Rajiv Gandhi Prathmik Shiksha Mission

The story of access

Dhar is a predominantly tribal district in western Madhya Pradesh. The district has 1487 villages consisting of 3107 habitations. Of these, 1368 habitations had no school within a kilometer in 1994-95. The ratio of children having a school within a kilometer of their home to the total number of children in the primary school-going age group, ie., the Gross Access Ratio (GAR) for the district was 60% in 1994-95.

In the base year, a total of 1646 primary schools and 605 NFE centres provided access to primary education in 1739 habitations. The reasons for the lack of access were analysed. It was recognised that the cost of providing a primary school in each of the remaining 1368 habitations would be prohibitive. Each primary school with two teachers and 40 children entails a recurring cost of Rs.1.5 lacs p.a. and non-recurring cost of about Rs.3 lacs. Thus, the cost of "access" was Rs.41.02 crores of non-recurring expenditure and Rs.20.52 crores on recurring expenditure. Clearly, alternatives had to be thought of.

The Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) provided the answer. Under this scheme launched in February, 1997, every habitation not having any primary education facility within one kilometer radius and having more than 40 children in non-tribal areas or 25 children in tribal areas was to be provided with primary schooling facilities on the demand of the parents within 90 days of the demand being raised against the sate. The cost per centre was a mere Rs.6,500 p.a. in recurring expenses and Rs.52,000 in non-recurring expenses. Thus, the recurring cost for an EGS centre was merely 4.3% of that for a school.

Besides the financial constraint, there were social constraints too to children availing access to schools. Child labour, migrating parents and absence of adults to tend the house in the absence of parents were important social constraints. Such children, for obvious reasons, could not possibly avail the facilities of normal schools.

They need alternative schools with flexible timings, curricula broken into smaller mutually independent units and freedom of pace of learning, absence of progressive classes in which the higher class required knowledge of all that was taught in the preceding class. Teachers specially trained to deal with such children in alternative teaching methods, emphasising activity-based learning.

Besides these, 27 new NEF centres were also created under the NEF programme. Tribal welfare and school education departments opened another 50 schools during the same period.

Thus 209 primary schools, 180 alternative schools 632 NEF centres and 867 EGS centres covered all the 1368 "accessless" habitations of the district. 86 habitations could be covered through educational facilities set up in neighbouring habitation(s). The proposed target of 100% GAR was achieved in between 1995-96 and 1997-98, in the brief span of three years.

The links below would give a clear picture of the efforts taken for promoting literacy in the district.

The story of access
A school with an alternative package
Education Guarantee Scheme
Civil works
Special drive on repairs
Bringing the child to the school
Keeping the child in the school
In the world of the handicapped
Multi-grade education