HP govt making efforts to improve primary education

CHANDIGARH, February 12: With cent per cent enrollment of children at the primary level in Himachal Pradesh, the state government is maki...

CHANDIGARH, February 12: With cent per cent enrollment of children at the primary level in Himachal Pradesh, the state government is making concerted efforts to bring about qualitative improvement in primary education. However, lack of infrastructure and training facilities coupled with paucity of funds are coming in the way, inspite of the district primary education programme DPEP that has been launched in four of the 12 districts in the state.

The programme which was launched about three years ago in Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba and Sirmaur districts, where the female literacy level was below the national level has remained confined mainly to creation of physical infrastructure like buildings and material.

According to sources, the main component of the programme, restructuring of the syllabi is yet to be prepared. A committee has been set up for this purpose and the new syllabi is likely to be finalised within a few months with the help of NCERT experts. Some of the schools are also deficient in staff, sources added.

The state has already claimed to have achieved total enrollment at the primary level, while a legislation making primary education compulsory has also been passed. The government has opened about 3,000 new primary schools in the past four years to ensure that no child walked a distance of more than 1.5 km to reach the school. However, most of the newly-opened schools are deficient in staff and infrastructure.

Sources said the department had got funds from the World Bank, besides the regular budget. The main stress is on universalisation of primary education, qualitative improvement in teaching, teachers8217; training and special focus on female education and raising the average achievement level to at least 25 per cent above the measured baseline level.

Sources added there were about 20,000 children in the age group of six to 11 years, who had no access to schools in the four DPEP districts till 1997. The largest number of such children was from Chamba district which incidentally is the home district of former education minister Asha Kumari. However, the decision to appoint untrained teachers in primary schools and their subsequent regularisation has come as a big setback to the efforts of the government in bringing about qualitative improvement at the primary level.

Earlier, the state government had enrolled JBT teachers in the district institutes of education and training DIET through entrance test and a proposal was mooted to raise the qualification for the JBT course to 10 plus 2.

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But, recently, the government has taken another decision to appoint Vidhya Upashaks at a consolidated salary of Rs. 2,500 per month. Minimum qualification for these teachers is 45 per cent marks in matriculation. Later, these teachers would be sent for JBT training.

The decision, if implemented, would spell doom for education because any person with 45 per cent marks in matriculation will be eligible for appointment and that too without any entrance test.

The project which is entering the third phase has a daunting task of achieving the objective of establishing district task forces under the district primary education officers and provision of other appropriate mechanism at the block and village levels. Moreover, adequate powers need to be given to them to enable them to discharge their responsibilities.

There was a need to give qualitative aspects, especially in respect of recruitment and training of teachers due consideration.