TODAY WHEN WE have entered into the seventh decade of independence and talk of making the right to education a fundamental right, it becomes necessary for us to decide whether this education is just for raising the total number of literates or for preparing the ‘real’ educated society. The Indian government has kept the target to attain 100% literacy rate by the year 2020. Many schemes and projects have also been started to achieve that target but these projects and schemes have also been questioned from time to time. Though government has beaten its own trumpet about the success of these projects and schemes but the recent DISE (District Information System for Education) report regarding the school education in Madhya Pradesh, depicts a very different picture of standards of education in Madhya Pradesh. The figures in the reports are not only astonishing but also shocking. According to the report of DISE, Madhya Pradesh has total 120661 schools out of which 25% are governed by only one teacher i.e. 30233 schools.

 

The status of primary schools: According to the available statistics in the context of primary schools, there are 77982 government and 6063 private primary schools in the state. Out of these total 84045 primary schools, 26884 schools have only one teacher in them, which means 32% primary schools in the state are single teacher schools. The tribal majority districts like Badwani, Dindori, Sidhi, Jhabua, Khargon and Mandala have respectively 64.5%, 54%, 50.3%, 48.6%, 46.5% and 42.7% single teacher schools. The most astonishing figure comes out of the home district of present Human Resource Minister, Arjun Singh, Rewa. Rewa district has maximum number of primary schools (4025), out of this 37.1% (1493) are governed by only one teacher. It is not like this is the condition of tribal majority districts only but all 48 districts have some percentage of the primary schools which have only one teacher. The districts Shajapur, Ujjain, Mandsaur, Indore, and Datiya recorded the least number of single teacher schools which is respectively 13.7%, 14.9%, 15.2%, 16.8% and 17.5%.

 

The condition of Middle schools: These figures are not only restricted to the primary schools but have shackled the middle schools of the state also. 44 out of 48 districts of the state have single teacher middle schools. Akin to the primary schools, the tribal districts like Mandala, Shyopur, Tikamgarh, and Harda are on the receiving hand – they have 25.7%, 23.4%, 20.9% and 20.4% schools respectively which are governed by only one teacher. The home district of the former Chief Minister of the state, Digvijay Singh is also not too far in the list of single teacher schools. It has total 21.3% middle schools that only have one teacher to teach the students up to eighth standard. Bhind, principally notorious for criminal activities, has most number of middle schools (749) in the state with 20% single teacher middle schools.

 

If we take a look at the total state then we will find that 32% schools of the state has only one teacher to teach the student of five classes. This means that in 26884 schools the students are taught for only one hour in a day which in turn is much less then the norm of five hours a day. Another shocking thing reflected by the figures in the report is that, the four percent of the total higher secondary schools also have only one teacher to teach the students till twelfth class. These statistics also reflects the reason why even after the completion of four years in the school approximately 38 percent of the students are unable to read even a small sentence and almost 55 percent kids are unable to divide a three digit number by a single digit number.

                                                 

In the eleventh five-year plan the central government has kept the target of 100 % extension of the primary education by 2010. The target would surely be achieved on time. But this kind of education system and the statistics revealed in the DISE report also puts forth a question, not only to the government but to the citizens of India -- that with this kind of education system would we be able to enhance the literacy rate of our country but or form an educated India? Will India be able to shine ever in such conditions?