MP to increase enrolment in schools

Lalit Shastri, The Hindu, July 5, 2007

Free textbooks for all children, uniforms to girl students being offered

JHABUA (MADHYA PRADESH): With the reopening of schools for the new academic year, efforts are being made by the Madhya Pradesh Government to ensure maximum enrolment of children in schools.

Travelling through the tribal district of Jhabua, bordering Gujarat, this correspondent could notice that special efforts were needed on a large scale to address issues like poor quality of education, lack of trained teachers and academic support as well as the problem of migrating families, which was making it difficult to retain a large number of children in schools.

The Madhya Pradesh Government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is aimed at improving the quality of education in schools through free distribution of textbooks for all children, provision of school uniforms to girl students and scholarships to children belonging to the disadvantaged and deprived sections, training of parent-teacher associations (PTAs) and improvement in the existing school infrastructure and by providing improved drinking water and toilet facilities.

To meet the larger objectives of primary education, a quality education initiative is presently being implemented in Madhya Pradesh. In Jhabua, UNICEF supports quality education in two clusters of 10 to 15 schools in each block in partnership with the district administration and Rajya Shiksha Kendra. Besides advocating the need for quality education, UNICEF has also provided school furniture and a mathematics kit, which includes self-learning material, for schools in this district.

Hamid El Bashir, State Representative at the UNICEF office for Madhya Pradesh, said that in villages there has been great progress in areas of elementary and primary education.

Especially in tribal areas, he said, enrolment has increased substantially. “We need to invest more on quality education and in efforts to retain the children of migrating parents in schools,” said Dr. Bashir, adding that UNICEF has agreed in principle to support mobile schools for the sake of children of migrating parents.

Dr. Bashir said that the State Government was doing good work but more efforts were needed. “We are working with the Government for teachers’ training and are also ready to join hands to motivate families to enrol girls in schools.”

While supporting activity-based teachers’ training and development of PTA training module and monitoring tools based on classroom observation, UNICEF plans to train cluster academic coordinators to monitor classroom activities.