Thaindian News

Bhopal, July 28 (IANS) One would expect the enrolment of children in primary schools to increase with the implementation of the midday meal scheme. This, however, has not been the case in Madhya Pradesh. In fact, a drop in students has been recorded, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for 2007-08.
The report says, “The centrally sponsored midday meal scheme was launched with the objective of boosting universalization of primary education by increasing enrolment, attendance, retention and simultaneous improvement in the nutritional level of school-going children, but it has failed in its motto as was evident from a decrease in average attendance and retention.”

Underlining irregularities in the Woman and Child Development Department, the report states, “Deficiencies were noticed in the implementation of local food model scheme. Instead of providing weaning food to children in the age group of six to 12 months, solid food was provided. Medicine and pre-education kits were not supplied during 2006-08. Shortfall in providing supplementary nutrition to beneficiaries ranged between 37 and 53 percent.”

The report also castigates the internal financial controls in the department. “The system of financial controls, including preparation of budget estimates, was deficient as savings were noticed each year and supplementary provisions were made without requirement”.

Meanwhile, the latest report of the District Information System for Education (DISE) on the state of elementary education - primary and middle level - for 2006-07 also says that Madhya Pradesh ranks 30th in the educational development index (EDI) calculated for 35 Indian states and union territories.

As per the report, the state’s commitment to providing quality education to children can be gauged from its 30th rank in terms of the EDI of 0.481 calculated on the basis of four variables - access, infrastructure, teachers and outcomes.

The state, one of India’s largest with a population of 65 million, was at the 29th position in 2005-06 in terms of EDI.

Incidentally, the three states and union territories that scored the highest on the EDI were Kerala (0.772), Pondicherry (0.771) and Delhi (0.757).

As providing educational access to children is not limited to setting up school in every habitation but also is about making the school environment conducive and enabling for children, Madhya Pradesh could not do much on this front, according to the report.

“In the ratio of primary schools to upper primary (middle) schools, Madhya Pradesh has fallen down from 2.8 in 2005-06 to 2.7 in 2006-07. There are only 35,899 middle schools for 95,517 primary schools,” says the DISE report.

Madhya Pradesh has a literacy rate of 64 percent. The dropout rate at the primary school level is 15.6 percent while at the middle school level it is 14.7 percent.