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Bengal announces grand education plan for million kids

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

If not anything else, the visit of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen to Bengal has made the ruling Marxists sit up as far as basic education is concerned. The Bengal government has now admitted that 10,00,000 children between the ages of five and nine are deprived of primary education.

In order to provide basic education to these children, the Bengal government has decided to set up 7,240 primary schools in the state.

This came in the wake of an announcement by Bengal Finance Minister Dr Asim Dasgupta that the state would bring all children within the purview of primary education by 2002. He said this while Dr Sen was being felicitated by the Bengal government in Calcutta this week.

In order to implement Dr Dasgupta's announcement the Bengal education department has drawn up a plan. The minister said it was the state government's duty to ensure that all children between the age of five and nine attend primary schools. The Bengal government is ready to spend Rs 1 billion, and the state finance minister has sought central help for this purpose. The Bengal education department has already received financial approval to start 3,000 primary schools.

Within the next two years the rest of the schools will also receive recognition. For this 12,720 primary school teachers need to be appointed; that too has been approved by the state government. The government plans to provide primary education to these deprived children by admitting at least 150 students in each school. The figure of 10,00,000 has been arrived on the basis of the 1991 census; the real figure could be higher.

The state government is confident that even if the figure is high it would be able to bring these children within the purview of primary education. The government plans to set up one primary school within a radius of one kilometre. Keeping in mind the question of healthcare the classroom in these schools will be airy and large.

Twentyone years ago when the Left Front came to power in Bengal, the number of primary schools in the state numbered 42,881. The figure now stands at 51,521 and 90,00,000 children attend primary schools.

To achieve a record in providing basic education the Bengal government has decided to establish village committees which will oversee the project of setting up schools and bringing children to these institutions.

The much acclaimed decentralisation of power through panchayats have revealed the ugly side of political interference in developmental work. The same cannot be ruled out in providing education to children.

This has been echoed by Dr Sen. On Tuesday, he participated in a seminar Decentralisation: devolution and participation hosted by the West Bengal Planning Board. Dr Sen intervened as a rosy picture of the state of literacy in the state was being presented and the Marxists leaders claimed to have turned the literacy mission into a mass movement.

"It chills me to think what will happen when the enthusiasm dies down. It is accepted that education is a priority, but the point lies in choosing the strategy," Dr Sen said. He raised questions about the efficacy of a mass movement as a vehicle for a literacy drive and warned that such an effort would fail in the long run.

He pointed out that parallels should not be drawn between a mass movement for literacy and a programme of land reforms since land relations once altered remained irreversible, while a literacy drive needed sustained effort.

Dr Sen's remarks made the state finance minister sit up. He promptly announced his plans on education. What remains to be seen is if the ruling Marxists can rise above politics and the Nobel Laureate can see his dream of a totally literate West Bengal come true.

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