Schools In Rural India Research Articles

Assessment of Primary Education System in Rural India: A Case Study on Chikana Village of Tonk District in Rajasthan, India

The case study aims to highlight the existing problems and challenges in the primary education system prevalent in Rural India, from the lens of Chikana Village, in the Tonk district of Rajasthan, India. The case study brings to light prevalent practices, concerns and beliefs that govern the process of imparting primary-level education to the children of Chikana. The points made in the course of the study, though derived from this particular village, can be used as a general idea for most schools in rural India. The researchers have taken into consideration the prevalent schemes started by state and central governments for the enhancement of the quality of education in Rural India and have built points on the impact and significance these schemes have made so far. The study is qualitative in nature and uses both secondary and primary data sets.
 Secondary data is used in the form of old schemes and impact reports on Indian primary education, while primary data is incorporated in the form of observation and interview schedules. The time frame of all secondary data is limited to the last 5 years (February 2018- February 2023). The sample size for the interview schedule is 40 participants, these included students from ranging age groups, teachers and school authorities of the ‘Rajkiya Ucch Prathmik Vidyalay, Chikana'. The study aims to raise considerable awareness among the readers of this study about the existing trends in education in rural India and to highlight the gap in urban and rural education systems. The study goes on to find major loopholes in the ongoing educational practices prevalent in rural India. It brings to light the different dimensions of the primary education system and the opinions of different stakeholders on the progression of the sector. It comments on the implementation of policies designed to cater to the needs of children. The study also offers the author's conclusion derived from the curated data sets which clearly presents the condition of the sector as more bad than good, however, stressing enough of the good and stating that progress is expected in the years to come. The study is a comprehensive work, which gives a 180-degree view of the education provided to children in rural parts of the country.

Reviving Government Schools in Rural India: Partnering with Edtech can Pave the Way Forward

The study aims to assess learning ecosystem in government schools in rural India and to develop management strategies for the revival of these schools. The article concerns the commercialization of education in India, with the number of private schools increasing, while declining number of government schools struggle to provide quality education. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the situation, with a significant decline in basic reading and arithmetic skills of rural children. The study was conducted in five aspirational districts in eastern India, with a sample size of 450 students. The study focused on three groups: experimental group 1, which had access to traditional classroom teaching, digital content, Android-based fun learning games, and a mentor at a district learning centre; experimental group 2, which had access to traditional classroom teaching, digital content, and fun learning games; and a control group, which had access to traditional classroom teaching only. The results showed that experimental group 1, which had access to premium digital content, fun learning games, and a mentor, had the highest learning outcomes. Linear regression analysis showed that the independent variables, Content App usage (%), Games Completion Rate, and Percentage of attendance at the district learning centre, were positively related to the Overall percentage score. The study highlights the importance of improving the learning ecosystem of government schools in rural India, providing access to digital devices and internet connectivity, and including cost-effective edtech solutions vis-à-vis services. The study suggests that a combination of traditional classroom teaching, digital content, and fun learning games, along with a mentorship program, can lead to significant improvements in the quality of education in government schools. The study recommends that policymakers and stakeholders should work towards bringing about systematic changes in the education system in rural India.

Computers' Place in School Education and Early Challenges of Computer Assisted Learning in India

An important factor in the social turn of events is education. Tutoring plays a key role in ensuring the success of any nation's progress. A nation's future intellectual leaders must be highly skilled, proactive, and e-modern in approach. Over 50,000 public elementary schools in India have PC-supported learning (CAL) initiatives going on. In a few countries, it has been a significant topic of inquiry and investigation how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Computer Science (CS) have been included into educational programs. The term "instruction innovation" refers to the use of a wide range of contemporary media and materials to increase learning opportunities. Experts suggest training innovation as one of the anticipated approaches to successfully and competently enabling education.Before, teachers used to demonstrate in a rigid, official, and well-organized manner. Then, education was seen as a means of exchanging knowledge and ideas. Understudies utilized to memorize any content or instructions offered by the teacher. They frequently struggled to understand the instructions they were given and required to repeat at test time [1] [2] [3][4][5][6] [7]. The nature of CS instruction depends not only on the support of the government and the content of the curriculum but also on the knowledge and skills of the teachers who are teaching CS courses. Powerful instructors' CS preparation is therefore approaching. Since the 1980s, there have been active projects bringing PCs to low-paying areas in order to deliver innovative benefit.Such motivations would often anticipate a formative inspiration in the endeavor, especially in impoverished nations. Growing trust among government and confidential organizations, whose information on figures is a significant connection in human turn of events, and that the early presentation has large long-term gains, has led to an interest in such ICTD projects. In this essay, we investigate the availability of free processing in government-funded schools in rural India. This review suggests a system for focusing on PC-aided learning projects in low-pay schools after observing designs that imply "achievement" at both the mutual and individual levels. It also raises issues regarding learning and undertaking association that scientists in ICT training may look at for theories [8] [9] [10]11][12][13] [14].

Examining the Preparedness for Achieving Goal 4 of the SDGs in India: A Case Study on School Governance vis-à-vis Outcome for Primary Schools in Rural Maharashtra

The study inspects the status of school governance and school outcome at primary school level and set up roadmap for all the stakeholders to achieve the mandate of Goal 4 in SDGs within 2030, especially in the context of rural India. The status of school governance and school outcome are assessed under 4 dimensions and 16 parameters through a survey of 21 rural primary schools from rural Maharashtra. Two different indices have been constructed for school outcomes and school governance using multi-stage principal component analysis. Public and private-aided schools are compared according to the degree of accountability and transparency. It has been realized that there is an absolute need for strong school governance at ground level which is very poor across public schools in rural India. The study followed the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project and ASER (2014) and considered these baselines to find the present status of school governance and school outcome for the present study.

In Pursuit of Education: Why Some Tribal Girls Continue and Others Dropout of Schools in Rural India?

This research focus on the barriers and facilitators of accessing primary and secondary education among the tribal girls in the hinterlands of India. Using ethnographic approach, this study provides a narrative of the girls belonging to the Oraon tribe on what enables or prohibits them to successfully complete their education. The findings reveal that the economic hardships of parents, early arranged or love marriages and the absence of role models in the village affect the perceived value and relevance of education. On the other hand, competent teachers, the use of local language, local relevance of syllabus, stable family income and parental support played a crucial role in facilitating the successful completion of the girls’ education. The article applies the theoretical framework of ecological systems theory to better understand the proximal and distal personal and societal factors that determine the dropout rate of the tribal girls in the formal education system.

Play-pedagogy in a primary school classroom in India: a case against academisation of early years education

ABSTRACT Entry of children to primary schools in India marks a sudden shift in the pedagogical approach as play-based pedagogy gives way to formal instruction. This paper argues that children’s play motives do not subside when they enter school, rather play takes a more mature form and represents a strong linkage between their thought and reality. The recently introduced National Education Policy 2020 in India mandates a large-scale achievement survey at the age of 8, the fear is that this will lead to formalisation and academisation of early schooling. The paper presents a case study of a school in rural India that follows a play-based pedagogy in the primary years. The study uses dialectical-interactive approach for data collection and analysis. The analysis shows that play creates a pedagogic opportunity for the teacher and children to engage with each other’s motives thus creating a shared ‘object of activity’ that ensures children’s motivated engagement in their learning.

Understanding the accuracy of teachers’ perceptions about low achieving learners in primary schools in rural India: An empirical analysis of alignments and misalignments

Teachers' perceptions of their students’ academic skills are crucial in enabling teaching at the appropriate level and shaping learning processes. We examine how accurate are teachers’ perceptions for low achieving students using data collected from around 1,800 primary school teachers across 848 schools in rural India. We find that around 40% of teachers inaccurately perceive that the low performing students in their classroom had already acquired foundational literacy, when they have not. Female teachers, para-teachers, and teachers with lower work burden are more likely to have accurate perceptions of low performing students. Our study highlights the need to work with teachers to ensure more realistic perceptions in order for pedagogical approaches like teaching at the right level to reach its intended impact.

Pedagogy and Student Learning Outcomes in Elementary Schools in Rural India: A Quasi-Experimental Approach

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of effective teaching methods on learning outcomes in elementary schools in rural India. Particularly, this paper studies an innovative learning enhancement program called “Parrho Punjab” launched in 2007 in the Indian state of Punjab. Using cross-sectional data, the effect of the “Parrho Punjab” program on third to fifth grade children’s learning levels in basic mathematics is evaluated. This study develops combined research designs of propensity score matching technique and the difference-in-differences (DID) method. In a first step, propensity score matching technique is applied to create a synthetic control group that is as similar as possible to the treatment group in terms of pre- “Parrho Punjab” characteristics. The difference-in-differences approach is then used to estimate the effect of the program on third to fifth grade children’s learning outcomes in basic mathematics. The results indicate a positive and significant effect of the program on children’s learning outcomes in basic mathematics, underscoring the importance of effective pedagogy in enhancing learning outcomes. Combining propensity score matching with the difference-in-differences approach, this study addresses the problem of unmeasured confounding. The DID approach will produce misleading conclusions in the presence of bias due to unmeasured confounders. To the best of my knowledge, previous studies using a DID method for examining the impact of effective teaching strategies on student learning outcomes in India have not made such attempts to address the problem of confounding bias.

A novel approach to baseline water quality assessment at local and catchment scale: a case study from Berambadi, India.

Optimal design and maintenance are necessary for the sustainability of wastewater treatment systems. In this study, we present the outcome of a novel approach to baseline assessment conducted prior to the design and deployment of a decentralized wastewater treatment system at a school in rural India. The baseline water quality monitoring protocol was deployed to assess (a) the quality and quantity of wastewater (greywater and blackwater) flows from the school and (b) the status of surface water and groundwater quality in the catchment. Hourly greywater flows and water quality trends were monitored across four seasons at the school. Average freshwater consumption at the school was 518 ± 322 L/day for hand washing and 287 ± 97 L/day for cooking meals. Greywater generation showed high hourly variations in COD levels. Greywater generated from hand wash and kitchen sources contributed to 110g/day and 96g/day of BOD5 respectively and 214g/day and 141g/day of COD respectively. Based on additional data from a self-reporting sanitation survey, the organic contaminant load generated from the toilet was estimated to be 1.5 ± 0.1kg COD/day. At the catchment scale, both groundwater and surface water quality were monitored seasonally to assess the impact of raw sewage and stormwater inputs. Compared with borewells, high nitrate-N levels (> 10mg/L) were observed in the village hand pump samples throughout the year. Maximum nitrate-N (16mg/L) and fecal coliforms (3.9 log MPN/100mL) levels were observed in surface waters during monsoons, indicating the impact of sewage and surface runoff on water quality. The proposed approach is useful to estimate data on freshwater use and wastewater generation at the school and hence to make the case for, and design of, a sustainable water management intervention.

Sustainable water resources through harvesting rainwater and the effectiveness of a low-cost water treatment

Increases in world population and climate change are some of the pressures affecting water resources for current and future water availability. The variability in water availability can reduce agricultural yields, food supplies and potentially leads to malnutrition and spread of diseases in water-poor countries. Even some water-rich countries can experience prolonged periods of dry weather, causing a drop in water reservoirs levels, forcing more restricted water resources management. Rainwater harvesting is one key option in adapting to water shortage and future demands that may alleviate the pressure on existing water resources. This work evaluates a roof top rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) installed as part of a decentralised wastewater treatment system designed to enable a circular economy by providing a more reliable water supply system in a remote public school in rural India. The effectiveness of the RWHS in reducing the pressure on a groundwater supply was assessed along with the physical, chemical and microbial characteristics of the stored rainwater over time. Further, the application of a low-cost primary treatment to make the harvested water safe to use for multiple purposes was investigated. The results revealed that the harvested water was of acceptable quality at the start of collection, however, microbial abundance increased when the rainwater was stored for a long time without treatment. Thus, a chlorine dosing regimen for the RWHS was designed based on laboratory and field experiments. The results also demonstrated that the low-cost chlorination process was effective in the field in reducing microbial abundance in the stored water for more than 30 days. However, as the residual chlorine level was reduced with time to <0.2 mg/l in the storage vessel, the microbial abundance increased, albeit to a much lower level that meets the Indian bathing water standards. The results provide evidence that installed RWHS has reduced the pressure on existing water supply at the school by up to 25% of the water that used for washing and flushing with no treatment, and with regular chlorination, greater savings and multiple uses of the stored rainwater can be achieved.

Caste Discrimination in Provision of Public Schools in Rural India

This paper aims to understand discrimination in the provision of public schools in rural India and how it affects the educational outcome of social groups. Using census data, we find that villages with a higher share of marginalised castes viz. Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have a lower probability of having public schools. The negative relationship is non-monotonic as the marginal probabilities get weaker beyond a threshold level of SC/ST share. Though the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Education for All) programme, mainly intended to expand elementary education, has reduced the gaps in the provision of primary schools, the extent of discrimination has increased at the secondary level. A strong association between public schools and educational outcomes highlights the importance of public schools. Finally, we show that the caste-based provisioning of public schools partially explains the disparity in the educational outcomes across social groups.

A Study on Menstrual Hygiene Management at the Bottom of Pyramid in India

The research paper examines the problems related to menarche and menstruation at the bottom of the pyramid in India. The purpose of the research is to promote menstrual health management (MHM) at the bottom of the pyramid to promote well-being of girls and women and to reduce absenteeism and drop-out rates in schools in rural India. India scores lowest in sanitary napkin usage in the world. Lack of awareness and education regarding menarche contributes to anxiety, fear and abuse among young girls. Commercial products like sanitary pads, tampons and menstrual cups are less widely available and often unaffordable. Due to poor menstrual hygiene practices more than 70% of women are diagnosed with serious vaginal and urinary tract infections each year. There is urgent need for Government, NGO’s and corporates to collaborate together to provide affordable and sustainable menstrual hygiene management solutions for the welfare of the community at large.

Decentralized treatment and recycling of greywater from a school in rural India

Rural areas in developing countries face the twin challenges of water scarcity and risk of groundwater contamination due to lack of water treatment options. A decentralized greywater treatment system for reuse is an option that addresses both of these challenges. This study reports the performance of a decentralized greywater treatment and reuse system which was constructed and operated for over 12 months in a government-managed school in rural India. The handwash and kitchen wash wastewater streams were treated separately due to differences in the initial greywater characteristics. The treatment stages included pre-treatment using screens and grease traps, slow sand biofiltration combined with anaerobic sludge bioreactor, and aeration before the final ozone-based disinfection stage. The treated water at the end of all these stages was used for toilet-flushing in the school. The treatment system was operated for one year and sampling was performed to investigate the system performance. The overall treatment system showed removal efficiencies of 99 %, 98 %, 66 %, 73 %, 98 %, 96 % and >99.99 % for the parameters of turbidity, total suspended solids, nitrate, total phosphorus, biological oxygen demand (5 days), chemical oxygen demand and fecal coliform respectively. This study quantifies the performance of each subsystem and demonstrates for the first time that a decentralized greywater treatment can be operated effectively and economically in a rural Indian setting.

Adoption of mobile applications for teaching-learning process in rural girls\u2019 schools in India: an empirical study

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that can impact the adoption of mobile apps for teaching-learning process focusing on the girls’ school in rural India. The hypotheses were proposed and a conceptual model has been developed. There is a survey work conducted to collect the data from different respondents using a convenience sampling method. The model has been validated statistically through PLS-SEM analysis covering feedbacks of 271 effective respondents. The study highlights the impact of different antecedents of the behavioural intention of the students of using mobile applications for teaching-learning process. The results also show that among other issues, price value has insignificant influence on the intention of the girl students of the rural India. During survey feedbacks have been obtained from the 271 respondents, which is meagre compared to vastness of the population and school of rural India. Only few predictors have been considered leaving possibilities of inclusion of other boundary conditions to enhance the explanative power more than that has been achieved in the proposed model with the explanative power of 81%. The model has provided laudable inputs to the educational policy makers and technology enablers and administrators to understand the impact of the mobile applications on the rural girls’ school of India and facilitate the development of m-learning. Very few studies been conducted to explore the impact of mobile applications on the school education of rural India especially focusing on the girls’ schools.

Estimating the Welfare Gains from Public Schools in Rural India

We adapt recently developed econometric techniques to estimate the distribution of welfare gains from public schools in rural India. Individuals have preferences over school quality and income spent on other goods. In a situation where both private and pubic schools are available, we define the cash-equivalent value of the public school as the hypothetical income sacrifice that would equate an individual’s utility to his/her utility when only the private school was available. We apply this procedure to data on income, enrollment and school quality from the Indian Human Development Survey of 2012 and estimate the distribution of implicit transfers across states and income deciles. We find these transfers are progressive. Poor households receive more on average because they have higher fertility and because their children are more likely to attend state schools. We also find however that transfers are particularly small for some of the poorest states in central and eastern India because of their low public school quality. Our methods can be generalized to measure the distribution of benefits from other types of public goods and government services.

Gender parity index in primary school in rural India: An analysis

Abstract. Patriarchal forces have imposed many subjective norms on girls in achieving education mainly in rural India. Initially on the basis of 2011 Census report of India, the rural population dominated districts of 16 major states of India are identified. Next we have tried to identify the possible factors which can influence Gender Parity Index (GPI) during the time of enrolment in primary education in rural India. Due to disparity in socio-cultural factors across india, which can possibly influence girl’s enrolment in primary school, we have divided India into four zones. This paper on the basis of DISE statistics have found that school development grant influences GPI in Eastern, Western and Southern zones and teaching learning material grant influence GPI value in Eastern and Western zone and also encourages overall enrolment of children in Northern zone in rural schools. It is also found that increased female teacher positively influences GPI value in primary school enrolment in Eastern and Southern zone of India. Reduced pupil-teacher ratio has positive impact on girls enrolment in primary school mainly in Eastern, Western and Southern zone of India. Availibility of mid day meal in school has positively influenced GPI value in primary school enrolment in Eastern, Western and Southern zone of India and also have positive impact in increasing overall enrolment in rural primary schools in Northern zone of India. Female literacy and overall literacy have positive influence GPI in Eastern zone of India. Provision for specialised toilet for girl child has also motivated parents to enrol their girl child to primary school mainly in Eastern, Western and Southern zone of India. Keywords. Patriarchal society, Gender discrimination, Gender parity index, DISE statistics, Panel data regression model, Gross enrolment ratio. JEL. C33, I24, I38, J12, J16, R12.

Social hierarchy and enrolment in government and private schools in rural India: longitudinal evidence from a Rajasthan village

With reference to a village in a predominantly tribal part of Rajasthan, this paper illustrates the increasing heterogeneity of the rural educational landscape and examines different patterns of enrolment within this. While the findings confirm those of more macro-level studies using the four official social categories, intra-category differences are shown to be equally, if not more, important in helping to explain variations in the types and locations of schools chosen by parents. The social composition of government schools in the village has greatly narrowed and the majority of pupils in local private schools now come from tribal households. The expansion in size and number of commutable schools has moved the frontier of private schooling away from the village and provided new and increasingly exclusive contexts for both old and new forms of social division to be manifested.

Prayatna: A Student Led Initiative to Empower Underpriviledged Children through Education

A robust education system is the cornerstone for building a strong nation. Government of India led initiatives such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Right to Education Act are some efforts made to provide universal education to children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. However these efforts appear to have received a mixed response. Quality education still remains an elusive goal. A recent study (ASER, 2015) states that in rural India, half of the children enrolled in Grade V cannot read matter pertaining to Grade 2. Reading ability even among children enrolled in private schools in rural India is poor. Close to half of all the children lack basic skills in Math and English. Amenities such as usable toilets, availability of drinking water are lacking in rural Indian schools. The situation in the urban slums pertaining to education, is a relatively unresearched area and hence not much data is available regarding the quality and the impact. Against this backdrop, the paper describes the case of Prayatna which is a student led initiative to provide quality education to poor children living in the slum areas of Hinjewadi, Pune (Maharashtra). Since its inception in 2008, this NGO has helped 30 children. The dilemma for the NGO is to generate sustainable funding sources and motivate the beneficiaries, parents and volunteers which are accompanied by the challenges of managing varied aspirations.

Impact evaluation of two methods of dental health education among children of a primary school in rural India

Background: Impact of two methods of dental health education (DHE) on knowledge and practices of primary school children in a rural area regarding oral care was planned to be studied. Materials and Methods: Study population comprised of 199 primary school children aged 10-13 years in rural field practice area of a medical college. After collecting baseline data, students were allocated into two groups by block randomization using variable blocks. DHE with educational pamphlets and demonstrations was given to both groups. In addition, the intervention group was also shown videos showing correct oral health practices. Data were proposed to be collected at 3 and 6 months from baseline for impact evaluation. The results at 3 months postintervention are being presented. Results: The results after 3 months of intervention found significant difference in the impact on: (a) Practices regarding method of cleaning teeth (P < 0.001), (b) knowledge on best method of cleaning teeth (P < 0.001), (c) reason for regular brushing of teeth (P < 0.001), and (d) requirement to clean teeth after eating something sweet (P < 0.001) in favor of group receiving additional intervention. Conclusion: There is a significant difference in the impact of health education using integrated modes of pamphlets distribution, demonstrations, and A-V aids (group A) as compared to demonstrations and pamphlets distribution only (group B).

Adapting the Supply of Education to the Needs of Girls: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in Rural India

Abstract This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a large-scale government initiative (NPEGEL/KGBV) that provided earmarked funds for addressing girls’ special needs to public schools in rural India. Our empirical strategy exploits local variation in program eligibility around a threshold based on the female literacy rate at the community level. The main result is that the program led to an enrollment gain of about six to seven percentage points for girls in upper primary school. Evidence of an enrollment gain for boys is tentative. Available evidence on mechanisms suggests that the program improved girl-friendly school infrastructure and services as well as gender-neutral school resources.