A CLASS APART, LITERALLY
With high enrolment, best student-teacher ratio and real-time assessment, the state’s education model is a lesson for others
Despite the alternating succession of BJP and Congress governments, the one thing regimes in Himachal Pradesh have been consistent about is the progressively improving status of education. And things are no different under the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government.
From being an almost illiterate state at Independence, Himachal Pradesh is now over 90 per cent literate. This, education secretary Arun Kumar says, comes from consistent 100 per cent enrolment at the primary level and 80 per cent in secondary school. Himachal, he adds, is the first state to achieve a gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 54 per cent.
The state has been decidedly generous with its education budget. For instance, it spends Rs 64.79 crore annually for every 10,000 children in the 6-14 age group—the highest in the country. By ensuring proactive hiring of teachers and their career advancement, the state has achieved a student-teacher ratio of 11:1—the best in the country. Even better: 45 per cent of the children enrolled in educational institutions are girls.
Kumar says a brief dip in primary enrolment was quickly addressed through measures like starting preschool classes in 3,300 state-run schools. To standardise curricula, the Thakur government has decided to introduce NCERT textbooks from standard one. Training to reorient primary teachers for the purpose is over.
Under the Atal Awasiya Vidya Kendra scheme, fully equipped residential schools will be opened in all 68 assembly constituencies, half of which will be reserved for girls. “We intend to make these [boarding schools] capable of standing up to the best,” says Kumar.
Another successful exercise, emulated by other states is the periodic state-level assessment surveys (SLAS) for real-time mapping of learning levels in schools. Kumar says the education department is focused on enhancing the ‘happiness quotient’ of students through their involvement in community programmes, yoga and introducing ‘school bag-free’ days.
Himachal Pradesh has 2,846 schools per 100,000 people in the 10-14 age group, the highest in large states