RTE may not necessarily help tribal children: Study by Swati Shinde

A
study, carried out by S N Tripathi of the Gokhale Institute of Politics
and Economics (GIPE), has analysed that the present provisions in the
RTE, which says that children of the tribal population will be provided
schooling at a neighbouring village, will not help improve their
literacy rate. The paper was presented at a national seminar on RTE and
excluded people’ recently in Pune organised by GIPE.

In his paper, Tripathi argues: "Experience as an empirical evidence
shows that utilisation of school facilities is subject to distance. The
nearer a person lives to this facility, the more likely it is that he or
she will use it assuming, of course, that there are no socio-economic
barriers."

According to the RTE, tribal students can get
themselves enrolled at a nearby village school. But, in the study,
Tripathi said that, " Under the RTE, reaching those still out of reach
does not mean merely expanding existing education system. It will mean
designing and developing new models and delivery systems tailored to
specific groups, in a concerted effort to ensure relevant high-quality
basic education for every child and adult."

D Purandeswari,
minister for state, Union ministry of Human Resource and Development,
said that, "Under the RTE, we are trying to strengthen government-run
schools and add more classrooms wherever necessary. We have also asked
all states to do a mapping of schools in their state and submit a report
on the same. The mapping would be done using geo-spatial technology
which will help us determine where there is concentration of schools and
places where there is need of more schools."

Purendeswari
admitted that, "At present there is a problem of accessibility, but, we
are addressing the problem and the school mapping exercise will help us
solve it."

She also informed that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a
flagship scheme of the central government, which has a provision for one
school in the radius of one kilometre for every 20 children, "but, this
norm has been eased off in tribal areas and we are trying to provide
more schools in the interiors. The intention is to improve
accessibility."

Tripathi said: "Dysfunctional school system in
tribal regions, coupled with the mindset of decision-makers tend to
worsen the inequities. Some of the factors responsible for these
inequities for tribal children are pervasive teacher absenteeism,
psychological and social distance between the teacher and students, lack/> of concern on the part of teachers for children, and so on."

According to the study, in 2001, there were 14 million tribal children
enrolled in elementary schools as against 20.24 million in the 6-14 age
group. Thus, 6.24 million were still out of school in 2001. The drop out
rates among tribal children was as high as 52.3 % for primary and 69.5 %
for upper primary level.

Education expert Prasanna Hulikavi
said, "On paper, fundamental right to education and all looks good. But,
when it comes to implementation of these rights, it does not seem to
work. If students still have to walk 4-5 km a day to reach their school,
then no mother will send her child to school. The motivation among
students is going to be limited. The RTE aims to spread education to
all, but whether the tribal population is going to benefit from it,
remains a big question."