Children in Assam are warned to stay away from betel nuts. But this nut, an addiction for many, has played an interesting role in helping Goalpara, one of seven aspirational districts in Assam, achieve almost 100% enrolment in upper primary schools.
Motivating largely illiterate mothers — at times through signs to overcome language barriers — and convincing alcoholic fathers played a major role in the district’s 99.6% transition rate of students from lower primary (Class 1-5) to upper primary schools (Class 6-8).
Western Assam’s Goalpara district had in the 2018 academic year seen 94.79% students move from 1,370 lower primary schools to 207 upper primary schools run by the State government. The dropout rate was almost similar to the State’s average of 5.36%.
Grass roots initiative
The 4.81% increase in enrolment in upper primary schools this year has been attributed to the unflagging efforts of field workers associated with Utsav Vidyarambha, an enrolment drive under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and community participation, undertaken during the first week of an academic session.
The effort attracted the attention of NITI Aayog, with the body lauding Goalpara Deputy Commissioner Varnali Deka for the “significant impact” of involving development partners, 44,000 community members, and teachers. “Ethnic, religious, linguistic diversity adds to the geographical challenges in the district. Members of our team overcame these challenges to help achieve this feat,” Ms. Deka told The Hindu.
Language barrier
Mamoni Kalita, a coordinator with the SSA’s Cluster Resource Centre, overcame an uphill task communicating with the Garo tribal people of Damra A village, about 50 km from district headquarters Goalpara.
“The villagers are below the poverty line and are busy ensuring a livelihood to be involved in school initiatives.” But Ms. Kalita managed to involve members of the local mothers’ association and communicate with them on the need to send children to school.
Manik Pal, her counterpart assigned to Damra B village, had to first deal with alcoholic and indifferent fathers. However, school principals in the area helped convince the villagers to let their children study beyond primary school.
A school in Lela near Dudhnoi town, about 35 km east of Goalpara, had no such issues. But it was short of funds to procure learning aids, such as maps and mathematical tools required under the BaLA (Building as a Learning Aid) programme. To bridge the gap, the school management committee decided to sell taambul (betel nuts) from trees on the complex.
The nuts were sold at the local weekly market for ₹4,000 for the school to get BaLA aids within a week.
The idea has now caught on with other schools in the district’s Dudhnoi block also turning to the plantation crop to generate extra funds. “About 70 schools in the block now have interactive, visual and experiential learning tools. This shows there is always a way out of a problem,” Ms. Deka said.