Dr. Raj Kumar, Dr. Ajay Kumar
In 2002, Right to Education (RTE)was made fundamental right through 86th Constitutional Amendment Act that added article 21A in our constitution.This amendment gave every child a right to free, equitable, and quality elementary education in a formal school. This was a watershed event in the history of independent India for the poor children. Twenty years later, there has been a significant progress in the implementation of RTE in many parts of this great nation and many students across the country have benefitted from it. RTE has saved thousands of young children from doing child labour. In many rural parts of this country especially in the mountainous areas, only government schools cater to the needs of the socially, economically and geographically most underprivileged population. The rural areas in states like Jammu and Kashmir are hard zones and poor children face many issues including shortage of staff, infrastructure, public utility and transportation. In another part of this country, a government high school awaits for permanent roof let alone aforementioned basic amenities. The school is run from a half completed building in Billawar. This article narrates the plight of hundreds of students of roofless school in a village Delew, Billawar, Kathua. This was initially a middle school till 2014 when it was upgraded to high school on paper under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme. Geographically, the Government High School, Delew is located in Lohai Malhar of Panchay at Baggan Upper-A, Block Baggan, Tehsil Billawar and District Kathua. This school currently has only three functional classrooms out of which two are unsafe due to poor maintenance. Its construction work was started in 2014. Even after eight years, its construction has not yet completed and the school remains without roof till date. The students are compelled to take classes under the sky guarded by cemented bricks that too eagerly awaits plastering. The parents of the students led by Sarpanch of the area were on a strike for around four days.
Who is irresponsible for the plight of the students, and this roofless school even after nearly a decade? The Sarpanch of the village leading the protest has been communicating legitimate concerns of the common public. He is clueless as to what to do and whom to approach? After repeated requests, and protest demonstrations by the locals, finally, the authorities after reaching them gave assurance to commence the construction work.
Generally, getting elementary education is not a privilege but a basic fundamental right for most of the families in the mountain regions of J&K which generally lag in every sector of development be it education, health care or roads when compared with the urban plain areas. The example of roofless school in Delew may be just a tip of the iceberg. There may be many more stark inequalities between the mountain and the plain areas. The aspirations of thousands of young kids to seek a basic elementary education in these hard areas are killed by three reasons. First, due to the poor social, cultural and economic environment in majority of the households. Second, geographical barriers to reach school due to unavailability of all-weather roads and public transport. Finally, somehow after reaching school, unavailability of teachers and poor physical infrastructure significantly influence the education seeking behavior of students and their families that result in the poor performance of the students. Consequently, very high dropout rate among students in the mountain areas is reported. High dropout leaves behind students with low level of skills and productivity is ultimately reduced. Lower level of skillsand productivity consequently influence the economic status of the mountainous which ultimately translates to low standard of living and poverty. This vicious cycle continues generations after generation.The families do not come out of this cycle of poverty. The present article particularly elaborates on the third issue of this problem in which students face the barriers to get quality education from the supply side.
Poor education system in rural areas is one of the major reasons behind rural to urban migration. Emerging glamour of private schools in urban areas is also a contributing factor to the sorry state of public schools in rural areas. The people having little economic resources along with political voice have a choice to send their wards to private schools. This urban migration of the slightly affluent families from the villages has widened the gap between the public and private school students. As the migration continues towards urban areas, there is nobody to speak for poorer children’s’ rights to education. Due to mushrooming of glamorous private schools, education has taken the shape of a commodity which is available for sale that solely depends on your purchasing power. The merit of a student is manufactured in the coaching institutes and the level of intelligence is judged by the marks a student scores in particular exam. At this stage, students of rural areas are the most disadvantageous due to multiple barriers to access quality education and the government of the day is least concerned about this issue. Government is promoting privatization in school education which is particularly disastrous for the poor rural peoplewho cannot access private education. The recent trends show that, the government is moving away from its responsibility and handing over the future of millions of students and their families to the private sector.
This rising trend of privatization in school education has shown that there is no lack of demand for good schools and parents are ready to spend as much as they can to provide quality education to their children. Once their basic needs i.e. food, clothes and shelter is fulfilled, they start investing money to brighten the future of their children and expecting in return old age security from their children. This trend demonstrates very high demand of quality education which they are getting from private schools and they are happy to migrate from rural to urban areas leaving their fatherland. On the other hand, the people who choose to back have been suffering from this negative impact of migration through brain drain along with economic and political drain of mountain areas which are perceived socially, economically, culturally backward and geographically remote. The people staying behind because of their socio-economic compulsion lack every sort of social, economic, cultural and political capital. Further, poverty and struggle to sustain their livelihood excavate their miseries which do not let them think beyond the basic needs. Getting even free education in public schools is considered luxury by many in these remote areas. But poor infrastructure, management, evaluation and monitoring system of public schools let their hopes down which leads to disproportionately high drop outs and students leave the school at very young age.Since their public school experiences are often so poor that they learn very little even after being enrolled for 4 to 5 years.
In the end, being the largest contributor of illiterate persons in the world our policy and decision makers should think out of box to address these bottlenecks in the public school education system and let the millions to get the quality education and realize their dreams. Education could be the only hope for these people for social and economic mobility. Education in its literal meaning is the modification of behavior which is the need of the hour because in the fast changing and consumerist world in which everything is on sale and purchase generate ethical and moral crisis in our society. Students with poor economic background have also materialistic aspirations, thanks to social media and our so called heroes who just for the sake of their economic gain advertise everything without analysing repercussions on the larger society.
In nutshell, the rural students continue to suffer even after the 86th CAA that provided for right to education a fundamental right. Despite making many strides, implementation of RTE in its letter and spirit is lacking. The rural people particularly in the mountain areas of states like Jammu and Kashmir are mostly affected due to the poor infrastructure of public schools. To save the future of millions of rural students, public schools need to be strengthen, infrastructure should be improved, and transport and accommodation facility for the poor people is the need of the hour.
(The first author teaches Geography at Govt Degree College Boys Kathua & second author is Assistant Professor at Central University of Kerala)
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