Elementary Education in India : Issues and Challenges

Contents: Foreword. Introduction. 1. Mid-day meals in primary schools/Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera. 2. Getting children into school: flexibility is the key/Shantha Sinha. 3. Elementary education and the health of children: relationships, concepts and interventions/Vandana Prasad. 4. Universalization of elementary education rhetoric legitimizing status-quo/Sharad Chandra Behar. 5. The determinants of learning achievement of primary students evidences from Dehradun district/Alok Kumar, R.P. Juyal, A.P, Singh and Sanjeev Sharma. 6. Access to and justice in schools: a dream or reality?/C. Ramakrishnan. 7. Role and responsibilities of teachers of elementary schools in India: issues and challenges/Sunil Kumar Barnawal and Pramod Kumar Sinha. 8. Language, elementary education and the Indian constitution/R.K. Agnihotri. 9. Universalisation of elementary education in the state of Sikkim/D.B. Subba. 10. Tripura: surge of education in midst of poverty and insurgency/Kiran Gitte. 11. Educational planning: a down-to-earth approach in West Bengal/Srikumar Ghosh and Subhajit Mandal. 12. In lieu of political rights how fundamental is fundamental right to education?/Ajay Kumar Singh. 13. Disparity in girls education in Indian society/Gurminder Singh and Harmendra Singh. 14. The Indian education system: an historical appraisal/Sanjeev Sharma and Hashim Iqbal. 15. Impact of non residential bridge course centres towards mainstreaming—a case study in West Bengal/Syed Nurus Salam, Md Dabirul Islam and Subhajit Mandal. 16. School libraries and its possible impact on elementary education/Vijay Kumar. 17. A cohort study of West Bengal at upper primary level/Subhajit Mandal and Syed Nurus Salam. Index.

NIAR is focused on addressing multifarious governance challenges facing the country by generating serious policy debate through its publication activities. In pursuance of the above aim, it is bringing out a series of volumes entitled ‘Governance Challenges” highlighting one critical facet of governance in every volume. The instant volume – the first in its series – has attempted to address a plethora of issues concerning elementary education. The importance of elementary education is evident from the fact that it is not only seen as a means of ensuring a bright future for the children but building their capacities so as to enable them to lead a purposeful life and play a more meaningful role in the development of the country. There are several concerns central to the provisioning of elementary education in the country ranging from adequacy of the magnitude of expenditure involved to the proper and effective utilization of allocated funds. The bottlenecks faced in effective implementation of the government programmes also have an impact on the educational outcomes. The contribution of the authors lies in the fact that they have tried to trace and address the various factors and issues concerning elementary education in an analytical manner and have tried to derive possible inferences and solutions. This can be a useful resource for the policy makers and administrators in their quest for achieving the universalisation of elementary education.” (jacket)