LANGUAGE DISADVANTAGE: The Learning Challenge in Primary Education

The right to quality elementary education is now being recognized as the guiding principle of all government initiatives. But, in practice, a significant proportion of children are deprived of an 'equal opportunity to learn' at the primary stage of schooling. Children who join school.with a first language that is very different from the one used as the medium of instruction at school, face a serious disadvantage in the early years that stunts their learning at school. Barring a few sporadic pilot initiatives, the education system has failed to respond to this huge learning challenge. This study argues that the learning disadvantage is not confined only to tribal children who are totally unfamiliar with the school language at the time of joining school. Children who speak dialects that are very different from the standard language used at school, children of migrants and those residing in inter-state border areas are similarly disadvantaged. The findings of the fieldwork for this study have helped to provide a flavour of the nature and extent of this problem.

 This study outlines some successful educational strategies that have been implemented in other countries to help children who suffer due to the gap between the home and school language. Some of the initiatives under government educational programmes in India have also been outlined with the objective of learning from the problems in their implementation. The author identifies some appropriate educational strategies for the various school situations in India and discusses some issues in the planning and implementation of such initiatives.

Persons / organizations interested for this book may get in touch with the author Dhir Jhingran at djhingran@rediffmail.com
 
Elementary Education for the Poorest and Other Deprived Groups: The Real Challenge of Universalisation
Rough estimates indicate that nearly 60-70 million children in the age group of 6-13 years do not attend school in India and remain deprived of the basic right to learn.  This despite the fact that the goal of the universalisation of elementary education has been  a stated objective of the Indian nation state since its inception and has received greater attention in the recent past.

Existing information clearly reveals that the majority of children outside the school system belong to poor and other deprived groups. Although many studies exist on related issues, we felt that the process through which poverty and deprivation influence exclusion from school participation deserves further enquiry and systematic investigation. 

This study is based on detailed fieldwork in different parts of the country applying both qualitative and quantitative tools and techniques. The focus is on understanding schooling participation from the perspective of poor and deprived families and analyzing the present policy and interventions in the context of this understanding. Basic livelihood insercurity, adverse socio-political postitoning, lack of school accountatbility and oversimplification of equity issues in policies and delivery modes emerge as crticial issues.  The commitment to education among poor and deprived families is not uniform and depends upon a number of factors in a board life situation of vulnerability and powerlessness. The situation can be improved only with a fundamental change in the approach and functioning of the schooling system, on the one hand, and the concrete socio-political empowerment of the poor and the deprived, on the other.

Persons / organizations interested for this book may get in touch with the author Dhir Jhingran at djhingran@rediffmail.com