Rural Education in India

Majority of population still lives in rural areas ie. 70% of total population (around 90 crores live in villages and 40 crore in cities) is the estimate of a census of Indias Provisional Population Totals of Rural of Rural-Urban Distribution in the country.

According to the statistics number of students are increasing in school and colleges in rural areas but in contrast to this their literacy rate is declining. Student of 5th and 6th grade are not able to properly read or write nor they are able to solve a simple mathematics problem. Despite of various effort, they are unable to receive a proper education. Government and many NGO’s are running various program’s to address the literacy crisis due to various reason. Some of them are-

Lessen number of schools in Remote Villages with no proper facilities or no school in a village that lead to visit other villages for their basic education. But many a time visiting other village restraint girls from their right to education.

Inadequate Infrastructure- Most of the schools are seasonal as they do not have solid walls and proper roofs that lead to leakage in a rainy season. Many of them do not provide basic amenities like toilet, electricity and drinking water.

Lack of Quality Education with fewer teachers- Most of schools have a shortage of teachers, single teacher manages the whole school which directly affects the student’s education. If a teacher is ill, then the school is closed.

Improper teaching material- There is always a scarcity of books in rural schools and they need to manage with limited teaching material like blackboard and chalk, many of them use floor as their blackboard.

Poverty restraints children from better schools- If government schools are incompetent in providing the better facility children suffer from lack of education.

Although a dent in the education system is present due to past problems. There are some of the education programs that are run by an Indian Government.

1.Non-formal Education Scheme–
The Non-Formal Education (NFE) was intro­duced in 1979-80 by the central government to education to all children below the age of 14 years. This scheme was introduced especially for the educationally backward districts of Assam, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh , Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal.

2. Mahila Samakya (MS):

Mahila Samakya, a scheme that aims at Education for Women’s Equality was launched in 1989, in pursuance of the goals of the New Education Policy (1986). This scheme tries to emphasize on education as an agent of change’ in the status of women.

3.District Primary Education Programme:

District Primary Education Pro­gramme (DPEP) was introduced in November 1994. This program was launched to achieve a goal of providing elementary education on district level i.e educational pro­grammes were decentralized through this scheme.

4. National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (School Meal Programme):

This scheme was launched on 15th August, 1995 to give a boost to Universal Elementary Education. The scheme was introduced with an aim to primarily in­crease student registration, retention, and attendance of students in primary classes by supplementing nutritional requirements of children attending schools.

5. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA):

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan launched in March 2002, is a time-bound integrated approach, where the central gov­ernment and the state government together will implement this scheme in partnership with the local governments and community.This was introduced to reduce illiteracy rate by providing basic education facility to everyone.