Ajit Balaji Joshi, then Additional Deputy Commissioner in Jhajjar Dist., Haryana, set up the first
bhatta shala (brick-kiln-school) in December, 2006. Since then 359 such bhatta shalas have been set up in Haryana.
The brick kiln workers in Jhajjar and Sonepat districts of Haryana come from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in December and stay for six months. So these seasonal schools-
set up so that the children of these workers do not miss out on an education- run for six months every year.
Initially, schools in several states refused to accept the certificates that the bhatta shalas issued. But they are now accepted by the home states of the children, and they continue their studies when they go back home for the rest of the year.
In 2008, Ajit Joshi received the Distinguished Service Award from former President APJ Abdul Kalam for his work on the bhatta shalas.
Fifteen years ago, in Doogaron Ka Tala village in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, for every ten boys, only one girl went to school.
In 1995,
former sarpanch Kistura Ram called a meeting of village elders to discuss how to persuade the villagers to educate their daughters. They decided to issue a diktat making it compulsory for families to send their daughters to school.
Those who don’t fall in line risk not just a fine of Rs 1,000, but also excommunication from the village. Now, 15 years later, all girls in the village go to school. Some girls have gone on to study in Barmer city and have completed their under-graduate courses.
Several girls have excelled at sports, too, and participated in national-level kabaddi and kho kho championships.
Goes to show how beneficial decisions taken and implemented at local levels can make a great impact.
There is only one primary school, in Pisayta village, which caters to the children of some 25 villages in a remote area in Vadodara District, Gujarat. It is difficult for tribal children from the interior villages to travel there to school every day.
Five years ago,
Vechan Bhil, a tribal farmer living in Pisayta, came up with a solution. He decided to share his house with the children, and provide free food and tuitions, too.
Since the teachers at the school are often absent, a graduate from a neighbouring village comes to help the children, presently 55 in number, with schoolwork and homework, for free. Other villagers help too, giving what they can.
Vechan, though illiterate himself, has realised that education is the key to changing the lives of the tribals, and he is trying to ensure that their children get some education.
How insensitive, unresponsive and out-of-touch with the aam admi India's babudom is, is exemplified by the fact that meritorious school students have been getting a princely sum of Rs 10 as merit scholarship and Rs 20 as merit-cum-poverty scholarship from the govt of
Odisha for the last 20 years.
While politicians never miss an opportunity to vote more and more perks and privileges for themselves, and govt officials get their salaries and DA revised upwards regularly, for two decades no one has bothered to revise the scholarship amount. To cap it, only a few thousand such scholarships are given out every year in the entire state. The situation in other states must be similar; leopards retain their spots, no matter which jungle they are in.
Kapil Sibal needs to focus more on education for the masses. India's development hinges on that.
Madras University Vice- Chancellor, G. Thiruvasagam, recently announced an innovative new scheme to encourage rural students to take up basic science research.
For the first time, the University has decided to throw open its high-tech science laboratories to school and college students from rural areas of Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts, during the two-month summer vacation.
The students can send their research proposals to the University through their respective headmasters or principals. The University intends to grant financial assistance up to Rs. 10,000 for every accepted proposal.
Not only will the selected students obtain access to laboratory equipment and guidance from faculty members, but they will be provided free lodging and boarding during the two-month period.
This seems to be a scheme sure to benefit rural students with interest in scientific research!
It is all well to talk about standards at graduate and post-graduate levels. They are important. It has become fashionable to talk about inviting foreign universities to India on grounds of improving quality of education and making it affordable to Indians.
Have we, however, forgotten the abysmal state of primary education? It is this supply of students that will eventually benefit from higher education. I speak of the primary education system in urban India and, believe me, it is an eye opener. Students from english medium schools cannot speak simple English. Equally poor is their grasp of mathematics or social sciences or the three science subjects.
It is time review this mindless churn of semi-literates who become half-baked unemployables in adulthood. We need to rethink on how relevant the subjects are and how to make learning fun.
The ministry of HRD, needs to decide which Human Resources it is supposed to develop.
Primary education for rural children is in the doldrums. Absentee-teachers account for about 15 per cent in Gujarat , 39 per cent in Bihar. In villages,
one single room accomodates several classes, there are no benches to sit, and
blackboards are often
missing.
Maharashtra alone had such 8.1 lakh illiterate students in 2004-05; Mumbai had some 48,000 such cases. In Mumbai, most of the girls drop out from school at puberty, since they have no privacy because the toilets are just not there .
Today, the HRD Ministry
announced setting up of one more IIT in, of all places, Qatar.
The Indian child’s right to Education , or the country in the Business of Education abroad.
What’s more important ?
You decide.
The newly elected State Government of Maharashtra, headed by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, was sworn in on November 7th.
On the very same day, permission for 76 new senior colleges or a new section to existing colleges, was given by the State Higher and Technical Education Department. Senior NCP leader, Rajesh Tope, has charge of this Ministry.
'Interestingly, most of the educational institutions on the list, are directly or indirectly controlled by leading politicians belonging to the Congress and the NCP.''“It’s mere coincidence that permission for the colleges was granted on November 7, the day the Ashok Chavan government was sworn in,’’ a senior education department official said.'
After the explosive growth in the mobile telephone market that has already taken the subscriber base well past the
400 million mark, it is the turn of broadband connectivity to take off.
As per the current broadband definition of 256 kbps, India has around seven million broadband users. Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda has set an
ambitious target of 100 million subscribers in the next three years. He believes that free accessibility of course material on the Internet is needed for
taking education to the masses through the Internet.
The necessary infrastructure, fibre optics network and political will is in place, as are competing
service providers.
The only things missing are electricity, school buildings and even teachers, in many rural areas. Knowing how the government works, it is likely that broadband will reach these schools before any of these do!
