The Hindu : Karnataka News : Education scheme for girls in 18 districts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 21, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Education scheme for girls in 18 districts

By Vidyashree Amaresh

BANGALORE, NOV. 20. Sixty-five educationally backward blocks have been identified in 18 districts of the State under the National Programme for Education of Girls at the Elementary Level (NPEGEL), which aims at enhancing the quality of girls' education with a component of incentives.

According to the director of the Sarva Siksha Abhyan (SSA), Rajkumar Kathri, the major focus of the programme is to bring girls, especially those from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, to schools through various interventions.

The programme will sensitise school authorities to the need for making the institutions more responsive to the requirements of girls, especially those from the "hard to reach" groups.

Various criteria were evolved for the identification of educationally backward blocks.

One of them was the female literacy rate in blocks, and those with rates less than the national average of 46.58 per cent were chosen.

Blocks where members of SCs and STs formed at least five per cent of the population, and slums in urban areas recognised by the Karnataka Slum

Clearance Board were selected. The gender gap was also taken into consideration.

Last year, 45 educationally backward blocks were elected from 14 districts in the State. Later, four slums in four districts were brought under the programme. With the decrease in the gender gap this year, 16 more educationally backward blocks have been included.

Funds

Under the programme, free textbooks, uniforms, and learning material are provided subject to an expenditure ceiling of Rs. 150 per annum on each girl child.

The programme will be funded and implemented as a separate component within the framework of the SSA.

It has been formulated for education of girls from underprivileged sections from first to tenth standard and will target dropouts, girls who have not completed elementary education, those from marginalised social groups, and those with low attendance at schools and low levels of achievement.

Under the programme, innovative gender-sensitisation courses for teachers and administrators will be conducted with the assistance of organisations including women's groups.

The programme will initiate networking between institutions of research and information dissemination to improve the quality of teaching, especially in regional languages.

It will also decentralise area-specific models of intervention.

"The programme will break gender stereotypes and ensure that the content and process of education is sensitive to gender concerns," Dr. Kathri said.

"The efforts will ensure support services to enhance participation and performance of girls in elementary education and build community support, besides providing a conducive environment for education in school and the community and at home," he added.

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