In Jammu and Kashmir schools in remote areas need a roof

Pick up the manifesto of any party contesting for the Lok Sabha elections this year and one common thread running across party lines is the education agenda.

While one party pledged to increase public spending on education from the current 4% of gross domestic product to a promising 6%, laying special emphasis on education and skill development, another focused on providing secondary education and removing bottlenecks to higher education. Newer entrants to the political scene highlighted the need to bring the level of education in government schools at par with private schools.

Every party recognizes the need to improve the quality of education and make it accessible to every Indian child. And yet, despite decades of investment of time, resources and efforts, this much-aspired-dream of an educated India has remained a pipe dream.

Many schemes have been launched by different Governments; the consistent setback has come from poor implementation of such schemes. The number and variety of schemes announced by a government is not of as much consequence as how it executes them on the ground - more so in areas difficult to access.

Schemes are often launched by well-meaning officials using a one-size-fits-all approach, but a nation as geographically diverse as India calls for creativity of an unusual kind. The demands on implementers of these common schemes vary - the challenges faced in habitations tucked away in the Himalayan region are different from those in the dark canopied forests in central and eastern India, as are the trials of those required to deliver basic services in far-flung island territories. Putting in place the necessary infrastructure under the Right to Education Act, for instance, is easier in a Government school in Delhi than in a remote, hilly district made worse by conflict and uncertainty like in India's volatile borders. Difficulty to access a region simply increases the chances of implementation being peppered with lapses.

In July last year, a report in a leading newspaper in Jammu highlighted the Government's inability to carry out physical verification of school buildings in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It reflected on the reports of alleged misappropriation of funds worth hundreds of crores of rupees released for construction of school buildings under Centrally sponsored Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) scheme in Jammu and Kashmir, even as the State Government was struggling to put together the real picture, with District officials not responding to the Education Minister's queries and instructions in this regard.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Central Government's flagship programme in partnership with State Governments, is mandated to open new schools in habitations that do not have schooling facilities. It is also intended to strengthen the existing infrastructure in school with provisions like additional classrooms, toilets, drinking water, maintenance grants and school improvement grants. Schools with inadequate number of teachers are given provisions for additional teachers, while the quality of teaching is being improved with extensive training, grants for developing teaching-learning materials and strengthening of the academic support structure at the cluster, block and district levels.

Under the well-intentioned SSA scheme, launched in the state of J and K in 2002, over 10,000 new Primary and Middle level schools were opened across the state. A number of these SSA school buildings allegedly exist only on paper, claim media reports, with funds being siphoned off by government employees in connivance with the contractors.

A considerable number of school buildings and classrooms remain incomplete, allege the reports, with funds being diverted for other purposes or misappropriated. The highest instances of such irregularities reportedly occur in the most remote areas of under-developed districts like Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Kishtwar and Kupwara.

Even today, such cases are not difficult to find in the border district of Poonch along the LoC, where school buildings reflect the sordid state of education in India's farthest villages. In Marhote Village of Surankote Block in Poonch District, for instance, a Primary school was established in 2004 under the SSA scheme as an Education Guarantee Scheme Centre. Till 2008, it provided school education without a building. Teachers appointed on a salary of a thousand rupees a month did not receive any monetary compensation for nearly four years. In 2008, the school was upgraded and received official recognition, now christened Government Primary School, Chhapran, Marhote.

At this point, the teachers at the school received a 'promotion' under the Rehber-e-Talim (ReT) scheme and became eligible for a salary of Rupees 1500 a month. That year, a three-room building was also sanctioned. But the optimism was short-lived; construction stopped soon after it started owing to a land dispute.

It is pertinent to mention here that the State does not make any payment for the land. Villagers donate a piece of land for the purpose and the cost of construction is borne by the Government. The row regarding the land was resolved after continuous efforts of villagers in 2010 but soon after, construction came to a halt yet again.

Today, the building stands roofless. According to Ishtiaq Ahmed, the teacher in charge of the school, "There are 40 students studying here. Since the building is still incomplete, we have been running the School in a Kuccha House for the last ten years." He also pointed out wryly that the condition of the school building is no different from the state of his own affairs since, despite being promised a permanent job after seven years, the Government has failed to fulfil its promise even after ten long years.

To know the other side of the story, Mohammad Rashid, the contractor for the construction of the school was contacted. According to him, the estimated cost sanctioned was insufficient as cost of construction is far higher in such remote areas. "The budget for the construction is decided by people sitting in Delhi, and the rate is uniform across states. In hilly areas like Poonch, the cost is far higher."

The Charkha Development Communication network wants to point out that in a village as populated as Marhot, locally referred to as the vote bank, such disappointing conditions are merely an indication of what lies in store for the smaller, even more remote villages where children wait for a roof over their heads and school books.

The views expressed in the article are of the author, who could be reached at charkha@bol.net.in .

.