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Positive parental attitudes and community participation in running village schools are only two of the factors that have seen such rapid strides in literacy in this remote mountain state
Himachal Pradesh, for long considered one of the backward regions of North India, has fared much better in the field of primary education than some of its more prosperous neighbours and in a far shorter timespan. It has made faster strides in education over the last two decades than most other states in the country. The percentage of illiterates aged 10-14 in 1951 was as high as 81%. This had declined sharply by 1971 to 35%, and dipped to just 10% by 1991. 94% of males and 86% of females in this age-group were literate in 1991. According to 2001 census figures the state's literacy rate has touched 77.13% against 65.68% nationally. The Public Report on Basic Education (PROBE) survey, conducted in 1996 in 234 randomly selected villages in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, studied 48 villages in seven districts in Himachal and interviewed 154 households. Of 285 children aged 6-12 in the sample households, only five had never been to school and the proportion attending school was as high as 97% for boys and 95% for girls. HP is the only state in the country to spend Rs 1.03 per capita on education, against Kerala's 68 paise and neighbouring Punjab's 58 paise. Significantly, its per capita expenditure on education is almost twice the national average. The teacher-child ratio is also higher, about twice as high in HP compared to India as a whole. What has Himachal Pradesh done right? Its success results from a combination of active state intervention, civic cooperation, high parental interest and decent teaching standards. Significantly, the educational expansion has been achieved almost entirely by government schools, with relatively little contribution from private schools. The fact that the state has an unfavourable settlement pattern with small villages scattered over large areas -- one-third of the rural population lives in villages with a population of 300 or less - makes the state's achievement even more creditable. The state has placed sustained emphasis on developing rural infrastructure, especially roads and village schools to reduce inter-regional disparities in educational levels. This has led to high investment in remote tribal districts like Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti, which have fast caught up with the rest of the state. The government offers many incentive schemes for socially and economically disadvantaged pupils, including free textbooks upto class 10 for scheduled-caste and scheduled-tribe children. When Operation Blackboard was launched nationwide in 1987 with the aim of ensuring that every primary school had a minimum quota of facilities and aids and the eradication of single-teacher schools, Himachal Pradesh took the lead in implementing the goals. The proportion of such schools plummeted from 28% in 1986 to less than 2% by 1995. Similarly, giving priority to women in teacher appointments has been taken seriously here - in the schools surveyed by the PROBE team, 41% of teachers were female as compared with only 21% in the other PROBE states. The Integrated Child Development Scheme promotes the establishment of well-functioning anganwadis, which contribute greatly to the success of schooling, especially for the girl-child. In Himachal Pradesh, unlike in other PROBE states where the coverage was only one-third of the sample villages, half of the villages have a functioning anganwadi and 85% of these are rated as satisfactory by the local headteacher. This is one important factor that has enabled Himachali women to send their children to school despite their heavy workload. The state has also implemented, with fair success, a solution to the problem of children being required as full-time labour during periods of peak agricultural activity -- adjusting the school calendar and timings, district-wise, so as to avoid any serious clash with agricultural activity. Parental attitudes towards education are markedly different in Himachal Pradesh as compared to other northern states and do not exhibit any significant gender bias. Parents here show a higher awareness of the benefits that accrue from education, not just with regard to employment opportunities but also in becoming a useful member of modern society. Ninety per cent of Himachali parents, as opposed to 80% in other PROBE states, supported compulsory primary education, and 100% said they would like to see their children study at least till class 10. Importantly, 67% of parents here, as opposed to a mere 40% in other PROBE states, mentioned 'improved employment and income opportunities' as one of the reasons why it is important for their daughters to be educated. In fact, there is active parent-teacher cooperation and community interest in running village schools. The relatively homogeneous nature of village society in Himachal has fostered the idea that the local school is everyone's school. This is one of the main reasons why village schools here do not become dysfunctional so easily - if the school stops functioning, the entire village has a stake in rectifying the problem.
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