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⇒ MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
Right to Learn
Kasturba Balika Vidyalaya, Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India
April 2010
project co-financed by the European Commission
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which means
'Education for All', is a Government of India's programme started around the
year 2000 aimed at the achievement of Universal Elementary Education by making
free and compulsory Education to all Children of 6 to14 years of age.
The On August 4, 2009 the Indian Parliament passed The Right of Children to
Free and Compulsory Education Act with the challenging reality that there were
still 304 million non-literate people living in India (UNDP 2009).
We are in a girl’s residential government school in Sarnath, the place where Lord Buddha spent many years in meditation and gave his first sermon. This school is one of the model schools specifically financed under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a country-wide programme started in the year 200, aimed at ending illiteracy in the country. This school is home to hundreds of girls from rural families that live below the poverty line.
We followed the activities of the girls for a whole day. We conversed with the Principal of the school and her team of dedicated teachers.
With 304 million of its citizens still non-literate in 2009, this objective has indeed been a challenge for India.
A part of India’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goal 2 of achieving universal primary education, the “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” is a jewel among the development programmes of the Indian government. In fact, India has progressed by leaps and bounds in the education sector.
And in order to increase school enrolment among girls between 6 to 14 years, especially from families living below the poverty line, the government set up nearly 3600 residential schools across the country. Called Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, named after Mahatma Gandhi’s wife - Kasturba, these girls’ schools enrol school drop-out girls whose families cannot afford educating them further.
In 2009, the Indian parliament took a further step in the direction of the MDG 2 by making the historic 86th Indian Constitutional Amendment Act, “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act”, declaring elementary education as a Fundamental Right for all children between 6-14 years and obliging the government to provide children with free and compulsory education. It is through efforts like these that 98% of India’s rural population today has access to primary schools within few kilometres of their habitation; and primary school enrolment among girls has risen from a mere 16.1% in 1950 to 46.7% in 2005.
Indian government policies and programmes have greatly contributed to India’s positive literacy figures – literacy rates have increased from 64.83% in 2001 to 74.04% in 2011. From a mere 11.79% in 2001, female literacy is now 65.46%. Recognising the importance of this policy decision made by the Indian government, the European Commission and the World Bank supported this programme with a contribution of over 300 million Euros.
Through girls schools funded under the “Education for All” campaign, the Indian government aims at providing an environment for girls where girls can stay, where they can dedicate their time to studies and learning life skills; where they can eat healthy and nutritious food and where their needs are well looked after.
We visited one of these residential schools in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s least developed states in terms of economic and social indicators
We met girls who were enthusiastic about studying and living in the school. They enjoy doing things together – studying, eating, playing sports, dancing, singing, learning martial arts and praying. Here, the girls learn life skills and acquire self-confidence. They learn to recognise their value in family and society and to fight for their rights. Here, they learn what their roles and responsibilities are as citizens. They explore the world through books and become aware of pressing global issues.
In these schools, the girls learn “to be” themselves – to be children, students, responsible world citizens, and above all healthy, knowledgeable, happy and confident girls. For them, even the sky isn’t the limit.
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Additional Notes
“Staying 24 hours in the school ensures that girls get good nutrition, education and life skills. Education is key to nation building and this does not imply just literacy but a change of attitude and mind sets of people. We can lead out the talent of the girls and make them valuable citizens.”
“My parents now say that they want us to study and complete school, even if this might need selling the family house. They say that girls today are reaching new heights in professional achievements and that is why they want us to study as much as we can. You are like our sons, they say.” A student proudly shares with us
“I teach and receive payment like all other teachers do but working with these children, getting their sympathy and creating an emotional bond is something unique to such schools. These girls are drop outs from public schools. Their lives would have been wasted but we will transform them into good citizens who will develop the country. Parents tell us that they have changed because of the change in their daughters. They no longer want to get girls married off early but they want to educate their daughters, this gives me great satisfaction,” says a teacher in the school.
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In 2000, the
Government of India launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, or 'Education for
All'. The programme, largely funded by the Indian government, has received
substantial contributions from the World Bank and the European Commission (250
million Euros). In 2002, India made a historic 86th Indian Constitutional
Amendment Act that declared elementary education as a Fundamental Right for
all children between 6-14 years and obliged the State to provide them with
free and compulsory education.
In 2009, the Indian Parliament took a further step and passed “The Right of
Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act”. With 304 million Indian
citizens still non-literate (UNDP 2009), this objective was indeed a challenge
for India. However, 98% of India’s rural population today has access to
primary schools within few kilometres of their habitation; and primary school
enrolment among girls has risen from a mere 16.1% in 1950 to 46.7% in 2005.
Although in 2011, women’s literacy rates are only 65.46% while those for men
are 82.14%, the gender gap in the past decade has narrowed with female
literacy rates at 11.8% as compared with 6.9% among men. With the objective of
increasing the enrolment of girls in primary schools, the Indian government
set up 3598 residential schools across the country for girls aged 6 to 14
years. Called Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, these schools target girls
from the most marginalized communities. In these schools, besides academic
curricula, the girls learn life skills and performing arts, acquire
self-confidence, learn to defend themselves from injustice, understand their
value in family and society and acquire the pride of being a woman. The TVP
team went to visit one such school in the town of Sarnath, near the sacred
city of Varanasi along the River Ganga; the town where Buddha gave his first
sermon.
The TVP team visited a Kasturba girl's school in the town of Sarnath, near
the sacred city of Varanasi along the River Ganga; the town where Buddha gave
his first sermon.
The principal of the school informed us that the Kasturba schools are boarding
schools for girls, between 6 and 14 years, because the government thought
girls here would be able to dedicate full time to studies and receive healthy
food rather than stay on in the villages where they would have looked after
their younger siblings and ultimately dropped out of school. Staying 24 hours
in the school would ensure that they get good nutrition, education and life
skills. Education is key to nation building and this does not imply just
literacy but a change of attitude and mind sets of people. We can lead out the
talent of the girls and make them valuable citizens.”
One of the girls proudly tells us, “My parents now say that they want us to
study and complete school, even if this might need selling the family house.
They say that girls today are reaching new heights in professional
achievements and that is why they want us to study as much as we can. You are
like our sons, they say.” “I teach and receive payment like all other teachers
do but working with these children, getting their sympathy and creating an
emotional bond is something unique to such schools. These girls are drop outs
from public schools. Their lives would have been wasted but we will transform
them into good citizens who will develop the country. Parents tell us that
they have changed because of the change in their daughters. They no longer
want to get girls married off early and they want to educate their daughters,
This gives me great satisfaction,” says a teacher in the school.
In 2002, India made a historic 86th Indian Constitutional Amendment Act that
declared elementary education as a Fundamental Right for all children between
6-14 years and obliged the State to provide them with free and compulsory
education. In 2009, the Indian Parliament took a further step and passed “The
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act”. With 304 million
Indian citizens still non-literate (UNDP 2009), this objective was indeed a
challenge for India.
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SSA, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalay, Sarnath - School Girls |
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SSA, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalay, Sarnath - Teacher |
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Danièle Smadja is the EU Ambassador to India. She was interviewed in Delhi on the 12th May 2010 by Fausto Aarya De Santis Specific Questions for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan scene in the documentary |
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Among the things she says, she introduces the SSA and gives number figures of the contribution |
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What is the EU contribution towards the SSA? We are directly putting money in the big envelope of the government. But this is not limited in just signing a cheque to the government. We are a very important party in a number of discussion of the steering committee which is in charged of the implementation of the program. But we are also helping in designing and monitoring the program. Through our presence we can influence, but this does not mean imposing a model but offering our experience, proposing technical assistance, showcasing are lesson learned and also bad experiences from where they can learn and be a source of inspiration.
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I think that supporting the education of a child is a wonderful objective, a wonderful approach to defend human rights; because education is a fundamental right of every child. The second element is that the money has been worth spending for in 2003 there were 25 million children out of school in India.Thanks to the program of the Government of India and the EU in 2009 there were only 8 million children out of school. The third element is that when a child is educated, when a teenage is going to college and when out with a degree a student is getting a job; i don't think we should think in terms of competitors. We should think in terms of wealth, in terms of world economic growth. The more children are coming to the labor market with a degree, with skills... then you make the world economy run. Today there is so much interdependance between countries; it is imprtant that there is economic growth in India and china for when our countries are lagging behind, and when they are in the middle of a crises it is then important that other countries are the locomotive of the economic growth. Whenever you give money to somebody you have less for you; but you may have less now... but it will bring you more tomorrow. And your child who is going to school in europe, tomorrow might need the growth that an indian child is going to produce. In terms of economic cooperation, today, we always have to look for win win situations.
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A.K. Shiva Kumar
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The right to education If ask students, what is the biggest problem, they will tell you population. And I’m amazed that people think that population is India’s biggest problem because there is such good news on the population side. That is absolutely wrong. Look at China, it has a population of 1.2 billion people and in terms of these basics in life, whether it is health, education, nutrition, water, sanitation, housing, they are much superior to us and they achieved it when their level of income was as low as India’s is. It is m It is not about growth rate, it is not with population size. It has to do with the fact that India has not recognized that its strength are its people and that unless you look after people you will continue to experience the problems that we are. Take care of people and population will take care of itself. |
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There is an opinion that most of the Government's fund which are allocated don't reach at the grassroots level, why do you think it is so? No scheme is perfect, it is impossible to have a scheme which has zero leakage. When you say that they don't reach at the bottom do you mean that the leakage is 100... absolutely not! Leakage are high, even as high as 30%, but 70% is reaching at people. The other reason people think that the schemes are not having the effect that the effect that were expected, is that the challenges are very complex one... you can have very good schemes but you don't deliver the result. (Gives example of education) and says that Pratham brings out a report every year and saw that 37% percent of children in class 5 cannot read a text for class 2. Now if you say that therefore the benefits are not reaching the target population, in a sense you are right. But what can the government do? It sets up schools, it higher teachers... we say that you need to have more parent-teacher involvement, you must have local communities enforcing accountability, teachers must be made to teach. These are things that are not just done by governments, these are things done by social pressure, social awareness, social mobilization and it would not surprise me that it takes time. It is not true that nothing is happening, lots is happening! |