In Search of the 92%
In Search of the 92%
A look into the current state of rural education
Back in October 2019, I attended a national conference on sustainable development at S.D.D. College, Wada located in Palghar district of Maharashtra. Palghar is a district highly populated by tribal communities and sadly also known for its highly undernourished child population.
At this conference, the Mumbai University pro-vice-chancellor Prof. Ravindra Kulkarni stated that the enrollment rate of Mumbai University for Palghar district is just 8%. This worried me a little so I tried contacting him through the mail for getting University's official data regarding this situation but I didn't receive a reply. The enrollment rate for Higher Secondary Education of this area is on par with urban areas then why the enrollment rate is so low, I was puzzled by this.
As this was bothering me as a professor of this region, I thought why not find out where this remaining 92 % of kids go after Higher Secondary education by myself.
With the help of my student, Mr. Harshal Kudu, I planned & surveyed 100 boys and 100 girls who are taking their Higher Secondary Education in Wada town. All the surveyed students were the ones who travel daily from other villages & Adivasi padas of this region. The survey was carried out at the Wada Bus Stand.
Parameters used in the survey
Upon completion of the survey, I not only found the answer I was looking for but also a few more issues that are going unnoticed by most of us when it comes to rural education.
I'll divide the data analysis and interpretation into three parts namely The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
Note: The images may not appear detailed so you can either zoom in or click on them to view in their original resolution.
1. The Good:
2011s Census shows that Maharashtra's average literacy rate in rural parts was 77.01 %. While male literacy was at 85.15 %, female literacy was lagging behind at just 64.80%. I didn't find any data on literacy primary-secondary-higher education group-wise but I promise you the 2021 Census will show drastic growth in the rural literacy rate (Higher Secondary).
Maharashtra State Literacy (Source: Census 2011)
There is at least a primary Zilha Parishad school in many of the Adivasi padas of the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary and Palghar region. Boys and girls travel 20-30 kilometers daily to take Secondary and Higher Secondary education. This is very uplifting news for us, teachers.
The survey showed that both the boys, as well as the girls, are aiming to take further education. The girls are mostly interested in doing nursing, DMLT, and ITI courses while the boys are leaning more towards engineering and ITI respectively. Very few kids are opting for bachelors and the reasons for this trend, I'll explain in the next part, The Bad.
2. The Bad:
I already knew that students come from long distances to Wada for education but when I put the locations the students come from on a GIS system, I was blown away.
Few villages the Students travel from
As you can see, Wada is like a hub for Higher Secondary Education. Students from all the sides and directions come here just for studying 11th and 12th. And by the way, the polygon I've put on the map covers an area of 623 sq. Kilometers. This is surely not an accurate representation of the region as you can see some villages are barely under the polygon. Had surveyed more subjects, I bet the results would have been more baffling than they already are.
So, here's a question, how much time did you spend traveling while taking Higher Secondary education? In my case, it was just 15 mins in total on foot as the college was just a kilometer away from my house.
These kids on average travel 30 Km every day just for HSc. Few of them travel just 6 km some other few travel as much as 92 km daily.
Now many of you will say, so what? We used to Travel from Asangaon to Thane or Mumbai when we were in the 11th or 12th. Well, see, it was your choice to travel long distances. All of us have at least two to three junior colleges in our localities but we travel long distances just for quality education, and well, fun!
Here the kids don't have the luxury of choice. They HAVE to come to Wada for HSC education.
Do you think I'm exaggerating? Well, here are all the HSc colleges in this region (Sources for this information are students themselves. I fact-checked this information by conversing with locals as well as teachers of this area).
Higher Secondary colleges in the region
As I stated earlier, this is 623 sq. km area and there are only four choices for kids and kids only prefer two of them because of financial issues. For reference, my village covers an area of 2.36 sq. km but we have four Junior colleges in here.
There are few Government Ashram Shalas in areas like Gargaon and Tuse which provide Higher Secondary education but the students said that the education quality isn't as good. I could not find the exact coordinates to put them on the map.
Let's move to the question which started this study. Why the enrollment rate is so low?
Again take a look at the stats. Only 10% out of the surveyed 200 are planning to do bachelors.
Courses the students are going for
Now take a look at the diploma, certificate or higher education colleges in the area.
Higher Education Colleges in the Region
This is why the enrollment rate is so low of Mumbai University in this region. Students don't have enough colleges or courses to apply. And if we are being honest here then a bachelor's degree (on its own) will take you nowhere in regards to the job. Their financial status is not optimal to take education further, they have to find a job and start earning money as soon as possible so they choose courses that have a higher chance of getting a job. This goes both for boys and girls.
Most boys apply for a 1 or 2-year ITI course. Once done with the course, they apply, join for a job in industries either in Boisar, Kudus or Bhiwandi region. The starting pay for these jobs they get is 8000.
Girls, on the other hand, join the nursing college located in Wada and after completion join hospitals where the starting pay is 6000.
I feel sick to say this but I think this is the wisest decision given the circumstances.
37% of students out of surveyed 200 have said that they will take further education after HSc but haven't decided the course yet. This was seen more in girls (47%) than in boys (27%).
One girl said that she is getting married right after her 12th exam. I suspect a few more will be 'doing' the same but I don't have the numbers to support me.
3. The Ugly
How much time should a student spend on traveling daily for Higher Secondary education? Ideally half an hour, maximum should be an hour, right?
Let's see how much time students in this area have to spend on traveling.
The whole backbone of transportation in this region is our State Transport Buses. Buses for them equal to what trains are for us in our lives, our lifeline. Students have to totally rely on buses to reach college and home unless they can afford other forms of transportation such as rickshaws, Magic vehicles or jeeps.
If you compare the distance and time spent on traveling you can imagine how much their time is being wasted just to travel such a small distance. These kids daily spend 2-3 hours more waiting for their bus to arrive when going home. In the morning, the majority of them have to catch buses timed at 06.00 am while the time used for actual transportation is just half an hour or one hour. The frequency of buses is two to three hours on average to these locations which creates another issue, that is, swarming in buses. A bus I travel by in the afternoon time frame (01.00 PM-02,00 PM) is daily filled with around 100 people consisting of students and common passengers. This is the single bus on this route and everyone has to travel by it may they like it or not. ( A State Transport bus has a total of 54 seats.)
Now, adding more buses is not a good alternative because economically it will be unwise but changing the timing of buses to match college timing is. This will reduce the one and a half hours spend by most students in the morning in addition to two-three hours spent waiting in the afternoon. Thus allowing them to follow other interests and do other activities.
Buses are usually delayed for half an hour or for an hour, sometimes even more. Sometimes students have to storm the control room window and demand a bus to be called from the depot.
Many villages like Bhopivali, Indgaon, and Masroli have one or two buses to connect them with Wada. Buses such as Ambai and Khardi are unreliable and get canceled frequently. This might be a revenue generation issue but the State Transport should once again check the population of these areas, it may have increased and adding one or two buses more will not be a problem.
The condition of roads here is good except for a few parts but those are being reconstructed and the transportation will be much better once the work is finished. However, in heavy rains of October 2019, a part of the road connecting Khardi and Wada got damaged- broken into parts. For five months the bus transportation in this area was on halt. I tried calling Wada Bus Depo to check if the bus service on this route has started or not but as usual, they did not pick up my call.
Originally, I had planned to gather all the data from schools and colleges of Wada so that the data set will be much bigger providing more accuracy in interpretation. To do this, I prepared proper permission letters addressed to the principals of two schools, two junior colleges, and one-degree college of Wada town, enclosed them and went to drop them at their respective institutions. Out of five, only one Principal was available from five. Hence, I dropped the rest of the letters to the offices of the respective institutions.
It will be close to four weeks since I dropped the letters and I haven't received a word from any of the principals. A call of approval or denial would have sufficed. Due to this, sadly, I got only 200 students for data collection.
This is ugly but there is something much worse and uglier I got to experience while doing this survey.
The one Principal who was present at the college read the letter asked me why I was doing this and what's the catch. That is fine because it is their data I'm asking for. But he tried to demotivate me saying
'This is all futile and useless. Have you ever traveled by train? When trains are delayed they get swarmed. The same is here. Buses get delayed, buses get swarmed.'
But trains are frequent while the data shows buses are not.
'The Government does not give permission for making new colleges. There are rules and regulations.'
I checked the Ministry of Human Resource Development's website for such an act or rule or Gazzette notification but I found none. Then I contacted a Government official working in Jawhar region's Tribal Development Department but he said that you can start a college given that you have enough student strength.
The Principal's one line that struck me the most was,
'If the government starts putting colleges everywhere, how will students come to our college? You don't understand this at all. '
You are the principal of an important college of this area and if your vision is so selfish and limited how can we entrust you with our kids?
Even if you are an experienced higher authority please don't try to talk people down. Even if our efforts are futile and non-productive, you can take chances and have some faith in young blood.
For summing this whole exercise up I'll say I did finally found the answer to where 92% of students go but this search also raised a few questions which can only be solved by the collective efforts of the State Education Authority, State Transport and active participation of the rural community in rural development programs.
I said in my letter, and I will say it here again, these institutions are sitting on a gold mine of data which can be used to improve the transportation and education services in this area.
Mumbai University has understood various issues the students face in the Palghar region and has planned to construct a new office in Palghar for the convenience of students as well as teachers and college office staff. The University is also planning to introduce courses to which the kids here will feel more connected such as Tribal arts and crafts.
Hope this will help the University to increase its enrollment rate.
What commoners can do? Well, if you ever travel in these areas by bus and you see kids from 4th-5th class standing with those heavy school bags on their back; give a little space on your seat for them to sit. Such small generosities can help the kids to be more attentive at school.
At this conference, the Mumbai University pro-vice-chancellor Prof. Ravindra Kulkarni stated that the enrollment rate of Mumbai University for Palghar district is just 8%. This worried me a little so I tried contacting him through the mail for getting University's official data regarding this situation but I didn't receive a reply. The enrollment rate for Higher Secondary Education of this area is on par with urban areas then why the enrollment rate is so low, I was puzzled by this.
As this was bothering me as a professor of this region, I thought why not find out where this remaining 92 % of kids go after Higher Secondary education by myself.
With the help of my student, Mr. Harshal Kudu, I planned & surveyed 100 boys and 100 girls who are taking their Higher Secondary Education in Wada town. All the surveyed students were the ones who travel daily from other villages & Adivasi padas of this region. The survey was carried out at the Wada Bus Stand.
|
| Parameters used in the survey |
I'll divide the data analysis and interpretation into three parts namely The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
Note: The images may not appear detailed so you can either zoom in or click on them to view in their original resolution.
1. The Good:
2011s Census shows that Maharashtra's average literacy rate in rural parts was 77.01 %. While male literacy was at 85.15 %, female literacy was lagging behind at just 64.80%. I didn't find any data on literacy primary-secondary-higher education group-wise but I promise you the 2021 Census will show drastic growth in the rural literacy rate (Higher Secondary).
|
| Maharashtra State Literacy (Source: Census 2011) |
There is at least a primary Zilha Parishad school in many of the Adivasi padas of the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary and Palghar region. Boys and girls travel 20-30 kilometers daily to take Secondary and Higher Secondary education. This is very uplifting news for us, teachers.
|
The survey showed that both the boys, as well as the girls, are aiming to take further education. The girls are mostly interested in doing nursing, DMLT, and ITI courses while the boys are leaning more towards engineering and ITI respectively. Very few kids are opting for bachelors and the reasons for this trend, I'll explain in the next part, The Bad.
I already knew that students come from long distances to Wada for education but when I put the locations the students come from on a GIS system, I was blown away.
|
| Few villages the Students travel from |
So, here's a question, how much time did you spend traveling while taking Higher Secondary education? In my case, it was just 15 mins in total on foot as the college was just a kilometer away from my house.
These kids on average travel 30 Km every day just for HSc. Few of them travel just 6 km some other few travel as much as 92 km daily.
Now many of you will say, so what? We used to Travel from Asangaon to Thane or Mumbai when we were in the 11th or 12th. Well, see, it was your choice to travel long distances. All of us have at least two to three junior colleges in our localities but we travel long distances just for quality education, and well, fun!
Here the kids don't have the luxury of choice. They HAVE to come to Wada for HSC education.
Do you think I'm exaggerating? Well, here are all the HSc colleges in this region (Sources for this information are students themselves. I fact-checked this information by conversing with locals as well as teachers of this area).
|
| Higher Secondary colleges in the region |
There are few Government Ashram Shalas in areas like Gargaon and Tuse which provide Higher Secondary education but the students said that the education quality isn't as good. I could not find the exact coordinates to put them on the map.
Let's move to the question which started this study. Why the enrollment rate is so low?
Again take a look at the stats. Only 10% out of the surveyed 200 are planning to do bachelors.
|
| Courses the students are going for |
Now take a look at the diploma, certificate or higher education colleges in the area.
|
| Higher Education Colleges in the Region |
This is why the enrollment rate is so low of Mumbai University in this region. Students don't have enough colleges or courses to apply. And if we are being honest here then a bachelor's degree (on its own) will take you nowhere in regards to the job. Their financial status is not optimal to take education further, they have to find a job and start earning money as soon as possible so they choose courses that have a higher chance of getting a job. This goes both for boys and girls.
Most boys apply for a 1 or 2-year ITI course. Once done with the course, they apply, join for a job in industries either in Boisar, Kudus or Bhiwandi region. The starting pay for these jobs they get is 8000.
Girls, on the other hand, join the nursing college located in Wada and after completion join hospitals where the starting pay is 6000.
I feel sick to say this but I think this is the wisest decision given the circumstances.
37% of students out of surveyed 200 have said that they will take further education after HSc but haven't decided the course yet. This was seen more in girls (47%) than in boys (27%).
One girl said that she is getting married right after her 12th exam. I suspect a few more will be 'doing' the same but I don't have the numbers to support me.
3. The Ugly
How much time should a student spend on traveling daily for Higher Secondary education? Ideally half an hour, maximum should be an hour, right?
Let's see how much time students in this area have to spend on traveling.
The whole backbone of transportation in this region is our State Transport Buses. Buses for them equal to what trains are for us in our lives, our lifeline. Students have to totally rely on buses to reach college and home unless they can afford other forms of transportation such as rickshaws, Magic vehicles or jeeps.
If you compare the distance and time spent on traveling you can imagine how much their time is being wasted just to travel such a small distance. These kids daily spend 2-3 hours more waiting for their bus to arrive when going home. In the morning, the majority of them have to catch buses timed at 06.00 am while the time used for actual transportation is just half an hour or one hour. The frequency of buses is two to three hours on average to these locations which creates another issue, that is, swarming in buses. A bus I travel by in the afternoon time frame (01.00 PM-02,00 PM) is daily filled with around 100 people consisting of students and common passengers. This is the single bus on this route and everyone has to travel by it may they like it or not. ( A State Transport bus has a total of 54 seats.)
Now, adding more buses is not a good alternative because economically it will be unwise but changing the timing of buses to match college timing is. This will reduce the one and a half hours spend by most students in the morning in addition to two-three hours spent waiting in the afternoon. Thus allowing them to follow other interests and do other activities.
Buses are usually delayed for half an hour or for an hour, sometimes even more. Sometimes students have to storm the control room window and demand a bus to be called from the depot.
Many villages like Bhopivali, Indgaon, and Masroli have one or two buses to connect them with Wada. Buses such as Ambai and Khardi are unreliable and get canceled frequently. This might be a revenue generation issue but the State Transport should once again check the population of these areas, it may have increased and adding one or two buses more will not be a problem.
The condition of roads here is good except for a few parts but those are being reconstructed and the transportation will be much better once the work is finished. However, in heavy rains of October 2019, a part of the road connecting Khardi and Wada got damaged- broken into parts. For five months the bus transportation in this area was on halt. I tried calling Wada Bus Depo to check if the bus service on this route has started or not but as usual, they did not pick up my call.
Originally, I had planned to gather all the data from schools and colleges of Wada so that the data set will be much bigger providing more accuracy in interpretation. To do this, I prepared proper permission letters addressed to the principals of two schools, two junior colleges, and one-degree college of Wada town, enclosed them and went to drop them at their respective institutions. Out of five, only one Principal was available from five. Hence, I dropped the rest of the letters to the offices of the respective institutions.
It will be close to four weeks since I dropped the letters and I haven't received a word from any of the principals. A call of approval or denial would have sufficed. Due to this, sadly, I got only 200 students for data collection.
This is ugly but there is something much worse and uglier I got to experience while doing this survey.
The one Principal who was present at the college read the letter asked me why I was doing this and what's the catch. That is fine because it is their data I'm asking for. But he tried to demotivate me saying
'This is all futile and useless. Have you ever traveled by train? When trains are delayed they get swarmed. The same is here. Buses get delayed, buses get swarmed.'
But trains are frequent while the data shows buses are not.
'The Government does not give permission for making new colleges. There are rules and regulations.'
I checked the Ministry of Human Resource Development's website for such an act or rule or Gazzette notification but I found none. Then I contacted a Government official working in Jawhar region's Tribal Development Department but he said that you can start a college given that you have enough student strength.
The Principal's one line that struck me the most was,
'If the government starts putting colleges everywhere, how will students come to our college? You don't understand this at all. '
You are the principal of an important college of this area and if your vision is so selfish and limited how can we entrust you with our kids?
Even if you are an experienced higher authority please don't try to talk people down. Even if our efforts are futile and non-productive, you can take chances and have some faith in young blood.
For summing this whole exercise up I'll say I did finally found the answer to where 92% of students go but this search also raised a few questions which can only be solved by the collective efforts of the State Education Authority, State Transport and active participation of the rural community in rural development programs.
I said in my letter, and I will say it here again, these institutions are sitting on a gold mine of data which can be used to improve the transportation and education services in this area.
Mumbai University has understood various issues the students face in the Palghar region and has planned to construct a new office in Palghar for the convenience of students as well as teachers and college office staff. The University is also planning to introduce courses to which the kids here will feel more connected such as Tribal arts and crafts.
Hope this will help the University to increase its enrollment rate.
What commoners can do? Well, if you ever travel in these areas by bus and you see kids from 4th-5th class standing with those heavy school bags on their back; give a little space on your seat for them to sit. Such small generosities can help the kids to be more attentive at school.
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