Introduction

Education is a dynamic process that starts from birth. A child is surrounded by parents and
other siblings and experiences his surroundings and responds. The surrounding environment,
the physical and social environment imparts information and the child tries to learn from that
information and responds. From those responses we assess whether his/her development is
normal, abnormal or extraordinary. Different children at the same biological age respond
differently to the same environment. Rural development generally refers to the process of
improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in relatively isolated and
sparsely populated areas. However, changes in global production networks and increased
urbanization have changed the character of rural areas.

The United Nations' second Millennium Development Goal (MDG) includes that by 2015
children everywhere, boys and girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary
schooling along with the eradication of nationwide poverty. This MDG upholds the
importance of quality in the de_nition of schooling. Although achievement of providing
education to all children might be in order, the idea of measurement of quality is still
unclear. We provide a measurement of quality of education.We use data from rural
India to get a picture of the quality of education in remote corners. The main aim is
an analysis of the qualitative outcome or the learning achievement index to produce a
comparative study of elementary education in rural India.

Review of Literature

Review of related literature plays a vital role in the field of research. In simple words, the
meaning of review of related literature is to locate, read and evaluate the past as well as the
current literature on the research concerned with the plan of investigation in hand. Good, Barr
and Scates (1941)1 highlighted that “the important physician must keep abreast of the latest
discoveries in the field of medicine, … of obviously the careful students of education, the
research workers and investigators should become familiar with the location and the used
sources of educational information. The direct as well as indirect literature lies in the vast store
house of the published knowledge. The important uses of reviews of related literature are
presented below: a) It is the foundation of any research study undertaken; b) It gives an
understanding of the investigator, c) It gives an understanding of the previous work done in the
related area and to avoid the list of duplication, d) It points out the areas for research ignored
previously, e) It develops the insight of the investigator, f) It contributes to the general
scholarship of the investigator, g) It provides a good opportunity to the investigator for gaining
insight into the methods measures and approaches employed by earlier investigator and h) The

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synoptic view of related literature helps to locate comparative data useful in the interpretation
of results. Thus, after discussing the importance of review of related literature, it becomes
necessary for investigator of the present study to collect the materials from different libraries
and other sources of information. It is, therefore, an attempt has been made here to review
some of the available studies. 1 C. V. Good, A. S. Barr and D. F. Scates, The Methodology of
Educational Research, Appletone Century Crafts, New York, 1941, p. 167. 31 W. John Best
(1959)2 had expressed the important of review of related literature in the following words,
‘Practically all human knowledge can be found in books and libraries unlike other animals that
must start a new with each generation, a man builds upon the accumulated and recorded
knowledge of the past. 2.2: Review of related Literatures An attempt has been made to review
some of the available studies. Such as, studies on the attitudes of the parents towards certain
objects, events or functioning that have been carried out some of the studies are mention
below: Education Commission (1966)3 recommended for effective programme on adult
education in India which should provide for the rapid elimination of illiteracy by means of mass
education and attention towards women, industrial workers, and other special groups,
programs of correspondence studies. It emphasized on the education in particular, basic social,
civic and economic education which required broad support and public commitment, full
exploitation of mass media and audiovisual aids, trained personnel, through provisions for
experience of new literates, and effective planning and administration with due regard to local
conditions and requirements. J. Bhullar (1976)4 made a study of the university student towards
physical activity in relation to academic performance, intelligence, socio economic status and
personality characteristics. His sample consisted of 400 students (Boys and Girls). Who were
exposed to university environment for atleast a year, was taken from various teaching
departments of Panjab University, Chandigarh. His main findings are subjects with higher
intelligence tends to have more favourable attitude towards Physical activity in relations to its
place in the University programme for health and fitness, as aesthetic experience, and for
catharsis, students who were academically better tended to possess more favourable attitude
towards physical attitude as a Social Experience, for health and fitness, and appreciated
participation in activities possessing certain artistic qualities.

History

The village in India holds a unique place, both in the social and economic spheres. There were
212.6 million people living in rural areas in 1901, in 2001 rural population has increased to
721.1 million naturally the density of population has increased, land under agriculture has
diminished, affected the forests and exodus to urban areas accelerated agricultural labor
continued to be exploited. The phenomenon of Rural Development is becoming more and more
complex despite technological advancement and availability of resources as well as continued
efforts from the pre independence period. Rural Development has a long history in India. There

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are various approaches, strategies, philosophies, policies, programmes, enactments, efforts,
experiments, methodologies, which needs to be studied and analyzed to understand the Rural
Development. Present chapter is an attempt to discuss historical analysis of Rural Development
programmes right from pre-independence period to present period until 2009 – 10. Starting
with the conceptual clarity from national and international perspectives this chapter gives the
historical background of Rural Development from the pre independence period. It describes the
review of various experiments in the pre and post independence period. It gives brief detail of
Gandhian ideas and contribution in the area of rural development. There is analytical
description of five year plans, major schemes and performances of Rural Development. The
chapter includes major issues of Rural Development.

The development of rural areas in India is regarded to be a significant aspect in both economic
and social spheres. In 1901, there were 212.6 million individuals living within rural
communities. Whereas, in 2001, the rural population increased to 721.17 million. This depicted
the increase in the density of the population. Furthermore, there was a decline in the land
under agriculture. Rural development is a complicated area, despite the advancements taking
place in technology and the availability of resources. Rural development has a long history in
India. There are various approaches, strategies and philosophies, policies, programs,
enactments, efforts, experiments and methodologies, which need to studied and analysed [1].
This concept is not novice, particularly within the developing countries. The reason being, many
developing countries have been practicing and promoting rural development for decades. Most
of them have achieved success in the fields of education, health care, family welfare, poverty
eradication, generation of self-employment, farm management and production, rural
technologies and so forth

ECONOMIC REORGANIZATION: ….. I would say that, if the village perishes, India will perish too.
India will be no more India. Her own mission in the world will get lost. The revival of the village
is possible only when it is no more exploited. Industrialization on a mass scale will necessarily
lead to passive or active exploitation of the villagers as the problems of competition and
marketing come in. Therefore, we have to concentrate on the village being self-contained,
manufacturing mainly for use. Provided this character of the village industry is maintained,
there would be no objection to villagers using even the modern machines and tools that they
can make and can afford to use. Only, they should not be used as a means of exploitation of
others.16 In his writing on cent per cent Swadeshi He has shown how some aspects of it can be
tackled immediately with benefit to the starving millions both economically and hygienically. He
wrote that the richest in the land can share the benefit. Thus, if rice can be pounded in the
villages after the old fashion, the wages will fill the pockets of the rice-pounding sisters and the
rice-eating millions will get some sustenance from the unpolished rice instead of pure starch
which the polished rice provides. Accordingly he shows the way of each and every minute

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problem of Rural Development. 8) NON-VIOLENT ECONOMY: You cannot build non-violence on
a factory civilization, but it can be built on selfcontained villages. . . . Rural economy as I have
conceived it, eschews exploitation altogether, and exploitation is the essence of violence. You
have, 16 Harijan, 29-8-1936 41 therefore, to be rural-minded before you can be non-violent,
and to be ruralminded you have to have faith in the spinning wheel.17 According to him we
have to make a choice between India of the villages that are as ancient as herself and India of
the cities which are a creation of foreign domination. He believed that the cities dominate and
drain the villages so that they are crumbling to ruin. His Khadi philosophy reveals that cities
must subserve villages when that domination goes. He considered exploitation of villages itself
as organized violence. He said that If we want Swaraj to be built on non-violence, we will have
to give the villages their proper place.

Scope of study

Every country develops its own system of education which undergoes transformation to meet
the challenges of the changing times. Educational system in India is also confronted with
several new choices, opportunities and challenges to ensure that a modernised, progressive
and qualitatively superior system of education can be implemented at all levels. The report of
the Indian National Knowledge Commission affirms a commitment to build excellence in the
educational system to meet the knowledge challenges of the 21st century and increase India’s
competitive advantage in fields of knowledge (NKC, 2009). “India, being a developing nation, is
facing grave problems like poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, environment degradation, regional
disparities etc. Under these circumstances a sound system of education alone can provide
solutions to these issues.” Out of all educational levels, secondary education serves as a link
between the elementary and higher education for an individual. Thus, it plays a very important
role as a child's future would depend a lot on the type of education he/she receives at the
secondary level. Apart from strengthening the roots of education of a child, secondary
education can be instrumental in shaping and directing a child to a bright future. The National
Policy on Education (NPE, 1986) has called for strengthening secondary education by providing
environmental awareness and science and technology education. As succinctly observed in the
National Policy Document; “Science education will be strengthened so as to develop in the child
well defined abilities and values such as the spirit of enquiry, creativity, objectivity, 2 the
courage to question, and aesthetic sensibility. Science education programmes will be designed
to enable the learner to acquire problem solving and decision making skills and to discover the
relationship of science with health, agriculture, industry and other aspect of daily life”

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Teaching Science at the Secondary School Level Science is considered to be one of the most
important subjects in the school curriculum because it can play a vital role in the development
of human resources. In this regard, the NPE (1986) has suggested the following two main
objectives for science education: i. to acquire problem solving, analytical skills and ability to
apply them to the problems of everyday life besides promoting the spirit of inquiry and
experimentation, ii. to discover the relationship of science with health, agriculture, industry and
other aspects of daily life. These objectives behind teaching of science as a core subject
envisaged under the NPE (1986) can only be realised if our system of education addresses the
problems which come in the way of development of scientific thinking, temperament and
culture. For example, the present system of science education promotes passive learning rather
than understanding and conceptual development (Laxman and Raja, 2003). Secondly, students
consider science only as a subject in the curriculum for which examination has to be cleared
after memorizing information given in the text book and do not enjoy learning the subject as a
whole (Kapur, 2002). Teachers do not teach science so as to stimulate students’ interests and
curiosity. Some students have shown less interest in science due to costly and difficult
education and limited job opportunities (Shukla, 2005). Similarly, in the absence of good
science teaching, students are forced to join coaching classes and take tuitions to cope 5 up
with the pressure of school examinations. Even though science occupies an important place in
the national curriculum in schools, teaching of science has remained an area which needs to be
improved and strengthened considering modern day educational requirements (Maheshwari,
1997; Marlow, 1999; Kapur, 2002; and Ichalkaranje, Jain et al.).

Growth and Development of Educational Technology and ICT (Information and Communication
Technologies) After the invention of paper and the printing press, it became possible to record
information as a result of which learners were able to refer to documents needed for learning.
The paper revolution was followed by the invention of electronic machines especially; audio,
video and computers. These inventions have made an important change in the delivery of
learning materials inside a classroom. For example, modern school classrooms often make use
of televisions, videocassette players and computers. These are being used as tools of
instruction and learning in science and other subjects. All these tools can be considered as
forms of educational technology. Because of the rapid development of information technology,
there is a shift taking place from print-based learning to electronic learning through the use of
advanced computing and telecommunication technologies. In the developed nations and even
in developing countries, the rapid growth of technology infrastructure has led to the increased
availability and use of computers in schools. In developed countries, though technology is being
adopted by schools slowly in comparison to the way we have adapted ourselves to learn and
use new technological gadgets and services in other spheres of activities (Raizada, 2012) yet

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most of the students have now access to computers, internet and other networks in their
schools and even at homes. A majority of teachers in these countries also use computers or the
internet for instructional purposes. This has made ICT (information and communication
technologies) an important tool inside and outside a classroom for delivering educational
materials to learners. Even in developing nations like India, many students and teachers are
utilizing information and communication technology tools in the form of digital content,
presentations, teleconferencing, internet, e-content, elearning, mobile learning, electronic
classroom, podcasts and virtual campus to varying degrees especially in metropolitan cities. 8
1.3 Science Teaching and Educational Technology: Importance After more than twenty five
years since the recommendations regar

Significance of the Study After joining as a teacher in an educational institution in Jammu in the
year 2002, the investigator observed that in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the introduction
of educational technology and its use in the schools was not up to the mark as compared to
some other parts in the country. It was also observed that the school authorities and teachers
were rather reluctant to utilize these tools due to lack of training, knowledge and inertia. In the
schools, the subject 11 of General Science (a combination of Physics, Chemistry and Biology)
was usually taught by lecture method. Not only this, there was very less emphasis on the use of
multimedia to arouse imagination, provide scientific conceptualization and provide up to date
information to enrich the knowledge of students. In fact, the use of modern information and
communication technologies in promoting science education in school had not entered in the
state of Jammu and Kashmir. Only a handful of institutions had been able to introduce
educational technology for science teaching. About the use of technology, it has been well
observed that media have little innovation about them if they are considered individually or
separately. Hence, for the present research study, the investigator decided to experiment with
electronic classroom as an innovation for teaching of general science at secondary level. The
main objective was to explore the possibility of integrating different technologies available in
the field for the purpose of teaching of science in classroom situations at the secondary level in
Indian schools. The main assumption behind such integration was the conviction that a
combination of several technologies rather than the use of a single technology would have
greater impact on the students’ learning general science in the classrooms. Another reason for
technology integration happened to be the requirement of the school children and the teachers
to have 21st century skills. The most important skill out of these is to know how and when to
use technology and choose the most appropriate tool for the task at hand. In the present study,
the investigator assessed the effectiveness of integration of technology in teaching learning
situations through a well planned approach in form of an electronic classroom for teaching
general science at the secondary level. No such experimental study had been conducted or
reported in the local school settings.

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Research methodology

To study the institutional and infrastructural or other facilities different factors have been
chosen, such as total number of schools, number of rooms, number of teachers as well as
facilities like Drinking Water, Common Toilet, Girls’ Toilet, Electricity, Book Bank, Kitchen Shed,
Play Ground, Boundary Wall, availability of teaching aids etc. which are available in elementary
schools. To have an idea of enrolment and retention, pattern of enrolment, wastage and
stagnation have been studied. To reveal the existing inequality in literacy and elementary
education, Gender Parity Index have been computed to display the disparity between male
literacy rate and female literacy rate as well as the disparity between the percentage of male
enrolment and the percentage of female enrolment in primary and upper primary level.
Location quotient have been applied to display the inequality in spatial concentration regarding
primary enrolment, upper primary enrolment, General enrolment, S.C enrolment, S.T
enrolment, O.B.C enrolment and minority enrolment. To display the educational development
ofthe study area some parameters have been selected at first from the indicators of
Educational Development Index developed by National University of Educational Planning And
Administration which are based on four broad parameters of access, infrastructure, teacher
related indicators and elementary education outcomes. Some more variables have been added
for better result. Two parameters (Pupil-Teacher Ratio and Pupil-Class Room Ratio) have been
identified as negative variables, and the rest of the parameters have been identified as positive
variables. After calculating the Gram Panchayat wise ZScores of each of these variables, Mean
Composite Z-Scores have been calculated for negative variables for both the years of 2007 and
2010. For positive variables eleven indicators have been considered for the year 2007, and
eighteen indicators have been considered for the year 2010. After computation of Z-Scores for
total variables, 73 i development in elementary education has been shown through these
positive and negative variables with the help of composite Z-Score. The total variables were
again categorized into four parameters like Access, Infrastructure, Teacher and Outcome. For
this case, twenty indicators have been considered from the four parameters with some
modifications, as discussed below: • Access: Availability of school per thousand populations,
pupil school ratio and average area served by a school, • Infrastructure: Average student-
classroom ratio, school with drinking water facilities, schools with common toilet as well as
girls’ toilet, schools with facilities like electricity, kitchen shed, book bank, play ground,
boundary wall, blackboard and ramp etc., • Teachers: Pupil-teacher ratio, school-teacher ratio,
• Outcome: Gender parity index in enrolment, percentage of scheduled caste enrolment,
percentage of scheduled tribe enrolment, percentage of minority enrolment and percentage
oftotal enrolment. Using Kendall’s (1939) method the level of development in elementary
education of forty two gram panchayats under the study area Kakdwip sub-division have been

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worked out through assigning ranks to all the variables under the four parameters Access,
Infrastructure, Teacher and Outcome. The composite index of educational development is
formed by adding the rank of different variables for each gram panchayat. Indices of Access,
Infrastructure, teacher and outcome have also been prepared. 74 i Some other relevant
parameters selected in this study are as follows: demographic factors (total population,
population composition, family size, dependency ratio); economic factors (income level,
occupational structure, poverty level); social factors (educational status, presence of social
prejudice, religious belief); factors of development (transport facility, electricity, health service);
role of community; effectiveness of different initiatives like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA), Mid-
day-Meal Scheme, District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) etc. All these factors have
been studied in relation to their impact over the educational parameters ofthe study area. Data
have been processed, classified, analysed and interpreted using both quantitative and
qualitative techniques. Suitable statistical methods (Pearsons’ Product Moment Correlation
Coefficient, Gender Parity Index, Location Quotient, Z-Score, Composite Z-Score And Composite
Index Based On Kendals’ Ranking Method ) and cartographic techniques (Maps, Line diagram,
Bargraph both Vertical and horizontal, Cone, Pyramid, Doughnut, and Pie-Diagram) have been
applied for proper representation. Scatter diagram have been used to show the relationship
between two variables and Pearsons’ Product Moment correlation coefficient has been applied
to show the extent of association between the two variables.

DATA SOURCES AND THEIR METHODS OF COLLECTION The present work is based on huge
collection of data, information and maps which have been either collected or prepared by the
researcher from different sources. 2.6.1. Secondary Data The secondary data sources include
consultation of previous literature (books, reports, journals etc.); collection ofrelevant data and
maps from the Census of India, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization (NATMO),
District Information System of Education (DISE), Annual Report of the Department of School
Education (Government of West Bengal), Pratichi Education Reports, District Statistical
Handbook, District I 75 ! i 4S’" Elementary Education Report Card, records of the respective
Community Development Block Offices, Sub-Divisional Office (Kakdwip), Gram Panchayat
Offices, Primary and upper primary schools etc. Details ofsome ofthese data sources are given
below: • DISE: Data related to elementary schools are collected every year under District
Information System of education (DISE). Data related to number of schools, its type, available
facilities in school, class-wise enrolment, and drop out pattern have been taken from DISE. •
Census of India: Starting from 1872 it provides systematic data on population and amenities at
micro level in a decadal interval. Data related to population characteristics particularly number
of population, sex ratio, and literacy has been taken from the census reports pertaining to the
study area for the years 1991 and 2001. 2.6.2. Primary Data Primary data have been collected
from the study area through structured questionnaires. As the study area (Kakdwip sub-
division) consists offour CD blocks, namely Kakdwip, Namkhana, Pathar Pratima and Sagar, at
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first 12 sample gram panchayats (3 gram panchayats per block) have been selected from all
ofthe four CD blocks considering the educational condition as revealed from the secondary
data. Now three sample villages representing three respective sampled gram panchayats of
each of the four blocks have been selected. Then the number of household to be surveyed from
each sampled village has been decided on the basis of proportion of population. The selected
sample size was 470 household and 0.3% household oftotal household of each block has been
determined for the purpose. Then the total household of each block is distributed among three
villages of each block proportionately according to their total population. Households have
been selected at the field level on the basis of definite purpose, and sample has been taken
from the villages by mixed sampling (both purposive and random).

Objective

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The study is set in a remote rural geographical background of
Kakdwip Sub-Division of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. It is a part of the physically
constraint and socio-economically backward Sundarban region ofIndia. The present study,
therefore, is an attempt to fulfill the following objectives: A. To trace out the legal provisions
and rights of a child regarding elementary education. B. To analyze institutional arrangement,
infrastructural and other facilities available in elementary schools. C. To find out the enrolment
and drop out pattern according to class, caste and gender. D. To find out the nature and extent
of wastage and stagnation in elementary education. 71 j „...y E. To assess the existing
inequalities in elementary level and to investigate the socioeconomic factors responsible for it.
F. To highlight the problems relating to universal elementary education and to suggest some
remedial measures. G. To assess the initiatives taken up for the improvement of elementary
education. H. To appraise the impact of universal elementary education on the overall
development ofthe study area

7. Hypotheses

On the basis ofthe literature survey and objectives ofthe study the following hypotheses are
have been constituted and are tested with quantitatively and qualitatively in one ofthe
chapters ofthe thesis: HYPOTHESIS -I: Progress of elementary education is hindered owing to
lack of proper institutional arrangement, infrastructural and other facilities in elementary

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schools. HYPOTHESIS -H: There is a sharp inequality in enrolment pattern within the different
class, caste and gender. HYPOTHESIS -HI: The wastage and stagnation problem is an outcome of
different factors like geographical, in-school, social, and economic. HYPOTHESIS -IV: Low
enrolment of girls is the reflection oflow parental perception ofimportance of education, social
discrimination and poverty. HYPOTHESIS -V: Illiteracy and ignorance of the parents are great
obstacles in the way of elementary education. i 72 i !...._jr HYPOTHESIS -VI: Most of the non-
enrolled and drop-out children belong to the socio-economically weaker sections.

In observing and comprehending the situation of child labour in the district certain corollaries
have been made before the study undertaken. The hypotheses drawn have subsequently been
testified. The hypotheses pre-empted are : 1 ? The abject poverty and lack of employment to
adults are the significant causes of the growth of child labour. m 2. Child labour has assumed
serious proportions in the area due to migration and immigration as well. 3* The sociological
factors such as tradition of family occupation, parents’ illiteracy, absence of required
educational facilities, social tension and caste etc. seem to play also vital role in the growth of
child labour in the area under study. 4. The ineffectiveness of legal provisions and govt
directives for protection of h children against exploitation have also resulted in the growth of
child labour. 38 In the process of probity and verification of the hypotheses drawn, ut supra,
attempts have bean made to undertake detail study in chapters 4,5 and 7 measuring and
analysing the trend, dimension, composition of child labour; socio-economic compulsion and
other factors attributing to child labour and the efficacies of legislations on child labour
respectively.

Limitation of study

India has a positive demographic opportunity, with half of its population in the working-age
group. Needless to say, education is tool required to realise this demographic potential. Along
with childhood nutrition, healthcare and good mentoring, quality schooling forms the basis of
ensuring all-round development of a person.

Quality of education depends on infrastructure such as classrooms, water and sanitation

facilities, availability of electricity, provision for digital learning, sports equipment and facilities,
availability of chairs and desks, and softer elements such as presence of school staff,
professional competencies of teachers, access to books and learning materials, among others.

The density of schools in rural India and teacher-student ratio have both improved, and
enrolment ratio has shown a largely upward trend. This, coupled with sustained increase in
education expenditure as a percentage of GDP, paints a positive picture for schooling. However,
at the grass-roots level, the quality of rural education in India leaves much to be desired.
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School infrastructure
Despite high demand for schools, as is visible by the upward trends in enrolment data, supply-
side factors related to teacher availability and infrastructure leave much room for
improvement. For instance, the District Information System for Education (DISE) data shows
only 53% of total government schools, which form majority of schools in rural India, have
electricity connection. Only 28% schools (18% government schools) have a computer and 9%
(4% government schools) an internet connection. With the digital revolution beginning to be
seen in urban schools, including urban government schools, it is likely that rural schools will
miss riding the digital wave due to insufficient infrastructure.

Many states are yet to fulfil the norms laid down in the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Provision for playgrounds and construction of boundary
walls, both of which feature in the Act, exhibit the largest shortfall, with 40% schools not having
a playground and 43% not having a boundary wall. The figures for laboratories for science-
related subjects is even dismal.
Access to sanitation facilities poses a major impediment to student attendance, especially girls,
and leads to drop-outs. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2017 data found that
only 68% toilets in government schools are usable. Despite the fillip provided by the Swachh
Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya campaign, which has increased the number of toilets across schools,
the usability of these structures remains questionable. Lack of water, lack of lighting and
electricity, poor drainage systems, and paucity of funds for maintenance and cleanliness have
failed to feature on the agenda of sound WaSH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) management in
schools, thus limiting the usability of WaSH facilities in schools.

Availability of teachers
The number of teachers admitted to schools has risen, and the percentage of vacant posts has
been decreasing. But the competencies of the teaching staff are below par—according to DISE
data, 18% teachers in India, in 2016-17, had no professional qualification in teaching.

Even when teachers are on-roll, high rates of absenteeism have been recorded. A World Bank
study found that one in four teachers are absent at a typical government-run primary school.
Absenteeism rates were seen to be higher in low-income states of Jharkhand and Bihar, with
the former reporting a rate of 42%.

Teachers, especially in rural India, often take on auxiliary tasks such as attend to the
maintenance of school infrastructure, mobilise students & sensitise community on the
importance of education, ensure implementation of social schemes at the school level, etc. All
of this takes away from teaching time, and takes a toll on the quality of learning delivered. As

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per ASER 2017, a large portion of students surveyed had trouble with foundation skills of
reading and arithmetic, fared poorly in abilities of calculating and telling time, could not use
unitary method properly, and were unable to solve complex mathematical problems.

Outcomes for India

Poor employability is a direct outcome of poor education. With 70% of India’s workforce
residing in rural areas, it is rural India that will form the majority of tomorrow’s workforce—half
of the total population is expected to be in rural India by 2050 (according to NITI Aayog). A
major cause for rural to urban migration is the search of better employment opportunities. The
net migration from rural to urban areas is about 20 lakh per annum, of which 10 lakh are
expected to be job-seekers (MSS Research). The poor quality of education in rural schools will
surely affect the employability of rural youth. Handicapped with low employability skills and
poor educational foundation and the resultant low productivity, their struggle to find better-
paying opportunities will likely follow them wherever they go. Against this background, India’s
positioning to convert the benefits of the demographic dividend into increased national income
is weak.

Chapter – 2

importance of rural education in india

After the independence of India in 1947, the policy makers realized that education is the most
compelling means to initiate social alterations and improve community development in India.
The role of education, both urban and rural, is huge in growth of the country’s economy.
Although education in the urban areas have progressed rapidly during the last few decades,
there are still some villages where education is not given sufficient priority. There are several
reasons as to why rural education in Indiashould be enforced efficiently, even in the most
remote regions. Here are the reasons:

Political Reasons — Due to the existence of the Panchayati Raj, various political parties and
universal adult franchise in the political system of rural India, it is important for rural people to
have adequate education so that they can better understand the programs and principles of the
ruling bodies and elect worthy representatives. In the modern times, members of the rural
public also participate actively in the elections of panchayat and political parties. To work as a
competent member of any political association, it is necessary for any individual to possess
certain qualifications.

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Economic Causes — In contemporary India, villages play an important role as segments of the
national economy by producing agrarian, industrial and other goods, for national as well as
international markets. But ultimately, it is the international price movement of different goods
which regulates the required quantity of the commodities and their price. As such, it is
quintessential to have an accurate understanding of the intricate structure of global economy
and for that the rural masses need to be educated.

Cultural Reasons — Today’s culture is advancing fast, with the introduction and availability of
different kinds of modern gadgets, both in the urban and rural sectors of India. To handle and
utilize the benefits of these advanced gadgets, education is a prerequisite. For example, a rural
farmer who has access to modern agricultural tools like fertilizers, tractors, threshers and
harvesters must be educated enough to understand the advantages of those tools. The
progress of culture also necessitates liberty of individuals and social co-ordination. Education
can affect the intellectual life of people and help them to contribute towards the advancement
of the society.

Social Reasons — The Indian Constitution provides for several rights and principles of citizens,
of which the right to education is a major aspect. To understand the significance and
functioning of these rights, modern education is a must.

Rural education is important not only for the enhancement of life quality of the rural
community, but also for the overall progress and development of the country.

economic factor influencing rural education

A careful analysis of the progress of compulsory education in India shows that the demand for
compulsory education began in India rather very late. It gathered momentum very slowly and
owing to strong opposition from several quarters, came to be implemented only recently.
Compulsion was enforced very slowly in one area after another and existed only in a few areas,
mostly urban and only in respect of boys. The causes of the failure are deeply rooted in the
environment of the country and the progress was arrested chiefly due to the following factors.

1. Physical:

The problem of primary education in India is mainly a rural one, since 82.7% of the India
population lives in villages. But the British Government developed a centralized system of
administration and neglected rural areas. Even at present also it is very difficult to provide and
organize primary education effectively in rural areas, as school units are unusually small,

13 | P a g e
adequate staff is expensive, the condition of life is not attractive to teachers, schools are
scattered and their inspection is not easy and difficulty to secure regular and prolonged
attendance of children. Another great difficulty is encountered because of the absence of good
roads and means of communication.

The physical needs of the schools such as building and equipment’s are not yet fulfilled.
Besides, geographical barriers are also no less responsible for the slow progress of primary
education. As large areas are covered with hills and rivers it is difficult to enter these places to
set up schools. The teachers of the plan are not in a mood to serve in an unhealthy area and
there is always a preference of the urban over the rural areas. As the villages are sparsely
populated and greatly isolated it becomes extremely difficult to set up one school for a
population of 300.

2. Social:

Indian society is a heterogeneous one. Racial discrimination and untouchability are still rampant
in different parts of the country. There is strong popular prejudice and superstition against
female education. Though this prejudice is first subsiding yet it will take long time to die for
over.

The purdah system, the child marriage, the problem of co-education, the appalling illiteracy
among large masses of population is huge stumbling blocks in the path of the spread of primary
education. The problem of universal primary education in India is from social point of view,
essentially the problem of women, the untouchables, the aborigines, the hill tribes and other
backward communities.

3. Political:

The wide enthusiasm of the pre-independence era is being gradually chilled with the march of
time. Immediately after independence the national government was pre-occupied with
problems like the partition of the country, rehabilitation of evacuees, integration of native
states, disturbed international condition after the Second World War, solving the border
dispute, language issue and communal problem etc. Consequently it had very little or no time
to concentrate on the directive of the article 45, of the Indian constitution. These are the
mighty political problems which directly or indirectly impeded the progress of compulsory
education.

4. Administrative:

The problems of compulsory education are essentially an administrative problem. It

necessitates setting up of an elaborate administrative machinery to establish and maintain

14 | P a g e
adequate number of primary schools in proper places. Unfortunately on some of the issues the
Indian administration had taken wrong decision which has now become obstacles to future
progress.

The chief among them are:

(i) The low priority accorded to education in the general administrative structure;

(ii) The lower place accorded to primary education in relation to other educational activities ;

(iii) The transfer of the control and responsibility of primary education to the local bodies;

There was also difficulties in legislation which retarded the progress of compulsory education.
Gandhiji had already sounded the warning by pointing out. ‘If the majority wants education
compulsion is wholly unnecessary, if it does not compulsion would be most harmful’.

Almost all the states passed laws for the enforcement of compulsory education. But in 6 out of
17 states, Compulsion existed on paper only, while in other states it was quite unsatisfactorily
functioning bringing it almost to ridicule. Besides legislation, manifold difficulties like collection
of census, publication of the lists of non-attending children, serving individual notices to
parents, dealing with exemptions and excuses, issuing attendance orders, penalties for
employing children of school going age and above all inadequate and improper machinery for
enforcement, were all serious difficulties in the way of making legislation effective.

5. Economic and Financial:

The most formidable obstacle for universal primary education is the colossal poverty of the
masses and the consequent poverty of the state. Nearly 30% out of the total number earn
money to fulfil the bare necessities of life. But majority of the people of our country live from
hand to mouth. During the British rule, the poverty of the masses had been worsened still
further because of the population explosion, disappearance of traditional handicraft, economic
exploitation from abroad, failure to develop the agricultural and industrial resources of the
country.

To-day, therefore, the average parents are not at all in a position to send their children to
school and to maintain them there, on a full time basis till they reach the age of 14. So poverty
of the parents is the foremost reason which prevents the child from attending schools, it is
impossible on their part to bear the expenditure incurred in educating their children. Moreover
small children are also employed in earning some money for supplementing their parents’
income. Parents do not think it desirable to sacrifice the immediate income derived from the
small children than the doubtful material benefit to be derived after the period of compulsory
education.

15 | P a g e
They live in primitive ignorance. They are culturally and educationally so backward that their
disinclination for education acted as a check on any better progress. Besides, for vast majority
of backward class, life is a problem of hunger and want. Therefore, children share the duties of
the adults and participate in daily activities for earning the livelihood.

It is also true that the local bodies have failed to accelerate the progress of compulsory
education due to lack of funds. The state government pays mere lip sympathy and hardly gives
adequate aids. The central government seldom comes to their rescue and is no wonder that the
local bodies cannot carry out their educational programmes.

The total expenditure on primary education is met from five sources, central government
grants, state funds, local bodies resources, fees and other sources. Fees were once looked upon
as an indispensable source of revenue for primary education. But fees were curtailed in 1921
and finally abolished in 1937. Other sources are indefinite, nominal and unreliable and the
amount is very meagre.

6. Population Explosion:

The present day Indian society is facing a mighty problem that is population explosion.
Population is increasing by leaps and bounds. It is increasing in such a terrific rate that the
extended educational facilities cannot keep pace with the population growth. In the year, 1951,
the total population of India was 361 millions and it increased to 439 millions (increase of 78
million) by the year 1961.

According to 1971 census the total population of our country was 555 millions (increase of 116
millions within ten years from 1961 to 1971) and it increased to 719 millions (increase of 114
millions) by the year, 1981. In July 2005, the total population of India is 108 crores. India’s
population is increasing at the rate of 1.80 lakhs per year. If this rate of growth of population
continues India’s targets for educational expansion

Remain hard to achieve. The problem in introducing universal compulsory education is not only
limited to finding more finances and more teachers but also to the lowering of birth rate. If
birth rate continues to increase, more children continue to put a demand on education.

This population growth has to be fought not only for economic growth but also it is linked with
educational growth and none of them is possible if the increasing population nullifies all (he
achievements. More mouths to feed and more minds to nourish means extension of poverty
and backwardness.

7. Educational:

16 | P a g e
The progress of compulsory primary education also suffered owing to educational factors. At
present the problem of education in India is mainly a problem of literacy. The World
Conference of Ministers of education organized by UNESCO in Teheran inl965 accepted the new
concept of functional literacy which looks upon literacy as an integral part of National
Development Plans and which enables the new literates to use their literary skill to learn more
about their occupation, health and citizenship. But the census report of India 1971 came as a
great shock. It revealed that illiteracy rate was 71% for the country as a whole and for rural
areas the rate was 76% and in the case of females the rate is still higher. The main reasons for
the illiteracy are.

(i) Relation between the rate of progress in literacy and the rate of increase in population. In
the decade 1951-61 literacy increased by 7.4% while population increased by 21.5%. In the next
decade 1961-71 literacy increased by 5.3% while population increased by 24.6%.

(ii) Majority of the adults do not respond to the programmes due to certain inhibition and
inherent mentalities.

(iii) Problem of wastage and stagnation.

It is not disconcerting that while there is claim for increase in the percentage of literacy the
actual number of illiterates is increasing. This state of affairs mars all the progress that is
claimed to have made since independence and indicates most forcefully the urgent need for
curbing the population growth on the one hand and of intensifying efforts for expansion of
enrolment on the other.

Unless a large portion of the resources is mobilized to eradicate illiteracy the plan for socialism
will remain a remote goal. In this context Kothari Commission remarked. ‘The social distance
between the rich and poor, the educated and the uneducated is large and is tending to
widen…………………. Education itself is tending to increase social segregation and widen class
distinctions. What is worse, the segregation is tending to widen the gulf between the class and
the masses’.

8. Wastage and Stagnation:

Further the problem of universal education assumes staggering dimensions when along with
this lack of ‘Universality in enrolment’ one is faced with the problems of wastage and
stagnation which is the most important manifestation of the educational problem affecting in
the way of attaining ‘Universality of retention’. It was Hartog Committee, 1929, which first drew
pointed attention to the wide prevalence of wastage and stagnation in the elementary
education.

17 | P a g e
socio cultural factors influencing affecting rural education

We test hypotheses on the role of socio-economic and cultural factors and of characteristics of
the

educational infrastructure on primary school enrolment using data for 70,000 children living in
439 districts

of 26 states of India. Most of the variation in educational enrolment (around 70%) is explained
by factors at

the household level, of which socio-economic factors are most important. In urban areas, none
of the

characteristics of educational facilities studied is significantly related to participation, thus

indicating that in

the cities schooling decisions are hardly influenced by supply-side factors. In rural areas,
however, these

factors do play an important role. If there are fewer schools or teachers, or if the local culture is
more

patriarchal, rural children – in particular girls – participate substantially less. Interaction

analyses show that

effects of factors at the household level depend on characteristics of the context in which the
household

lives. A major finding in this respect is that in rural areas inequalities between socio-economic
status groups

are lower if more schools and teachers are available.

In the last decade India has made remarkable progress in getting children into school. While
Asia

dominated the worldwide reduction in out-of-school children after 2000, most of the decline
took place in

18 | P a g e
India. In the two years after the start of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (universal primary
education)

programme in 2001, there was a drop of almost 15 million in the number of Indian out-of-
school children

(UNESCO, 2010: 56). However, in spite of this great achievement, in 2007 still over 7 million
primary

school-age children were not in school. While the majority of these 7 million were drop-outs
who did go to

school in the past, a substantial part (13.2%) of India’s children aged 7–16 has never been to
school

(UNESCO, 2010).

This is an unfavourable situation. Education is a major development-enhancing tool and is seen

as

essential to people’s chances in life (Self and Grabowski, 2004; Mankiw, Romer and Weil, 1992).
Those

who have gone to school are healthier and less likely to live in poverty (UNESCO, 2008; World
Bank,

2006; Hannum and Buchmann, 2005). Education empowers people and improves their ability to

communicate, argue, and choose in informed ways (Sen, 1999). While India in the 1990s
emerged as a

global player in skill-based service industries – especially information technology – and is now
positioning

itself to become one of the world’s leading economies, it still needs to make a considerable
effort to assure

basic education for all its children. In this context, it is essential to gain a better understanding
of the factors

that influence educational participation in this country. This paper sets out to contribute to this

understanding by analysing the effect on primary school participation in India of three major
determinants

19 | P a g e
of educational enrolment: socio-economic status, educational infrastructure, and culture.

The importance of each of these three (groups of) factors, is widely recognized. Socio-economic
status

characteristics of households, in particular parental income, wealth, education and occupation,

have long

been known to be major determinants of educational enrolment and achievement in both

developing and

developed countries (Evangelista de Carvalho Filho, 2008; Mingat, 2007; Shavit and Blossfeld,
1993;

Jencks, 1972; Coleman et al., 1966). The same is true for characteristics of the local educational
facilities: if

there are good quality schools at a reasonable distance from the home, the chances that
children are in

school increase substantially (Huisman and Smits, 2009; Buchmann and Hannum, 2001;
Vasconcellos,

1997). Cultural factors may play an intermediate role. They influence the choices made by
individuals,

through their own attitudes, and those of the people in their close environment. With respect
to culture,

India is part of what Caldwell (1982) has called the belt of classical patriarchy that stretches
from North

Africa to China and includes both Muslim, Hindu and Confucian cultures. In these countries,
especially in

the more conservative parts, the social position of women is weak, as reflected in low
enrolment rates for

girls. Besides patriarchy, also caste is an important cultural factor that still, to a substantial
extent,

determines outcomes in life in many parts of India, even though the 1950 Constitution banned

20 | P a g e
“untouchability” (UNESCO, 2010: 171). In states where caste still plays a dominant role (like
Rajasthan

and Bihar), educational participation of children from the backward castes is low.

Background

At the time of India’s independence in 1947, literacy levels were very low. Only 9% of the
female

population and 27% of the male population was literate according to the 1951 census. Under
British rule,

some contributions to Indian education were made, but mainly for the purpose of reinforcing
an elite that

could help to administer the country (Kingdon et al., 2005). After independence, efforts were
made to

improve the situation. The 1950 Indian Constitution declared that “the State shall endeavour to
provide,

within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and
compulsory

education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years”. This aim was reconfirmed by
successive

central governments and compulsory primary education acts were passed by most state
governments.

However, in spite of great efforts, the educational level of the population increased rather
slowly and large

differences among social groups and between the sexes still remain. Children from the richest
20% of the

population have an average of 11.1 years of schooling, compared to 4.2 years for children from
the poorest

20%. Poor rural girls do even worse, with an average of only three years of education. Children
from the

21 | P a g e
lower castes and tribes have school attendance rates well below the national average (UNESCO,
2010:172).

Model

Figure 1 shows the theoretical framework that will be tested in our analyses. It contains socio-
economic

factors at the household level, cultural factors at the household and district level,
characteristics of

educational facilities and policies at the district and state level, plus a set of control factors at
each of the

levels. In the following sections, we discuss the reasons for including them and the expected
directions of

their effects (indicated in Figure 1 by a + or – sign).

Socio-economic status

Both in developed and developing countries, children from families with more socio-economic
resources

are more often enrolled in school (Huisman and Smits, 2009; Mingat, 2007; Shavit and
Blossfeld, 1993;

Jencks 1972; Coleman et al., 1966). For wealthier families, the direct costs associated with
education, such

as fees, books and uniforms are less likely to be an obstacle. Opportunity costs of children not
being able to

help at home, at the family farm or by earning additional income through child labour, are also
less

important to them (Evangelista de Carvalho Filho, 2008; Basu, 1999).

School characteristics

22 | P a g e
Availability and quality of schools are important determinants of educational participation,
particularly for

specific groups like the poor and girls (Ersado, 2005; Buchmann and Hannum, 2001; Colclough,
Rose and

Tembon, 2000). There is evidence that in poorer countries school characteristics are more
important for

educational achievement than in richer ones (Long, 2006; Heyneman and Loxley, 1983). The
case for

resource availability seems obvious: when there are no schools or teachers, children are not
able to obtain

an education. Also, the way schools are distributed across the country may play a role, because
it

determines the distance children have to travel to school (Mingat, 2007). Schools are mostly
attended by

children living in the vicinity. Colclough, Rose and Tembon (2000) found for Ethiopia and
Guinea, and

Glick and Sahn (2006) found for Madagascar, that children who lived further away from school
were less

likely to be enrolled.

Culture

Two distinct cultural features of India are patriarchy and the caste system. Many authors have
emphasized

the role of patriarchy with respect to the gender gap in education in developing countries
(Kambhampati

and Rajan, 2008; Smits and Gündüz-Ho_gör, 2006; UNESCO, 2003; Colclough, Rose, and
Tembon, 2000;

Leach, 2000). According to these researchers, the strategies of national governments and
international

23 | P a g e
agencies like the World Bank, aimed at increasing girls’ participation in developing countries
can only be

successful if they acknowledge the link between girls’ under-enrolment and women’s status in
society.

Improving the supply of education is not enough if the factors at home which influence demand
for it are

not addressed, such as the division of labour between men and women, which is to a large
extent culturally

determined.

Control factors

We have included various control factors known to be related to educational participation. At

the household

level these are number and gender of siblings, birth order, living in an extended family, being a
foster or

adopted child and religion. Children with more siblings face more competition regarding the
distribution of

scarce resources, such as time and money (Ray, 2000; Downey, 1995). For Western societies
and several

developing countries, family size has been shown to be negatively correlated with educational
participation

(Thailand (Buchmann and Hannum, 2001; Knodel, Havanon and Sittitrai, 1990); Malaysia (Pong,
1997);

the USA (Blake, 1989)). For developing countries, there is evidence that older siblings are more
likely to

suffer the consequences of high fertility than younger ones (Basu, Das and Dutta, 2003;
Buchmann and

Hannum, 2001), since older children do the household chores or contribute to the household
income by

24 | P a g e
earning some extra money. This has been found to be especially the case for older girls in the
household,

who often receive the least education in developing countries (Ota and Moffatt, 2007). On the
other hand,

living in an extended family, where relatives help out in the household and add to the
household income

may make it easier to go to school. Single parenthood generally has a negative effect on
educational

attainment in developed, as well as in developing, countries (Park, 2008), because children

often have to

replace the work done by the missing parent. It also seems likely that parents will favour their
own children

over adopted or foster children, when deciding about their schooling (Fafchamps and Wahba,
2006). A final

control factor at the household level that may play a role is religion, because it may influence
parents in

their choic between the official school system and other socialization options. For example,
Jeffery, Jeffery

and Jeffery (2007) found that in the Bijnor district of the Indian state Uttar Pradesh, the
majority of the

Muslim children go to madrasas rather than government schools.

Chapter – 3

Data analysis

1. The All India School Education Survey (AISES), conducted by the National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT). This survey has been conducted in 1957, 1965,
1973, 1978, 1986, 1998, 2002, and 2009.1 Detailed data at the level of individual schools are
available from the sixth (1998) and seventh (2002) surveys. The results of the eighth round of
AISES, conducted in 2009, are not yet available.

25 | P a g e
2. The District Information System for Education (DISE), developed and maintained by the
National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA). DISE was initiated in
1995–96 for monitoring evaluation of the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and
was later integrated with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) as a monitoring tool. It was
implemented in 42 districts to begin with and then extended, in stages, to cover all the districts
of the country. A large amount of information collected as a part of DISE is made available at
the level of individual schools, as well as in aggregated form at the district, State and national
levels.

Both the All India School Education Survey and the District Information System for Education
provide detailed information on schooling facilities (physical infrastructure and human
resources) and on school enrolment. In recent years, the data collection of AISES and DISE has
become more systematic. Information is now available from these sources disaggregated all the
way down to the level of individual schools. In particular, detailed and disaggregated data are
provided on type of building, number of classrooms, availability of toilets, availability of
drinking water facilities, and availability of electricity.

AISES and DISE aim at a census-type coverage of schools and their coverage has improved over
the years. The seventh AISES, conducted in 2002, surveyed about 10 lakh schools. In 2002–03
DISE was implemented in 462 out of 486 districts in India, but it covered only 853,601 schools.
The coverage expanded considerably after DISE was integrated with SSA and extended to States
not covered under DPEP (Table 1). By 2008–09, DISE covered over 13 lakh schools. It may be
pointed out that while the absolute number of schools covered by AISES and DISE is large, we
do not have a measure of the extent of coverage as a proportion of all existing schools in the
country.

Table 1 Coverage of District Information System for Education (DISE)

Year Number of schools Number of rural schools Number of districts

covered covered covered

1995–96 60,311 42

1998–99 139

1999–
2000 130

2001–02 192

26 | P a g e
Year Number of schools Number of rural schools Number of districts
covered covered covered

2002–03 8,53,601 7,42,633 461

2003–04 9,31,471 8,11,520 539

2004–05 10,37,813 9,01,824 581

2005–06 11,24,033 9,80,526 604

2006–07 11,96,663 10,42,929 609

2007–08 12,50,775 10,93,093 624

2008–09 12,85,576 11,22,334 633

2009–10 13,03,812 635

Note: All districts in India have been covered since 2005–06. The increase in the number of
districts covered after 2005–06 merely reflects the increase in the total number of districts in
the country.

Source: Compiled from various reports of DISE.

The data presented in Table 2 can be used as a rough measure indicating the inadequacy of
classrooms in elementary schools across different States. It should be pointed out that if one
room per grade is taken to be the minimum norm for adequacy of classrooms, the estimates
presented in Table 2 are likely to be an enormous underestimate of the inadequacy of
classrooms because they include upper primary schools with students up to grades VII/VIII. The
table shows that in 2008–09 about 4.3 per cent of rural elementary schools in India had no
classrooms at all, while another 8.4 per cent had only a single classroom. State-wise, about 22
per cent of rural elementary schools in Bihar and Jharkhand had no classrooms at all. More than
20 per cent of rural elementary schools in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and
Meghalaya had only one classroom. About 57 per cent of rural elementary schools in India had
less than four classrooms. In Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Assam,
and Meghalaya, over 70 per cent of rural elementary schools had less than four classrooms.

27 | P a g e
Table
2 Proportion of rural elementary schools (primary and upper primary) with inadequatenumber
of classrooms, by State, 2008–09 in per cent

State No classroom Single classroom Less than four classrooms

Andhra Pradesh 4.34 27.21 64.03

Arunachal Pradesh 2.68 34.98 67.38

Assam 0.03 49.03 81.27

Bihar 21.86 5.28 66.92

Chhattisgarh 4.06 3.20 78.37

Goa 0.54 18.00 65.85

Gujarat* 0.95 2.72 42.93

Haryana 0.77 1.50 33.18

Himachal Pradesh 0.00 5.82 65.33

Jammu and Kashmir 1.86 17.93 66.19

Jharkhand 21.90 1.29 72.59

Karnataka 0.24 9.08 51.80

Kerala* 0.67 1.07 5.82

Madhya Pradesh 1.05 3.68 70.48

Maharashtra* 3.64 6.75 52.49

Manipur 1.56 1.56 39.99

28 | P a g e
State No classroom Single classroom Less than four classrooms

Meghalaya* 4.28 24.85 78.15

Mizoram* 0.80 2.34 39.15

Nagaland 0.00 0.18 2.50

Orissa* 5.64 5.06 59.60

Punjab 1.54 2.97 50.61

Rajasthan 2.21 3.21 50.96

Sikkim 1.19 1.37 19.52

Tamil Nadu 0.00 0.00 38.60

Tripura 0.05 0.66 22.48

Uttar Pradesh 0.92 0.29 40.02

Uttarakhand 2.24 1.92 72.24

West Bengal 11.82 5.75 54.39

India# 4.31 8.43 57.07

Notes: * In these States, primary schools are up to grade IV and upper primary schools up to
grade VII. In all other States, primary schools are up to grade V and upper primary schools up to
grade VIII. The table includes secondary and higher secondary schools with primary/upper
primary sections.
# Including Union Territories.

Source: Based on DISE statistics, taken from NUEPA (2010).

Table 3 presents data for 2008–09 on the proportion of rural elementary schools that did not
have drinking water facilities, toilet facilities, and electricity. About 13 per cent of rural
elementary schools in India did not have drinking water facilities in that year. Drinking water

29 | P a g e
facilities were not available in more than 25 per cent of rural elementary schools in Meghalaya,
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, and Nagaland.

# Including Union Territories.

Source: Based on DISE statistics, taken from NUEPA (2010) and computed from raw school-level
data.

About 16 per cent of rural elementary schools in India did not have any toilet facilities, while
about 49 per cent of these schools did not have separate toilets for girls. The proportion of
schools without separate toilets for girls was more than 75 per cent in Meghalaya, Assam,
Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, and Tripura.

It is shocking to note that 70 per cent of rural elementary schools in India did not have
electricity connections in 2008–09. The worst performing State on this parameter was Bihar
where over 97 per cent of rural elementary schools did not have electricity. In Uttar Pradesh,
Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam, and
Jharkhand, over 85 per cent of these schools did not have electricity.

Teachers in Schools

The school-based statistics also provide information on the number of teachers in schools. In
the DISE statistics, data on teachers are given disaggregated by sex, by the social group (SC, ST,
and OBC) to which they belong, and by type of management of schools (government,
government–aided, and private–unaided). Data are also provided on the number of teachers
hired on regular contracts and on short-term contracts.

The adequacy of teachers in a school should be measured by comparing the number of

teachers in the school with the number of grades in that school. A primary/upper-primary
school must have at least one teacher per grade and at least one teacher for physical training,
sport and extra-curricular activities. Published reports of DISE do not provide information that
can be used to measure the adequacy of teachers in rural schools on the basis of such a
norm.2 They provide data on the proportion of rural schools under different categories that
had only a single teacher. While these data provide a useful benchmark, they cannot be used
satisfactorily to estimate the inadequacy of teachers in rural schools. Table 4 presents State-
level data on this benchmark for 2008–09. The table shows that about 14 per cent of all primary
schools in rural India had only one teacher. State-wise, this proportion was the highest in

30 | P a g e
Arunachal Pradesh (65.2 per cent), followed by Goa (34.2 per cent), Assam (33.7 per cent) and
Rajasthan (32 per cent).

Table
4 Proportion of single teacher schools in rural areas, by category of school, by State,2008–09 in
per cent

State/UT School category

Primary Primary Primary with Upper Upper All

only with upper upper primary primary primary with schools
primary and secondary/ only secondary/
higher higher
secondary secondary

Andhra Pradesh 14.5 0.2 1.2 0.0 0.2 10.3

Arunachal Pradesh 65.2 8.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 52.5

Assam 33.7 0.4 12.0 0.1 0.6 25.4

Bihar 6.1 1.4 16.2 5.1 12.1 4.8

Chhattisgarh 15.6 4.2 0.0 6.6 0.0 12.9

Delhi 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1

Goa 34.2 1.4 0.7 0.0 0.0 24.4

Gujarat 5.8 0.7 0.8 3.5 3.3 2.3

Haryana 4.4 5.5 1.0 4.2 0.3 3.4

Himachal Pradesh 13.7 0.7 0.3 3.8 0.1 9.8

Jammu and Kashmir 21.5 0.3 0.0 7.1 0.0 13.8

Jharkhand 10.4 2.0 0.9 1.9 1.3 7.6

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State/UT School category

Primary Primary Primary with Upper Upper All

only with upper upper primary primary primary with schools
primary and secondary/ only secondary/
higher higher
secondary secondary

Karnataka 17.2 0.7 2.5 13.2 4.9 9.2

Kerala 0.6 0.0 0.7 0.3 1.7 0.6

Madhya Pradesh 18.5 0.8 0.0 12.4 1.1 16.2

Maharashtra 15.7 0.3 0.5 2.3 1.5 8.7

Manipur 19.1 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 12.9

Meghalaya 18.6 0.9 1.9 0.3 0.3 14.2

Mizoram 1.2 0.0 0.0 5.0 0.0 2.4

Nagaland 4.0 0.0 0.0 0.8 0.0 2.8

Orissa 12.7 0.8 1.3 3.2 0.3 7.7

Punjab 8.2 0.0 0.0 2.4 0.3 5.8

Rajasthan 32.0 2.9 0.5 8.4 1.4 17.8

Sikkim 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4

Tamil Nadu 3.3 0.4 1.1 0.2 1.9 2.4

Tripura 1.2 1.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0

Uttarakhand 20.6 2.2 0.7 5.1 0.7 15.7

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State/UT School category

Primary Primary Primary with Upper Upper All

only with upper upper primary primary primary with schools
primary and secondary/ only secondary/
higher higher
secondary secondary

Uttar Pradesh 3.5 3.1 4.2 20.4 1.1 7.9

West Bengal 4.9 0.0 0.2 4.8 0.0 4.3

India# 13.9 1.3 1.3 12.0 0.7 10.6

Note: # Including Union Territories.

Source: Based on DISE statistics, taken from NUEPA (2010).

Rates of School Attendance

The statistics on education in India may be divided into two groups: data collected from schools
and data collected through household surveys.

Data on how many children are in school are available from school-based statistics as well as
from household survey-based statistics. The data collected from schools on the number of
children enrolled in schools, however, are grossly inaccurate. The main problem with these
school-based statistics is that there is large-scale over-reporting of enrolment figures by the
schools, in particular primary schools, covered by these surveys. The data collected from
households provide a more accurate picture of how many children in different age groups are
in school and how many are out of school.

The main official sources that collect data on school attendance are the Census of India, and the
Surveys on Employment and Unemployment, and Surveys on Education by the National Sample
Survey Organisation (NSSO). Of these, the most recent data are available from the NSSO’s 64th
round Survey on Education in India.

Another large-scale household survey, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), also provides
statistics on school attendance. Three rounds of NHFS, corresponding to 1992-93, 1998-99 and
2005-06, have been conducted so far. Although the analysis in this note is mainly based on

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statistics from the Census of India and the NSS Surveys on Employment and Unemployment.,
broadly comparable NFHS statistics on school attendance, from the 2005-06 survey, have been
provided in Appendix Table A1 for reference.

Age-specific attendance rates are defined in terms of the proportion of children in a specified
age group who are attending school (at any level). In Census of India, 2001, data on school
attendance are given in Census Table C10 (Population attending educational institution by age,
sex, and type of educational institution).3 These data can be used to calculate age-specific
attendance rates.4 Age-specific attendance rates can also be calculated using the usual status
activity status in the NSSO’s Surveys on Employment and Unemployment, and Surveys on
Education.

Table 5 gives age-specific attendance rates for the age groups 6–11 years and 6–14 years for
1991, 2001, 2004–05, 2007–08, and 2009–10, using Census and NSSO data. Although these
estimates are based on different surveys, a broad comparison indicates the direction and
relative levels of change. These data suggest that although a substantial rise in attendance
rates, particularly among girl children, took place over the decade of the 2000s, a substantial
task remains in ensuring that all children attend school. For reference, State-wise age-specific
attendance rates for rural and urban children in the age group 6–14 years, calculated using data
from the NSSO’s Survey of Employment and Unemployment, 2009–10, are provided inAppendix
Table A2.

Rates of School Attendance among Rural Children

A major limitation of statistics collected from schools is that they cannot be used to separately
study the access of rural and urban children to schools. Since many children from rural areas
attend schools located in urban areas, separately measuring Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) and
Net Enrolment Rate (NER) for rural and urban areas using school enrolment statistics is not
meaningful. Similarly, measuring GER and NER for small geographical units – say, a village or
(particularly for higher levels of schooling) even a block – using school-level data is not
meaningful if many of the children are enrolled in schools outside these locations (or if children
from outside come to study in that location). In contrast, household-based statistics can be
used to separately measure Age-specific Attendance Ratio, Gross Attendance Ratio, and Net
Attendance Ratio for rural and urban children, as well as for children at any other level of
disaggregation.

Table 8 gives data on age-specific school attendance rates separately for rural and urban
children, using data from the Censuses of India and NSSO surveys. These data show that despite
a large increase in school attendance rates among children over the last 20 years, a substantial
gap remains in school attendance rates between urban and rural children, and, in particular,

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rural girls. The table shows that over 16 per cent of rural girls and 12 per cent of rural boys in
the age group 6–14 years did not attend school.

Table 8 Age-specific school attendance rates, by sex, rural and urban, India, 1991, 2001,2004–
05, 2007–08

Tables 9 and 10 provide Gross and Net Attendance Ratios for grades I–V and grades VI–VIII for
rural children. Rural Net Attendance Ratios for grades I–VIII were the lowest in the case of Bihar
(74 per cent), and highest in the case of Mizoram (97 per cent) and Himachal Pradesh (96 per
cent).

Estimates of Out-of-School Children

As a result of the inflated figures for school enrolment, the number of out-of-school children is
hugely underestimated in official documents. According to the Census data for 2001, 6.5 crore
children in the age group 6–14 years were out of school. According to the NSSO data for 2004–
05, the number of out-of-school children in the age group 6–14 years was over 3 crores.
According to NSSO data from the 66th round Survey on Employment and Unemployment, in
2009–10, 2.2 crore children in the age group 6–14 years were not attending school. It is worth
noting that both these estimates are substantially higher than other estimates, which vary
between 76 lakhs (SSA) and 1.4 crores (SRI and EdCIL 2010).5

Recent policy initiatives for universalising elementary education and bringing down the number
of out-of-school children have focused on containing the number of drop-outs. Reduction of
the drop-out rate in schools to 10 per cent was one of the most important objectives of DPEP
when it was launched in 1994.6 In recent years, several State governments have launched
initiatives under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to improve retention at the primary school stage.
However, as per the official estimates, the drop-out rate in India at the level of primary
schooling continues to be over 30 per cent.

It is fairly evident that drop-out rates are overestimated in school enrolment statistics through
over-reporting of students enrolled at the primary level and under-counting of students at the
upper primary level. Existing studies point out that one of the reasons for the high drop-out
rate in India is “fictitious enrolment” of children in primary schools (Jayachandran
2007,Venkatanarayana 2009).

The NSSO surveys specifically ask whether children who are currently attending an educational
institution had been to school at some time and then dropped out, or if they had never
attended school. Data from the 64th round Survey on Education show that, of 2.6 crore out-of-

35 | P a g e
school children, about 61 per cent had never been to school. Data from the 66th round
Employment and Unemployment Survey (for 2009–10) show that, of 2.1 crore out-of-school
children in the age group 6–14 years, about 70 per cent had never been to school, while the
remaining had enrolled in school at some time but dropped out. This was also borne out by a
household survey conducted under SSA, which showed that 68 per cent of out-of-school
children in the age group 6–13 years had never attended school while 32 per cent had dropped
out at some stage (SRI and EdCIL 2010).

Figure 1 shows that children who have never been to school constitute the majority of children
who are out of school, particularly in States where attendance rates are low. Figure 2 shows a
clear positive relationship between the proportion of drop-outs among children who are out of
school and school attendance rates in different NSSO regions. Both the figures suggest that in
States which lag the most in respect of school attendance, a large proportion of out-of-school
children are those who have never been to school.

Recommendation

ACcording to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the number of students going to
school in rural India is increasing. However, more than 50% of the students in the 5thstandard

36 | P a g e
is not capable of reading a text book of 2nd standard. They do not know how to solve basic
mathematical problems.

Hence, instead of focusing on uplifting literacy rate, it is time that we focus on quality
education. Children are required to empower with the quality education and the knowledge
that can be applied in their real life.

There are plenty of problems that the educational institutions of rural India suffer from. The
government authorities are required to take certain steps so that the rural education in India
can be upgraded.

Poverty is one of the most critical and common problems in rural India. This is also one of the
major obstructions in propelling the education in rural India.

This problem can be solved only if free education or education at very minimal fee is being
offered.

To those who come from very low financial background, the government must provide for their
textbooks, library and laboratory facilities so that they are not left with any reason for not
attending the schools.

Fortunately, with the changing times, the changes are being witnessed in the rural society as
well. There is an increase in the number of parents in rural India who understand the
importance of education in their children’s lives.

However, there exists a problem of lack of ample number of schools in India.

This leads to low quality education, hardly serving any purpose.

If we are to lay the foundation of strong educational life, it needs to start right from the
beginning and this can only be done if the school infrastructure is done well.

This will help them being at par with the level of urban education and develop themselves
better.

Even though the government is working to improve the state of education in the country, there
is still a lot to be improved. There is a growing awareness among people about education;
however the lack of infrastructure is being a major obstacle which needs an active intervention
of the government.

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Chapter – 4

Conclusion

India being an agricultural country, with 80% population residing in rural areas, there is much
stress on education for rural development but still Quality assurance mechanism has failed to
stop malpractices in education. At the same time regulatory bodies have been accused of
corruption, there is a lack of self sustained models. The Government of India is aware of the
plight of education sector and has been trying to bring reforms at all levels. One of the
approaches is to develop a coherent and comprehensive policy which aims at infusing
excellence.

Rural India happens to be the root of our country. In order to strengthen the roots, it is
important to feed it adequately with education. If we are able strengthen the roots; reaping the
fruits shall not be far behind. Enlightening the minds of rural population will pave the way for
our nations growth in world scenario. The educated agregrarian society of India with strong
value system will be able to leave an everlasting footprint.

Bibliography:

Anirudh Krishna, Norman Uphoff, Milton J. Esman,1996 ‘Reasons for Hope: Instructive
Experiences in Rural Development’ ,Kumarian Press

Alex F. McCalla, Wendy S. Ayres, World Bank Group Rural development: from vision to action
1997

Coherence of Agricultural and Rural Development Policies 2006

Dimitris Diakosavvas, Oecd Workshop on the Coherence of Agriculture 2006, ‘Coherence of

Agricultural And Rural Development Policies: The Development Dimension’

Priya Basu 2006 Improving Access to Finance for India's Rural Poor (Directions in Development),
Word Bank

Navaratnam, Kathiravelu K,. Role of Education in Rural Development: A Key Factor for
Developing Countries,ERIC

www.rural.nic.in

www.drd.nic.in

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www.nariphaltan.org/gandhitalk.pdf

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_development

www.ssa.nic.in/

mhrd.gov.in › School Education › Elementary Education

www.righttoeducation.in/

www.sites.miis.edu/sierratan/files/2013/03/Quality-vs.-Quantity_Full-Text.pdf

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_India

www.ncert.nic.in/oth_anoun/npe86.pdf

www.indigenousherald.com › Education

www.nird.org.in/

www.indiatoday.intoday.in › Business › India

www.sparindia.org/index.php?id=131

www.thefreelibrary.com › ... › July 1, 2012

www.wsm.warszawa.pl/dokumenty_do.../Education%20system.ppt

www.yojana.gov.in/CMS/(S(y4dqrc55g1m1qhnd4soqih45))/pdf/.../May.pdf

www.presidentofindia.nic.in/sp050913.html

www.news.nom.co/focus-on-developing-rural-urban-clusters-7865774-n...

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