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Girl child's education: efforts on to reduce dropout rate

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE, JUNE 13. Mysore district, which ranks 14th in the State with 47.32 per cent literacy rate has attracted the Government's attention to evince action in identifying problems and then take steps to solve them. Literacy level is an indicator of the extent of development of an area. The difference in the literacy rate between men and women arising out of varied reasons has been understood in undertaking the "District Primary Education Programme" (DPEP) with World Bank assistance in the district.

The DPEP, being implemented in the district since 1997, is aimed at supplementing the efforts of both the Union and State Governments for universalisation of primary education. Although this programme was launched in four districts in 1993-94, it was introduced in Mysore district along with six other districts in 1997.

Having recorded impressive progress in the last one-and-a-half years, this programme orients itself around the aspect of reducing differences in the enrollment, dropout and learning achievement among gender and social groups to less than five per cent. Also, it envisages reducing the dropout rate to less than 10 per cent.

The other objectives of this programme is to raise the average achievement level by at least 25 per cent and to ensure achievement of basic literacy and a minimum of 40 per cent achievement levels in other faculties in primary school children. Above all, this programmes is aimed at providing access for all children to primary education classes (I to V) wherever possible, or its equivalent non-formal education.

According to Ms. Sharadamma, Deputy Director of Public Instruction, Mysore, prior to the launch of this programme, 72 habitations having no schools with the population of more than 200 were identified and schools were opened there. Care was taken to identify areas where there was high density of girls and tribal people, she said. To improve retention rate of girls, 115 lower primary schools were upgraded to higher primary schools in 1997-98. Such schools were provided with one teacher and the required infrastructure, she said.

During 1997-98, microplanning was conducted in 50 villages and high dropout rate was noticed in 26 of these villages. Non-formal education (NFE) centres were opened in these villages to provide a viable alternative to dropout students, she said. Along with such academic activities that were initiated, a general awareness campaign was contemplated for universalisation of primary education, she said.

Taking the concept of Kalajathas, a State-level seven-day training was conducted at Rangayana to train district Kalajatha troupes. These troupes were trained to perform 10 street plays to convey strong messages relating to education for the girl child, gender equality, eradication of child labour (in Akashabutti), education for girls of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (in Kithaleballi), school sanitation (Vasnebhootha), community development (Huligamma) and others. As many as 140 Kalajathas were performed in villages where the microplan was ready.

To infuse school-going habit, a Chinnari Mela was conducted in the district. Yet another interesting aspect of this programme, is the printing of "kali-nali-kali" wall newspaper. This encourages teachers' creativity and also brings children closer to new concepts in the process of learning. Two such wall magazines have been brought in the district, which are hung in the classrooms allowing children to interact with the contents.

Ms. Sharadamma said this five-year programme with an outlay of Rs. 36 crores for Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts was moving on expected lines. Although the establishment charges accounted for a major chunk of the outlay, the participation of teachers and children had enabled the programme to achieve better results, she said. Under the programme even health cards were provided for children, she said.

To strengthen the anganawadi centres as part of the agenda of this programme, the importance of making the anganawadi centre timings on the lines of primary school timings so that girls are freed from the responsibility of sibling care in the afternoon thus enabling them to attend school regularly was effected. As many as 189 such centres were identified in Hunsur and Periyapatna blocks of the district, 100 in Hunsur and 89 in Periyapatna. All these centres were provided with an additional honorarium of Rs. 300 and Rs. 250 a month to anganawadi workers and helpers respectively.

To make this a qualitatively continuous programme, educational administrators training programme was held to familiarise the block resource centre personnel with DPEP. Under this, the "nali- kali" concept was implemented with focus on attainment gaps in children so that all children achieved mastery of minimum level of learning, making learning individualised and the child self- centred and more interactive, said Ms. Sharadamma.

The DPEP has been initiated in eight education blocks in the district and at four blocks in Chamarajanagar district. This programme underway in the district were sustainable and also cost-effective, said Ms. Sharadamma. Efforts were being channelised to set right the anomalies in primary education, with emphasis on gender bias. This programme oriented itself in providing equal opportunities in the primary education level for children, irrespective of caste, colour or creed.

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