In an attempt to have underprivileged children understand the environment we live and the threats it faces, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has started an initiative called Right to Environmental Education (RTEE) as part of which the organisation will conduct free one-day study tours for several underprivileged children. The tours will be conducted at the Conservation Education Centre (CEC) in Goregaon.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-environmental-education-for-underprivileged-kids-1994145

On Sunday, Umesh, a soft-spoken second grader, and a dozen of his classmates clamored to tell a visitor why no children in the village of Raup had returned to their local government school in this remote southeast corner of Uttar Pradesh since March 26.

Amid the competition to be heard, Umesh, 8, turned to a friend and began to demonstrate how, he said, two teacher trainees tethered him and seven of his friends to windows and ceiling fans and beat them. He spread his arms wide and said, “They tied me up and hung me on the window like this.”

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Umesh and his friends in the village of Raup, in Sonbhadra district, are Ghasia, which is seen as either a caste or a tribe, depending on whom you ask. Forced out of their former villages in nearby forests because of overcrowding, the Ghasia have migrated to rocky, unoccupied land in Raup’s periphery over the past two decades, their homes now abutting a dusty national highway.

Umesh’s school was included in a Human Rights Watch report released on Tuesday, titled  “They Say We’re Dirty: Denying an Education to India’s Marginalized,” a qualitative study on the type of discrimination that children in the lowest strata of society, like the Ghasia, experience in schools in four states — Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

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The report cites Unicef’s estimate that 80 million Indian children will drop out before completing elementary school and contends that various forms of discrimination and intimidation contribute significantly to that number.

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At school, they said, the other children called them Ghasia as if it were a curse, and when they tried to play with the Kharwar children, they were chased away and spat on.

In a video attached to the Human Rights Watch report, the principal at the time, Farida Khatun, said that it was better if the Ghasia children stayed away from school.

“They don’t bathe, they don’t wear school uniform, and they smell,” she said. “When we ask them why they are so dirty, they say there is no water. The problems of these children will never get solved. Their parents are uneducated. We can’t mix these children with normal children because they are spoiling them, too.”

Sangeeta Devi, one of the two current teachers in training, said that if the Ghasia children were to return, it would be impossible to handle all 205 students. The school’s trainees, who have received no teacher instruction, are little more than babysitters.

“We can’t take care of these kids if they come here. They only listen to the male teachers,” she said, referring to the two men accused of tying Umesh to a window, his friend Dayalu, also 8, to a ceiling fan, and others’ hands behind their backs.

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Parents in the Ghasia community expressed little other than injured pride. Most parents interviewed in the village said that beating was the only way to raise obedient children.

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Ghasia parents also pointed to their own poverty as a barrier to acceptance at the school. New clothes are an extreme luxury, and many children don’t get them until they reach school-going age. Soap is unaffordable, so sand is used instead. At times, their poverty is so acute that attending school would be a distant-if-present worry. In 2001, during a period of prolonged unemployment in the community, the Ghasia were reduced to eating grass, some of which proved to be mildly poisonous. A total of 18 young Ghasia children died from both starvation and poisoning.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/free-education-comes-at-a-cost-for-marginalized-students/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

again, nothing new here but nicely captured

Even 67 years after independence, as we elect our 16th Lok Sabha after such a massive election, which is well deservedly have been termed the biggest elections across the world, the issues didn’t seem to have moved beyond the general rhetoric of Roti, Kapda and Makaan. However irrespective of whoever forms the government at Centre, a plethora of issues would be staring expectedly at the new head of this gigantic country, crying for attention and which needs quick restructuring.  Among issues which have been under severe neglect because of political inefficiency and failure of state machinery is Education.

In a country which is obsessed with IITs and IIMs, the primary issue of basic education has not seen making such inroads even after so many years. While nursery admissions at Delhi schools manages to get the attention of the Delhi High Court and often been guided with comments as to how it should function, somewhere in a far fetched village of Uttar Pradesh, a child continues to struggle to get even basic primary education. Even policies which have been lauded as historic such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and Right to  Education have somehow failed at the grassroots either due to lack of Centre-State coordination or because of faulty implementation. The demographics of our country makes us the youngest country in the entire world, but if this potential is not stirred by quality education and exposure, we’ll end up destroying not just the fate of the country but also fail to deliver on the expectations of an entire generation. 

On Saturday, as the honourable President of India —Pranab Mukherjee was addressing the convocation of Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad, he emphasised on the fact that we should focus on creating more industry friendly graduates. And his concern is truly reflective of the current situation of both primary and higher education in this country. Forget about having one of our colleges in the Ivy League, they don’t even find mention in the Top 50 universities of the world. This even after we’ve produced some of the sharpest minds and billionaires through these very same set of institutions.

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A report submitted by UNICEF recently pointed out the utter failure of state mechanism in curbing school drop out rate of the country. The report says, that while nearly 80 million children don’t complete the entire cycle of elementary education, close to 8 million are out of school. The dropout rate is much more higher among girls. These reports are a testimony to the fact that we have utterly failed in providing the children of this country their very basic right of education. Though central schemes such as the Midday Meal has bring in some respite in constraining the growing dropout rate, it has clearly not been of much help. 

Apart from policies, the government needs to focus more on implementing these initiatives at the grassroots and make sure it is feasible and at the same time accessible too. Technology can play a big role in such a setup. Developed countries across the world have tapped the potential of community radio to spread education in rural areas but we in India have somehow still not being able to exploit it’s potential. 

When it comes to higher education, for every IIT and IIM graduate that bags a handsome salary package, there are lakhs of other graduates who even after years of completing education can’t find a suitable job. The India Skills Report of 2014 reveal that only 52 % of engineering graduates and 34 % of our overall skill pool are employable. Such poor numbers coming at a time when every parent’s dream in this country seems to be one day seeing their child as either an engineer or a doctor, preferably from an IIT or an AIIMS. 

It is high time that the government realises that education is not just about earning degrees but also at the same time becoming industry friendly and job ready otherwise the person has no market value. Just regulations and legislations are not enough to solve the current crisis that we’re in. The new government has to take a much more concerted effort in not just improving the quality of education but also in making it more accessible to the far flung villages of the country.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-open-letters-to-next-prime-minister-quality-of-education-is-important-if-india-aims-to-be-a-super-power-1987184