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Uphill task to get Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur to study.
Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh has a literacy rate of 36%, half of the national average and the lowest in the country. High student dropout and higher if not same teacher absenteeism are the reasons. Till the situation is solved the village will continue to languish at the bottom of the pyramid.
Until a week ago, the nation did not know the name of Alirajpur, the birth place of freedom fighter Chandrashekhar Azad till Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a 15-day programme to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement on August 9.
While here, the PM urged the villagers to enrol their children in schools while speaking about how education had the potential to lift them out of poverty.
The obscure village of Alirajpur has an equally obscure presence when it comes to literacy rates in the country. While the PM’s rally may earn the village national attention, it is a moot question when will the administration pay attention to the abysmal literacy parameters in Alirajpur.
This village holds the shameful distinction of having the lowest literacy rate in the country, which is just 36%, less than half of national average, as reported in the 2011 census. Alirajpur if followed by Bijapur and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh and Nabarangpur in Orissa.
An alarmingly high school dropout rate is one part of the story countered by the lack of qualified and competent teachers. 300 schools in Alirajpur are without any teacher. The ones appointed, do not make it to their allotted schools daily.
Roop Singh, a resident of the village said the absenteeism of teachers was business as usual. “The teacher comes here for a few hours. Sometimes they just come to sign the register and mark students’ attendance,” he shared.
Alirajpur Collector Shekhar Verma said, “Finding teachers has been a challenge for us and we are now getting guest teachers for the students. We have appointed about 350 guest teachers.”
Till the time Alirajpur is pulled out of this quagmire, it seems that the village is destined for a hard and rocky road ahead.
* Read the original story by Ketki Angre on www.everylifecounts:ndtv.com
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