The Hindu : Other States / Uttaranchal News : Basic education still a distant dream

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Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

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Other States - Uttaranchal

Basic education still a distant dream

By C. K. Chandramohan

DEHRA DUN, FEB. 8. Access to elementary education continues to remain a distant dream for tribal children of many villages of the Jaunsar Bhawar area not far from the State Capital. All this even as the Government continues to harp on "massive steps" it had taken to provide education to all.

Over a dozen Government primary schools in Chakrata Block are closed for over a year now as no teacher is posted there. Education is simply a joke in over 40 schools where a single teacher is supposed to be teaching various classes at the same time and over a dozen new schools announced under the much publicised Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan are yet to surface in the villages of Chakrata.

Located 92 kilometres away from Dehra Dun city, Chakrata is a beautiful yet very rough terrain at a height of 7000 feet. The locals are very poor tribals deserving a major effort from the Government to uplift them from the vicious circle of poverty. Although some efforts have been made to make life better -- not much of an improvement can be seen in the economic or social conditions of the poor.

Ramesh Tamta, a poor farm labourer in Sahiya who was lucky enough to get his children educated till Class V felt that the area could develop only when every child got access to education at least up to the high school. Once educated the children will be able to bargain for better wages, know when they are being cheated by money- lenders and even secure a Government job, he said.

Munni, who earns a living by rearing goats and sheep near Kalsi wondered why the leaders who promised all round development during elections vanished after the polls. She wanted the local MLA and Minister for Panchayati Raj, Pritam Singh, to have community work centers established in all gram sabhas where the poor could produce handicrafts or other things and begin earning a decent living.

The area can develop if the Government sets up fruit and food processing units to add value to the large quantities of fruits and coarse grains grown here. The coarse grains have a very good market and since the cultivation here is traditionally organic it will, if marketed properly, fetch very good returns in the domestic as well as foreign markets, said a senior agriculture department official.

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Basic education still a distant dream