Rural Education – Development In India
A major part of India still lives in villages and most of them are not financially very sound. These people work at low wages or at times on daily wages. Their work is not fixed and they may have to find work regularly. Such people cannot afford to spend on education as for them the basic necessity of food is difficult to meet. Even if they realize the need and importance of education for their children, they are not able to provide it due to the high costs involved in providing quality education. The schools which are opened for the rural people are not well equipped and the education provided does not reach a satisfactory level. Along with poverty there are various other factors that create hindrance in the education for the rural people.
India has finally reached a level of development where these factors are being eliminated. Various programs have been run in order to assist the poor in getting education and providing them a chance to uplift themselves. The government is willing to take steps for their benefit. There are also many individuals who willingly work for such organizations where the poor are being helped.
One such scheme is the VidyaGyan. It is an initiative of the Shiv Nadar Foundation — set up by Shiv Nadar, founder of the U.S. $5 billion technology group HCL. This is a public-private program which bridges the urban-rural divide. Quality education is provided under this program and has brought out outstanding results in the board examinations in the state of UP. This has made many dreams come true and has enlightened a hope that there is always a chance to rise.
The use of technology in education can be really helpful. It will built up the student’s interest. Also the process of learning will get faster and more efficient. A not-for-profit organization, Azim Premji Foundation, run by Wipro group had been working towards this issue since 2001. It is helping 2 million children in 16,000 schools from 14 state governments. This foundation works by assisting computer-aided learning. Edusat is the one which provides video education to rural India. Edusat was launched by ISRO.
The programs run by the government in order to provide education to rural people are “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” which has been operational since 2000-2001 to provide for a variety of interventions for universal access, bridging of gender and social category gaps in elementary education and improving the quality of education. Another scheme launched in 2001 was “Mid-Day Meal”. In order to improve nutritional levels among children, the National Program of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th August 1995. This scheme influenced many parents to send their children to school so as to have a proper meal at least once a day.
Through a number of such programs India had made major developments in order to uplift the rural sector where age is no bar to learn and become a better human being who could contribute to the improvement of the economy of India.