Wrangling with his ill fate, he came to the heart of India,Delhi with a desire to earn a living for his as well as for his family’s survival on behalf of his elderly father, who is struggling with a severe disease.A child of just eleven years of age came from thousands of kilometers away, leaving his schooling at fifth standard, from a village in Bihar,all by himself carrying a bag of hopes and desires.
‚ÄúMaster ? Oh! He never used to teach us and kept all the money of books given by the government,in his pocket‚Äù, he answered in his regional dialect when I asked him if he has ever read the books in either English or Hindi till fifth standard. Next, I asked him suspiciously that did the ‚Äòmaster‚Äô even take the initiative to come to the class, to which he replied, ‚ÄúYes, he did come but each time he used to call out our names to get two chairs for him to lie down comfortably and sleep.‚Äù Hence he continued, ‚ÄúThere was another master, who used to slap and hit us with a stick whenever we made noise to wake him up from his worldly dreams.‚Äù Feeling ashamed of such miserable conditions of these poor children, I put another question to him asking why did they not complain to the headmaster, to which the small innocent kid laughed and said,“There was no headmaster whom we could have complained to.‚Äù
And so is the distressing situation of the village education system. The teachers are not willing to teach and are simply enjoying their leisure time as there is no responsible authority to inspect and question them if they are actually taking classes or not. Such is the kind of attitude of masters and headmasters in village schools who are just getting paid for doing nothing. Quality and access to education is the major concern in rural schools as there are few committed teachers, lack of proper text books and learning material in the schools. One of the major reasons why parents are not able to provide a proper education to their children is the lack of money due to which they are dependent on government schools rather than the private ones. The system is getting so restless that the students are negligibly encouraged to think, but they are asked to memorize things without any explanation. Lack of books, learning material, encouragement and proper study environment causes a poor result in student’s examinations. Hence majority of students do not bother to study, which means a decline in the education level. Neither students nor teachers take any interest in studies despite the efforts put by the government of providing free education. Hence, the carelessness of the teachers and higher departments results in the restlessness of the students causing an overall decline in the country’s development.
This isn’t the situation of this single village but also of other similar ones where efforts are being made,but not in the right direction.The foundation to turn India into a strong nation has to be laid down at primary and rural level,so the quality of education must be improved.Education and textbooks should be made interesting.Improvement in the condition of government schools,education quality,committed teachers and more salaries to such teachers must be taken into account for the sake of development.The contribution of each person must be such that development starts from the ground and goes all beyond the sky.
