Written in 2014 during a fellowship year in Jawhar, Maharashtra.
Caste-based reservation for higher education and jobs is a much-debated subject when we run dry of other topics of conversation. If people are unacquainted or conversation stilted, whip out a discussion on reservation and watch how people warm up to each other as they bond over the unfairness meted out over the years, over how they missed their true callings thanks to a perverse government machinery that insists on propagating the ridiculous farce that is reservation. Point noted.
I have been one of those people — argued on both sides of the fence — however, it’s only after coming to Jawhar, Maharashtra, an area with a 99 percent tribal population, that I better understand the import of such policy.
Language is a problem
“Teach children in their local language, they will learn better,” they said. They got that right. “English is the medium for communication world-over so introduce it from the very beginning,” they said. They got that right too. Nonetheless, aside from the typical singsong ‘Good morning madam’ that I am greeted with every time I enter a classroom, I find I am unable to hold even the most basic of conversations with students in English. Actually, neither am I able to hold one with the English teacher.
What authorities did not anticipate is that they wouldn’t find teaching staff to carry out these schemes. Adivasi Marathi is a dialect that is different from the standard Marathi spoken elsewhere, yet teaching occurs in the Marathi spoken in cities. Even if they should want to, where from will they find qualified teachers from the local community who can teach in this dialect? English teachers are often graduates in every subject other than English because the government is unable to find any other. Little surprise therefore that when asked about the difficulties they face in studying, the first issue almost every student mentions is trouble with English.
Lack of qualified staff is not limited to language teachers alone
A student in the 12th standard told me that his stream was overly crowded because they had been unable to find a teacher for maths until very late in the year while in the 11th, forcing most students to switch from maths to biology. A number of them had apparently wanted to pursue engineering after school, which they have now had to give up on. Officials at the education departments of the Panchayat Samiti and Tribal Development Program are unanimous in their assessment: nobody wants to come here.
Despite introducing a moderately successful scheme that allows qualified teachers to be hired without the need for qualifying exams and selection, schools are tremendously short on teaching staff, particularly for primary education. Most schools for the 1st to 4th standard have just two teachers, each leading two different grades simultaneously.
Other schemes aimed at promoting education cross the line from successful to unsuccessful and then downright absurd. One of these masterpieces disallows schools from failing any student at all up till the 8th standard. What results is a joke of an examination system, untaught children getting pushed into subsequent classes as a matter of routine and finally a not-very-competent bunch of students being saddled on secondary teachers who are miraculously expected to bring them up to speed with everything they missed in the previous twelve to fifteen years.
There is very little motivation to study
After all, why would they? The better colleges are English medium; the best they can hope for is a semi-decent Marathi medium college, which in fact is a distant dream. Advanced degrees are nominal and many fall back on vocational skills or farming following graduation. Where can they turn to for information on their options after school? I can’t imagine life without the internet or knowledgeable family friends, but they have to make do.
Home environments are not particularly conducive to learning either. Between their own limited opportunities and long hours in the field, parents don’t have the time or inclination to support the scholastic endeavours of their kids. Educational authorities provide students with everything from free education, books and uniforms to toiletries, meals and regular medical check-ups. However, except for a select few, most schools lack good laboratory facilities, computer facilities, libraries and other educational resources that would bring them on par with urban schools. How then are these students supposed to compete with their urban counterparts?
Which brings me back to reservation
To the proponents of income-based reservation, their disadvantages are not simply a matter of finances but also their situations and tribal background. It’s all very well for us to sit in our ivory towers and complain about the lack of investment in primary education but a lot more difficult to implement. I am not saying the reservation system is perfect either in structure or reach, far from it, but given the shortcomings in the system, these children need every reinforcement available to them and more.