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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | School kids cut CM to size, Mayavati shrinks to Mavati by Tapas Chakraborty

School kids cut CM to size, Mayavati shrinks to Mavati by Tapas Chakraborty

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published Published on Aug 26, 2010   modified Modified on Aug 26, 2010

Mayavati had better do something quick about the state of schools in Uttar Pradesh if she wants children to spell her name right.

An NGO assessing the District Primary Education Programme and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, a national programme for universalisation of elementary education, asked 16 students of Classes III and IV of a government school in Joar village near Lucknow to write the name of their chief minister in Hindi.

Mavit and Mavati were the most favoured spellings, but three students got no further than Ma and some couldn’t get started at all. Not one got it right.

“Joar happens to be just 6km from Bakshi Ka Talab, an extension of Lucknow state capital. It has 700 residents, mostly belonging to the other backward classes and Dalits. We asked the students the name of the chief minister. Most of them knew the name of Mayavati. But when we asked eight students to write her name, none could do it properly,” said Sunil Yadav, a volunteer of the NGO ASER that conducted the survey. “We repeated the test with eight others. Only three could write till ‘ma’ in Hindi.”

Most of the children belonged to families of farmers and farm workers.

Hundred volunteers of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) team had visited 32 villages on August 21-22 to assess the state of primary education.

But Mayavati, who so wants people to know her that she has had her own statues installed in Lucknow, fared better than the state she rules.

“We then asked the children which state they hailed from. None could name Uttar Pradesh,” Sunil said. Only four students said they live in Joar, the survey team members said.

Paras Nath, a literacy campaigner, said: “It is interesting to note that in the village Joar, even mud house walls are plastered with Mayavati’s posters. The villagers may have been discussing her, a reason why the children know her name. But they were not taught how to spell.”

Rukmini Banerjee, director of ASER in north India who was spearheading the survey in the 32 villages, said: “The scenario is depressing. Only six out of 32 schools we visited had active teaching sessions while in the rest, teachers could not be seen giving lessons to the children although there was reasonably good infrastructure, grants were available and the midday meals scheme was running.”

Venugopal, a volunteer from Andhra Pradesh on the ASER team, said a 25-year-old teacher was in tears because students have been dropping out of her school. From 25, the number has come down to 10 as students are switching to private schools, Seokumari Gupta, the head teacher, cried.

Homang, a volunteer from Nagaland, said: “Elsewhere, the teachers, unlike Seokumari, don’t seem to bother. They are everywhere else but in the class. The panchayats, which are supposed to monitor the progress of the district education programme, are not bothered either.”

Uttar Pradesh has a literacy rate of 56 per cent — the national average is 65 per cent. Literacy among women stands at 42.98 per cent but the figure falls to 10.69 per cent for Dalit women.

Last year, an ASER study showed that only 31 per cent of Class III students could read even texts meant for Class I. The corresponding figures for Bihar and Rajasthan, two other backward states, are 43.7 per cent and 34.4 per cent.

Similarly, only 20.5 per cent students of Class III can subtract, compared to 45.5 per cent in Bihar and 27.1 per cent in Rajasthan.

Only 14 per cent Class V students in Uttar Pradesh can read a full sentence in English, compared to 31.3 per cent in Bihar.

“There are problems at the grassroots monitoring where panchayats should play a role. This does not happen here. In Nagaland, if a teacher does not turn up for more than three days, his salary is deducted. Here you cannot do this,” said D.K. Singh, a former special secretary with the Basic Education Authority.

Mayavati has been frequently shuffling officers in the Basic Education Authority, whose job is to monitor the implementation of education programmes, sources said. In the three years she has been in power, the nodal officer for the region where the survey was held has changed four times.


The Telegraph, 24 August, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100825/jsp/nation/story_12853408.jsp


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