Click to play videoAlwar (Rajasthan): On teacher's day, students in the upscale public schools decorate classrooms with pastel coloured chart-paper drawings.
In ironed uniforms and neatly polished shoes, they take on the stage to sing songs for their teachers.
It's an occasion that every student looks forward to with joy. But for the humble rural India, teacher’s day means nothing.
The so-called student-teacher relationship doesn’t exists here because there are virtually no teachers in most of the schools.
In Mewat, Rajasthan, teachers' day, in fact, is a grim reminder of the sad state of affairs that Indian rural education is in today.
“Guruji says we must keep the rooms tidy,” says an 8-year-old in a school in Alwar. He sweeps the floor of the classroom and it’s the first thing he does everyday, he says.
Ignore the carelessly patched uniform and tethered footwear, the boy, like most others kids of his class is extremely keen on studying. The sad part is: For over 100 students from class 1 to 6 who study here, there is just one teacher.
“I have asked for other teachers, but they were never recruited,” says Ram Kishen the school teacher.
Just 10 km away from Alwar, a small room is a ‘school’ for over 150 children. It's teacher’s day but the school hasn't been opened because the only teacher didn't feel like turning up.
Schools across the Mewat region in Rajasthan pretty much function like this.
However, with or without a teacher, the children turn up for classes religiously. There are no classrooms. Only a few rooms that are being used as godowns, for storing junk.
“We really want to study. We hope teachers come to teach us,” says a girl.
“There are no teachers here. Some were hired but most of them left. Then all the village people decided to shut the school,” said Ram Pal Yadav Sarpanch, Chakaka village.
He ordered closing down a school for two days, when the district administration refused to send teachers.
Eventually, 4 teachers arrived to handle over 500 students. But out of them, one has already left.
In Mirzapur, a group of young Muslim girls convinced their families who were refusing to send them to school. With the help of social workers they won over their parents.
But because of the dearth of teachers, their efforts have gone futile. There is just one government teacher in the school and four part time volunteers.
Crores of rupees are allocated every year by UNICEF for rural elementary education in India. Schemes are made, plans are laid out. Teams of experts from the Ministry of Social Welfare and other government departments are delegated work.
But the problem is, it all happens on paper and is used as a data for nationwide statistics. At the basic ground level, the rural reality remains the same, despite 60-years post India's independence.
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