After CAG finds fault, govt to conduct gender audit in over 32,000 schools

As per the directions issued by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) office, the audit will focus on gender education in terms of enrollment and retention of girls in government schools, equal standards of education to both girls and boys, participation levels of girls in all education and cultural activities, along with safe environment for them in schools. Despite the state government’s enrollment drive – Shala Praveshotsav and Kanya Kelavani – the students’ strength in primary schools has witnessed a decline over the last few years.

When contacted, education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said, “The whole idea behind this gender audit is to see how we can promote girl education as well as the quality of education in government schools. The state government is trying to fulfil its target of 100 per cent enrolment and zero per cent dropout in government schools with an emphasis on girls.”

A part of this will be socio-economic and gender equity, including student profile, school enrolment and retention, infrastructure facilities, utility of resource rooms, certificate for physically challenged children,  medical camps and efforts on how to increase the participation of such children in school activities .

The one-day “chintan shibir” for the implementation of these “agenda items” is scheduled this month simultaneously in all districts. Each district has been directed to document “chintan shibir” which is a “must” as it has to be submitted at the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) office within 10 days of organising the shibir.

This comes weeks after the CAG report, for the year ending March 2013, highlighted that “a number of elementary schools were running without buildings and basic amenities guaranteed under the Right to Education (RTE) Act though sufficient funds were available. The information of availability of separate toilets for boys and girls, drinking water facility in elementary schools was incorrectly reported”.

Further, the CAG report categorically stated, “Many schools are functioning without requisite number of teachers and 57 schools were functioning without a teacher. Increasing preference for private schools vis-a-vis government schools and increase in dropouts could be attributed to inadequate infrastructural facilities, lack of basic amenities and lack of teachers. These are important areas needing urgent attention of the state government.”

On “schools with separate toilets for boys and girls”, the CAG report has said,  “According to the data available with the Gujarat Council of Elementary Education (GCEE), separate toilets for boys and girls were available in all elementary schools in the state. However, during field visits of 300 schools, it was noticed that separate toilets for boys and girls were not available in 26 schools (9 per cent). Thus, the data maintained by the state government was unreliable and needs investigation as thus could result in students being deprived of this basic amenity as required under the RTE Act.”

Core committee for implementation A core committee at each district will carry out the implementation process. The formation, as laid down by the education department, includes District Development Officer (chairman), Administrative Officer or additional district project co-ordinator (member secretary), District Education Officer (member) and a District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) principal (member).

The Chintan Shibir’s agenda will prioritise “access and retention, keeping in mind the Right to Education (RTE) Act, Gujarat RTE rules and child rights, enrolment and retention from Class I till VIII, each district-related problems and their possible solutions, Special Training Programmes (STP), school dropout rate, students outside the school, transportation facilities and best practices”.

Importance to the “swachh shala swastha shala” campaign has also been given by the education department. This will cover toilets for girls and boys, classrooms, school compound, toilets and mid-day meal (MDM) kitchen cleanliness, clean water, tree plantation in the school compound, kitchen garden, quality improvements in MDM.