RURAL CHILDREN EDUCATION

IMPROVEMENT

The real India lives in villages’, this saying is as true today as it was when the
country got Independence 69 years back. As more than half of the population of
the country lives in villages, rural development is an eminent factor in the
development of our economy. The crucial motivating factor for the
development of the economy in today’s time is education. Like in the body of
human being liver is responsible for the proper functioning of the body, in the
same way, education acts a backbone for the economy. To explore this
significant role of education in India especially in rural India, this paper tries to
explain the present condition of rural education, rural education v/s urban
education failures and problems being faced by the rural education. It also
focused the various initiatives been taken by the government and some of the
suggestions for improving the education system in rural or remote areas.

Synopsis:
1.Abstract
2.Introduction
3.Existing Education System in rural areas
4.Disadvantages of Existing Education System
5.Solution Idea
6.Solution implementation
7.Conclusion

ABSTRACT

In Rural areas, we can observe the scarcity of educational resources. Not only
educational resources but also there is the scarcity of basic needs too. Education
plays a key role in the life of every human being. lack of those educational
resources ruins entire career of the children. So, our project is to provide a few
resources for the people in need as per education. children in rural areas are
facing many difficulties as per education when compared to children in urban
areas. So our organisation comes up with an idea to take an initiative for the
children in rural areas and we design an application in which the students can
interact with the lecturers by their place through online. by this kind of
interaction students can also improve their skills. Not only interaction session
we also assign some volunteers for each group of children, those volunteers will
monitor and improve the performance of the students by providing the
necessary requirements like study materials, practice question papers etc for the
children

INTRODUCTION
Education plays a crucial role in shaping an individual’s personality and future.
The right to education is the primary right of every citizen of India, irrespective
of caste, creed, religion, and economic conditions. Even though education is a
basic right of every citizen, many are still deprived of this right. Compared with
the education facilities available in urban areas, the schools in rural India have a
scarcity of basic needs like drinking water, transportation facilities, and good
teachers. Most of the population of India still resides in rural areas.

The literacy rate in India is 77.7%. However, the literacy rate of urban region in
India is 87.7% whereas in rural India it is only 73.5%. “Our organization”
helps us to increase the literacy rate in rural India by conducting various
programs and providing basic needs required for education in rural areas.

According to a survey report called the Annual Status of Education Report

(ASER), more than 50% of the students in 5th standard attending rural schools
are not capable of reading a second standard textbook and do not to solve basic
mathematical questions. This survey report underlines various issues that are
ruining the education system of schools in rural India.

Even with the current educational schemes the Government is unable to provide
the basic educational facilities for the children in the rural areas. This is mainly
due to the lack of awareness of educational schemes and importance of
education. So, we are here to spread the awareness about the education and its
importance.

Problems faced by rural children: -

There is a lack of availability of resources in the rural regions in India.

There is also a lack of infrastructure in the schools situated in rural areas—no

availability of benches, playgrounds, laboratories, washrooms or if present they
are in the worst condition.

The issue of absenteeism of teachers in rural areas has also become very
common, eventually hampering the education of students. There are around one
lakh single-teacher schools in India, accounting for about 9 per cent of the total
schools in the country. The result: More than 50 per cent children in
government-run schools are unable to perform grade-level tasks. It is also one
of the major causes of high dropout rates in rural schools, where almost half of
the total children leave the school by 14 years of age. Now, imagine the impact
the massive influx of millions of migrant children will have on the fragile
education system in rural India.

In 2017, India had about 32 pupils per teacher in primary education institutions
across the country. This ratio was much lower for tertiary education students at
about 24 students for each teacher. A lot of government schools in the rural
areas usually appoint temporary teachers rather than the permanent ones. These
non-permanent staff are paid very poor in comparison to the full time Trained
Graduate Teachers. Moreover, they don’t even have any promising career
prospect. All these issues make the teachers in rural schools dissatisfied with
their jobs and the result is they leave these jobs to move to more permanent
jobs. The consequence is lack of teachers in rural schools which affects the
student teacher ratio.

“One of the reasons for the low literacy rate in rural regions in India is
the lack of awareness of the importance of education. People in rural
regions are mostly engaged in agricultural and allied sectors. Children
from the beginning are engaged in these sectors and not give much
importance to their studies. Religious beliefs and some societal norms
also a hiccup in the path of providing education in rural India”.

Many rural Indians believe that children, especially girls, should not study
much and don’t have to cover a long distance to go to school. Instead of getting
the education, they should focus on some work which helps them in earning.
There's a notion among the communities that we serve in that girl children are
not fit to get educated and pursue their dreams, but should stay home, help the
household. Even among the girls who do join school dropout rates on attaining
puberty is especially common. Because of this thinking, there's a significant
skew in the gender ratio of the children who pass out of school. It is estimated
that every year 15 million girls are married before they turn 18. After their
wedding they leave the education system.

Another challenge in rural education in India is the digital dividend. In a

globalized world, where everyone is technology prone and using their
application in daily life. It is necessary that everyone should have knowledge
about their use. During this pandemic time, education is given in online mode,
but due to poor connectivity, rural children are not able to get an education. This
also creates a barrier in the education of rural India. Some of them also don’t
have a smartphone due to which they can’t access education.

There is also less availability of schools in rural regions. Many students must go
from one village to another village by covering miles of distance. Another
challenge is the non-availability of transport. It takes long hours to reach school
and to come back home. This challenge also aids in increasing drop-out student
ratios in rural India.

Government is taking measures to improve the literacy rate in rural areas by

providing free education and implementing the following educational schemes

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Mid-Day Meal

Mahila Samakhya

Strengthening for providing quality Education in Madrassas (SPQEM)

Rastriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan

National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education

Inclusive Education for Disabled at Secondary Stage

National Merit-cum-Means Scholarship Scheme

National Scholarships

The way to improve the present scenario of education in rural India is the
construction of schools in every village, providing proper and adequate
infrastructure and other resources, using modern technologies in education,
creating awareness about the importance of education and rights.

Our Organization consists of volunteers and there is a section for

donations to help the education of rural children .App is a part of our
Organization ,through which we connect to the rural children and help
parents to bring awareness about their children's education and
motivate them to send their children to schools and try to give them a
good future .We also provide education to orphans .We will give our help
and support by providing materials and facilities .By this Organization
we are trying to give bright future to all the children .We make sure that
no one would dropout from school due to financial problems .we try our
best to increase the literacy rate in rural areas .
 EXISTING RURAL EDUCATION SYSTEM IN
INDIA

Introduction

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is the flagship programme launched

by the Government of India to achieve the Universalisation of Elementary
Education (UEE) in a time-bound manner as mandated by the
Constitution of India. The 86th amendment to the Constitution of India
made the Right to Education a Fundamental Right. The Right to
Education provides for free and compulsory education to children aged
between 6-14 years.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) anchors the SSA

programme. The SSA programme has been operational from 2000-2001.
However, with the introduction of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009,
changes were made in the SSA scheme.

The SSA scheme is implemented in partnership with the State

Governments to cover the entire country and address the requirements
of 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations. In 2018, the Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan and the Rastriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan were
subsumed and merged to form the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan scheme.

Objectives of SSA

• All children in school. Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School,

'Back-to-School' camp by 2003.

• All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007.

• All children complete of elementary schooling by 2010.

• Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis

on education for life.

• Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007
and at elementary education level by 2010.

• Universal retention by 2010.

Features of SSA

• Programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.

• A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the
country.
• An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic.

• An expression of political will for universal elementary education

across the country.

• A partnership between the central, state and the local government.

• An opportunity for states to develop their own vision of elementary

education.

• An effort at effective involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, school

management Committees, village and urban slum level Education
Committees, parent's Teachers' Associations, Mother-Teacher
Associations, Tribal Autonomous councils and other grassroots level
structures in the management of elementary schools.

AIMS OF SSA

• To provide useful and elementary education for all children in the 6-14
age group by 2010.

• To bridge social, regional and gender gaps with the active participation
of community in the management of schools.
• To allow children to learn about and master their natural environment in order to develop their
potential both spiritually and materially.

• To inculcate value-based learning this allows children an opportunity to

work for each other's wellbeing rather than to permit mere selfish
pursuits.

• To realize the importance of Early Childhood Care and education and

looks at the 0-14 age as a continuum.

Achievements of SSA

 As per Unifi ed District Information System for Education

(UDISE) data for 2014-15, Gross enrolment ratio (GER)
stands at 98.85% for boys and 101.43% for girls which
indicates universal enrolment at primary level. At upper
primary level the GER is 87.71% for boys and 95.29% for
girls.
 Total enrolment in elementary schools has risen from 18.7
crore in 2009 to 19.76 crore in 2014-15.
 The pupil teacher ratio (PTR) has risen from 32 in 2009-10
to 25 in 2014-15. Also, nearly 63% of government schools
have PTR as per RTE norms i.e. 30:1 for primary level and
35:1 for upper primary.
 Number of out of school children has come down from 134
lakhs in 2005 to 61 lakhs in 2013.
  As per UDISE 2014-15, the average annual dropout rate has
come down from 6.76% in 2009 to 4.34% in 2014 at primary
level.
 As per UDISE 2014-15, the transition rate from primary to
upper primary has gone up from 85 % in 2009 to 90% in
2014.
 The gender parity index has reached at 1.02 at primary level
and 1.06 at upper primary level.
 At elementary level the enrolment of SC children stands at
19.80% which is more than their share in population (16.6%
as per census, 2011).
 Similarly, at 10.47% the enrolment level for ST children is
higher than their share in population.

 As per UDISE 2014-15 around 23.18 lakh children with

special needs have been brought into the fold of education
(in formal schools, or through home based tutoring, or by
school readiness programmes). The SSA focuses on
teacher training, aids and appliances for children with
special needs.
 Under the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV)
component of SSA, 3600 schools have been opened
specifi cally targeting drop out girls from regions with low
literacy levels and regions with high share of minority and
SC/ST population. These schools today enrol close to 3.5
lakh girls

Compliance on Infrastructure standards is as follows-

 98% of habitations have a primary school within one

kilometre and 92% have an upper primary school within
three kilometres of walking distance.
 96% of schools have drinking water facility.
 Now every government school have separate toilet for girls
and boys.
 72.24% of schools have ramp facility for differently abled.
 54% of schools have a playground.
 58.44% schools have a boundary wall.
  86% schools have a kitchen shed for cooking mid-day
meals.

Recent initiatives under SSA to improve quality of education

 Almost all the states have adopted curriculum reforms

under the National Curriculum Framework proposed by the
NCERT. This includes changes in pedagogy, assessment and
teacher training so as to make the learning process more
rewarding.
 Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat initiative has been launched to
improve comprehension and arithmetic skills of students so
as to improve the learning outcomes. Under this sub-
mission, special material has been prepared for the Tribal
children to bridge language and learning gaps.
 Rastriya Avishkar Abhiyan has been launched to encourage
and motivate children in science, mathematics and
technology.
 National Programme on School Standards and Evaluation
(NPSSE) has been launched to evaluate the performance of
schools in terms of quality of education, teachers’
performance and learning outcomes. Such an evaluation is
to be followed by remedial measures.

Disadvantages of SSA
• Despite these achievements of the SSA, keeping students in
school throughout their schooling career is a challenge as
dictated by high dropout rates. Nationally 29% of student’s
dropout before completing fi ve years of primary schooling and
43% dropout before fi nishing upper primary school. The high
school completion rate is only 42%. These fi gures sum up to
reveal that India has 1.4 million out of school children in the age
group of 6-11.

• There is vast shortage of teachers across all the levels. The

primary schools need additional 689000 teachers to fulfi l the
RTE norms for Pupil teacher ratio.
Even though under the Swachh Vidyalaya Mission (Sub mission
under Swachh Bharat Mission) all schools now have a
designated girls’ and boys’ toilet, a closer scrutiny reveals that
only 53% of such girls’ toilets are functional.

• The provisions of SSA and the RTE have some under most
severe criticism for poor quality of learning across all levels of
schooling. As per Pratham’s ASER reports, close to 78% students
in Class III and 50% students of class V cannot read a class II
text. Only 25% of class III students are able to solve a two digit
subtraction problem. Alarmingly, about 20% of class II students
cannot recognize numbers up to 9.

• There is lack of accountability under SSA which manifests itself

in poor learning outcomes and poor attendance rates of
teachers.
 SOLUTION FINDING

Basically, first listing out some of the problems faced in rural areas, then
concluding everything into one domain we’ll come up with a solution
Some of the problems that we listed out are:

1.Rural children do not attend school regularly.

2.They were not that much skilled as their school teaching techniques were bad
and their way of learning is not precise too.

3.Their knowledge is limited to only some extent, and they were not introduced
with new technologies. By this the literacy rate in India is in less percentage and
we do have less percentage of innovative people now-a-days.

4.Generally in urban areas too children were prone to mugging system without
making them to think in an innovative way.

5.The same strategy is followed by rural schoolteachers too.

6.No proper guide for children in rural areas and parents are also not educated
to guide them right!

7.Parents make their children to attend to low wage works as their economic
status is poor. By these children are not paying much attention for schooling as
they were habituated to enjoy the crisp of enjoyment.

8.Most of the villages are not Digitized and they don’t have proper towers and
networks available there.

So, keeping all these problems in mind we come up with a solution 

An NGO (A non-governmental organization) “We care for India”

is a non-profit group that functions independently of any government.

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTATION

An NGO) “We care for India” (WCI) connects rural learners and
teaching through digital classrooms. The passionate volunteers are a varied
bunch, consisting of housewives, IT professionals and retired defence
personnel. Our objective is to connect the students of rural areas directly to the
teachers and improve the quality of the education.

Features of our organisation: -

Volunteers:
We do have Volunteers in our organisation who helps rural children to get the
proper education.

Volunteers are the great guide to rural children. They are the backbone of the
Organisation.

Volunteers visit every village in India and make a detailed investigation about
the surroundings and check whether the village have proper schooling or not
and update information in our website. Volunteers also conduct programs to
spread awareness about education and its importance to the rural people.

Although there is a shortage of teachers in our country, a huge number of

college pass-outs remain unemployed. The organisation tries to properly
channelise the supply in the sector where there is a demand. However, frequent
power cuts and poor internet connectivity in rural areas affect the productivity
of the classrooms.

Donation Section:
We do have donation section where we collect funds to implement programs
helping rural India to reaching greater heights.

Our team updates the information of various programs conducted by our

organisation in our website.

We connect with rural children through App:

We do have Teacher’s Dashboard and Student’s Dashboard in our app.

App features
Teachers and student’s dashboard

Student’s dashboard:

1.Voice search – controls like hey navigate to home screen, navigate to mentor’s
section, check any to-dos to accomplish

2.Connecting with their parallel students - makes interaction better like clubs, or
forming groups like WhatsApp – other school/college students are included in
this

3.To-do section - They can list out what to do.

4.Notification section for updates

5. Doubt’s section - Connecting with mentor for clarifying doubts it may be with
their teachers or with the community we provide in the app.

6.Weekly catch up section - Just to make them get connected with the
technology. It can be done through video calling in the app.

7. Academic section - includes their respective standard subjects (They can

search the section through voice search too) -consists of doubt section too in
this and in this student can view assignments or study materials provided by
their teachers.
8.Extracurricular activities section - In this student have a chance to choose a
particular domain they want like AI/ML/Cyber security in that way or drawing,
tech, sports or any other

Based upon the domain we provide the resources to the students, and we
display videos using AR technology so that students can easily grasp the
concept.

Teacher’s dashboard:

In teacher’s dashboard we have the following features

1. Teacher can track the attendance of the student

2. Teacher can access the activity of students in the app
3. He/she can clarify the doubts posted by the students in this.
4. Can provide the materials in this and intimate the info through
notification section
5. During any pandemic situation teacher can conduct online classes
through this app too
6. Teacher can assess students’ performance too.
7. Teachers also have doubts section so that they can clarify doubts through
our highly skilled mentors.

Our volunteers connect with schoolteachers in particular region and take the
information of students and update in the app.

If the village don’t have any proper network facility volunteers update
information about that area and we send a report to higher officials to provide
the facilities required.

Until the problem gets solved volunteers in person meet children as they don’t
have access to internet. They take up the counselling classes to make them
understand what the essence of education is and make them introduced to new
technologies that were emerging in today’s world.

Detailed Note on App Features:

 NAVIGATE
AS WE KNOW IN RURAL AREAS MANY STUDENTS DO NOT HAVE THE
EXPOSURE TO USAGE OF INTERNET AND LITTLE CHILDREN FIND IT
DIFFICULT TO SEARCH WHAT THEY REQUIRE BY TYPING SO WE
HAVE ADDED VOICE SEARCH IN OUR APP TO MAKE IT EASY FOR THE
STUDENTS BY USING THIS FEATURE THEY CAN NAVIGATE TO
HOME SCREEN. WITH THIS THEY CAN ACCESS MENTORS SECTION
AND THEY CAN CHECK THEIR TASKS WITH EASE.

CONNECT
ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO LEARN IS BY INTERACTION,
THROUGH INTERACTION STUDENTS CAN SHARE INFORMATION
AMONG THEMSELVES AND CAN HAVE BETTER CLARITY ABOUT
CONCEPTS .IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THIS WE HAVE ADDED A FEATURE
THAT LETS THEM CONNECT WITH THEIR PARALLEL STUDENTS NOT
ONLY FROM THEIR SCHOOL BUT FROM OTHER SCHOOLS ALSO .SO
THAT THE INTERACTION AMONG STUDENTS INCREASES AND CAN
GAIN MORE KNOWLEDGE .

TO DO
According to a national SURVEY, IN all states the school attendance dropped
as the education levels increased and it will be difficult for the teacher to assign
any work to the students in this situation. To overcome this we have added a to-
do feature where the teacher can post the work and the students have to
complete the work within the given TIME. THE teacher can review the student
activity in the teacher's dashboard.

NOTIFICA
TION
our app comes with a notification feature that keeps students up to date about
any work posted by the teacher, SCHOLARSHIPS, CLASS timings and
information related to EXAMS. THE information about all aspects will be
posted in the notification section to keep students updated.

DOUBT SECTION
The app contains a feature for DOUBTS. THE students can post their doubts in
this SECTION. THE doubts will be solved either by the teacher or the student
community in the app.

WEEKLY CATCH UP
In order to get the student exposed to different TECHNOLOGIES. WE have
added a weekly catch up feature SO, THAT the student get used to different
technologies and this can be done by the video calling feature provided in the
app.
 ACADEMICS
The app has a feature for ACADEMICS. THIS feature includes their respective
standard subjects (They can search the section through voice search too).It also
consists of doubt SECTION. In this student can view assignments or study
materials provided by their teachers and the results of their assessments.

EXTRA CURRICULAR
Our country is progressing technologically; however, sadly, the imprint of this
advancement has yet not reached to the rural areas. This has led to a digital gap
in urban-rural India. In order to fill this gap we have added a Extracurricular
feature. In this student have a chance to choose a particular domain they want
like AI/ML/Cyber security in that way or drawing, tech, sports or any other
.Based upon the domain we provide the resources to the students, and we
display videos using AR technology so that students can easily grasp the
concept.
In this way we want to implement solution and we
produce you with a prototype with all the features
mentioned above.

CONCLUSION
We conclude:

An NGO) “We care for India” (WCI) brings change in the society by
implementing all the programs as discussed above. We promise you that we’ll
make rural children to reach greater heights. The literacy rate of INDIA also
rises.

Come on Folks Let’s make “DIGITAL INDIA”

ABSTRACT