The Arunachal Pradesh government will be facing new challenges in the education sector in the new year as a  Union Rural Development Ministry data shows that the state has no schools in more than 15  per cent of its villages. It says that over 14 per cent of villages in India don’t have schools, while as many as 10 states in the country have over 15 per cent such villages which include Arunachal Pradesh. Collected under Mission Antyodaya, the data also shows that around 47 per cent villages have schools only up to the primary level. The comprehensive data, an assessment of village-level infrastructure facilities and amenities across states and Union Territories, is currently available for 5,27,507 villages and 2.3 lakh gram panchayats. Apart from the 75,613 (14.33 per cent) villages that don’t have schools, data shows 21 per cent villages have up to middle level schools (Classes 6 to 8), around 11 per cent have up to high schools (Classes 9 and 10) and only 6.57 per cent have up to senior secondary schools (Classes 11 and 12).

Ten states — Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Manipur, Goa, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh — are worse off than the national average, with over 15 per cent villages reporting no school at all. Mizoram, Kerala and Gujarat, meanwhile, have less than 2 per cent villages with no schools.. The poorest performers at senior secondary level school education are Odisha, Nagaland and Jharkhand, with only 1.7 per cent, 1.8 per cent and 2.1 per cent villages, respectively, with such schools.

Arunachal Pradesh, according to 2011 census has 5,258 villages. While tagging Arunachal with other states, the Rural Development Ministry probably did not take into consideration of the state’s geography and demography, For one, the state has a population density of around ten persons per square km compared to other parts of India. Thus the villages or clusters have very less number of population. No doubt, more than two thirds of the state’s over 13 lakh population lives in villages. However, many of these villages are very sparsely populated and setting up a school in these villages for hardly a dozen or two children is difficult proposition. And most of the villages are inaccessible with poor infrastructure development.  However, this is no excuse to deny education to the children. So it is imperative, the state government adopts policies whereby the children of these villages are brought under the ambit of universal education. After all, it is their right.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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