1. Background

Literacy figures for Himachal Pradesh are impressive. With around 80 % overall literacy, the state’s achievement is cited as a success story. While this maybe so, there is another dimension to this success story that is less talked of and could ultimately nullify the gains made if not addressed urgently. This has to do with the quality of education. Particularly for girls, who face cultural, social and gender barriers that debilitate against their acquiring a useful education.

Life in the high mountains of Lag valley has always been difficult. A scattered settlement pattern, typical of higher altitudes (above 2400 metres), with livelihood dependence on subsistence, rainfed agriculture, livestock rearing and free access to natural resources characterises the economy. While there is easy access to primary schools for most village children (the key reason behind the high literacy level), middle and high schools are more difficult to reach. For many girls this becomes a barrier contributing to a higher drop out rate among them. Even when there is part access by road, the daily bus fare becomes a barrier for the poorer households wanting to school their daughters.

2. Analysis of schooling status:

1. Household data was collected family wise and was later cross checked in a group meeting attended by both men and women. The figures show that there are 25 households in the village with total population of 168 persons (Annex 2). Out of the total population, 74 are below 18 years of age and of these 22 children are in the 0-6 age group. Interestingly, the sex ratio in the 0 – 18 age group is in favour of females (40 females to 34 males), which is contrary to the general trend in sex ratio in the district and the state. Ironically, this could well become an indicator of backwardness and poverty.
2. Data shows that of the 74 children (including 0-6 age group) in the village, 38 are going to school and the remaining 14 children dropped out of school in classes 4, 5 and 6 (Annex 3). In last two years 2 children dropped out of school and according to a parent, children in class 1- 5 are hardly ever detained even if they are weak in studies. From class 6 th class onwards the teachers fail the students who are likely to fail in next class i.e. 7 th and 8 th. Poor Board result is considered adverse for the school and as well as for the teacher.
3. Interaction with some of the school going children revealed that they repeatedly fail the math, science and English papers and that teaching in these subjects is far from satisfactory. This is again evident from the May 2006 examination results for Class X recently announced by the HP Board of School Education where most children have failed these subjects. In another village while a 10 th class girl was able to read her English text book rather fluently, when asked whether she understood what she was reading, the girl replied in the negative. High school students were asked to solve simple sums in arithmetic involving division or percentages; alarmingly, most were unable to even attempt the questions methodically, leave alone doing them right.
4. Students failing in higher classes especially from class 6 onwards in subjects like English and Math can be attributed to poor standards in primary classes. Some of the teachers when contacted were of the opinion that revised syllabus for English and Math for primary students is very tough and since there are too many children in these classes it is difficult for the teacher pay attention to all the children. One teacher jokingly observed that there is more focus on mid day meal than teaching in primary schools. According to Mr. Satya Pal, vice principal, Shalang Government high school lack of parental check on children is a major reason for poor performance and also for high drop out rate. Poor teacher student ratio in most of the rural schools is also another factor for poor quality education. Many of the parents mentioned that the schools were collecting Rs 10 to 20 a month per child to pay salaries to the ad hoc / temporary teachers. Another crucial issue (not much talked about) relates to teacher absenteeism. Teachers generally close ranks and deny any such practice when confronted. This is more severe is remote, primary schools. Parents seems to be at a loss to deal with this problem.
5. Discussion with the women groups indicated that most of the children are not going to school because of the mindset of the parents or due to parents’ inability to afford school expenses. They also said that sometimes children themselves are not interested despite pressure from the parents to continue. In another group discussion, one of the fathers opined that when a child is young, say upto class 6, it was undoubtedly the responsibility of the parents to ensure that their children go to school, but later when the children are in higher classes, it was entirely upto to them to attend and take interest in studies. This apparently was not happening looking at the high drop out rates after class 6.
6. A probable reason for children not attending or not doing well in school could be linked to the fact that in about 95 percent of households male members migrate for 8-9 months in a year for wire-span work in other regions of H.P. According to members present in the meeting, the women left behind are unable to influence or force their grown up children (esp. boys) to keep going to school. Four school going kids were sitting at home that day and on asking it was found that there was no particular reason for their staying back home. Geeta in class 7 said that her uniform was not washed and that’s why she stayed back. Other three children stayed back for no apparent reason. This according to Tek Chand this is also because of parents’ attitude. No questions are ever asked as to why they haven’t gone to school. He even suggested that we visit the school and ask teachers about lenient attitude of SC parents.
7. Financial vulnerability forces women to resort to taking loans and greatly depend on daily waged work which keeps them away from the home for the greater part of the day. Almost all members in the village are under some debt.
8. High drop out rate in case of girls in classes 5, 6 and 7 was observed and on probing it was found when there is any prolonged illness or additional work like local festivals or marriages in the house, the girls are forced to skip school, in some cases to drop out and take care of household chores. The school going girls are also made to attend to household work as soon as they come back from school. Anarkala, the only girl from Dongkri studying in class 8 said that she hardly gets time to study even during exams. She regularly cooks, cleans and washes dishes as soon as she is home from school. Since women go out to earn daily wage often a lot of household work remains undone and as result daughters are made to take charge of the basic household chores.
9. Since most of parents are illiterate, possibilities are that parents do not give importance to educating their children. Parents who send one child to school make sure that their other siblings also go to school. Three such cases were observed. If there is any resource crunch in the household, girls are first ones to be withdrawn from school. It would be interesting to document how many girls have been withdrawn from school under such circumstances? Also households who have never sent their kids to school.

Voice of Geeta

15 year old Geeta (who looked half her age) has dropped out of school after passing class 5 in March 06 as her parents reportedly could not afford the admission fee and other school expenses like school bag, shoes, notebooks etc. She said that uptil class 5 school uniform is provided by the school and the admission fee is nominal. In class 6, Rs 140 is to be given at the time of admission and thereafter Rs 18 per month. Other expenses include text books, shoes, notebooks, geometry box, pen, school bag and additional contribution of Rs 3-5 for each function held in the school. Her 2 younger brothers continue studying; one in class 3 and the other in class 4. Her parents work as daily wagers and she looks after the house including cooking, cleaning, washing everyone’s clothes, taking cowdung to fields etc. (could this be the real reason for her dropping out?) When asked whether she would like to continue her studies, a big nod and sparkle in her eyes said it all.

4. Key points of discussion held with teachers:

1. Children do not get all their books and notebooks to school on a regular basis and as a result there is no check on their performance. Despite numerous reminders to the parents and the children, they continue to either leave all their books in the school desk or at home. (The actual reason could well have to do with the weight of the books and the distances the children have to cover to & from school? Further, if only one page or so is to be studied for a particular day in a book that weighs around a kilo, children esp the younger ones would be very reluctant to carry heavy school bags around)
2. Absenteeism is fairly high among children of Scheduled Caste groups. Attending marriages, local festivals and melas (and these are quite frequent) is major excuse for kids to skip school. Laid-back attitude of elders / parents also encourages this.
3. Since there are instructions from Government not to fail pupils upto class 5, most children even when their performance is below mark are promoted to the next class. Drop out in primary school is very low. However, this could be a basic reason for these very same children not doing well later in higher classes and failing then leads to high drop out rate? In higher classes the syllabi for English, Math and Science are quite tough and it would seem that with poor foundation in primary school, many children are simply unable to cope.
4. On asking whether money was any constraint for student who drop out after class 5 especially SC girls, most of the teachers felt that such cases are very few.
5. SC girls from classes 1-8 get stipend of Rs 500 per annum and in class 9-10 Rs 600 per annum is given. The post matric scholarship is about Rs 1600 per annum for both SC girls and boys.
6. There is a scheme called “Disability Scholarship”. Under this a child with 40 % or more disability (this has to be certified by appropriate medical authority) is entitled to Rs 150 pm during primary school, Rs 200 pm for middle school, Rs 250 pm during high school, Rs 300 for senior secondary and Rs 350 pm for graduation (3 years in college).

Another scheme “Balika Samridhi Yojna” targets the girl child from IRDP households born after 1997. Under this scheme Govt makes annual payments into a recurring deposit bank account in the name of the child at the following rates: Rs 300 from classes 1 – 3; Rs 500 for class 4; Rs 600 for 5 th; Rs 700 for 6 th & 7 th; Rs 800 for 8 th class and Rs 1000 for classes 9 th and 10 th. These amounts with interest can only be encashed when the child reaches the age of 18.

The local school teacher from Dongkri village Sh Tek Chand, pointed out that the paper work and transaction cost that are required to access the Govt schemes for scholarships are beyond the capacity of most parents and constitute a major reason why they were unable to avail them! The transaction cost is generally more than the value of the scholarship.

Resultantly, none of the Dongkri children were availing the Government scholarships meant for SCs.

Again, while 10 of the 22 disabled persons in the village are below 18 years of age, none have any access to any welfare scheme or to institutions for the disabled. Most of the blind, deaf and dumb children can be supported to attend appropriate schools and seek a reasonable livelihood. Because of cultural and social barriers, even those disable children who could well attend normal schools are not doing so. (Please see Annex 4)

Annex 1. Indicators to identify poor households

1. Landholding less than 5 Bighas (1 acre) and/ or the current food production able to meet two to three months food requirement of the family.
2. Annual income less than Rs 26,460 (slightly more than USD1/ Day);
3. Acutely dependent on forest - sell fuelwood, hay, medicinal plants, etc.
4. All the family members of the households are illiterate (studied upto fourth standard); (Initially it was presumed that persons who have studied in school upto 5 th class level are literate. However, field experience through frequent training has shown that the time elapsed between leaving school and reading/ writing skills being put to use is what actually determines functional literacy. It has been seen in most cases that where this time gap is over 4/5 years, most persons especially women tend to lapse into illiteracy. Thus women who have studied upto classes 8 or 9 are actually unable to use literacy skills say after a gap of 10 to 15 years. This has several important implications for training strategy and methodology).
5. Family living in two-room kutcha house;
6. Animals and the family staying in the same house;
7. IRDP family; (The criteria for selection as an IRDP family by Government is not very clear. It seems the panchayats are involved in this exercise and this is said to lead to influential persons becoming IRDP families. Further an IRDP family remains so only for 5 years and it is assumed that during or after that period the family has crossed the poverty line permanently. This obviously is not the case as several households now identified to be poor as per these criteria were earlier IRDP families!)
8. Widow or Women headed household; (Very often widows live either with their parents or with their in-laws, as in a joint family. While this may grant her more physical and social security, it may also severely limit her and her childrens' options to secure improved economic and social independence. This situation needs to be differentiated from households where women are actually the head of the household and take day to day decisions either because they are widows or beacuse their husbands are migrant labour/ in service outside).
9. Family members prone to frequent illness; (This actually refers to chronic illness that pulls the household economy down. Persons or children with permanent/ congenital disabilities need to be included here, perhaps separately. Statistics on persons with disabilities is totally lacking. Such households continue to remain extremely vulnerable).
10. Household with more than two children; (Clarity about the age of children is necessary here. It has been seen that several girls (<18 years>) are married and some may have children of their own. Also we need to be clear whether we are talking about 3 children to a couple or 3 children in the household?).
11. Children above 8 years working for wages;
12. Households with only desi breed livestock; (Livestock here needs to be differentiated into cattle and/ or milch cattle and goats and sheep. Households with many (say > 20) goats and sheep in addition to the average holding of hill cattle, would not normally be locally poor)
13. Households wothout electricity, tapped water; (In Lag valley most of the households have electricity. In terms of women's drudgery context, what seems more relevant is whether women in the household have any alternative means of cooking like LPG, Kerosene, etc. This has direct implications not only for the status of burnable biomass availability but for time available for women to pursue other social or economic activities. Unlike electricity, tapped water on the other hand is not available to most households and in seasons of water scarcity people have to resort to fetching water from distant sources, work that often falls on women disproportionately).
14. Daily wages is a main source of income;
15. Dependent on local moneylenders (including obtaining food-grains/ ration on credit from local shopkeepers) to meet basic needs.
16. Scheduled Caste Households
17. Family member with permanent disability

(Of the 17 indicators listed above, if a household in the project area meets with any 9, then the woman/ women of that household qualify to be included as group members)

Annex 2 Basic Data of Dunkri Village - Dunkhrigahar Panchayat May 2006