ADILABAD: India’s economic success story is the bestseller of this century, and not without reason. But, has this growth been equitable is a different tale altogether. There’s just one solution to achieving equity and increasing pace of growth, experts have said time and again. It’s to improve the quality of education and skill training imparted to youth.
If the state of affairs in Telangana can be taken as an indicator for the entire nation, lack of options and quality, indeed, are major barriers to education for people in the low strata of the society. Consider the case of tribal communities in Telangana. Of the 13 major tribal communities in the state, only three speak and understand Telugu. Other groups have their own languages.
The language barriers that children of these communities face in Telugu-medium schools have hampered not just their learning abilities, but also their overall economic development and social mobility.
This was evident when Express visited different government schools in Adilabad district, attended by children from tribal communities of Gond, Thoti, Kolam and Pardhan. While the average literacy rate in the state is 66.54 per cent according to 2011 Census, the same among tribal communities was 49.5 per cent. It’s much lower among particular communities like Kolam, at 24.5 per cent. The situation has not changed much since the Census.
For instance, the Lohara village in Adilabad has had a government school for the last 52 years. However, in this area predominantly populated by Gonds and SC communities, only 5-6 students from this school have completed their graduation in the last five decades. What are the reasons for this trend?
“It was very difficult to understand Telugu lessons taught in class,” says Marsukula Nago Rao, a Gond student now pursuing MA in Hindi from Telangana University. “Many of my classmates lost interest and dropped out as they could not understand the concepts. The teachers also never took much interest in teaching. Exams were a nightmare as understanding the question paper in Telugu used to be very taxing.”
Today, there are 20 students studying in Class-I of Lohara village school. But in Class-V there are just four students. Their language skills are so bad that a Class-IV student struggles to write his name in Telugu. It’s at this juncture that the Tribal Welfare Department is mulling over converting these tribal schools into English-medium.
Rote learning is the way here
Colourful charts with Telugu and English alphabets hang from the walls of the Lohara school. In a singsong form, the children loudly read out the alphabets in order. However, when a specific alphabet was pointed out, they could not identify it.
As there is no merit system, all students are promoted without testing their skills. It’s not just languages, many students grappled with basic additions and numerics. Considering such a foundation, it’s not surprising that the pass percentage for Tribal Welfare residential school for girls at Mamidiguda was just 50 per cent.
It is not that the government is ignoring these schools. It is taking efforts in the form of providing infrastructure like beds, meals and sanitary pads for girls. But the language barrier is defeating the very purpose of these institutions.
The education model adopted in schools in cities like Hyderabad or Warangal are no different from tribal hamlets. However, students they are dealing with are widely different, point out experts. “Noam Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device says that children pick up their native language with ease until a critical age of may be around 8 years,” says anthropologist Dyavanapalli Satyanarayana.
“This is why in Finland, which has one of the best education systems, children are admitted to schools only after they turn seven. Similarly, Telangana needs to think about teaching tribal children their native language till they are seven or eight. After that they can make the transition to Telugu or English medium.”
Three-language system
Before the Kothari Commission report on three-language system was proposed, there were about 100 schools in the state where Gondi was being taught, points out Satyanarayana. In 2013, manuscripts were unearthed from Gunjala village in Adilabad. The script used in it was Gondi, also known as Gunjala Gondi Lipi. This threw more light on the language and raised hopes that a formalised script will be available for Gondi.
Prof Jayadheer Thirumala Rao, former director of AP Oriental Manuscripts and Library Research Centre, was one of the persons who discovered the manuscripts, and developed two textbooks for primary children using the script. These textbooks are being used since last four years in 20 schools in Adilabad to teach Gondi script after school hours.
When contacted, Prof Rao said, “Telugu is scaring the tribal children away from formal education. Gonds and the other related tribes - Thoti and Kolams - speak forms of Gondi. There is a need for teaching the Gondi script to theses children till primary level so that they can first get a grip on writing and expressing freely in their mother tongue. In the 20 schools where the script is being taught, I have seen the children write poetry in Gondi. This will make it easier for the children to learn Telugu.” Prof Rao also developed two textbooks for teaching Gondi to adults as part of adult education.
Poor Infrastructure
There are no schools without toilets in Telangana, says the 2015-16 UDISE report. The probably did not count Lohara school, for it has no toilet facility. Not just Lohara, many such small tribal schools stay invisible to reports and studies that paint a rosy big picture, say experts.
Lohara children can be seen passing urine right beside the drinking water source - a tap connected to solar powered RO water purifier.
While the government shows television advertisements — with celebrities as brand ambassador — on importance of washing hands, in the Lohara school there is no soap available to wash hands. Similar case was observed in some other schools as well.
As a result, or otherwise, attendance in these schools are abysmal. “The main reason is tribal festivals that go on for days,” say teachers. Lack of motivation and belief that education will land them in a good job is also a factor.
One common threat observed at the end of interactions with teachers and students across schools was, tribal students were reclusive, shy and sceptical of speaking out, unlike their peers.
Save the children recommends
Multi-grade (varied age groups), multi-level (of learning) and multi-lingual type of classrooms are common. So specially trained teachers in local languages should be introduced at the primary level, which will help in creating a strong foundation
Evaluation standards should be met with and Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation(CCE) should be implemented in these schools at a micro level
Child centric pedagogy should be introduced and ensure that children participate
Learning should be made fun where teachers should be trained to impart learning using child-friendly and interactive teaching-learning methods
Work closely with Children Groups (CGs) and School Management Committees (SMCs) and there should be a systematic redressal mechanism should be in place to address their concerns
Sensitisation among the community members to protect the school and its premises be inculcated
Non Residential Special Training Centres and Residential Special Training Centres as mandated by the Right to Education Act should be implemented better
Academic leadership has to be imbibed by teachers, managements, children and also parents and also government stakeholders
Workbooks under the learning enhancement programme by Save The Children in language (reading and writing) and mathematics, have been taken up by the government. These books can help bridge the gap