Providing Quality Education In Ambedkar Nagar District (U.P.)

Dr. Alok Pandey

Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Allahabad Degree College, Allahabad University,

Allahabad-211001.

*Corresponding Author Email: alokpandeygeog@gmail.com

ABSTRACT:

Ensuring quality education of all children especially in rural area is highest priority of government. Emphasis should be on providing infrastructural support to all existing schools and to ensure quality education rather than increasing the number of school. Needless to say that Government's initiative to provide infrastructural support has improved the situation. Education is a key component of human development. Education has been accepted as a right of every child. It is needed both as an end in itself to enable people to lead a cultural and more satisfying life as well as for developing human capabilities for earning higher income.

KEYWORDS: Number of school, Number Teachers, Infrastructure and Student Teacher Ratio.

INTRODUCTION:

The number of students, attending schools is, rising and 96 percent of children in the age group of 6-14 are enrolled in a school. The foundation to turn India into a strong nation has to be laid down at primary, so the quality of education right from the beginning should be excellent Right to Education Act passed in 2009 made education a fundamental right of every Indian citizen.

India, with more than a billion residents, has the second largest education system in the world (after China). Experts estimate that 32 percent of its current population is under the age of 15 years. Education system has a huge challenge to provide quality education especially in backward region.

There are three dimensions of school education in the district which are equally important: quantity, quality and equality. As we have seen above, the quantitative expansion of education services has been rather rapid and new facilities have been created at all levels of schooling in the district. The quality issue, however, remains weak. The quality of education in the primary education is particularly causing concern. Independent evaluation studies have revealed that the ability of students is very poor in reading, writing and mathematical calculation. The quality is wanting in many other respects too. Now is the time, when physical facilities have been created almost adequately, that attention should be paid to improve quality in education.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

The main objectives are:

· To examine the number of school in study area.

· To analyze the student teacher ratio area in the district.

· To studythe infrastructure in education system.

METHODOLOGY:

The study is based on secondary sources of data taken from statistical Handbook of Ambedkar Nagar district. An attempt has been made to tabulate, process analyze and interpret the infrastructure of education data by applying simple percentage and cartographic technique. Block wise proportion of area under different education level categories has been calculated.

Study Area:

The Ambedkar Nagar district has been selected as a study area which is located between 26°09' N to 26°40' N Latitudes and 82°11' E to 83°08' E longitudes. It occupies a geographical area of about2357 sq. Km. The shape of study region is almost a regular parallelogram with a small projection on north-east jutting into the district of Azamgarh. It is bounded by districts of Faizabad in the west. Sultanpur in the south and Azamgarh in the east. Administratively study region is divided into nine development blocks i.e.Tanda, Baskhari, Ramnagar, Jahangirganj, Jalalpur, Bhiyav, Bhiti, Katehari and Akbarpur (Fig-1).

Fig-1

Education Infrastructure:

School building, furniture, textbooks, libraries, Teacher, Laboratories, uniforms and mid-day meals are basic of school infrastructure. Paucity of proper class rooms is concern in schools. All classrooms need refurbishing or upgrading to acceptable minimum standards for learning. India needs almost more than a million new classrooms largely in rural and marginalized area, to accommodate those who are not in schools and properly accommodate those students already studying in schools. This research paper discusses the progress of education at different levels in the district and the various block initiatives taken in this direction and identifies critical areas for future development. Among other things, it examines the educational status at the district and Block level, progress in educational infrastructure, recent government initiatives in the field of primary and secondary education, expansion of higher and technical education and public expenditure on education in the district. The paper also identifies the future challenges and outlook in the field of education.

The School System:

School education in Ambedkarnagar comprises three stages lower primary (class 1 to v), upper primary (class VI to VIII). and secondary education (Class IX to XII). In terms of organizational structure the school system consists of government schools, private aided schools, private unaided schools, minority institutions and missionary schools. The largest number consists of the private unaided schools. The role of private schooling is rapidly increasing in the district while that of public schooling is declining in relative terms.

Table - 1 :Infrastructure of Education in Ambedkar Nagar District (2015-16)

Blocks	Number of schools			Number of Teachers			Teacher Student Ratio
Blocks	Primary School	Upper Primary School	Secondary School	Primary School	Upper Primary School	Secondary School	Primary School	Upper Primary School	Secondary School
Bhiti	181	100	27	933	328	110	26	36	159
Katechari	229	95	35	1141	363	265	31	46	168
Akbarpur	320	153	40	1118	493	300	52	61	101
Tanda	218	108	33	1151	389	195	30	48	100
Baskhari	186	89	24	1037	455	110	33	41	226
Ramnagar	228	99	31	1190	471	185	31	32	88
Jahangirganj	197	92	30	1139	345	200	34	53	67
Jalalpur	275	126	39	1587	518	245	38	50	128
Bhiyav	227	117	48	1315	491	280	31	38	199
Total Rural	2061	979	307	10611	3853	1890	34	45	134
Total Urban	52	14	41	325	93	250	49	122	156
Total District	2113	993	348	10936	3946	2140	35	47	137

Source: DistrictStatistical Handbook of Ambedkarnagar District 2015-2016.

Teacher Student Ratio Block wise in Ambedkar Nagar District (U.P ) 2015-16

Data on the number of schools, students and teachers and related ratios are given in (table-1). The spread of facilities for lower primary education is the largest followed by senior secondary and high schools and higher secondary schools. The same is the case with the enrollment, which also present a pyramidal picture with a large base, which narrows down as one move higher on the ladder of education(table-1).

Fig. 2

There has been a very marked growth in the educational infrastructure in the district. There has been remarkable in the number of schools in the district 2016-2123 primary, 993 upper primary and 348 secondary schools. Largest increase in the number of schools has taken place after 200-01 reflecting the government's efforts to cover all the unserviced areas by opening schools under the "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan." The earlier norm was to establish a primary school with in 1.5 Km. of any settlement. This has now been reduced to one km.

The Number of Teachers:

The growth in the number of teachers has been much slower as compared to the growth in the number of schools (table-1). The number of teachers has by 109336, 3946 and2140 the Lower primary, upper primary and secondary school level in 2015-16. Consequently a large number of teaching post remained unfilled. The government has tried to fill up this gap.

Teacher- Student Ratio:

The teacher student ratio is an important factor affecting quality of education. The picture is for from satisfactory in this respect. There were 35, 47 and 137 students per teacher in the district in 2015-16at the lower primary, upper primary and secondary Level (table-2). The situation is more adverse in this respect in Baskhari block. Teacher student ratio in secondary Level is very poor.

Small schools are a significant feature of the educational landscape in Ambedkar Nagar, with approximately 70 percent of primary schools having two or fewer teachers to attend to all grade level. If the quality and commitment along with number of teachers can be improved in these schools, then aspiring rural children can fulfill their dreams of doing something great. Some government schools in rural area are overly packed with student, leading to a distorted teacher student ratio. It is difficult for teachers to pay full attention towards each and every student. The pupil to teacher ratio (PTR)in primary and upper primary school in district was 35:1 and 47:1 respectively in 2015-16. The Right to Education (RTE) Act recommended a PTR of 30:1 for primary classes and 35:1 for upper primary classes.

CONCLUSION:

Schools are the temples of learning. Education transforms lives and it is mandatory to build peace, eradicate poverty and drive sustainable development. Student of rural area schools are very talented. They know how to survive in even very harsh situations. They know amazing variety of things. Many children here have amazing skill-drawing, making cane baskets and implements, weaving clothes. Thus, infrastructures have to be upgraded to provide all important forms of Learning.

Ensuring quality education of all children especially in rural area is highest priority of government. Emphasis should be on providing infrastructural support to all existing schools and to ensure quality education rather than increasing the number of school. Needless to say that Government's initiative to provide infrastructural support has improved the situation. Effective implementation of its various schemes for the elementary stage and for secondary level will ensure quality educations to millions of children in rural areas.

REFERENCE:

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2. Kingdon, Geeta and Mohd. Muzammil (2003)Political Economy of Education in India, Teacher Politics in Uttar Pradesh, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

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5. Kothari Commission (1970) Education and National Development: Report of the Education Commission (1964-66), NCERT, New Delhi.

6. "Gross enrollment ratio by level of education" UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved 10 December 2015.

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8. District Statistical Handbook Ambedkarnagar-2015-16.

Received on 28.10.2017 Modified on 18.12.2017

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2018; 9(1): 340-343.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2018.00061.X