India’s Rural Education – In search of Quality

Earlier, people associated rural development with agricultural development, with an emphasis solely on increased agricultural output. This misconception, however, has evolved over time. Rural development is defined very differently today than it was two or three decades ago. Rural development now includes efforts to improve rural residents’ quality of life. It entails improvements in their health and well-being, education, a safe and stable environment, equitable income distribution, and no gender discrimination. Because villages house more than half of India’s population, the rural education system contributes significantly to the country’s economic development.

“Education can take the form of a social reform, raising rural people’s awareness of their rights, improving individual living standards, and providing them with job and income opportunities, among other things.” Says Anoop Singh Bishnoi, Chairman of Foundations running Schools in rural Punjab. The number of students attending school in rural India is increasing, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). However, more than half of the students in the fifth grade are unable to read a second-grade text book. They are unable to solve basic mathematical problems. As a result, rather than focusing on increasing literacy rates, it is time to prioritize quality education. Children must be provided with a high-quality education and knowledge that can be applied in their daily lives.

In the current rural scenario, government-run schools merely have a roof and solid walls, with no proper seating arrangement, clean toilets (or any toilets at all), and a poor connection to electricity, resulting in only partial or no education. When it comes to the teachers, they are barely interested in teaching; in reality, teachers in a government-run school in a rural area are simply not paid well enough to keep them interested in teaching. The statistics derived from enrollment figures, on the other hand, paint a completely different picture, indicating the success of rural education measures. These data figures may paint a rosy picture, but we must look into the dark corners of the Indian education system, especially in rural areas.

Aside from the basic twin ills of Access and Affordability, which keep a significant portion of the child population out of school, we must enquire about the level and quality of education received. Primary and secondary education targeted programmes like SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) have definitely proven beneficial to some extent, but much more needs to be done to truly educate India. We are reducing the magnanimity of academicians’ and researchers’ brains to small potholes of job-seekers by paying no attention to innovative learning and practical aspects. In recent years, the silent degradation of talent has resulted in a large pool of degree-holder, unemployed youth in India. If we start looking for reasons, the first thing that comes to mind is a lack of parental interest in educating their daughters. Next, because they have far less money in their pockets to cover just one meal a day for their family, rural people place far more emphasis on work rather than studies. An extra pair of hands at work is a much-appreciated than minds in books.

“To make the current educational model serve rural India better, we need to make certain changes in it. We need more options for students after the 10^th grade in each region, as well as exposure to technology, industry and research-oriented learning, life skills training, and less rote learning overall,” adds Anoop.