Bridging the rural-urban education gap
OF the children who took part in the Primary School Terminal Examinations, the three topmost scorers are from the rural areas. In the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations, on the other hand, the students from urban background fare better than their rural counterparts. The reasons for their better performance are obvious. The guardians and teachers of the students lay much importance on this certificate giving public examination. Which is why the exams and the top scorers get the highest publicity in the media and attention among the public.
But the primary final students so far did not enjoy that kind of importance. With the primary final school tests getting the status of public exams on a nationwide scale from this year, and with the prospect that the successful students would be awarded with grades, there is no reason why the best performers in these exams will not be able to bask in the glory of media spotlight from now on. And they have already had a taste of such media treatment. On this score, another stimulus to the primary students and teachers would be that the prime minister herself will give away awards among the three top scoring students as well as the best schools, teachers and other staff, on January 6, 2010.
In the urban context, parents, their children and the teachers have not failed to notice the superb performance of the rural students. Naturally, they will now gird up their loins for next year's primary school finals. The resources they invest for their secondary school and higher secondary level boys and girls will now be used for the primary level children, too, so that they might snatch the top positions for themselves in the next exam.
The scenario brings to the fore the fact that excellence in exams is no birthright of the students from urban setting. The children of rural backgrounds, too, could perform as well had their parents, teachers and schools been able to dedicate substantial learning resources, if not comparable to their urban counterparts, for them.
It is not only the rural versus the urban considerations that weigh in the results of the public examinations. There are yet other points of inequality that cut across rural-urban barriers. English medium schools in the cities, for example, provide a kind of education that the children of well-off parents can afford. They are different from the schools of the general stream. There are still other categories of schools in the big towns, the premises of which even the children of the modestly rich cannot dream of treading. These are very, very special schools. Their tuition fees are astronomically high. Perhaps they serve the children of royalties and business tycoons of global standing.
One wonders how such schools run viably in a country that is ranked as one of the poorest on earth!
Though it all speaks of the serious disparities and anomalies in our education system, the starting point at issue was the relative merit of the urban and the rural children in regard to their performance in the schools. The argument was that if the rural children get adequate attention supported by matching resources, they could perform equally if not better than the urban children.
But what are the ways to reduce the educational gap between the urban and the rural schoolchildren? The rural-urban resource and privilege gaps are so huge that it would be a ridiculous proposition to think of any change in the situation overnight. But at the same time it is also true that in spite of this seemingly irreconcilable difference in the present outlook of the cities vis-à-vis the villages in the sphere of education, there are still things that money alone cannot buy.
And it is about the devotion, dedication and sacrifice of the teachers and the schools towards the cause of educating their students that can beat even the most resourceful schools, their students and the very affluent parents. Add to it the hard work of the children themselves and the sacrifice of their guardians.
That it is not wishful thinking has been proved more than once when a child of underprivileged background comes out with brilliant performance in the school certificate exams. And it is not also due to their extraordinary talents that they make excellent performance. In every case, in addition to the devotion and perseverance of the students and sacrifice of the guardians concerned, one would find the contribution of an often unknown and unsung hero. Most often that hero is a teacher or a great patron of education.
Not in the very distant past, one would come across great educational institutions, both schools and colleges, situated in the remote countryside. Some teachers of those institutions earned national eminence. It is the community, and especially those great, committed teachers, who were behind success of those institutions. What did motivate those great souls to spend their entire life in the remote part of a country, if not for the benefits, perks and privileges that go with any good job in modern parlance?
Those great educational institutions and the legendary names in the noble mission of teaching are now a rarity. With general erosion of values in every aspect of life, the ideal of devotion to and selflessness for the cause of educating the next generation is giving way to philistinism, selfishness and pure business. To arrest the decline, good teachers who love their profession as a mission have to be given due recognition by the community and the state. For, in the final analysis, education is a pursuit that cannot be left solely to the urge for business and moneymaking.
Emphasis on teaching as a mission does not imply that schools and teachers, in the rural areas in particular, do not need any resources. Of course, they need those, and the community and the government should make every effort to reward those committed institutions and teachers with adequate resources so that they might continue with their missions and inspire others to emulate.
Syed Fattahul Alim is a senior journalist.
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