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JSS
JHABUA
Institute of People's Education
Sponsored By
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Govt. of India |
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in Jhabua-The Problem
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“Its been 2 to 3 years and my daughter doesn’t even know “a”
se anaar [alphabets].”
“In twelve months, my son should know how to write his name. He doesn’t
even know alphabets, what is the point in sitting in school then. If he
doest learn how to read and write, I might as well teach him how to work
with me. It is a waste of time sitting in the school.”
During my visit to the schools, I noticed classroom without teachers, missing
headmasters, teacher-student ratio on an average of 1:60, students from
grades 1 to 5 sitting in one room, children below 5 years sitting in the
classes with their siblings, no utensils for the mid-day meals, no toilet
facility for the teachers and the children, schools begin late and get off
early as the teachers come from far. Therefore, pretty much all problems
that one could potentially think of are present in Jhabua. With an exception
of one school, which has the reputation of having a hardworking headmaster,
almost all children tested cannot read letters and only a handful could
read words (ASER tool). Children sat with difficult books in their hands,
these books were as per the grade, but the children are atleast two grades
behind their present grades in reading. Blackboards were full of 3 digit
addition sums, but the children were unable to even read the title of their
math books.
I must comment on the “partnership” structure responsible for
the functioning of the schools. Each school has a Parent Teacher Association.
The funds allocated for the school come into the bank account of the PTA
President. His/her signature is required to draw out the funds for any repair
work in the school. I spoke to Presidents of these PTAs and they are not
even aware of when the money was withdrawn from the account and how it was
spent. The bank passbook is with the headmaster, while the account has the
name of the President PTA. The mid-day meal administration is done by another
stand alone group in the village. The group independently manages the funds
for the meal and has the responsibility to purchase the grains and the lentils
and get the meal cooked daily. The mid-day meals were infrequent, some had
missing utensils, others gave utensils only on “special” occasions
and some complained of lack of funds. There were multiple reasons for not
preparing the meals regularly.
Radhika Iyengar
Doctoral Student, Teachers College, Columbia University
Consultant, Jan Shikshan Sansthan, Jhabua (www.jssjhabua.net)
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