CHANDIGARH: Despite Punjab’s progress in all fields, its infrastructures facility base in terms of books, furniture, playgrounds and sports material, seats in classrooms drinking water, etc. are woefully inadequate.

The situation is still worse in the three border districts of Ferozepor Amritsar and Gurdaspur.

Education has not been the state government’s priority and the growth of education has been slow during 1971-81 and the flow of money irregular and insufficient though the state has a high per capita income, it has a low literacy rate as compared to other states.

Within the state it is interesting to find that a district which has a high per capita income has a low literacy rare and vice versa.

More stress has been laid on general education and not on technical or vocational education all these years.

In the process, there are gross disparities within the districts. The lopsided growth of education is more pronounced in the case Of the three border districts,

‘School sans buildings

Few know that more than 6% of the primary schools in the state are without buildings and 12% of the schools in a “miserable” condition; or that over, 70%. of primary school students sit on the floor and another 28% on “tat-pati”, As far as averages are concerned, only 1.84 blackboards are there for 100 children, eight books available for 100 enrolled children in border districts; or only 1.61 acre of land available as playgrounds for every 1,000 children with practically no sports activities.

These stark facts have been brought to the attention of the Punjab planning department in a report prepared by Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID). The chapter on manpower planning dealing with growth, development and impact of education in Punjab with special reference to border areas makes interesting reading.

Fall in literacy rate

The literacy rate in Punjab has declined: its rank has fallen from 12 (1971) to 17 (1981), the position in terms of literacy among females, rural and the Scheduled Castes is no better.

Punjab’s expenditure on education is 2.7% of the state’s net domestic product between 197980 and 198182 as compared to the all-State average of 3.3%; This puts Punjab in the 16th place, There has been inconsistent flow of funds, showing, lack of proper policy in terms of allocation, Against a share of 9.73% during the 1968-69 annual plan, it declined to 1.12 in 1986-87, the study reveals.

With escalating terrorism, particularly in the three border districts, the study should prove useful in mapping out plans f for finding jobs for the youth.

The state government has a number of schemes to provide jobs to youth and wean them away from the gun. There is, often, a hue and cry over the slow pace of such job oriented schemes. The fact is that the required number of employable youth is just not there. There is a mismatch between the literacy growth and imparting of skills.

The planners have been that opening of new schools and reducing ‘the distance of schools from the children’s homes would not pay.

Worst affected

The study has revealed dissimilarities within the three border districts as well to show that the border zone is still the worst compared to other areas in the state.

Of the primary schools without any building, 22% are in Gurdaspur, 10.5% in Amritsar and 7% in Ferozepur, In other words, 40% of the roofless schools are in the three border districts, which account for 30% of the state’s population. Of the three districts Gurdaspur appears to be better off.

It is also an irony that nearly 60% of the population

The condition is no better in the south and southwestern districts of Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepor and Sangrur. The CRRID study team came across schools with no teachers or just a single teacher. Of late, teachers have not been attending schools in the border areas.

The study has tried to find a link between education and socioeconomic as well as politico cultural aspects and has said that the low literacy growth could be attributed to the lack of political will on the part of the government to universalize education,

Article extracted from this publication >> December 7, 1990