Education in Kerala

PERFORMANCE OF KERALA IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR – A BRIEF NOTE

Pranjali Bandhu

Although Kerala ranks high among the States in India for its budgetary allocation to education, percentage of public expenditure on education as percentage of total expenditure shows a declining trend since the post-reform period. From 6% of the NSDP (Net State Domestic Product) in the sixties and seventies it came down to below 4% of NSDP in the first decade of the 21st century. In Kerala, too, there is a bifurcation of the primary education sector into the private commercialized sector and the government run and aided schools. Schools run as big businesses are mainly owned by the various denominations of the Church, other religious organizations, liquor businesses and NRIs. Profit maximization is a major aim of these business groups who may often run a chain of educational institutions. This sector is said to be as profitable as the liquor sector. The appreciation of real estate value has to be added to the yearly profits.

Among the schools run by the government there are those that are directly funded and owned by the State government, the schools that are funded and owned by the Central government, and the schools that are operated by private agencies but aided by the State government. The majority of the schools are owned and operated directly by the State government. The Central government schools are few in number and are meant for children of Central government employees and hence limited in coverage and scope. Theoretically, the government has several special programmes of schooling for Adivasis, fisherfolk and other deprived sections of the people. Not surprisingly, it is this sub sector that is in the worst condition. The State government has closed down or downsized a large number of schools run by it citing their ‘non-viability’ due to lack of adequate pupil strength. Most of these schools were in the coastal or hilly areas catering to deprived sections of the population. Divisions were cancelled in several schools to make them more ‘viable’. During the same period when the government was closing down its own schools it was also recognizing new private schools at a fast pace enabling their proliferation.

The government did not think of looking into the reasons behind the drop in strength of a large number of schools run by it. Apart from the lack of means to attend schools, the inability to procure books, clothes etc. due to poverty, the distance of the school entailing communication costs, and the absence of any guarantee of gainful employment even after completing school education contribute to the reduction of strength in schools. Without seriously looking into these basic problems and devising means to solve these basic problems with people’s participation deciding on closing down uneconomic schools is nothing but facilitating the speedy privatization of education.

Nothing is being done to improve the quality of education in the government schools which have very low pass rates. Sometimes this is as low as 0-5% and the average is not above 20-25%. The very low teacher-student ratio is a key factor behind this. There are multigrade and single teacher schools where this single teacher, who is also irregular, is expected to teach all subjects. In contrast to this poverty of infrastructure in government schools where students in special package schools for Adivasis seldom get a chance to even see a computer there are private schools that are centrally air conditioned, where every student has full-time accessibility to a sophisticated computer and where the students’ excursions often cross the borders of the country. In such schools the average per month expenses per child crosses Rs. 10,000 apart from other “contributions” and expenses that can amount to lakhs.

According to available data one-fourth of all children in the State never complete even 10 years of schooling. It has been conclusively established that the drop-out rate among Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalized sections is disproportionately higher than students belonging to other classes and castes. And significantly it is students from these backgrounds that predominantly get enrolled in government run schools. Drop-out rates are higher for STS and SCs at the lower and upper primary levels and more so in districts where there is a higher concentration of tribal and Muslim populations as Malappuram, Kasaragod, Idduki and Wayanad. Interestingly, the biggest drop-out happens after the 9th standard because it is at this stage that the promotion rules are applied. Only 70% of the initially enrolled students finally make it to standard 10.

Reasons for this high drop-out rate are several but interlocked: Higher rates of failure (pushing out in the real sense) in class VIII and IX for achieving better results in the SSLC exam is one important reason. The economic pressures within the families generate a negative attitude towards continued schooling. At a young age many children are compelled to earn their upkeep. These upkeep earning sources can range from helping in the family, breaking rocks, serving in small hotels, to drug peddling. The drop-out rate for economic reasons is higher among boys than girls. A strong incentive to drop out of schools is the economic unattractiveness of finishing schooling. At the secondary stage there are no noon meal schemes that could act as an incentive. The course curriculum and the attitude of the teachers are not motivating for continuing and finishing schooling. Even if you finish schooling nobody is going to give you a tolerably decent job. Then why waste time and energy is a commonly heard refrain. For the poor and non influential there is no incentive to finish school.

The rapid expansion of secondary education has created problems of accommodation and equipment in schools. Several secondary schools are even today run in temporary sheds and sub-standard buildings. The average classroom space is far below the prescribed norms and classrooms are therefore generally overcrowded. Classroom furniture is either inadequate or unsuitable. School libraries are non-existent, and where they exist they are not optimally used. More than drinking water, it is the sheer absence of urinals/latrines, especially for girls, which is also one of the major hurdles for retaining the children in the school. The districts which are in the order of highest privation in this respect are mostly those are in the coastal districts with fishing communities as inhabitants.

The teaching-learning process does not excite the imagination and interest of students, and there is no effort to introduce child-centered learning at any level especially when it comes to make the teaching culturally relevant to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes. The number of teachers from these communities are also far less represented in their associations and thus it is not possible to get their community agenda into the schools.

Criminalization of society, especially family life, is yet another important variable of the drop-out equation. This in turn is linked to overall economic deprivation, rampant alcoholism and drug abuse. Though the entire State is seriously affected, it is the coastal belts, Adivasi belts and cash crop areas that record the highest per capita alcohol consumption. And liquor is not cheap in Kerala. An alcohol consuming labourer spends an average of half his daily wages for liquor. Apart from creating serious mental and physical problems it also overturns the domestic economy, which in turn creates serious domestic discord. Very often the domestic atmosphere becomes incompatible with schooling, both economically and mentally. Again there are strong caste and class variations concerning this issue with the Dalits, Adivasis and fisherfolk as the worst affected.

Much pride is exhibited in the fact that Kerala is the State with the highest percentage (93.91% as per 2011 Census) of literates in the whole country and it also has the highest spending per child for education in India. Understood in its narrow sense of being able to read and write, large numbers of Adivasis, Dalits and fisher people still remain illiterate. The effective literacy rate for STs in Kerala is 75.8% and for SCs it is 88.7% . The districts in the State where the literacy rate falls below the average are the ones with considerable ST populations, like Kasaragod, Palakkad and Wayanad. Within the existing parameters their education is not considered essential and they face neglect. The existing parameters are those of globalization and the private school system has the role of creating the essential manpower to engineer and operate this worldwide system of destruction. Children sent to these schools are socialized and trained to perform the role of facilitators for neo-imperialism. In the context of Kerala and India this is a highly anti-national task. So, while on the one hand there is a proliferation of ‘international schools’ with their high cost link-ups to western school boards the education of the ordinary mass of working people is neglected. The number of private unaided schools, which are neither accessible nor affordable for the Adivasis, is increasing. The linkages with foreign educational establishments and the existence of their franchisees here are not confined to the higher educational levels. The process starts at the pre-primary and primary levels itself.

The proliferation of private medical colleges, engineering and technology institutes, business schools, law schools etc. is going on at high speed. Already well established public sector universities, medical colleges and technology institutes are going in for high profile collaborations with foreign universities, institutes and huge funding organizations like Ford Foundation with the objective of “modernizing” and restructuring the curriculum, and reorienting the world view of teachers and students in tune with the exigencies of globalization. Privatization of school education has to be seen in conjunction with the transformation that the whole educational structure is currently undergoing. And this again has to be read along with the opening up of every sector of the economy, including the media, to the demands of international capital. The deemphasizing of disciplines like social sciences and humanities is yet another pointer.

The education sector in Kerala is not secular in content and organization. In fact, it is a pioneer in concretizing caste and community divisions and is a hotbed of communal and caste manipulations. The choice of Minister, heads of boards of directors, Vice chancellors etc is dictated by caste and communal dictates. The history of modern education in Kerala shows a communal origin. The Raja of Travancore and the Christian church laid the foundations of the modern educational system here in the first half of 19th century. When Macaulay became the colonial resident/ advisor in Travancore the colonial educational system became institutionalised with the patronage of royalty in Travancore and Cochin. In Malabar, under direct British rule, they themselves started the process. Very soon the various denominations of the church gained ascendancy in the sector. Schools grew into collages. Though initially in a small way, other prominent communities and castes, the Nairs, Muslims and Ezhavas copied the initiatives of the church and the educational sector in the Malayalam speaking region got organized on a communal and caste basis with the government as a junior partner. But the Dalits, not to mention the Adivasis, were left out completely.

The unification of the State on linguistic lines came about in 1956 and in the first general election held during the next year the CPI came to power. The Minster for education, Prof. Joseph Mundassery, introduced an Education Bill which timidly tried to break the monopoly of communal forces on education. This triggered off what is called “liberation struggle” which finally resulted in the dismissal of the CPI Ministry. His bill, though it had only limited objectives and was only trying to bring about a semblance of secularism in education and at the same time containing the rudiments of what we call Common School Programme was so vehemently opposed by the casteist and communal forces and their communal opposition was abetted by the “socialist” Nehru government at the centre. Since that time there has been no looking back for the communal forces in consolidating their stranglehold on education in the state. And now with the process of globalization going on in full steam these very same forces are fast adapting themselves to the needs of international capital and state government is ably abetting them. This is the ground reality of present-day Kerala.

The coastal area of Marad and adjoining fishermen area were in the news in 2003 for the communal riots between Hindu and Muslim fisher folk. Within one year 14 people were killed and 82 houses burned. Conciliatory efforts, judicial enquiry etc. is all in progress. However, the impact of the riots on schools and children are not being addressed. Hindu and Muslim children sit on separate benches in the classrooms and they do not talk to each other. In few schools all the children from one community have taken transfer certificates. Many of them have not joined in elsewhere. The age group of the accused in the riots is 15-20 years, which is a dangerous signal.

The linkages between globalization and poverty, fascism/authoritarianism and communalism need to be understood in their implications for the education system and tackled accordingly.

References

1. National Alliance for Right to Education and Equity: Vision Paper, Political Report and Constitution. Delhi: 2003.

2. New Kerala Alliance for Right to Education: Position Paper. Kalpeta: 2005.

3. Jvala: Initiative to Harness and Build Linkage with Local Collective Efforts for the Restoration of Child Rights in the Larger Context of

Human Rights in South India. 2005.

4. Krishnan, C.: Awareness and Utilisation of Educational Development Schemes by Tribesfolk of Wayanad, Kerala. Discussion Paper

no. 12. Discussion Paper Series. Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development. Thiruvananthapuram: Centre for

Development Studies, 1999.