Education in Rural India
Education is a basic necessity. It prepares, widens and allows exposure to the entire world through the mind. A sound education implies better quality of thought, which results in superlative quality of life. In India almost 90% of the schools are located in the villages. Independent studies show that over 91% of the rural schools at elementary level are controlled by the government.
Education is a portal for betterment. Understanding education in India without delving deeper into the sector of Rural Education would leave our perception incomplete. While providing education to the population of India, great advances and surges have been made in some areas while some states considerably lag in their progress [Eg. Jharkhand, Bihar etc].
The essential goals of providing education in the rural sector of India is to:
- To create a platform for education to rural dwellers.
- To encourage children to pursue and continue studying higher. education/further studies/ jobs[sarkari naukri perhaps].
- Provide learning, guidance and wisdom to scholars looking to research and develop education.
- Experimenting with new methods of teaching.
- Developing new systems of assessment.
- Creating a learning environment that fosters intelligence, a thirst for knowledge and a stress-free space to be nurtured.
- Monetary benefits and incentives are little or non-existent. Incomes are meagre and barely sufficient to maintain. This subsequently leads to poor attention spans for teachers and by default, the students suffer.
- Lack of infrastructure is another driving concern. Most educational ‘centres’ lack basic facilities for teaching and activity such as computer labs and play-grounds and in some cases, even clean toilets.
- Inadequate transport facilities and options for students from neighbouring or far off places.
Quality of rural education provided is improving on a daily basis, and yet, its basic standard is very poor. The number of schools in rural regions is very less and in addition to it, students are forced to travel long distances without access to clean drinking water and toilet facilities. Quality of education provided by the staff of such education centres is dismal and not quite surprising, given the contributing factors. Guides lack the motivation and encouragement to perform better than their circumstances. More often than not, appointed teachers play truant and do not fulfil their basic tasks as a knowledge provider.
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