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Nomadic tribes get travelling teachers: The Indian Express
New Delhi, Aug 20: If you can`t go to school, the school will go to you. Make that the teacher-the teacher will go to you and will keep going wherever you go.
New Delhi, Aug 20: If you can’t go to school, the school will go to you. Make that the teacher—the teacher will go to you and will keep going wherever you go.
Come September and this unique idea will be implemented in Himachal Pradesh as it takes the final plunge to reach that magic 100% school enrolment figure for children in the age group of six to 14.
Already the state boasts of a 98% enrolment, the balance two per cent are children of nomadic Gujjar and Gaddi tribes and the state’s migrant workforce. The solution: embed teachers with these tribes. And set up a school even if the population isn’t enough, wait for the settlers to come down.
For the Gujjars, who move in large groups with their cattle between Chamba and Kangra and occasionally stray into Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab, the government has already begun trying out ‘‘embedding’’ a teacher. For the Gaddis, the government has another need-based, terrain-specific approach.
Since it’s essentially very small groups of Gaddi men and boys who travel with their sheep, the idea is to build hostels for those who stay behind. Already one hostel with a capacity of 80 students has been built last year. But this is a very new project and the response as yet is just about 15 per cent.
But the state government says it will press on. So you have the curious case in Lahul Spiti where there is a school in a village of only one family. The father is a teacher and the son the student. The state government could have transferred the teacher to some other school but it kept the school going because in future there may be more children in the village.
Then, in Kulu, there is a middle school with four teachers and only two students. This school could have also been closed down because the demographic pattern of the village is such that there are no other children of that age attending middle school. This school has also survived because the government is aware that children of the neighbourhood now attending primary school will need this middle school in the years to come.
Says state Education Secretary Sudripto Roy: ‘‘When we analysed the background of the 8,500 students staying away from schools, we realised that they were mostly Gujjar and Gaddi boys and girls.’’
As for children of migrant workers, he said: ‘‘Initially we felt it was not our responsibility to educate them. After all, the responsibility lay with the states from where they had migrated. But then we realised that these children would be deprived because engineers and technicians posted at the dam sites could afford to send over their sons and daughters to good schools. We felt that we should have makeshift schools for these children.’’
Already the state boasts of a 98% enrolment, the balance two per cent are children of nomadic Gujjar and Gaddi tribes and the state’s migrant workforce. The solution: embed teachers with these tribes. And set up a school even if the population isn’t enough, wait for the settlers to come down.
For the Gujjars, who move in large groups with their cattle between Chamba and Kangra and occasionally stray into Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab, the government has already begun trying out ‘‘embedding’’ a teacher. For the Gaddis, the government has another need-based, terrain-specific approach.
Since it’s essentially very small groups of Gaddi men and boys who travel with their sheep, the idea is to build hostels for those who stay behind. Already one hostel with a capacity of 80 students has been built last year. But this is a very new project and the response as yet is just about 15 per cent.
But the state government says it will press on. So you have the curious case in Lahul Spiti where there is a school in a village of only one family. The father is a teacher and the son the student. The state government could have transferred the teacher to some other school but it kept the school going because in future there may be more children in the village.
Then, in Kulu, there is a middle school with four teachers and only two students. This school could have also been closed down because the demographic pattern of the village is such that there are no other children of that age attending middle school. This school has also survived because the government is aware that children of the neighbourhood now attending primary school will need this middle school in the years to come.
Says state Education Secretary Sudripto Roy: ‘‘When we analysed the background of the 8,500 students staying away from schools, we realised that they were mostly Gujjar and Gaddi boys and girls.’’
As for children of migrant workers, he said: ‘‘Initially we felt it was not our responsibility to educate them. After all, the responsibility lay with the states from where they had migrated. But then we realised that these children would be deprived because engineers and technicians posted at the dam sites could afford to send over their sons and daughters to good schools. We felt that we should have makeshift schools for these children.’’