Educational Development at Micro-level: Case Study of Two Villages in Kerala (Abstract)

A. Abdul Salim*

Educational development has not been uniform across localities and regions. Some villages in Kerala have shown spectacular progress in education while others have lagged behind. Obviously micro-level factors account for such differential educational development in the villages. Our study attempts to analyse the determinants of educational development at the village level. It is hoped that the study will offer insights into local level planning for uplifting educationally backward villages. Our enquiry may also throw some light on the educational burden of the government and the capacity of the local community to finance education.

It is found that several favourable factors were at work in one of the two sample villages. Socio-religious reform movements and the attitudinal changes triggered off by them, local community efforts, government intervention, political pressures, a ‘forward looking’ Madrassa system, private voluntary efforts (individual and corporate), Gulf migration and improvement in the economic plight of the people were the major factors that helped further education renaissance in Edavanna since 1945. Among these, the Mujahid movement was central and one that linked the other factors together. The socio-religious changes effected by the movement resulted in the transformation of the whole ethos, praxis and ways of life of the society in the village. In fact, these changes opened up a new track in both religious and modern education. People of the village, in large numbers, started seeking secular education and employment. Education took the form of a social movement. The reformers encouraged girls’ education, which was once despised. People began to regard education as the "door to a new earth and a new heaven" and certainly a large number of educated people in the village have been able to find good jobs.

The study shows that effort by private corporate agencies and the local community have been remarkable in bringing up educational facilities in Edavanna. In the case of all schools except one, the land required for setting up of the schools was either donated or purchased by the local community. The construction of most of the school buildings, purchase of equipment and furniture and provision of other facilities in the schools were undertaken by the management using the money mobilised by the local community. The improvement in the economic condition of the people due to the development of trade and commerce in the village and the inflow of foreign remittances have facilitated these mobilisation drives. Fall in poverty levels has also promoted schooling. Interventions by the government have always been effective in the case of this village; at different stages of its educational development, the government started schools, upgraded them and offered matching grants for developing its infrastructure. In fact, government interventions were the result of sufficient lobbying and political pressure, from time to time.

We find that the factors, which brought about educational expansion in Edavanna during 1945-85, were conspicuous by their absence in Nediyirippu. The enthusiasm evident in the socio-economic and the educational fronts in Edavanna was found lacking in Nediyirippu. The latter did not witness any major socio-religious reform movement at any time of its history. Attitudinal change among its inhabitants took place at a slow pace and the local community effort in educational development was minimal. Government intervention was weak. There was little improvement in economic status of the people though Gulf migration, which began by the 1970s, had caused some financial improvement in their lives, it did not bring any significant shift in the outlook and attitude of the local community towards education.

The physical accessibility of schools is higher in the educationally forward village. It is observed that private schools in Edavanna have better facilities and are maintained well. But no clear pattern is observed in Nediyirippu. We find that in the study area as a whole, gender-caste logistics and socio-economic factors, which had a strong influence on enrolment of children earlier, have much less influence at present. Enrolment, particularly at the lower primary level, has become almost universal irrespective of gender, caste and socio-economic status of households, even in the backward village. However, these factors certainly affect the regularity of attendance and dropout rates. Little association is found between financial difficulty and non-attendance of children in schools, in either village at the primary level. In the backward village, school attendance of girls is hit by the social set-up that still does not give much importance to the role of girls and women in society, and by certain practices like virunnupokku and nerchas - characteristic of conservative and superstitious communities. We find that dropouts are mostly from socially and economically backward families and conservative sections of the Muslim community. An inverse relation is observed between the school dropouts and factors like parental education, number of educated adults in the family and occupational status of the household. The major factors attributed to the relatively poor performance of secondary schools in both the villages include the ‘whole promotion’ system, indifference of teachers, inadequate school facilities and poor education-employment linkage. In the educationally backward village, poor socio-economic background of the students, lack of interest of the parents, absence of adult members from households and the conflict of interests between Madrassas and secular schools also contribute to poor student performance.

The study indicates that a major part of village resources is invested in creating education facilities. However, there seems to be less emphasis on providing furniture, equipment (including laboratory equipment), library books and other basic facilities, surely a fact that has an adverse bearing on the quality of education. Capital cost estimates show that the educationally forward village invested Rs 432 per student while the backward village invested only Rs 296, about 50 per cent less than the former. Further, investment per student place in government schools is lower in both the villages. The share of salary alone accounts for 96 to 98 percent of the total recurring costs. In both the areas, attention paid to maintenance of equipment and furniture was marginal. Extra-curricular activities are also neglected grossly. More than half of school buildings in the educationally backward village required immediate renovation. In this village, funds were not available even for purchasing teaching aids and preparing and serving mid-day meals.

Private cost estimates show that a household in the forward village spent Rs 1,179 per student for school education while in the backward village, the corresponding amount was Rs 896, ie 32 per cent less than in the former. It was found that households in the upper middle and the high-income categories spend larger amounts than the low and the lower middle groups. The items for which higher amounts are spent include private tuition and stationery. A classification of households by occupational groups suggests that professionals, businessmen and those engaged in ‘service’ are in a position to spend higher amounts. It is also found that educated parents spend higher amounts than less educated and illiterate parents.

We find that in the case of government schools, local community financed most of the capital expenditure with some matching grant from the government; in the case of private schools, mostly the local people, teachers and management provided such finance. The government financed almost the entire recurring expenditure of both government and aided schools; financing through fees and PTA contributions constitute hardly two per cent. Thus, as far as recurring expenditure is concerned, education is heavily subsidised by the government. The government is hard-pressed for funds and finds it difficult to upgrade schools or improve facilities or provide new facilities. The quality of education is the casualty. This is the context in which the government is thinking in terms of alternative sources of finance and of entrusting the responsibility of primary education to local bodies.

The study shows that there is potential in the villages for increasing cost recovery by introducing tuition fees. The potential of the parents belonging to higher income groups to bear the institutional cost of education in part or in full is also high. The parents are worried about the deteriorating quality of schooling and are willing to give fees if quality improves. However, the field experience also shows that even under the free education system, poor parents find it difficult to bear the expenditure incurred on items such as uniforms, books and stationery for their children. Further, poor households are in need of the income that the school-going children might generate. Hence there is reason for introducing more effective incentive schemes. All these facts point to the necessity of introducing a discriminatory system of tuition fees and incentives in which payment of fees would be decided on the basis of ability to pay and incentives will be provided on the basis of economic need.

* A. Abdul Salim is lecturer at Post Graduate Department of Economics, EMEA College of Arts and Science, Kondotty, Malappuram.