Infrastructural Deficit

‘School for government’! The graffiti was written on the wall of one of the government lower primary schools in the hill districts of Manipur. It was written in dark charcoal. A dilapidated structure standing in the middle of the village; the walls are gone; so have the tin roofs and the floorings of the four room structure. Few shabbily clothed children were freely running through the structure. It is difficult to tell whether their parents dressed them that way or the school made them so. It was so dusty. Literally there were no benches or desks. The black board had turned grey; there’s a swing too hanging from old wooden pole which used to be the support for the floor on the rear side of the structure. The villagers have rechristened it as the “Rising Star School” and a young lad, who had just appeared for his Class 10 was in charge. The actual teachers appointed for the school have never turned up, nor have the children ever seen them. This truly is ‘school for government’.
The absence of adequate educational infrastructures in the government schools in the hill districts of Manipur is telling from the above observation. Often available data for the state is misleading for glossing over the inter district disparities. For instance, the 2009 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) on Manipur claims that schools with all teachers present is as low as 15.2 percent. There were also schools with no teacher present (3.0 per cent). Multi-grade classes (different classes sitting together) constitute 28 percent of the total population. Drinking water was available in less than 10 percent of the schools surveyed. Usable toilets existed in only 33 percent of the schools. However, only 5 percent of the schools have toilets for the girls. What the Report, however, does not mentioned is the distribution of these figures between the hill areas and the plains. On the contrary, information collected through Right to Information (RTI) Act revealed that in Ukhrul district, except for a few community constructed toilets, the government, especially the education department, shows complete apathy to this need. Even the highly celebrated Sarva Sikshya Abhijan (SSA) – or Universal Elementary Education Programme -- project claims very high figures in this aspect but most of them are invisible. Hence 95 percent schools are without toilet facility and only 3 percent has girls’ toilet. At the same time, 22 percent supposedly have drinking water facilities but it was found that in many of these schools the water was not potable. At present there are officially less than 3 teachers per school. It is in this context that the District Information System for Education/noted that there is presently a requirement of 1130 teachers and 1218 classrooms in the district. Meanwhile, schools in Phungyar block of the district have a teacher pupil ratio of 1: 102 (while there are reports showing a ratio of 1:1 in some schools in the valley) against the state entitlement ratio of 1:20.
Yet hitherto not even a single teacher is granted through SSA for the district. Faced with such deficits many villages have diverted funds from the midday meals programme for additional teachers. One example of the cumulative effect of all these deficits is the high rate of drop out; officially there is 990 drop-outs for the last academic session in Ukhrul district. But it is feared that the unofficial figure is much more than what is recorded. Moreover, the HSLC examinations result under the Board of Secondary Education Manipur also records several schools with zero pass percentage in the past 9 years. None of the schools have ramps or are differently-abled friendly. Thousands of children are supposedly enrolled in school-less (“building-less”) schools, even when many existing schools have become defunct for want of government support. Interestingly many schools records show zero enrolment speaking volumes about the present status of education in the hill areas of the state. Given such a situation parents are compelled to shift their wards to private schools which, according to 2009 ASER state report, constitute 69 percent of the total number of children enrolled. What is significant to note here is not so much the infrastructural deficits per se that is conspicuous by its absence. On the contrary, the qualitative deficit in education as observed among the hill districts of Manipur is what needs attention. Tokenism should not be equated with quality when it comes to building good citizenry.
In conclusion it is important to note that the acute shortage of educational infrastructures, especially in the hill districts of Manipur, cannot be viewed in isolation from the present political and administrative dynamics between the hill districts and the districts in the valley within the state. From such a perspective it is apparent from the foregoing figures that schools have become more of an issue of ‘governmentality’ rather than empowering and uplifting the life chances of its citizens in a democratic society. This to say that the presence of schools in the hill districts of the state is to remind the people that the state is in control; that the whims and fancies of those in power matters. The French philosopher Michel Foucault said that such practices help keep citizens within the purview of the normalizing gaze of the state, while actually continuing to perpetuate cycles of inequality. Thus, what ultimately matters is establishment of the state’s hegemony and definitely not the qualitative improvement of the lives of the people through education. And the apathy shown towards elementary education, particularly in the hill districts of the state, is a serious concern because the effects have wide ramifications. For one, it ensures that the subsequent generations would continue to remain educationally backward and oppressed. Therefore, the absence of adequate quality educational infrastructures in the hill districts in Manipur cannot be simply set aside as purely an economic issue. It needs to be seen against the political climate within the state while devising solutions if education is to become elementary and fundamental in a progressive democratic country like India.  

(The above article was part of a Panos South Asia commissioning to look at the status of education in interior areas of Manipur)