overall development of children. As the entire Ladakh region is opening to globalization, the education being imparted in Leh doesn’t serve to make children better prepared for a career later in their lives. There is no emphasis on vocational training or on education in subjects that are in high demand in the job market like computer sciences.
To improve the education system in Leh district, there is a need to adopt a holistic approach towards education in general. The education system in Leh needs to be made more economically viable, which could be achieved through such methods as multi-grade teaching and centralized residential schools.
There must be a link between what is taught in schools and what is needed in the job market. The training and motivation of teachers is also central to improving the state of education in Ladakh. Along with all this, adequate emphasis needs to be laid on creativity, art, music, sports, land-based activities like agriculture, and the moral education of children. Vision Document 2025, a comprehensive draft prepared by Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh for overall growth and development in Leh district, has also suggested strategies for improvement in education sector which include making education facilities economically sustainable in Ladak, adopting multi-grade teaching, expanding primary schools and centralise secondary education, establish uniform, high-quality Government schools and encourage private schools to play a social role
Education facilities need to be made economically viable and sustainable in Ladakh. In Ladakh teacher student ratio is unhealthily pegged at 1: 8, which puts a tremendous monetary strain on the state’s coffers and is simply unsustainable in the long run. In order to attain the 1: 20 teacher-student ratio in Ladakh, there is need to adopt multi-grade teaching methods in primary schools, whereby a single teacher would be trained to supervise the progress of students across different classes and subjects.
There should be an initiative to make education more locally relevant for children. A child-friendly medium of instruction should be adopted in schools. The Ladakhi language should be used both as a medium of instruction as well as a compulsory subject up to Matriculation. Creative teaching methods should be used and physical punishment should not be allowed.
Besides, there is a serious need to ensure convergence of various Government and non-Governmental schemes and initiatives. Schemes like ICDS should link up with the needs of pre-primary education in government schools, but without jeopardizing the other commitments of the scheme for example the welfare of mother and child. Similarly there should be convergence and synergy among schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan from the Central Government and the Hill Council’s own Operation New Hope.
There is a great need to gear up Ladakhi students for a future with the outside world. For this, education should be based on market demand, though ethics and values should not to be overlooked in the process. Another area that needs to be worked upon is the 100 percent enrolment and retention of Ladakh’s children in schools. Besides, adult and continuous learning opportunities need to be created in Ladakh, to enable people to continuously build on their capacities.
(The author is Associate Professor, Department of Lifelong Learning, University of Jammu and can be reached at drkavitasuri@gmail.com)
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