Education

Trends

Sikkim's literacy rate of 78 per cent is well above the national average of 62 per cent. In government schools, students pay no tuition fees and receive textbooks and exercise books free; uniforms are distributed free upto Class V. As a further incentive the government gives generous scholarships and other grants. As a result, Sikkim’s monthly expenditure of Rs 960 per student is far above the all-India average of Rs 210 per student.In spite of the good progress in education in the last decade, there are continuing problems such as lack of access to schooling and a low level of school completion. These interrelated problems have combined to keep achievement levels lower than they could have been. Only 37 per cent of the 2,201 students who appeared, passed the AISSE Class X examinations in 1999. Sikkim shares many education-related problems with other parts of India. These include poverty, low educational status of parents, occupational pressures, poor quality of education and teaching, poor schoolroom infrastructure. Furthermore, the physical environment and climate of this hill state make attending school an arduous task.

Issues

Increasing Access:The Supply Side

The Human Development Report for Sikkim attributes the slowing down of the rate of growth of the HDI in recent years to the poor performance of the education attainment index, which in turn is a function of decreasing rates of school enrolment. Secondary school enrolment ratios, which rose from 49.52 in 1991 to 56.67 in 1995, fell to 53.95 in 1998.

            While overall school enrolment has grown by 30 per cent during 1991-99, the dropout rate is high (table 2.1). More than half the students who enroll do not go on to higher education or training and thus have limited employable skills, even to set up their own businesses. Earlier, most found jobs in the government, but more recently these opportunities have tapered off. Girls get married at a relatively young age, and the resulting low level of female schooling and awareness contributes to larger family size. Many of the children who drop out or do not attend school live in remote locations. On paper, schools exist within walking distance for each child; the reality could be more than an hour’s walk each way for some very young primary school children. The absence of regular or cheap mass transport to and from the school makes school attendance difficult especially during the rainy season.

Another important reason for non-attendance is the poor state of schoolroom infrastructure. There are schools with no toilet facilities and broken windowpanes, which make school attendance a physically uncomfortable experience, especially in winter. Further, imparting hygienic standards to children becomes difficult when toilet facilities and running water are not available in the school. Buildings that have been built as residences for students are occupied by teachers, and teaching aids such as laboratory supplies and library books are in very short supply. In fact, school facilities have been found to have a critical impact on pupil achievement, especially in educationally backward states in the country.

 Table 2. 1: School Dropout Rate, 1998                          

                   (per cent)

Source: Department of Education, Government of Sikkim.                        

Teachers are the Critical Educational Input

A major lacuna in the education system is the lack of training for teachers. Sikkim has a workforce of teachers that is still largely untrained. In fact, local teachers do not have to be trained to teach at any level in Sikkim. At the primary level, 1,825 out of 3,188 teachers had not been trained, while 973 out of 2,147 at the higher level are untrained (chart 2.2).

Teachers often do not have a good grasp of the material they have to teach, of English, in which they impart the knowledge, and teaching methods. Many have completed less than 10 years of schooling, and the quality of education the teachers themselves have received may not equip them to teach effectively. Studies show that there is a positive relationship between the average number of years of teacher education and student achievement. Demand for training will be created when teachers are given incentives to improve their qualifications and enrol in in-service training programmes through distance learning or open universities.

Sikkim’s teacher/pupil ratio of 1:19 at the primary level is good compared to the all-India ratio of 1:46 in 1995. However, the distribution is highly uneven, and in certain schools the actual number of students per teacher could be far above the state average. In secondary schools, the number of students in humanities sections is typically far higher than the number in science classes, and teacher/pupil ratios could go up to 1:80, thus adversely affecting the teacher's effectiveness.

For poor families the opportunity cost of schooling children is often higher than the actual costs. Children are needed to help in the fields, or at home to look after younger siblings or farm animals. In some parts of Sikkim, "dry rations" in the form of uncooked rice is distributed as an “incentive” for parents to send children to primary school. However, as experience in other parts of the country has shown, this tends to reward enrolment rather than actual school attendance. Also, dry rations have none of the nutritional and socialisation benefits that accrue from a mid-day meal. A hungry child makes a poor learner, and mid-day meals have clearly had a beneficial effect on school attendance, by providing an incentive to both parents and children.

One of the most important factors influencing enrolment and attendance is active parent participation in education. Parents have to feel that their children are benefiting from attending school – and for this, the quality of education has to be high so that children’s skills and their earning power are seen to have been visibly enhanced. “Pupil achievements are significantly influenced by the teaching-learning process. In many states, regularity of classwork and homework is positively associated with pupil achievement. Other significant variables are the frequency of tests, and parental involvement.”

Reducing Dropout - Toward more Relevant Education

Non-completion of education is largely because of economic factors, but the major non-economic reason for dropout is that what children learn is rigid, formal and unrelated to their lives. As in other parts of the country, teaching is done mainly through lectures, dictation of notes and rote memorisation. The lack of teacher training means that there is a huge reliance on the centrally produced government textbooks, often of poor quality and irrelevant to the hill-culture of Sikkim.

Teaching in Sikkim is done in the official language, which is English. However, the vast majority of teachers are not fluent in the language. Studies have shown that literacy is slow if teaching of basic skills is conducted in a language that is not spoken at home, and is even slower when the teachers themselves are not fluent in the dominant official language. This has been a problem in many countries and one solution has been to teach the first few grades of primary school only in the first language so that children develop solid skills; only then are other languages introduced.

Lowering Regional and Gender Disparities

For a variety of reasons the North district has remained less developed than other parts of the State, and the East has been relatively most developed (box 2.1). This is clear from the HDI, which is partly based on educational attainment and enrolment ratio. In terms of the enrolment ratio, the North has consistently lagged behind the other districts in the three periods over which the HDI has been computed; on educational attainment, it performs better than only the West district. In comparison the East district is significantly ahead of the other districts in both indices and in all periods.

Even though the State performs well on its Gender Development Index (GDI), the enrolment of girls is lower than that of boys' at all levels, except in the middle school. Their dropout rate is

higher, because of the relatively early age of marriage. Over 60 per cent of rural women and 70 per cent of urban women get married before they are 20 years old. Investment in girls’ education is important; studies have shown that family health and education are positively linked with the level of the mother’s education.

Table 2.2: Number of Educational Institutions

Source: Department of Education, Government of Sikkim.