Final Case Study
Final Case Study
Final Case Study
Jharkhand.
Author Details-
India has the third-largest higher education system in the world after China and the USA. The role of higher
educational institutions in the present time is to serve quality education for the empowerment of youth and
their self-sustainability. Higher education in India has witnessed a significant increase in the number of
colleges, institutions, and universities since independence. According to the All India Survey on higher
education (AISHE) 2018-19, there are 37.4 million students in India who are currently enrolled in 993
different universities in India. However, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER in the higher education is the ratio
of college-age 18-23 years old individuals enrolled in a higher educational institution) of higher education in
India is just 26.3% which is substantially lower than the developed world (USA-88, UK- 60, Germany- 70
and Canada- 69). While, In India itself, there is a lot of disparities across the country in quality of education
and GER and it also varies across different states, regions, castes, and genders. Further, the quality of
education is good in only a few top higher educational institutions like IITs, NITs, Central universities, and
few private and state universities. In the meantime, the quality of education in state universities which are
located in small towns and rural areas is very poor.
Education in Jharkhand
Jharkhand having the literacy rate of 66% is one of the poorly literate states of India. Although, the state has
25 universities (Government and Private) and 313 colleges but the quality education in these universities and
colleges is of the poor standard if we exclude a few colleges and universities which are located in the state's
capital Ranchi and other major cities (Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, and Bokaro) of Jharkhand. Further, its Gross
Enrolment Ratio (GER) in the higher education is 19.1 which is lower than the all India average of 26.3, and
its pupils teachers ratio- 60 which is more than double of the national average of 26. Furthermore, it has only
8 colleges per lakh population in comparison to the national average of 28 and the average enrolment per
Besides, Jharkhand has a 60% population in the working-age group (15-59 age) and a large part of it is
below 30 years of age, which makes it one of the youngest states of India (COI 2011). With a larger younger
population in the state, it has great potential for socio-economic development. However, the state has an
unemployment rate of 8.1% against the national average of 6.5% among the working-age group of 15-59
(Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2017-2018).
Further, the state is constrained by an unskilled workforce, low standard educational institutions, poor
infrastructure, improper health facilities, lack of employment opportunities, and awful governance. If the
state fails to provide these required resources to its large young population cohort then the situation may
advance to economic stagnation, anarchy, and social unrest rather than fast economic growth in the state.
Numerous studies have been done on the youth and higher education in India. Some scholars state that
higher education plays an essential role in the overall development of a country. But, the higher education
system of India is widely criticized for its poor quality of education and failure to create a skilled workforce
and a larger portion of students graduating from these colleges are unemployable. Private colleges are no
more philanthropic rather they have become commercial degree shops and lucrative business and their main
motive is to gain profit. State universities are a larger part of the higher education system in India but they
are lacking in quality. Corruption in the higher education system and especially in private colleges is a major
problem in the present time.
Further, the unavailability of work at the local areas has forced the youth to out-migrate in search of jobs.
With a large younger population in the state of Jharkhand, it has a large potential for the socio-economic
advancement if the human resources are utilized judiciously.
Jharkhand, "The land of bushes", lies in the eastern part of India. It stretches from 21º58´ N - 25º18´ N to
83º19´E - 87º57' E covering an area of about 79,710 sq. km. It has been carved out of the state of Bihar on
15 November 2000. Jharkhand is encircled by many states, Bihar delimits its boundary from the North, Uttar
Pradesh surrounds it from the North-West, Chhattisgarh encloses it from the west, and further Odisha
surrounds it from the South and West Bengal from the East. Jharkhand is the 16th biggest state of India in
area, and 14th in population. The state has been parted into 24 districts and five administrative Divisions
named South Chotanagpur, Kolhan, North Chotanagpur, Santhal Parganas, and Palamu. Hindi is the official
language of the state. Ranchi, popularly known as "City of Waterfalls" is the capital city of the state and
Dumka is its sub-capital. The state of Jharkhand is known for its hills, waterfalls, and holy places.
Baidyanath Dham, Parasnath, and Rajrappa are the major religious places in the state. The total recorded
forest area of the state is 23,605 km² which is 28.10% of the total geographical area of the state. The
Reserved Forests constitute 18.58%, Protected Forests 81.28%, and Unclassed Forests 0.14% percent
(Forest Survey of India, 2019). According to the Census of India 2011, the state is inhabited by almost 33
million people, which is approximate, 2.7 percent of the total national population. The sex ratio of the state
is 948 women per thousand men and the population density is 414 persons living per sq. km. Jharkhand is
mainly a rural state with limited urbanization of 24%. However, roughly half of its urban population is
concentrated only in three million-plus cities, viz. Ranchi, Dhanbad, and Jamshedpur. The literacy rate is
66% which is lower than the national average of 74%. The state has a total of 25 universities (State 138 and
Private) and 313 colleges which are located in a different part of the state. There are 739,484 students who
are currently studying in higher educational institutions of the state (AISHE, 2018- 19).
Government of Jharkhand is very much committed to the cause of quality education for tribal children. The
state has also developed textbooks for primary level other than textbooks for classes 1-2 in five tribal
languages. The Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of Jharkhand, aims to provide
education of equitable quality to all children to create an education system that provides access, equity and
affordability while enabling every human being for a lifelong learning from early days of life.
Jharkhand has significantly improved its school education system since its inception, in terms of school
access and enrolment of children.
There are 40,174 government elementary schools, 2,637 secondary schools, and 522 higher secondary
schools. Around 62 lakh students are enrolled in these schools. At the elementary level, the teacher-pupil
ratio averages at 1:39. To improve the availability of teachers, 16,349 elementary teachers and 1719
secondary teachers have been recruited in 2015-16. We are in the process of recruiting nearly 18000 high
school teachers this year.
Findings
73% of students in Jharkhand drop out after class 8 directly impacting the quality of their lives and
the states Human
Development Index (“HDI”)
With an HDI of 0.5533 Jharkhand Ranks 34th and is one of the worst-performing states in India. A
low score in HDI
score essentially means an overall social and economic development of its residents leading to a
more long-term impact.
A higher HDI essentially means higher-good consumption and in turn better GDP. It is also a
reflection of states' volatile
political systems and efficiency of the governance systems and corruption within them.
The reasons for dropouts at the secondary level can be categorized into issues at the household level
and administrative level bottleneck.
Discussion
● Reasons related to household - Academic reasons (poor performance, falling behind in lessons) and
Economic reasons (need to supplement income through household chores or domestic work, school-related
expenses)
● Reasons related to the administration (infrastructure, the distance of the school, did not get admission,
lack of transportation, unsafe for girls, lack of teachers). It is important to note that because we are
considering the reasons for dropouts at the secondary level the improvement in school facilities will help
only to a limited extent.
Government Initiatives
Government of Jharkhand has started certain innovative and dynamic programme interventions to improve
quality of education:
The statewide ‘Vidyalay Chalen Chalayen Abhiyan’ focuses on enrolment of all children in schools.
Then through effective operationalization of schools it attempts to ensure that all children attend
schools regularly and learn continuously.
For school operationalization, we have certain dynamic activities such as Baal Samagam (all round
student performance improvement).
Kasturba Sangam (performance improvement of girls from vulnerable background).
Baal Sansad (for student leadership and holistic development).
Buniyad and Buniyad plus (for ensuring early grade learning skills of all children)
Prayas (to enhance student attendance through integrated collaboration of students, teachers and
community members)
‘Hamara vidyalaya Kaisa Ho’ (guidelines for school improvement)
Pariwartan movement (active teachers and teacher educators support each other for school
improvement)
SESM (school education support mission for programme review and support in every district)
Other than regular programme interventions under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik
Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meals Scheme, and teacher education.
Our Goals
On identification of the issue, following year-wise priorities will be set to ensure that 80% of student’s
complete secondary education in the next 5 years
Short-Term Goals:
Year 1 (2021-2022):
Setting up a robust data collection mechanism
● Creating a repository of village, Block and District level data on identified parameters in order to prioritize
geographies and identify and incentivize the necessary stakeholders. On-ground data collection in schools
using evidence collection with pictures, real-time data capture and geolocation marking.
● Focus on household-related Issues, by creating a mechanism to collect, collate and analyze first-hand
feedback from students and their parents. Feedback can be collected by building a Mobile App and
dedicated call centers (IVRS) especially for rural areas and employing third party agencies to independently
collect their data. The collected data then should be analyzed and made available to officials on multiple
levels in a user-friendly format clearly telling them their weekly, monthly and yearly priorities.
● Use existing school-level data on attendance, performance, behavior etc. to identify students at risk of
dropping out of school
Medium-Term Goals:
Year 2 (2022-2023)
Focus on decreasing the communication timelines between various government stakeholders and
implementing task monitoring mechanisms at every level.
● Streamlining communication between various administrative stakeholders, by creating WhatsApp groups
of 260 Block Education offices, 24 District Education officers, and State level officers along with the
education Minister and the CMO.
● Track and monitor the performance of administrative officers at the block level and develop an escalation
and a grievance redressal mechanism. This can be done by maintaining a tracker of tasks for each specific
stakeholder along with assigned dates and then setting up timelines for each of those tasks. A website with
different views for Village, Block/ Municipality, district and state-level officials needs to be created.
Long-Term Goals:
Year 3-5 (2023-2026)
Focus on integrated development of infrastructure, personnel and provision of basic amenities in
schools
● Enhance the capacity of schools to address the needs of at-risk students.
● Strengthen the partnership between school personnel and the parents/guardians of at-risk students
● Program activities for life skills class to encourage students to participate in creative, entertaining
activities (arts and craft, sports and games, reading and storytelling) that develop learning skills.
● Provide effective and sufficient infrastructure so that all students have access to safe and engaging school
education at all levels from pre-primary to Grade 12.
● Providing regular trained teachers at each stage
● Alternative and innovative education centers will be put in place in cooperation with civil society to
ensure that children of migrant laborer’s and other children who are dropping out of school due to various
circumstances are brought back into mainstream education.
● Create a dashboard that captures student assessments and competencies in a standardized and
understandable manner.
Budget
Conclusion-
The gaps in respect of provision of adequate schooling facilities and in respect of the proportion of children
who continue to be out of school are particularly high in rural Jharkhand. The Continuation in substantial
gaps in schooling facilities and access of rural children to elementary schooling in India. The absolute levels
of lack of adequate schooling facilities and the number of out-of-school children are seriously
underestimated in school-based statistics. To Conclude, as illustrated in the examples throughout this plan,
there are schools, organizations, and partnerships across the country already engaged in the important work
of shifting practices to serve students better through technology. Indeed, it never has been easier to share
innovations and lessons learned and muster the resources necessary to catalyze learning with technology.
Rather than viewing technology as an add-on component to support learning, leaders should take stock of
current systems and processes across learning systems and identify those that can be augmented or replaced
by existing technologies. During the planning process, they also should identify systems and processes for
which no replacement currently exists within the district, school, or college and set goals for developing
more efficient solutions.
Reference
o Hatekar, N. (2009). Changing higher education scenario in India. Economic and Political
Weekly, 44(38), 22-23.
o Hatekar, N. (2010). NCHER and state universities: An exercise in redundancy. Economic
and Political Weekly, 45(16), 15-17.
o Hoque, J. (2018). Quality concern in higher education in India. Edulight
Journal, 7(13), 662-668.