Which way to school?

According to the 2009 Annual Status of Education Report,the largest annual survey of rural children in India,the percentage of out-of-school children between the ages of six and 14 in Badaun is 14,among the lowest in the country,barring Jodhpur in Rajasthan,where it is two percentage points higher.

On days that Ahmed is able to rope in a few of the 650 children enrolled in the school,towards the end of the day only their tattered bags remain in the bare classroom. The children,more often than not,vanish. He has tried hard to retain them at school,with little success.

With the mid-day meal scheme suspended seven months ago because the pradhan said there was no money for mealshe has now been issued a notice by the District Magistratethe only days the school is packed to capacity is when the scholarship money,Rs 150 every six months,is disbursed. The children sit on the floor,eager and impatient,as their parents line up outside to receive the money.

The three teachers at the primary school,who were appointed last year,start their day early. They set off at 6 a.m.,walking about the village and knocking on doors to help every child in the age group of six to 14 exercise his/her Right to Free and Compulsory Education. Its a frustrating exercisecoaxing the children to come to school,reasoning with parents who give the excuse of poverty and talk about how the child is a helping hand in the fields or at home.

Even as Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal has said that states like Uttar Pradesh are not interested in ensuring education for all children below 14,UP Chief Minister Mayawati says the state doesnt have enough funds to implement the Right to Free and Compulsory Education. A committee set up to study the funds requirement and funding pegged the cost at Rs 1.71 lakh crore over the next five years to implement the Act across the country. The Centre has proposed to foot 65 per cent of the cost in most states. The rest would have to be borne by the states.

Its not as easy as it sounds. Bhiravati in Rajpura blockmade up of 87 villagesof Badaun has a population of over 10,000 and grapples with more than the typical set of problems. The literacy rate in Badaun is 41 per cent; female literacy is 24 per cent. Most students enrolled in primary school are first-generation learners. Many are children of migrant labourers,who leave the village in June to work in brick kilns in the neighbouring districts. The children travel with them.

Enrollment,however,is high in the village,almost 90 per centof the 1,418 children between ages six and 14 in Bhiravati,1,388 are enrolled in schoolbut attendance never exceeds 30 per cent. On the best of days,about 150 students attend the government primary school. If children dont stay in school,they dont learn. The Right to Education becomes a right only in intention, block officials say.

Aashiya is in Class 3,but she can hardly read or write. That,says Rampal Singha primary school teacher in a nearby village and a block-level officialis exactly what the village is struggling with. Learning levels are so low in Badaun that only 18 per cent of the students in Classes 3 to 5 can read a Class I textbook or do subtraction. In Classes 1 and 2,about 55 per cent can read words and letters and recognise numbers. Because RTE mandates that no child should be held back until Class 8,we will have to promote Aashiya. She will not learn anything and she will be promoted. Then she will drop out, Singh says,adding,RTE should put some responsibility on parents. There should be a penalty for not sending children to school.

The problem is of retention in schools, the Rajpura block Shiksha Adhikari says. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has done a lot. But most children still work in the fields.

In the remote village,over 200 km from Delhi,where aspirations run lowthere are just two televisions in the village,no newspapers,and no buses to towns in the districtSalaluddin,11,is a rare student who attends school regularly. Singh says he is the brightest child in the government primary school.

Salaluddins father Alauddin,a carpenter like many in the village,barely makes enough money to feed the family. Yet,he beats his son when he misses school and doesnt let him touch his tools. Salaluddin,who is in Class 5,says he wants to be a doctor.

After an abysmally low literacy rate of 16-17 per cent in 1997,progress has been made in Badaun since SSA was launched in 2001,Singh says. In 1996,in the Rajpura block,there were only 68 primary schools and eight junior high schoolsin 2010,there are 107 and 47,respectively. There is a long road ahead. Implementing the Right to Education will take time,but we will get there, he says.

Rubeena says she wants to be a teacher like Beena Singh,who was appointed a teacher in the primary school in 2009 and has now been promoted to the junior high school. The government at the district level has recruited female teachers in villages so they can inspire families to send their daughters to school. A couple of years ago,the block officials,as part of the SSA programme,started holding a Meena Manch at the Nyay Panchayat level. At these events,mothers are requested to come with their daughters and participate in programmes that focussed on the benefits of education.

Teachers have been given instructions not to penalise girls for coming late to school. Fixed hours do not work for girls,as they are expected to work at home or in the fields, Singh says. The district administration has also facilitated the establishment of 21 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas to improve girls education.

Singh wants to try giving attendance allowance to children so they will be regular. At Re 1 per child per day,we could be making a difference, he says. Last year,a rally at the district level,with the District Magistrate walking from village to village urging children to come to school,resulted in the enrollment of 12,000 of the 20,000 children who were out of school in the district.

In addition to a government primary school and a junior high school,there is also a private primary school in the village,but not many can afford to pay Rs 60 a month as fee,in addition to Rs 150 as admission charges. About 112 children attend Mohit Public School,which was established two years ago.

At the government primary school,recently renovated,Singh says things have improved since Ahmed and the other teachers took charge. Until 2009,the school had just one teachera para teacher or a Shiksha Mitr. Pramod Kumar was responsible for more than 650 children and they never stayed in school.

The teachers,too,are struggling. Burdened with administrative work,they are often unable to devote time to teaching. If theres a Census,teachers will be called in. They have to go and collect cheques,and distribute the scholarship money, Singh says. If they want the RTE to be implemented in its spirit,all that needs to be changed.

RTE mandates that there should be a teacher for every 40 students. About 1,350 teachers were recruited in Badaun this year. Amit Gupta,District Magistrate of Badaun,says there is a paucity of teachers. We are starting to recruit para teachers now. But more than filling the posts,we need to focus on the quality of teachers, he says. We are waiting for guidelines. If it is an Act,it will be implemented. We will have to come up with innovative strategies, he says.

Rajmala,a Class 4 student,may not have heard of the Right to Education Act,but she knows enough to come all the way to school,defying her mother,to tell her teacher she wont be attending classes today because she is ill. She wants to learn and she doesnt want her teacher to think she was one of those who never came to school.