Chhattisgarh aims to train all teachers in two years

BACK TO SCHOOL PART - II

The government's network of schools has failed to deliver the goods. The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, the government's universal education programme, sought to address the problem by appointing para-teachers or teaching assistants in large numbers.

Business Standard reporters travelled to the interiors of three states "" Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh "" to see if the experiment had worked.

Vineet Agnihotri teaches in a government primary school at Saloni, a small village in the Raipur district of Chhattisgarh.

He belongs to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Saloni is no less than 80 km away from Raipur, the state capital. Still, he has every reason to feel happy.

Unemployed for long, Agnihotri, a post-graduate, landed this job after a crash course of just two months. And the money isn't bad "" he gets Rs 3,800 per month. Though not a princely sum, he manages to save a little at the end of the month.

Chhattisgarh has trained more than 50,000 'shiksha karmis' (education workers) like Agnihotri in the last two years under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the government's universal education progra-mme.

The results are there to see. "There will be no untrained teacher in Chhattisgarh in the next two years," M Sudhesh, the state Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan convenor, said. On last count, the 49,605 primary schools in the state had 60,741 regular teachers; they now also have 50,786 shiksha karmis.

So far, the state has spent close to Rs 15 crore on training these para-teachers.

With an allocation of Rs 678 crore under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the current fiscal, the state is expected to ramp up the training during the year.

Before the launch of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, each district would train not more than 100 teachers in a year. By throwing open the field to all who have passed the twelfth standard, the state has seen a manifold increase in the numbers.

A crucial factor that ensures that these para-teachers do not leave the state after receiving the two-month training is that the instant diploma they get is not valid outside Chhattisgarh.

The impact of para-teachers on the quality of education imparted in the government-owned primary schools of Chhattisgarh is yet to be assessed.

However, civil society groups pointed out that unmonitored and semi-trained shiksha karmis may do more harm than good. "The concept is good provided the teaching activities are monitored at the ground level," Alok Pandey, state co-ordinator of the non-government organisation PRIA, said.

By centralising the monitoring, according to Pandey, the state has failed to fix accountability on the shiksha karmis working at the village level. "If the shiksha karmi is made accountable to the local gram panchayat, it could yield better result," he added.

In the Maoist-infested Dantewada district, the state government has taken the help of a non-government organisation Pratham to make the programme effective in 13 out of the 24 relief camps set up by the administration to provide shelter to more than 50,000 tribals.

About 3,500 students are studying in the camps, while around 250 teachers are taking care of their educational needs.