Universalisation of Elementary Education in the State of Sikkim

1. General Background of the State

           

            Sikkim, the erstwhile kingdom of Chogyal dynasty has been merged with the mainstream of Indian union Republic in the year 1975. Prior to that Sikkim was a Protectorate State of India. The population prior to the merger was very sparsely distributed and the kingdom was almost isolated from the mainstream in every field. After 1975, the tiny Himalayan State of Indian Union Republic took a dramatic turn and witnessed a phenomenal changes in demographic as well as other infra structural facilities.

Sikkim added another feather in her cap by being the 8^th sister member of North East Council vide North-East council (Amendment) Act 2002 No. 68 of 2002. Now, Sikkim is one of the sister states of North-East Council along with Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

Sikkim is a tiny State in the eastern part of India. Geographically Sikkim is bounded by China (Tibet) on the north, the kingdom of Bhutan on the east, Darjeeling District of West Bengal on the South, and the kingdom of Nepal in the West. It lies between 27 degree to 28 degree north Latitude and 88 degree to 89 degree Longitude. The capital of Sikkim is Gangtok

The total area of Sikkim is 7096 Sq.Km. The district wise area is as furnish below:

District	East	West	North	South
Area%	13.44%	16.43%	59.56%	10.57%

The state of Sikkim is a hilly terrain with rivers, lakes, rivulets, passes valleys ranging from high to low elevations. The famous Nathula and Jelepla passes are located at an elevation of 14500 feet. One can witness Chinese and Indian Soldiers face to face at Nathula; which is one of the main VIP’s destinations, who come to Sikkim as a guest of honour. It is only about 50 km from the state capital Gangtok. The two famous lakes Changu (Tsongmo) and Memenchu also attract thousands of tourist from home and abroad.

The total area of Sikkim is 7096 Sq. km. And the population as per the census 2001 is 539584 of which 251885 are female. The density of population is approximately 76 per Sq. km.

                   

Prior to the merger of Sikkim to the mainstream of Indian Union of Republic, Sikkim was very sparsely populated. After 1975 when it was formally merged as a 22^nd State of India, a phenomenal change took place in it demographic scene. Originally Sikkim was inhabited by the Lepcha ethnic group. Today it consists of three communities, the Lepchas, the Bhutias and the Nepalies.

The whole State has been divided into 607 Revenue Blocks and 909 ward Panchayats. Administration has already been decentralized in the State and Powers has been delegated to the PRI as per the 73^rd and 74^th amendment of constitution of India.

          All the 782 Government Schools are proportionately divided into 131 clusters. The cluster is further strengthened by formation Cluster Resource Groups, headed by the Cluster Resource Coordinator who is the Head Master of that particular school. The School Managing Committee (SMC) works at the grass root level. Each and every Government School has its own School Managing Committee.

As per the household survey conducted in January 2007, 866 habitations have been identified but of these 97 habitations were school less habitation and they are being covered by opening EGS/AIE Centres. Some of the habitations have difficult geographical terrain and are sparsely populated.

2.     Universalization of Elementary Education: The chasm between objective and achievements

Universalization of Elementary Education, when we speak in laymen’s terminology, is to provide free and compulsory education to all the children upto the age of 14 years irrespective of their caste, creed, colour, gender, religion, region where they reside, etc.

2.1 Background: Universalisation of Elementary Education in the context of Sikkim

Decadal Literacy Rate Census Year National Sikkim 1951 18.33 - 1961 28.31 - 1971 34.45 - 1981 43.67 34.05 1991 52.21 56.94 2001 65.38 69.68 Source: Census of India: 1981, 1991 & 2001

The education in the State of Sikkim was in the poor state at the time of its merger in Indian Union because of the various socio-economic and socio-cultural reasons. The establishments of the schools were not done on basis of proper mapping and planning. The influence of the community used to decide the establishment of schools. Thus, due to the uneven distribution of schools, limited infrastructural facilities, non-availability of qualified teachers and expensive schooling were the major reasons for non-schooling of the children in the State at that time.

The initial process of universalization of Elementary Education in the State started since the State initiated Incentive Scheme to the school going children. This had resulted the tremendous increase in enrolment in the schools.

Near about 42-43% schools were established in the decade of 1975-1985. The Operation Blackboard under National Policy on Education (1986) covered all primary schools of the State. The incentives like mid-day-meals, free textbooks, free exercise books, free school uniforms, fee tuitions, school bags, free raincoats etc. are some of the factors which contributed a lot on the way of Universalization of Elementary Education in the State.

The Human Resource Development Department, Government of Sikkim, every year conducts test for the children of Class VI to select the children for Merit Scholarship. The children securing Ist, IInd and IIIrd positions at district level will be conferred Merit Scholarship @ Rs. 1200/-, 1000/- and 800/- respectively per annum.

The State also has the scheme of Prerna Scholarship for the girl children. The department prepares the merit list of girl children from the above test and confers scholarship to those who stand Ist, IInd and IIIrd in the prepared thereof. The rates of the scholarship are Rs. 800/-, Rs. 700/- and Rs. 600/- to Ist, IInd and IIIrd respectively.

Stage-wise Growth of Enrolment (1980-85 to 1991-92)

Stage of Education	Achievement in Enrolment				%age of Girl’s Enrolment in 1992-93
	1980-85	1985-90	1991-92	1992-93
Primary (Classes I-V)	60821	71515	73324	74497	46.9
Middle (Classes VI-VIII)	13423	14591	15998	18515	47.5

Source: Educational Administration in Sikkim, NIEPA (NUEPA), 1995

2.2 Progress overview under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

The holistic and convergent program called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan launched in the State of Sikkim in the year 2001 is a Mission with the objective to provide education to all children in the State by providing basic infrastructure like classrooms and toilets, teachers and teaching materials.

It was first lunched in 2001 in West District and later on extended to other three districts. The state has achieved notable success in the field of access, enrolment and retention and now the state is planning for quality education.

            The State started the program with enormous eagerness to bring all the school aged children i.e. the children in the age group of 6-14 years in the school system. During household survey, the survey of collecting the numbers of habitations without schooling facility was also conducted and the Cluster Coordinators were requested to give micro-plans including the mappings of the schoolless habitations.

            The Household Survey conducted during Pre-Project activities in the year 2000 (in West District) and 2001 (in other three districts) furnished 15033 out of school children in the State.

OSC grazing cattle

It was almost 13.70% of state’s children population. The survey revealed that 21% of the out of school children are due to lack of access, 32.5% due to lack interest , 19.4% due earning compulsion, 6% due household work, 7% due to migration, 13% due to failure, 1.1% due to disabilities.

     

It was seen that the highest number of out of school children fall in the ‘lack of interest group’ which was taken as one of the serious problem for universalization of elementary education in the State. Thus the Districts Project Offices were instructed to find out the reasons for the children to be not interested to come to the school. The districts conducted several programs to collect the perceptions of the children through participatory learning and action. Some of the districts also conducted research studies on the subject. The findings were really surprising that the children have complaints about the teaching-learning processes being adopted by their teachers in the school. They reported that the teachers think them as machines which receive and deliver data and information on the mouse click.

The findings can be summarized as under:

·       Teachers are fearsome;

·       Boring classroom;

·       Boring teaching;

·       Teachers are not sensitive towards children;

·       Teachers want the children should learn what and how they teach;

·       Children are forced to be patient in the classroom;

·       Schools not attractive;

·       Shortage of teacher (in difficult areas);

·       Repeated failure (detention);

·       Teachers don’t know about our family and background;

·       Teachers talk very less with students;

·       Teachers do not care the 3 ‘Fs’ of students i.e. Failure, Fun and Future;

·       There is no scope of job in future – ‘Atleast we get Rs.15/- going for daily manual wages’ (Khetala janda 15 rupiya ta painchha).

      The above findings further urge the State to conduct research studies on School performance and the performance of the teachers. Thus the State instructed the districts to conduct the research studies to find out the actual reasons behind above findings collected through PLA with the children. The “Assessment Study on School Performance” conducted by Mr. D.B.Subba, Assistant Director, Human Resource Dev. Deptt., South District of Sikkim revealed the following:

1.    Teachers are demotivated/uninterested;

2.    Teachers are using traditional teaching methods;

3.    Not following the medium of instruction in teaching learning process;

4.    Teachers are not aware of developing and using the TLMs in teaching learning process;

5.    Teachers are not using their ‘understanding of children’s background and academic level of the children’ to identify the level of supports to be provided for children;

6.    Teachers are input oriented. (Input – Process – Output);

7.    80% of old teachers those who have few years for retirement are reluctant in their duties and fall in untrainable category.

      In accordance with the findings of the research study, the State conducted motivation camps for the teachers at cluster level, Teachers’ Conference at Constituency Level, cluster level monthly meetings to share the experiences and innovations etc. The teachers and heads of schools were frequently reminded about the Universal Enrolment and Retention through quality teaching and school management. The best performing teachers were given due recognition. In addition, Hon’ble Chief Minster, Government of Sikkim, requested the general public for Universal Enrolment through written appeal. These programs really helped in the process of enrolment drive and brought the out of school children in the school system.

            The state has done commendable job in motivating the teachers for professional development and work culture. They also made aware about the recent pedagogical development and focus shifting. DIET and SIE has provided training to coordinators of different blocks and clusters for classroom observation. They were also made aware about their duties and responsibilities.

The coordinators conducted frequent meetings with teachers and instructed the school heads:

Ø  To institutionalize various disciplines in the schools like punctuality, regularity, work culture, etc.;

Ø  To form core groups in the schools to mentor, monitor and assist school heads in different activities of the school;

Ø  To develop serenity in and around the school campus;

Ø  To create a joyful and jubilant environment in the schools and

Ø  To submit monthly/quarterly report on scholastic and non-scholastic activities conducted by the schools.

     

            The access was another problem on the way of Universalization of Elementary Education in the State. Out of 866 habitations, 97 habitations were accessless at the time of inception of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the State.

District	HHS during pre-project activities		HHS 2004		HHS 2007
	Accessless habitations	OSC due to lack of access	Accessless habitations	OSC due to lack of access	Accessless habitations	OSC due to lack of access
East	40	445	40	165	24	0
West	16	1114	5	713	0*	226
North	11	550	3	0	3	23
South	30	1020	25	787	9	63
State	97	3129	73	1665	36	312

*3 primary schools sanctioned earlier AWP&Bs delayed to open due to land problem

Source: District Annual Plans & Reports

        The process of mainstreaming of out of school children in the beginning of the project was slow and the State could not expedite the matter without bringing awareness among the parents of these children.

      The State instructed the SSA functionaries of all districts to convene the meetings with Cluster Coordinators, school heads, panchayats, local gentries, NGOs. Self Help Groups and teachers on the issues related to universal enrolment and work for enrolment drive designing locality specific strategies. 

      The coverage percentage of the Out of school children in the age group of 6-14 years within the six years of implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the State of Sikkim is given in the table below:

     

District	HHS during Pre-Project Activities		HHS 2004		HHS 2007
	Total OSC	Coverage %	Total OSC	Coverage %	Total OSC	%age of OSC to be covered
East	7206	47.28	3407	33.52	1142	15.85
West	2651	55.75	1874	36.50	684	25.80
North	2526	44.62	1127	30.26	341	13.50
South	2650	(-)28.19	3397	30.53	1037	30.53
State	15033	65.22	9805	32.68	3204	21.31

Source: HHS 2001, 2004, 2007

      At present, out of school children in the State are only 3204 which are 2.91% of total children population of the State. It is almost 79% coverage of the out of the school children despite scattered population in rugged mountain and hilly terrain.

Graphical Presentation of Year-wise Coverage of Out of School by schooling facilities:

State established new primary schools and upgraded primary to upper primary schools as per the requirement prevail in the State.

Habitation and Access (Primary)

District	Total No. of habitations	Habitation covered by			Habitations not eligible for PS/EGS
		Primary Schools (State)	EGS	Primary Schools (SSA)
East	282	232	16	10	24
West	230	214	3	13	0
South	253	216	21	7	9
North	101	76	8	14	3
Total	866	738	48	44	36

Source: HHS 2001, 2004, 2007

Habitation and Access (Upper Primary)

District	Total No. of habitations	No. of habitations having UPS facility in 3km area	No. of habitations without UPS facility in 3km area	No. of eligible schoolless habitations for UPS as per distance and population norms	No of Pry schools	No of Upper Pry schools	Primary & Upper Primary ratio
East	282	96	0	0	242	96	2.5:1
West	230	62	0	0	227	62	3.7:1
South	253	84	0	0	223	84	2.6:1
North	101	30	0	0	90	30	3:1
Total	866	272	0	0	782	272	2.9:1

Source: HHS 2001, 2004, 2007

Trend of Enrolment in last three years:

2004-05			2005-06			2006-07
Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total
57319	57910	115229	58211	59548	117759	58055	59667	117722

Source: DISE 2004, 2005 & 2006

2.3 Out of School Children yet to bring in the School System

Total out of school children in the State at present is 3204 and the State has started activities to bring these children in the schooling system. Mainstreaming of out of school children in the State which follows detention policy was found rather difficult. These out of school children are last, harder and invisible (lost, least and last child) and rather not easy to bring in the school system. Nevertheless, the State taken up the steps to enter into the family of every child, motivate them and bring back to the school system.

The following tables give the details of district wise, gender wise, age group wise and community wise out of school children in the State:

1. Out of school children (6-11 years age group)

District	All community			Scheduled Caste			Scheduled Tribe
	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total
East	158	155	313	24	25	49	55	51	106
West	214	167	381	68	61	129	69	49	118
South	203	145	348	21	11	32	85	67	152
North	77	88	165	2	2	4	51	55	106
State	652	555	1207	115	99	214	260	222	482

Source: HHS 2007

2. Out of school children (11-14 years age group)

District	All community			Scheduled Caste			Scheduled Tribe
	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total
East	417	412	829	28	28	56	62	59	121
West	178	125	303	49	25	74	71	50	121
South	410	279	689	40	15	55	161	110	271
North	107	69	176	7	0	7	72	48	120
State	1112	885	1997	124	68	192	366	267	633

Source: HHS 2007

The present scenario of the out of school children in the State shows 41% never enrolled and 59% drop outs. Scheduled Caste has comparatively high percentage in both never enrolled and drop out category of children corresponding to its 6-14 years population followed by scheduled tribe. The trend of overall percentage of out school children in the State is encouraging.

The Community wise percentage of Never enrolled and Drop out children corresponding to its respective population of 6-14 years:

Percentage of Never Enrolled Children			Percentage of Drop Out Children			Percentage of Total Out of School Children
Total	SC	ST	Total	SC	ST	Total	SC	ST
1.20	3.60	1.98	1.70	2.53	2.39	2.91	6.14	4.37

Source: HHS 2007

As the people of Sikkim advocate gender parity, there is no problem of gender disparity atleast in respect of schooling of the girl child. The percentage of girls out of school children is comparatively lower than the boys. This trend prevails in all the district of Sikkim and in every community except in East District. The reason for higher percentage of girl out of school children in East District is the matter of research.  

The following tables show the percentage of District wise, Age group wise, community wise and gender wise out of school children corresponding to District wise, Age Group wise, community wise and gender wise population:

1. Out of School Children in the Age Group of 6-11 years

District	All community			Scheduled Caste			Scheduled Tribe
	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total
East	1.00	1.00	1.00	2.54	2.98	2.74	1.85	1.83	1.84
West	2.00	1.59	1.80	9.28	9.92	9.57	1.44	1.07	1.26
South	2.57	1.98	2.29	3.84	2.15	3.02	3.63	3.03	3.34
North	2.75	3.13	2.94	2.41	2.25	2.33	2.50	2.70	2.60
State	1.76	1.53	1.65	4.98	4.82	4.90	2.14	1.91	2.03

Source: Household Survey 2007

2. Out of School Children in the Age Group of 11-14 years

District	All community			Scheduled Caste			Scheduled Tribe
	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total
East	5.30	5.67	5.48	6.35	6.53	6.44	14.06	13.75	13.91
West	4.99	3.73	4.38	22.48	15.92	19.73	4.68	3.81	4.27
South	6.74	4.62	5.69	9.80	3.90	6.94	8.73	6.10	7.43
North	7.86	5.61	6.79	12.96	0.00	8.86	7.28	5.29	6.33
State	5.89	4.95	5.43	11.06	6.83	9.07	7.64	6.00	6.85

Source: Household Survey 2007

3. Total Out of School Children in the Age Group of 6-14 years

District	All community			Scheduled Caste			Scheduled Tribe
	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total	Boys	Girls	Total
East	2.44	2.48	2.46	3.75	4.18	3.95	3.43	3.42	3.43
West	2.75	2.11	2.44	12.30	11.14	11.78	2.22	1.68	1.96
South	4.39	3.17	3.79	6.39	2.90	4.70	5.87	4.41	5.16
North	4.42	3.88	4.15	6.57	1.75	4.38	4.07	3.49	3.78
State	3.15	2.66	2.91	6.97	5.47	6.26	3.70	3.04	3.38

Source: Household Survey 2007

The reasons accountable for the children to be out of school had been discussed in the earlier sub-chapter also. It is found out during survey that North District has comparatively high number of out of school children due to socio-economic reason. It is almost 29% of the total out of school children of the district. The North District of Sikkim being dominated by the aboriginal tribal of the State, the social taboos still prevail on the way of universalization of elementary education in the district. It is the district with largest area with least and scattered population. Further, the topography of the district varies from 2500 ft to 27000 ft altitude with perennial snowcapped mountains.

One of the surprising results of the recent household survey conducted in the East District of Sikkim is the percentage of out of school children due to Failure. The percentage is surprisingly as high as 44.40. The district needs to be instructed to take research on School Performance and Efficiency as in South District.

The table below gives the details of the reason wise numbers of out of school children:

Name of the District	No of out of school children as per household survey	No of out of school children with reason
		Lack of interest	Lack of access	Household work	Migration	Earning compulsion	Failure	Socio	Non flexibility in school time system school	Others
East	1142	144		212	41	238	507
West	684	45	226	62	51	98	202
South	1037	453	63	136	62	44	100	17	23	137
North	341	117	23	64	37	0	0	100
Total	3204	759	312	474	191	380	809	117	23	137
Reason wise %		23.7	9.74	14.79	5.96	11.86	25.25	3.65	0.72	4.33

Source: Household Survey 2007

The reason ‘Others’ as indicated in the above table is the number of out of school children not covered under the reason mentioned in the table  like out of school due to disability,  isolated households due to summer streams, etc.

There is a separate program covering CWSN called IEDC in the State and an officer of the Joint Director level is given the charge of IEDC. However, the State has incorporated IED in SSA AWP&B 2007-08 as it would be a help on the way of universalization.

3. Ownership and Governance of Schooling System

The schools catering elementary education in Sikkim are of five types viz. Lower Primary School caters pre-primary children to upto class III, Primary Schools caters pre-primary to upto Class, Junior High School caters pre-primary to upto Class VIII, Secondary School caters pre-primary to upto Class X and Senior Secondary Schools caters pre-primary to upto Class XII. It means that secondary and senior secondary schools also accommodate elementary sections.

The management structures and processes upto Elementary stage in the Schools of Sikkim is different than the secondary stage. The structures in elementary education in Sikkim are like in the other states of India. There are three lines – Local Bodies (political), Administrative and Academic. The Local Bodies referred above is Panchayati Raj Institution.

The state of Sikkim enacted the Sikkim Panchayat Act, 1993 which came into force in 1995. Under this Act a two tier Panchayati Raj System i.e. Village Panchayat (Gram Panchayat) and District Panchayat (Zilla Panchayat) was adopted wherein reservation for weaker sections, SC, ST, OBC and women is provided.

The Sikkim Panchayat Act provides for an important role to the Panchayati Raj Institutions in respect of 29 subjects which is provided under 73^rd Amendment of the Constitution such as Education, Health and Agriculture etc. in order to discharge its function effectively the Government has developed adequate administrative and financial powers to Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Every lower primary and primary school has School Managing Committee headed by Gram Panchayat member or Pradhan (Panchayat President) as the chairman, SMC. Mostly the Gram Panchayat member will take the chairmanship of the schools which fall under his jurisdiction (wards). The chairman of the School Managing Committee of junior high schools (upper primary) is District Panchayat member. The headmaster of the school acts as the member secretary of the School Managing Committee in both categories of schools. The School Managing Committee monitors and supervises the school functioning and reports to the administrative line for necessary actions. It also assists the schools to execute the civil works at school level and ensures efficient use of the resources received by the schools from different programs or agencies. However, the panchayats and community are still not given administrative power like transfer of teachers, writing confidential report of teachers etc.

The Directorate has four Directors viz. Director for Academics and Administration, Technical Director, Director for Vocational and Higher Education and Director for Elementary Education and Literacy.

The different level-wise management structures of Elementary Education in Sikkim

Level	Political/Local bodies	Administrative	Academic Support
State	Ministry of HRDD, Govt. of Sikkim	Secretariat/Directorate of HRDD headed by the Secretary/Directors (Academics & Administration and Elementary Education & Literacy )	SIE headed by the  Director (Academics and Administration)
District	Zilla Panchayat	District HRD Office headed by the Joint Directors	One DIET at State Capital in East District headed by the Joint Director (East District)
Sub-Division	Zilla Panchayat*	Sub-Division HRD office headed by the Deputy Directors	Block Resource Centres headed by the BRC Coordinators
Block Administrative Centre**	Zilla Panchayat*	BAC level HRD office headed by the Assistant Directors	-
Cluster/Complex	Gram Panchayat, School Managing Committee	School Complexes or Cluster Resource Centres headed by the Complex Organizers or  CRC Coordinators	Cluster Resource Centres headed by the CRC Coordinators
Village	Gram Panchayat, School Managing Committee	Headmaster	CRC Coordinators/ Teachers

*Sikkim doesn’t have Block Panchayat.

**These structures have been created recently and the State is working out to setup BAC level line for Academic Support.

The Directorate has to perform school inspection, both administrative and academic inspection in their respective jurisdiction. The inspection system in the State was traditional to a certain extent few years back as it did not focus on specific target groups and had no specific techniques of observation, interaction and physical verification of various records maintained by the schools. Nevertheless, the State is trying its level best to modify the system of inspection. The first step taken by the State on the way was the extension of two Directorates into four.

            The mushrooming of the private schools and the attraction of the common public towards private schools is the common trend seen in the North-East Indian States. As per DISE 2006, about 15% of the children of elementary level are in private schools which are the double of the enrolment of private schools of 2005. This has shown yearly decline of the enrolment in government schools of the State. It is common notion in the common people that the teaching learning processes in the private schools are comparatively better than the government schools. In addition, some of the people believes that the voice of the parent are given due weightage in school administration and management in private schools.

            It is seen that some of the private schools with less qualified and unprepared teachers, are rather more output oriented and inclined towards only cognitive development of the children. This may pose danger of degradation of ethical values.

            To provide schooling facilities to the scattered children population of remote corner of the village is really a prodigious task. The habitations with few children populations cut off by the monsoon streams or landslide zone from the mainstream of village life are common feature of hilly regions. Education Guarantee Scheme is found very helpful alternative to provide schooling facilities to these children.

            The State Mission Authority decided to assign Non Governmental Organizations to run EGS centres in the State in 2004 and advertisement were given in the leading news papers of the State inviting NGOs for the running of the EGS Centres in the State.  The District Project Offices were accordingly instructed to collect the applications of the NGOs of the respective districts alongwith the formalities prescribed by the State Mission Authority in the media advertisement and submit those applications to State Project Office for finalization. In the beginning of 2005 session, the following NGOs were selected to run the centres in different districts of the State:

1. East District:

a)     Bidya Bharati, H.Q. Gangtok, East Sikkim;

2. West District:

a)     Arigaon Samaj, Gayzing, West Sikkim;

b)     Begha Bamaj, Begha, West Sikkim;

c)     Radhu Samaj, Radhu Khandu, West Sikkim

3. South District:

a)     Himalayan Educational Society, Temi Tarku, South Sikkim;

b)     Teesta Tendong Club, Bermiok Tokal, South Sikkim;

c)     Milan Samaj Sewa Samiti, Mellidara, South Sikkim.

4. North District:

a)     Mutanchi Lhom Aal Shezum, H.Q. Mangan, North Sikkim.

At present, there are 48 EGS centres in the State with 1233 children and are being run by eight NGOs selected as above.

           

Community Monitoring is also being encouraged in the State and the training for SMC members and Community Leaders are being conducted under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The NGOs and Self Help Groups are also being involved in the academic and management processes in the State. Recently, the concept of Mothers-Teachers Association is initiated in the State to supervise the quality of cooked mid-day meal being served in the schools for primary school children.

4. Issues in Planning for Universalization of Elementary Education

It is known fact that the process planning under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is of Bottom-up. It means that the planning of program is to be started from the lowest level i.e. the individual school or habitation. In Sikkim, as mentioned above, there are 782 schools and the catchment area of each school is the lowest unit of planning under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The individual school prepares its catchment area level plan involving SMCs, PRIs, parents and local people and then this plan is send to Cluster. After consolidation, the individual cluster sends the consolidated cluster level plan to their respective Blocks and these blocks again consolidate the cluster level plans of their jurisdiction then send it to district and districts send it to State Project Office.   At last, all District Elementary Education Plan are consolidated at State level duly consulting personnel from District Project Offices and Block Resource Centres. However, it is revealed that the plans that flow from the school level are mostly focused on physical dimension of the school. The planning under cognitive, organizational and social dimensions of the school remains untouched. Hence, the District Project Offices are instructed to conduct a massive training program for SMCs and panchayats to incorporate all the dimensions of the school while formulating school level plan.

In the case of fund transfer, the State transfers funds to districts. In the same way, the districts transfer it to the blocks of their respective jurisdiction. And the blocks transfer it to the clusters and finally cluster to individual school. The implementation and monitoring of the project in the State level has five tiers.

The people of Sikkim can broadly be divided into two groups i.e. (1) Educated/literate/ employed and economically sound, and (2) Literate/illiterate and economically unsound.  In the same way, the students of Sikkim can also be divided into two groups i.e. (1) from economically sound family studying in private or public schools, and (2) from economically unsound family studying in government schools. The teachers those who teach in government schools have their children in private/public schools and the teachers those who teach in private/public schools have their children in government schools. Thus, it is rightly said “APL[1] teachers teach BPL[2] children and BPL teachers teach APL children”.  

Almost 90% of the children of government schools are first generation learner without academic support from their family. Thus, the role of the teachers in formulating school catchment area level plan is vital and indispensable. But this planning has nothing to do with their children as their children are not in the government schools. This has created a problem of nonchalance in Micro-Level Planning and implementation of the program at grassroot level.  

In addition, the employees those who are responsible for plan implementation, monitoring and management of education in the government sector also have their children in private schools.  This has brought in some glitches in prioritization of the problems and input areas required to be focused upon. However, the employees those who are aware of the fact that they are preparing society for their own children, are seen rather more concerned.

It is already mentioned that there are 3204 out of school children in the State in the age group 6-14 year out of which 59% are dropouts and almost 85% dropout children are either not interested to come to school or left the school due to repeated failure (detentions). Since, last three years, Sikkim is trying to plan strategies and activities to bring these children to the school system. The main strategy designed for the purpose is different levels of Bridge Courses based on the academic level, chronological age of the child and the grade for which the child is suppose to be bridged. But the designing of curriculum for the bridge courses, recommending the reading materials, scheduling its time period etc. are totally a technical assignment and needs professional expertise to execute it. The State Educational Institutes like SIE/DIET are suppose to execute the assignment but due to the shortage of academic staff in the institutes, they are not in the position of execute it. Thus the State is going to train the academically sound officers from the district for the overall execution of bridge courses in their respective districts.

The problems of out of school children those who are out of school due to the reasons like earning compulsion, migration, household work can be addressed through motivations and interactions; and the State has planned accordingly as per the locality specific strategies designed during the planning of AWP&B 2007-08.

5. Teachers of Elementary Schools in Sikkim

            It is better to take note that the teaching job is the best paid job in the State and hold high respect in the society in accordance with the percentage of teacherness available in the individual teacher. It is already mentioned in the above section that the children of the teachers teaching in the government schools of the State are in private/public schools.

The following table gives the details of number of teachers, enrolment and Teacher Pupil Ratio of government schools in the State:

District	Teachers			Enrolment			TPR
	Primary	U/Pry	Total	Primary	U/Pry	Total	Primary	U/Pry	Total
East	1362	621	1983	27449	11945	39394	1:20	1:19	1:20
West	1122	353	1475	17746	6068	23814	1:16	1:17	1:16
South	1109	314	1423	18779	6712	25491	1:17	1:21	1:18
North	421	145	566	4822	1668	6490	1:12	1:12	1:12
Total	4014	1433	5447	68796	26393	95189	1:17	1:18	1:17

            It is seen that the schools where the teachers are staying in its catchments areas have very good performance and the school efficiency is being graded as “Good”, “V. Good” and even “Excellent” and the teachers or school heads are recommended for Commendation Certificates and State Awards.

Trained / untrained Teachers in Government Schools (Primary)

District	Trained			Untrained			Total
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
East	520	409	929	196	237	433	716	646	1362
West	541	291	832	137	153	290	678	444	1122
South	659	357	1016	78	15	93	737	372	1109
North	185	101	286	76	59	135	261	160	421
Total	1905	1158	3063	487	464	951	2392	1622	4014

Source: DISE 2006

Trained / untrained Teachers in Government Schools (Upper Primary)

District	Trained			Untrained			Total
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
East	193	162	355	167	99	266	360	261	621
West	125	93	218	76	59	135	201	152	353
South	96	50	146	71	97	168	167	147	314
North	34	19	53	60	32	92	94	51	145
Total	448	324	772	374	287	661	822	611	1433

Source: DISE 2006

Trained / untrained Teachers in Government Schools (Elementary)

District	Trained			Untrained			Total
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
East	713	571	1284	363	336	699	1076	907	1983
West	666	384	1050	213	212	425	879	596	1475
South	755	407	1162	149	112	261	904	519	1423
North	219	120	339	136	91	227	355	211	566
Total	2353	1482	3835	861	751	1612	3214	2233	5447

Source: DISE 2006

The minimum qualification of eligibility for Primary and Graduate Teachers in Sikkim was Class XII and Bachelor Degree respectively. The professional qualifications BT, DIET, TTI, CPE, B.Ed., M.Ed. etc. were only the desirable qualification till last year. This has resulted to a colossal numbers of untrained and unprepared teachers in the Department.  However, very recently, the Department of Human Resource Development, Government of Sikkim, has taken an important step on the issue and made certificate of DIET/TTI/CPE compulsory for the candidate who applies for the post of primary teacher. The graduate candidate who qualifies the interview of Graduate teacher has to clear B. Ed. within five years of appointment. This will, hopefully, bring changes in the education system of the State.

The main academic agencies of the State are State Institute of Education and a DIET; both are located in the State Capital. These agencies are short of faculties and cannot cater expected level of service.

Since the average TPR of the State is 1:17, the State has not appointed any para teachers.  

Sikkim is earnestly striving on the way of Universalization of Elementary Education in the State. It is felt that the boring teaching processes and repeated failure have resulted to maximum dropouts in the State. The school is not attracting the children and the parents have no faith on the government schools. The only alternative seen for the remedy is to provide training to teachers on joyful and activity based teaching learning processes.

It is frequently appraised to the State Project Office regarding the absence of DIET in the districts when the matter of teachers’ training arises. The need assessment of teachers and designing the training programme/modules as per the findings of need assessment is very important to acquire desired outcomes. The refreshing of teachers on the knowledge of contents areas and its transaction methodology in the classroom is not being done as per the needs of the teachers.  Further, the orientation of teachers on the basis of curricular changes is also vital areas of quality concern.

The teachers of government schools are rarely doing the development of subject and content specific TLMs from locally available materials. They say that the fixed, structured and bulky syllabi is one of the factors, which make them over occupied to think for competency oriented and activity based teaching learning processes.  The State is thinking for the training of the teachers on the development of TLMs from locally available materials to make the teaching learning process more effective and competency oriented. Further, the teachers are being made aware about the fact that the use of TLMs in teaching learning process will reduce time consumption and the pressure of syllabi coverage. It is instructed to all the inspecting officers of the district to provide supports on the development of TLMs, its use in classroom processes and its importance in the delivery of quality education, to the teachers during their visits to the school.

-        D.B. Subba,

Assistant Director,

Human Resource Development Department,

South District, Namchi.

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[1] Above Poverty Line

[2] Below Poverty Line