Question- What has been done for equalization of Educational Opportunities among SC and ST in India?

Ans.

Equalization of Educational Opportunities

The Dhebar Commission of 1960-61 : The Government appointed a Commission under the Chairmanship of Dhebar in 1960-61 for finding out the condition and problems of the scheduled caste and tribal people. The Commission observed that adequate arrangements have not yet been made for the education of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. It requested the Central Education Ministry to study this problem for doing the needful towards education of these people. It considered residential Ashram Schools useful for children of scheduled and tribal people, because they serve as centres of social and cultural education of these children. It recommended the expansion of such schools throughout the whole country.

Recommendations : The Commission made the following recommendations for the expansion of primary education:

1. The children of scheduled and tribal people should be trained in some handicraft or practical skills.
2. The teacher appointed to teach scheduled caste and tribal children should be given special allowances and residential facilities.
3. Children in schools for scheduled caste and tribal should be given food, clothing, books and stationary free.
4. Teachers appointed for teaching scheduled caste and tribal children should be trained in training colleges established in their area in order that during the training period, they may get acquainted with the life style of the scheduled and tribal people.
5. Teachers appointed to teach scheduled and tribal children should be fully conversant with their culture.
6. Primary education for scheduled and tribal children should be given through their mother-tongue. Suitable books should be published for this purpose in mother-tongue.

The Kothari Commission, 1964-66 : In addition to the recommendations of the Dhebar Commission, the Kothari Commission has given welcoming suggestions for various levels of education of scheduled caste and tribal children.

(1) Primary Education : Primary Education for scheduled caste and tribal children should be better organised. More schools should be opened in the densely populated areas of scheduled and tribal people.

(2) Secondary Education : More secondary schools should be opened with facilities for hostels and stipends.

Higher Education : More scholarships should be instituted for higher education. Those engaged in the service for scheduled caste and tribal people should be assigned a separate cadre. In the beginning, non-scheduled and non-tribal people may be appointed in this cadre, but later on suitable persons from the scheduled and tribal groups alone should be appointed in this cadre.

The conditions of the scheduled caste and tribal people will be improved a great deal, if the recommendations of the Dhebar and Kothari Commissions are implemented.

Education of Criminal Tribes : The criminal tribes include those who, by way of habit, are generally engaged in such crimes as committing theft at nights, looting passengers-by and stealing away domestic animals. People of this tribe generally roam about from one place to another, as they have no permanent abode anywhere. They are landless and houseless.

Efforts for Educational Equalization

(1) Before Independence : Prior to 1947 some Christian Missionaries tried to educate and uplift the standard of living of criminal tribes. Through the Criminal Tribes Act passed by the Government, a right has been obtained to inhabitate these people at some particular places. Some of the people of these tribes have been encouraged to settle down at some places. Some boarding schools have been opened for education of their children. The Government has given financial assistance to missionaries and other organisations for looking after welfare of these people.

After Independence : After independence the Criminal Tribe Act was cancelled, as it was not considered proper to call any tribe criminal. Residential schools were opened for education of children of these tribes. An attempt was made to employ adults from this group at suitable places. The Government made some provisions for education of the tribes in the various Five Year Plans.

Education of The Nomads : The nomads do not have any specific place to stay at. In search of daily sustenance, they remain wandering from one place to another throughout the whole country. They carry their children and the entire family with them, At times they may seek shelters beneath bridges, tunnels and footpaths of boards.

Measures of Reform

Under the circumstances, it is extremely difficult to educate them and their children. However, following measures have been suggested for their reforms :

1. They should be encouraged to settle down at some specific place donated to them free of charge. In the State of Rajasthan some nomad people were given places to settle down at. But they could not stay there and moved out for other places.
2. Some provisions should be made for mobile schools for nomads’ children. These schools should follow their movement from time to time. Thus, Their children will be getting education without any break. This experiment has succeeded in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. There the nomads people reside at hill-tops during summer and they descend down in valleys during winter. Mobile schools have been organised for education of their children. Upto 1961 there were 53 such schools in this State. Some persons of the same nomad group were appointed as teachers for their children. This arrangement could be accepted as a temporary measure only. The real solution requires getting them settled down at some specific places.

Education of the Scheduled Castes and Tribal People

The following three types of programmes have been organised by the Government for the scheduled and tribal people :
(1) The work directly done by the Central Government.
(2) The work done under the supervision of the Government.
(3) The work done by the various States in the Country.

(1) The work directly done by the Central Government : The Central Government grants reservations in government services in favour of scheduled and tribal people. But many reserved posts are not filled in by the scheduled and tribal people, because suitable hands from them are not available. For improving this situation, the Government has opened Coaching-cum-Guidance Centres at Chennai, Jabalpur and Kanpur in order to transmit informations regarding employment opportunities and also to impart training to scheduled caste and tribal people for specific jobs. Since 1953 more than two dozen scholarships have been instituted for sending persons of scheduled and tribe groups of foreign countries for obtaining education. per cent of seats in education institutions have been reserved for scheduled caste and tribal people. Some seats have been reserved for them in medical and engineering colleges also.

(2) The work done under the supervision of the Central Government : (i) After passing high school examination, the schedule caste and tribal students are granted scholarships for continuing the further education. These days about three lakh scholarships are awarded to students of scheduled castes and about a lakh scholarships to the students belonging to the tribal classes.

(ii) There are about 18 centres all over the country for coaching persons for scheduled and tribal classes for I.A.S. and I.P.S. services. About 2500 persons were prepared for these services and about 500 of them came out successful.

(iii) The Central Government gives grants to the various State Governments for instituting scholarships for scheduled caste and tribal students.

(iv) More than twenty centres have been established throughout the country for doing research on scheduled caste and tribal people.

(v) A Central Research Advisory Council has been established for correlating the activities of these research centres spread over the country.

(vi) The Central Government gives various kinds of financial assistance for rehabilitation and education of scheduled caste and tribal people. Through this assistance, provisions have been made for meals, hostels, residential schools, examination fees, scholarships and tuition fees in favour of students from these groups.

(3) The work done by the various States : The financial assistance received from the Central Government by the various State Governments are treated as loans and block grants. Through this assistance the State Government run the following types of programmes for scheduled castes and tribal people:

1. To open Ashram Schools.
2. To organize teaching materials.
3. To establish schools and hostels.
4. To give stipends for primary and junior high school education.
5. To arrange for mid-day meals.
6. To exempt from tuition and examination fees.

Suggestions for Improvement : The welfare of the scheduled caste and tribal people cannot be guaranteed through Government help alone. The co-operation of the society is very necessary for it, as their problem is a social problem which concerns the whole country. Their condition cannot be improved only through Government Laws and Regulations. In various States in our country, we find various types of scheduled caste and tribal people. A general consciousness has to be generated throughout the country for the reforms of people of this group. It has been suggested to introduce compulsory education for improving the condition of these people. But neither the Dhebar nor the Kothari Commission suggested the introduction of compulsory education. The following programmes may be suggested for education of scheduled caste and tribal people:

1. To make survey of places for opening schools for children.
2. To open residential schools for children of these people.
3. To organise suitable teaching materials in all the schools meant for scheduled caste and tribal children.
4. To provide free meals, books, stationary and other facilities to the children of these people.
5. To prepare favourable atmosphere for compulsory education of their children.

NPE 1992 : The National Policy of Education (NPE) 1986 as updated in 1992 lays special emphasis on removal of disparities and equalisation of educational opportunities attending to the specific needs of those who have been denied equality, particularly scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and educationally backward minorities. Some of the important provisions are as follows:

1. Norms of opening of primary school have been relaxed to have a primary school within one kilometre walking distance from habitations having a population of 200 persons instead of the earlier criteria of 300 persons;

2. Abolition of tuition fee in all states in government schools at least up to Upper Primary level. Most of the states have abolished tuition fee for SC/ST students up to senior secondary level and also provide incentives like text-books, uniforms, school bags, etc., to these students;

3. The major programmes of Education like Universalisation of Elementary Education, Operation Blackboard, Non-Formal Education, District Primary Education Programme, etc. accord priority to areas of concentration of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Community based non-formal education projects Lok Jumbish and Shiksha Karmi have a specific focus on SC/ST inhabited areas;

4. Reservation of seats for SCs and STs in Central government institutions of higher education including IITs, Regional Engineering Colleges, Central universities, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas, etc. Reservation in Universities and colleges and technical institutions is a part from relaxation in the minimum qualifying cut off stages for admission. The UGC has established SC/ST Cells in 98 universities included Central Universities to ensure proper implementation of the reservation policy.

5. Remedial and special coaching is provided for SC and ST students. In order to improve the academic skills and linguistic proficiency of students in various subjects and raising their level of comprehensive. IITs have a scheme under which SC/ST students who marginally fail in the entrance examination are provided one year training and then admitted to the First Year of B.Tech course.

6. Out of 43,000 scholarships, 13,000 scholarships are provided to SC/ST students under the scheme of National Scholarship at the secondary stage for talented children from rural areas. Seventy scholarships are exclusively reserved for SCs/STs students under the National Talent Search Scheme.

7. Junior Research Fellowship (50 annually), scholarship, (25), Research Associateship (20), and Fellowships, (50) are awarded by UGC exclusively to SC/ST students.

8. The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) Mysore, prepares textbooks, primers, grammar books, dictionaries, bilingual text-books facilitating translation from regional languages, etc., into tribal languages.

9. The NCERT has prepared/developed/published 10 textbooks in tribal dialects and prepared teaching-learning material in 15 tribal dialects.

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