Education and development at micro-level: a case study of two villages in Kerala (A. Abdul Salim). This project has forcefully brought out the message that strong local level agencies of social change could play a pivotal role in awakening conservative and stagnant villages and unleashing development on a sustained basis, be it in education, health care or economic growth. Otherwise such areas could remain backward as islands of non-change amidst rapid developments taking place in the society as a whole.
The study made by C. Krishnan on Tribal education has shown that locale-specific and situation-specific approaches are needed to bring tribesfolk to an education level on par with the rest of the mainstream population, since inter-community differences exist among the tribesfolk in the areas of their inhabitation, in contacts with the outside world, in levels of poverty, and in attitude to change and progress.
The project by M. Haridas on Local-level planning for improving educational standards indicated that active intervention by the local public, including parents and guardians of the pupils (through agencies such as parent-teacher associations, school complexes, and mothers' clubs), local government functionaries and people's representatives, would go a long way in improving the teaching-learning environment in schools and the general level of performance of students.
As an example of the usefulness of public intervention, Mohan Kumar and Sasikumar, two scientists working at Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), demonstrated that through systematic and sustained efforts at improving the physical facilities, levels of utilisation of available library, laboratory and sports facilities, as well as assistance to teachers for conducting classes and evaluating students, even the levels of performance of the low achievers in the so-called poor schools could be raised substantially.
The project on improving the Teaching-learning environment of schools, undertaken by C. Ramakrishnan has confirmed the findings of the other studies that local level intervention adapted to the requirements of the situation at hand are capable of bringing about substantial improvements in the performance of schools. The study has also drawn attention to the increasing rates of dropouts at the secondary stage of school education, more among boys than among girls.
The environment at large and the society in particular are in a state of continuous change and the young children of each age need to be equipped with techniques and tools appropriate to their context. Environmental education through school programmes is the objective of the project entitled Evolving a local-specific environment education input from the UP schools of Sreekrishnapuram, Palakkad, implemented by S. Anitha. This is an action research project carried out with active co-operation of the teachers and students of four upper primary schools in the locality.
Formation of science clubs, classroom teaching, field visits, discussions about teaching and learning processes, and the orientation of the curriculum were among the different activities of the project. Networking of concerned individuals and groups in the area was developed. On completion of the project, an evaluation was made at several levels in and around the study area. Questions were administered to schoolchildren who had participated in the project, on topics such as 'your land', 'your farm land', and 'your river'. The response from children was found to be quite positive and overwhelmingly encouraging. Poster campaigns and environment clubs were conducted in schools in and around Sreekrishnapuram. A resource map of Karimpuzha panchayat was also prepared at the instance of the project with the help of experts. The maps prepared were on administrative divisions, topography, relief, water resources, land use, and assets and they serve as ready reckoners for development planning of the area. Based on these maps, an Environmental Education Manual was prepared for the area.
An effort was also made to prepare a critique of the curriculum at the level of upper primary school and to make suggestions for its updating and improvements. The report of the project has been submitted and a second phase begun to discuss the relevance of the study for schools in the vicinity and to the process of local level participatory planning launched in the State.
Sambhu Nampoothiri has taken up a project that examines Costs, educational performance, and managerial quality of school. He has selected three educational sub-districts from Ernakulam district for his study. The major problem that the researcher has in mind is the rising enrolment in unrecognised schools which of course is the costliest, in the context of an overall fall in the number of children reaching schools annually due to demographic transition and the falling enrolment figures in the schools under government and the aided (private) sectors. In order to discuss the problem, the scholar examines aspects of cost differences, and quality differences in the teaching-learning environment as well as differences in managerial efficiency as between the two sets of schools. After a thorough review of literature and a pilot study, the project implementation began in March 1999. We expect to receive the report by August 2001.
School education is 'free' in Kerala, which means that classroom tuition is free. Owing to various favourable historical, political, and socio-economic factors, Kerala has assumed the premier position among all the States in India in the field of school education. It has already attained the enviable position of becoming the first State in India to attain universal literacy. It has also managed to bring down dropout and grade repetition rates at all the levels of school education to extremely low levels. However, these attainments have opened the floodgates of competition for high level performance in school examinations and career competitions. Parents vie with one another to make their children high achievers. Attainment of top marks, grades, and ranks has become the single focus of all 'educational' efforts. Formal school education that is getting poorer in quality progressively is sought to be supplemented with private coaching. Apart from the anxiety and anguish that this whole rat race process produces among parents and children, the private costs of education are rapidly mounting. This is a phenomenon witnessed at all levels and types of education.
The project taken up by Kerala Statistical Institute focuses attention on Cost of school education in Kerala. The study endeavours to capture the dimensions, magnitudes, and problems of school education in general and the cost aspects in particular. The specific objectives of the study include the following: (i) to get a picture of the expenditure structure of the cost of school education and consumer expenditure of households; (ii) to find out the sources of financing costs; (iii) to assess the economic impact of rising educational costs on the other components of household expenditure; and (iv) to examine the trends in expenditure on school education in the different strata of society. The study which covers the entire State aims at drawing estimates separately for the different levels of the educational system and under different types of management - governmental, aided, and unaided.
C. Krishnan has taken up a project titled An evaluation of student support services of distance higher education in Kerala. The study is confined to Kozhikode district of Kerala. The enquiry covers students registered with Calicut University, IGNOU, MG University, Annamalai University, Sri Venkiteswara University, and Kerala University. It is expected that the research will offer interesting insights into the socio-economic background of the learners and the efficiency with which the student support services are provided in the concerned institutions.
In Kerala, enrolment of children in schools has become universal. More than 90 per cent of the children entering schools complete secondary school. All children who come out successful at the end of the school education stream are not, however, eligible, willing or able to pursue higher studies. The fact remains, however, that among the eligible aspirants, a large proportion is forced to stay back due to factors beyond their control. A. Abdul Salim hypothesises that there exist in the system insuperable barriers to entry into higher education for the relatively poor and weak sections of society. His attempt in this project Opportunities for higher education: an enquiry into entry barriers is, therefore, to look into the factors and processes which act as barriers to entry to higher education for the different sections of the society.
In other words, his attempt to identify barriers is associated with both the supply side (educational facilities, government policies, etc.) and the demand side. In a state of affairs in which there exist wide inequalities in the distribution of income and assets as well as in social and political clout it would be the poor, the politically weak, and the aspirants from rural areas who get rejected by the system. It hopes to advance alternatives to the present approach to dismantle the existing barriers, especially when conditions have become more amenable to suit local needs with the introduction of the decentralised people's participatory planning process.
N. Ajithkumar, in this study on Private costs of professional education in Kerala, attempts to estimate the private costs involved in professional and technical education in courses such as medicine, agricultural sciences, computer applications, business administration, and technology. According to the researcher, this sector of education is encountering a serious crisis due to reduction in governmental allocations and poor cost-recovery mechanisms in government-owned and government-aided colleges. Further, he wants to examine whether differences in costs exist across courses, socio-economic and locational backgrounds of students, and between men and women. His hypothesis is that the burden of private costs differs in all these respects and that it is necessary to develop policies of discriminatory pricing of education to different socio-economic groups, with a view to favouring the weakest among them. The scholar has completed a review of the relevant literature and commenced collection of field level data from households, students, and institutions.
The role of library as an institution of social change is an action-research project implemented by V. Ramakrishnan and J. Muraleedharan Nair. After identifying a typical rural library and gathering the baseline information regarding the library and its political and cultural environment, including the socio-economic conditions of the households in its catchment area, the researchers have implemented an action programme through utilising the library services and the services of volunteers recruited from the locality, to provide extension services to the local community, particularly to its weaker and marginalised sections, for equipping it to effectively participate in development activities. Training was imparted according to the community conscientisation techniques, for empowerment and liberalisation of vulnerable populations. S N V Library, Peringamala on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram City was chosen for implementation of the project. The project has been completed and a draft summary of the report submitted to KRPLLD. The full report is awaited.
K. S. Ranjith has made a study of Rural libraries of Kerala. He has traced the history of the library movement in the Malabar and Travancore regions of the State with the objective of unravelling the factors which facilitated the library movements and understanding the crisis that the movement is encountering at present. Ranjith carried out a survey of a sample of libraries functioning in different parts of Kerala, giving due representation to the three regions - Malabar, Travancore, and Cochin - and the 14 administrative districts in the State. He has pointed out that bureaucratic take-over of the libraries in 1978 has led to a slow down in their growth.
In the changed circumstances of today, when the rapidly developing information technology is unleashed across the world, libraries have to modify their techniques too. They have to provide access to their clientele to the world of the Internet. "They should act as information kiosks". Women's development is an area in which the rural libraries in Kerala have begun to show much greater attention than earlier. In the new context of people's participatory planning, the role which local libraries play as information providers, particularly to the weaker sections of society has become all the more important.
In a study entitled Evaluation and planning of the activities of a rural library in Kerala by S. Gopalakrishnan Nair (late) and his team, an action research programme is being implemented aimed at the socio-economic transformation of a local area by using the library as the main agency for, and the principal vehicle of, development. The study is carried out in the V. N. Kesava Pillai Memorial Reading Room at Perumbavoor, Ernakulam district as the nodal agency. The specific objectives include, among other things, promoting of health care, education, and agriculture in the area. The Library has completed the first phase of the project during which efforts were made to address the problems, which the farmers of the locality were facing. Due emphasis was given to farm extension, farm credit, organisation of agriculturists, and good agrarian relations. Horticulture, Vermi-composting, Organic farming, and medicinal plants cultivation were encouraged by imparting technical skills to farmers.
For improving the health status of the population, the Library organised activities in collaboration with the experts of the Health Department. Under this programme, several medical camps (under the different systems in vogue in the State such as Allopathy, Ayurveda, and Homoeopathy) were conducted; to obviate environmental hazards caused by solid wastes and polluted water, the Library has taken steps to conduct awareness camps and training courses.
On the educational front, which is of more immediate concern to the regular functions of the Library, extensive surveys of readership, readership campaigns, and distribution of relevant literature were conducted. The project has entered IInd phase and a report containing critical evaluation of the results is expected on its completion.