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23 August 2005

Free bicycle for everyone

Tamil nadu chief minister Ms. Jayalalithaa has recently announced the extension of 'free bicycles' scheme for higher secondary students. The scheme, first launched in 2001 for SC/ST girls, has been 'extended' thrice in a short span of 8 months since January 2005 and now it has become 'compulsory cycle scheme' (ironically, we are still are not talking about compulsory primary education, which is by far the most important). The idea is to prevent the 'dropout' rate among the students. Lets first have a look at the evolution of the scheme before analysing further.

  • When launched in 2001, it was planned to cover the SC/ST girls at higher secondary level (plus one and plus two) studying in government and aided schools.
  • In 2005 January, it was first extended to include girls belonging to backward and most-backward classes, benefitting 2.49 lakh girls from 2,254 schools and costing the government Rs. 44.76 cr annually.
  • In July, the scheme was extended for the boys belonging to SC/ST, backward and most backward classes apart from extending it for students studying in self-financing sections of the schools. It was estimated to benefit 3.65 lakh students all over the state costing Rs. 66 cr. And for the academic year 2005-06, it was to benefit 5.75 lakh boys and girls costing Rs. 103.5 crores.
  • The latest expansion came about a week ago, whereby it was extended for every higher student, which was hitherto confined to SC/ST, backward and most-backward classes. With, these the total no. of beneficiaries shot to 6.14 lakh students with the total expenditure of Rs. 110.52 crores in the current academic year.


Based on these figures, the scheme will cost around Rs. 55 crores annually targeting slightly more than 3 lakh students. All this in the name of preventing drop-out rates in the schools. But, will this scheme ensure drop-out, I doubt. What can the government do, if a student drops out after getting the cycle? Considering that, the government already has free bus-pass scheme for students upto plus two level, I fail to understand the purpose of free bicycles. You can not travel in both bus and cycle at the same time, right? And, what if a student already has a cycle/ scooter/ moped? Of course, the parents can sell the government cycle for good sum (and spend the money for liquor or whatever purposes they want).

All these freebies raises one basic question. Why should something be given to someone as free, who can otherwise afford it? In other words, does the govt. thinks that all the familes, who send their children to govt. & aided school are poor and that they can not afford the transportation cost (either bus fare or a cycle) to the school?

How many govt. schools have good laboratory for higher secondary level or equipped with a library? How many schools have the basic amenities like toilets and drinking water? Has something being done or planned to improve the quality of education in govt. run schools? Has something being envisaged for the continuous training of the teachers, especially for Maths and Science?

With the engineering education becoming increasingly popular, parents opt for private schools over the ones run by government for better quality. Looking at the statistics available at the official site of the TN govt. education department, it can be clearly seen that the percentage of enrollment falls to 70.6% at 16 years - a drop-out of close to 30% or about 7.33 lakh students. And when it comes to higher secondary level, the enrollment dips to 39.63%, resulting in 60% drop-out or 15.46 lakh students. Agreed, but, if the government is serious about reducing the drop-out, shouldn't it be thinking in different terms instead of giving free bicycles?

Assuming the drop-out is due to poverty we need to have more govt. schools which will be affordable to these students. This means we need affordable higher secondary education for about 15.46 lakh students. Do we have enough such schools? What about the infrastructure required? How does the govt. plans to go about recruiting teachers for so many students (first do we have enough teachers qualified for this or we should also be creating!! them)? Is the government planning to do anything about these?

What about the teacher-student ratio? Cursory look at the statistics from the education department site is revealing. At higher secondary level, govt. runs 1547 schools having a total of 17.72 lakh students and 42796 teachers, which means the ratio of 1:41 (1:25 is considered as ideal). At the same level, there are about 1340 schools with 10.61 lakh students on its role and with teacher-student ratio of 1:20, twice as better than govt. run schools. And just for comparison, the CBSE schools boasts the ratio of 1:24 (3573 teachers for 0.86 lakh students). Does Jayalalithaa have any plans for increasing the number of teachers required and more importantly the quality of teachers?

Resorting to cosmetic and populist measures is going to do no good for the betterment of education. We need more schools, more teachers, good laboratory facilities, good sports infrastructure and so on. Gimmicks like free bus-pass and free bicycle will never work.

Let our motto be quality education for everyone and not free bicycle for everyone.

1 Comments:

At 06 March, 2006 21:35, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi,
I could not write to you directly hence this mail. Good blog. Looks like you stopped blogging. Also we seem to have to have similar interests. Kalki, Carnatic music and some sports. I am also at Blore. Write to me at rajaglan@gmail.com

 

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