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At 9.15 on a rainy morning, at Jamli (Dolariya) Primary School in Chhota Udepur district of Gujarat state, 28 students in Class 8 are practicing writing three-digit numbers in words, reading two- and three-letter words in Gujarati books on the board.
These are tasks from the core subjects of literacy and numeracy, which eight boys and 20 girls have been assigned to practice to test their learning from previous classes.
Hemlataben Sutariya, who teaches mathematics and science, points to “76” and “89” on the board and asks two students to read the numbers out loud. They answer correctly. Then she asked one of the girls to write “five hundred and forty” on the board. The student first writes 5,040, then 50,040.
Chhota Udepur, which was carved out of Vadodara in 2013, is one of seven new districts that do not yet have a Local Institute of Education and Training (DIET). (express photo)
“When they see someone from outside, they get nervous,” Sutaria said apologetically, while another student runs to the blackboard and writes the correct number.
The school is one of five where, after an inspection on June 13 as part of Shala Praveshotsav – the government’s master scheme to ensure 100 per cent enrolment that saw the participation of officers across departments – IAS officer Daval Patel had reported the “rotten” and “poor” state of education “.
Patel, Commissioner of Geology and Mining, found that children in five of the six schools he visited in the tribal area struggled with basic learning skills.
After his visit, in a letter addressed to Education Minister Vinod Rao and cc to the Director of Primary Education, District Jamaat, District Development Officer, District Primary Education Officer, Taluka Primary Education Officer, Block Resource Center Coordinator, Cluster Resource Center Coordinator and principals of all six government schools wrote “Looking at the poor state of education in five out of six schools, I felt indescribable guilt in my heart. These poor tribal children have no other source of education. It is my strong opinion that we are doing them injustice by giving them such a corrupt education. We are ensuring that they continue to perform.” Working generation after generation and not moving forward in life. This is the height of moral decline as we cheat students and their parents who trust us blindly.”
Out of six primary education taluka positions, five are vacant, and the district has no education inspectors.
The teachers said that the students who were tested during the inspection were randomly selected for the assessment, which took place in the principal’s room.
Calls and letters sent to Patel by The Indian Express went unanswered.
He wrote about Jemli School: “At Jemli Elementary (Dollar) School, when I asked a fourth-grade student to add 15 and 14, she started crying, while another student gave 56 an answer to 80-36.”
The school is among the participants in the state government’s ‘Outstanding Mission Schools’ scheme under which, over six years, the schools’ physical and digital infrastructure will be enhanced, with performance-related investment. The six-year program aims at academic excellence, imparting foundational learning, higher-order thinking skills, and up-to-date learning experiences. The project is supported by the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
However, on the ground, schools in this largely tribal region face many challenges – from absenteeism to the language barrier.
Imran Soni, Primary Education Officer in Chota Udaipur District said, “While teachers need to go the extra mile in these frontier schools, high absenteeism rates among children is another reason to consider. Older children are being asked to look after their younger siblings at home when their parents are away.” abroad to work. Children are also taken to farms by their parents to work.”
The large number of job vacancies in the Department of Education, including those of Education Inspectors, District Education Officers, District Primary Education Officers and Taluka Primary Education Officers, was also cited as one of the reasons for the lack of monitoring of these schools.
Chhota Udepur, which was carved out of Vadodara in 2013, is one of seven new districts that do not yet have a Local Institute of Education and Training (DIET). Out of six primary education taluka positions, five are vacant, and the district has no education inspectors.
During the last special enrollment campaign, four boys were enrolled in the first grade, bringing the total number of students in the school to 222 – 104 boys and 118 girls. The school employs eight teachers.
Headmaster Manishkumar Rathod pointed out that while girls now outnumber boys, in 1959, when the school was established, it had no female students.
Despite these developments, teachers say they face practical difficulties.
More than four weeks after the start of the new academic session on June 5, torrential rain delayed the day’s class, which normally began at 7 am, by two hours.
Going to school is hard in these parts. In 2013, The Indian Express reported how students of some villages in this region swam across a river to go to school.
The principal said irregular attendance is an annoying problem as parents migrate to other areas for work, adding that children whose grandparents reside in the village usually manage to attend regularly. On average, school attendance is around 40-50 percent. In rare cases, attendance may reach 80 percent, teachers said.
Principal Rathod said that while two of the students, from grades five and eight, whose cases were cited but not mentioned by name in Patel’s June 16 letter to the education minister, had moved to their uncles’ home in the nearby village of Wadwan, a class. 4 girls, as stated in the letter, refused to go to school for more than a week until teachers persuaded her to come to school.
“To ensure that children go to school regularly, we have to keep visiting their homes, especially at the beginning of the session,” said the principal.
Another barrier for both teachers and students is language. While Gujarati is the medium of instruction in state schools such as those in Jamali, many students speak tribal dialects associated with the Rathvi language. However, most of the teachers in the school are not from the Chhota Udepur district – four are from Mahisagar, the other three are from Surat, Khera and Amreli.
“It took us a while to get used to their language. Now, every year, when the new batch comes in, we first have to make them learn basic words in Gujarati,” said one teacher, explaining why the students could not understand some of the questions the bureaucrat asked during Pravchotsav’s time.
“For example,” she said, “in tribal dialects, hair is nikala, chatya slipper, buffalo dobo, close to oru, far from paro, clothing is chakla and fire is intertwined.”
The inspection during Shala Pravchotsav also led the teachers of the five schools to pledge to the District Primary Education Officer that they would “make up for their mistakes and ensure that these shortcomings are not seen in the future”. “We will donate time voluntarily, make special arrangements for administration and children’s studies and work to improve the quality of education,” the Gamli School teachers pledge read.
DPEO Soni said the teachers were not required to make such a pledge, but did so themselves after “realizing that they must take responsibility”.
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