Use Of Counselling Skills When Assessing Needs Of Carers Nursing Essay

Use Of Counselling Skills When Assessing Needs Of Carers Nursing Essay Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) policies emphasises the need to support carers (2000 Strategy for Carers in Wales). However more recently, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) emphasizes the need to offer support to people with dementia and their carers in health and social care in the NICE clinical guideline 42 on dementia care (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2006). In response to English legislation the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) produced the Carers strategy for Wales: Action Plan (2007) it highlighted that in Wales 70% of care in the community is provided by unpaid carers. The document sets out WAGs strategic path for carers; it delivers specific action points that will lead the way forward over the next few years that will help achieve the objectives. Recently the Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services (WAG 2010) consulted on a draft Dementia Action Plan for Wales paper produced by a Task Finish Group, which highlig hted four priority areas that would improve the lives of people with dementia and their families in Wales. As a result of these findings WAG has allocated funding of  £1.573m to support the development of Dementia action plans in the years between 2010 2012. WAG has also made available a one off funding of  £400,000 in 2010/12 to extend services provided by Older Peoples Community Mental Health Teams to develop new Young Onset Dementia Services across Wales (WAG 2010). These services would include appropriate support and assessment of carers. Prevalence The Care Standards Act (2000) provides regulation and national minimum standards. These standards are based on service user needs. The purpose of which is to provide a minimum standard, below which no provider may operate. One such provider is (Adult Social Services) (ASS), currently supports 100,000 adults in Wales. The main provision of ASS is to support and protect those people who would be worse off financially in their absence, by offering community care services and to work in partnership with other providers (ASS no date). ASS provides services to many adult groups. For the purpose of this assignment one group that ASS supports is older people with mental health issues such as dementia and their carers. The Community Mental Health Nurse (CMHN) is part of the Community Mental Health Team that works in partnership with ASS. CMHNs provide specialist skills in Caring for people with dementia and their carers. Dementia has been described by many as being a degenerative decline in mental functioning that equates to having complex needs dependency and morbidity ( NICE 2006, NICE-SCIE 2007). Having such complex needs the older adult with dementia is assessed. This assessment process also involves offering an assessment of n eeds for the carer. There are mental Health Policy Guidance issued by (WAG 2003) that recommends using an assessment tool called the Care Programme Approach (CPA) the CPA process will be discussed later in the assignment as this. The Carer The role and needs of the carer is often overlooked, despite government policies. The carer feels disappointed at the lack of information of support that is available and is not easily accessed. Along with lack of employer support in having time off to take their cared ones to appointments (Carmichael et al 2008). There is evidence to suggest from a carers view that it is an emotional rollercoaster of challenges that stretch the carer to the edge of normal reasoning see Appendix 1(HCWPC 2008). These challenges can cover a wide spectrum. This could include and not be limited to loss of personal space, privacy, and choices due to not having the time. This also disables the carers ability to think independently as a person as they have very little time to themselves. This can lead to having to deal with the emotional effects of facing the lack of having a meaningful relationship, self love and loss of the ability to know joy. Further emotional challenges can be evoked as friends, family and the wider community withdraw as often they can pick up on the carers feelings of despair and greater or lesser depressive symptoms. To avoid people catching a glimpse the carer will often put on an act to outsiders even though they are slowly emotionally dying on the inside, through lack of laughter and loss of control of ones self (HCWPC 2008). Therefore it is essential for the CMHN to utilise the skills they have in recognising the individual needs of the carer. CMHN have their role Currently in England there are Admiral Nurses who are specialist practitioners in dementia and work in partnership with family carers and people with dementia. In Wales the first Admiral Nurses started working in one county only. Three years later in April 2010 (An anonymous University Health Board) failed to get funding for the service to continue (Dementia UK 2010). Currently the gap in Wales is being met by Community Mental Health Nurse Specialist Practitioners (CMHNSP) whose role is that of team leader. Leading specialist teams that, pick up these patients and carers with complex needs. Specialist Practitioner courses are available through designated universities in Wales. These courses follow Standards for Specialist Education and Practice as set by the Nursing and Midwifery Central Council (NMC 2001). Identifying the needs of the patient with dementia and carer through the CPA draws on the skill of the CMHNSP. These skills will draw on effective communication, listening, counse lling and reflective practice skills. (Casement 1985), a psychoanalyst, cited in Johns (2004) Offers a more satisfactory concept of reflection as the ability to dialogue with self whilst dialoguing with a client. He calls this dialogue with self the Internal Supervisor paying attention to the way the self interprets what the other is saying, and weighing up how best to respond. During the assessment process the CMHNSP will be taking everything into account both as an internal supervisor, and active listener. The CMHNSP should feel positive in using these skills, but should also be aware that negative forces could also be in force. As using both skills could influence the CMHNSP to miss what actually was being said. Rowlinson (2010) warns that whilst actively listening, it is important that a counsellor stops any other kind of distraction. This includes the natural dialogue that everyone has running through their mind constantly. Forming judgments, regarding what is being said, is a lso a block to actively listening, as is the urge to provide information at, what may be, an inappropriate pause in the conversation. The assessment and any encounter with the patient and carer should also lead the CMHNSP to draw on their knowledge of counselling theory skills, and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) interventions and as an informal helper, this forms part of the CMHNSPs everyday interventions with both patients, and carers. CBT is a short-term talking treatment that has a highly practical approach to problem-solving. It aims to change patterns of thinking or behaviour that are behind both patient and carers difficulties, and so change the way they feel. Mind(2010). ( Mention CBT) Collins (2003) In response to a questionnaire, nurses responded that CBT enabled them to offer clients unconditional positive regard. The relationship that developed between the client and nurse helped the nurse to identify and respond to the needs of the client in a much more empathic manner. During any intervention with a patient with dementia and their carer would need careful non judgmental management. The CMHNSP would draw from their knowledge of counselling interventions that they had learnt and use these to offer the carer much needed support, to enable them to move forward and allow both patient and carer to make informed decisions about their care needs through the CPA assessment process. Along with an assessment of needs of the carer as their own needs are often overlooked or hidden by the carer. (Ref Required) During any dialogue with the patient and carer as an Internal Supervisor, the CMHNSP would make a mental note that careful documentation of any conversation would be needed using patients own words where appropriate. Where specialist assessments are carried out notes would be taken during such interventions to capture intricate details. (ref to KG something) Taking time out to think about and plan what needs to be written in the notes would also allow the CMHNSP to make sense of the situation through reflection whilst recording the intervention in the case notes. Keeping good records forms an essential part of nursing and midwifery practice, and instigates the provision of safe and well-organized care. It should form an essential task not to be missed even if there are time constraints NMC (2009). Encouraging the Carer to make their own notes will help them in reflecting on the issues and decisions that need to be made. Part of the CPA assessment involves both the patient and carer taking part in writing there own care plans. This process breaks down the issues at large into smaller stepped targets which can set clear achievable goals. By breaking down the items increases the chances of success and goal achievement (Kottler et al 2008). Patients records are just as important if not more so than the practitioners records. Patients obtain useful information that they can use both during and after the counselling Nelson-Jones (2002). Goals pop into the conversation often not being noticed by the person seeking counsel often needing the helper to point out the goals Tschudin(1995). Therefore providing the patient and carer with specialist knowledge or assisting them in knowing where to find it may help the patient and carer to see their situation in a different light and thus provide a basis for action. (Elgan 1994) Cited in, Freshwater (2003) Elgan argues that information sharing skills are challenging as they can compel the patient and carer to see themselves and their situation quite differently. For this reason he urges a sense of caution and tact when using information-sharing skills Cited in, Freshwater (2003). In the case of diagnosis and dementia there is evidence to suggest that the sufferer may not want the immediate family or friends to know and it can also work the other way around, so tact is required when collecting what could be sensitive information (Ref disclosure of diagnosis required). Listening is an important feature and is made up of many components, in order to effectively communicate both ways. The CMHNSP should allow for this by pausing, being attentive and allowing time for both the patient and carer to speak. Bayne.et al (1998:42) suggests that The first quality that anyone needs who wants to help another person, or hear what needs to be said, is attentiveness. A successful counselling relationship can be instigated by ensuring a safe environment, somewhere where there is privacy and free of intrusion. Asking do they feel comfortable in the environment to go ahead with the assessment or intervention? During the intervention giving reassurance to both patient and carer to take their time when answering any questions shows that the CMHNSP can be empathetic. By doing this it creates an atmosphere that creates a therapeutic relationship and with this comes the willingness of the Patient and carer to participate at each phase of the relationship. These Phases ar e discussed by (Roach 2001) who suggests that the therapeutic relationship Development process where trust is developed is seen as the first stage there are two more, Working phase where goal setting takes place and Terminating phase which is self limiting and where the patient and carer might achieve independence, if this last phase is not met then the phases can be cyclic in action and the process can continue. At times the CMHNSP needs to be aware that carers charge may be present, during certain aspects of the assessment or intervention and need to be sensitive to this fact and to be aware that either the patient or carer may be holding back information either one would not wish the other to hear. For example Silence during the dialogue by either party. Recognition of this non-verbal communication instigates sensitivity on the CMHNs part. At other times of silence the CMHNSP should pause, allowing both the patient and carer time to reflect so they could collect their thoughts and emotions. Furthermore the CMHNSP could when appropriate radiate that they too are human, by appropriately self disclosing. In context to the discussion the CMHNSP could recall a time when they felt the need to write things down to help them to remember. Through showing this sensitivity the CMHN would be able to build on a trusting relationship and nurture good communication by sharing similarity. Nelson-Jones (2002:223)The ability of counsellors to be real is very important for assisting clients to experience feelings. Rogers used terms like congruence and genuineness'(Rogers, 1957;1995). Existential psychologists use terms like presence and authenticity (Bugental, 1981;May, 1958; Mayay Yalom, 2000). Bugental views presence as consisting of an intake side called accessibility, allowing what happens in situations to affect one as a person , and an output side called expressiveness, making available some of the content of ones subjective awareness without editing. On each engagement with the patient and carer the CMHNSP would gradually encourage both to become more aware of their situation where appropriate through exploration and expression of feelings. This would empower and enabled them both to move from one place to another. Allowing them as an individual to explore in this way, would enable them both to decide how they would move further forward. This process would be helped through goal setting as mentioned earlier within the care plan as auctioned by the CPA. Albert Einstein observed, The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Cited in Covey (2004). The CMHNSP needs to be aware that the carer initially could be holding back due to their charge being there. As the assessment progresses this might not be the issue, further active listening could draw out the more prominent issues. It is important to identify how the carer are they blaming themselves do they feel hopeless for not managing the changes in their charge or cared one. These expectations carers sometimes have of themselves could hide further issues they are not yet ready to address. These could be grief, loss and change. Firstly the carer could be vaguely grieving the loss of the person, mother, loved one they once knew due to Dementia. You are losing and grieving while youre providing the care, because Charlie isnt Charlie anymore, Frank (2008). Frank goes on to say that studies were undertaken and found that The fundamental barrier experienced by Alzheimers caregivers appears to be a combination of anticipatory grief and ambiguous loss, rather than hands-on care issues , further more Frank hopes the study results can be used to help design new support and intervention programs for dementia caregivers. There has not been much change in the treatment options for dementia patients in the last 20 years but there are policies in place to decrease the burden of carers. (REF Required). Secondly the carer could have further issues such as the changing of their role from Son or daughter or husband to main carer, and decision maker. Here the CMHN would feel empathy for the carer, and want to help them, not being judgmental but offering unconditional positive regard (UCR). Unconditional positive regard, a term coined by the humanist Carl Rogers, is blanket acceptance and support of a person regardless of what the person says or does. Rogers believes that unconditional positive regard is essential to healthy development. (Ref required). There is an important skill that CMHNSP should develop in recognising that through the reflective process it can became evident that the CMHNSP could also be avoiding the issue of the carer grieving the loss of the person they once knew. It is important to reflect on such feelings. If this is the case after further analysis the CMHNSP might feel that they were out of their depth in that area of counselling and should refer the carer on to a specialist. Dryden et al (1994:15) said Think of developing your referral skills as a positive enhancement of your overall practice. Lazarus, a therapist of considerable experience and standing, uses referral (which he considers a technique in its own right) for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the recognition of his own non-omnipotence. Seeking clinical supervision on this identified need through reflection of practice enables the CMHNSP develop their clinical practice weaknesses into stronger coping strategies that will enable and instigate the CMHNSP to further develop their role, through seeking effective evidence based practices and action researching the these practices in practice under clinical supervision. Evidently the role of the CMHNSP is constantly cyclically evolving using such research methods. The conclusion should draw together the main strands of the discussion and suggest implications for the development of clinical practice and research on assessment and intervention skills in the profession. Appendices Appendix 1 During our visit to Australia, we were shown the following job advertisement for the post of carer by the Chief Executive of Carers New South Wales. It had been written by a carer. We reproduce this here as an illustration of how some carers see their lives. Critical role for self starter for hands on role: Experience in first aid, counselling, occupational health and safety, pharmacology, cooking, cleaning, communication skills, stress management and ability to self medicate may be required. The successful applicant must be able to forgo personal privacy and the choice to do what you want. You will be required to lose your independent thinking ability and become invisible to the community at large. The successful applicant must be able to endure the lack of joy, self-love and relationships indefinitely. Must also be able to function alone as friends leave due to your state of depression. Although entitled to holidays, the successful applicant will not usually be able to have them due to lack of support or financial difficulties. The successful applicant must be able to function credibly with a smile while dying on the inside from lack of laughter due to losing your mind. Reassessment qualities are essential while you lose your sense of self, your reasons to get up in the morning, your dress sense, your hair and your sense of humour and identity. The successful applicant may be required and therefore willing to move home to accommodate the client and be happy developing bad nerves and anxiety 24/7. The successful applicant may be required to fight every day to remember five things to be grateful for while letting go of everything held dear. Must be able to let go and find comfort in a state of being stunned. The successful applicant must be able to cope with slowly going insane and back on a continual basis. The successful applicant must learn to live in silence to enjoy this truly challenging lifestyle. (House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee Valuing and Supporting Carers 2008).

Chemistry and Synaptic Transmitters :: Chemistry Science Scientific Essays

Chemistry and Synaptic Transmitters The most common psychoactive substances can be divided into depressants (i.e., alcohol, sedatives, hypnotics), stimulants (i.e., cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy), opioids (i.e., morphine and heroine), and hallucinogens (i.e., PCP, LSD, cannabis). The brain has different effects to different psychoactive substances. They bind to different receptor types, and can increase or decrease the activity of neurons through several different mechanisms. Consequently, these psychoactive substances have different behavioral effects, different rates of development of tolerance, different withdrawal symptoms, and different short-term and long-term effects (Vaccarino & Rotzinger, 2004). In this team project we will take a closer look at the hallucinogen, LSD by explaining the chemistry and route of access of LSD, synaptic transmitters and the parts of neurons affected, inhibitory/excitatory potential changes, physiological changes, primary behavior changes, side effects of behavior changes, and effects reported by users. LSD is considered to be one of, if not the, most potent hallucinogenic drug known (Leicht, 1996). To understand LSD first we will give a brief history of how LSD came into existence. In 1938, Albert Hoffman was an employee in the pharmacological department of Sandoz, in Basel, Switzerland. Hoffman was studying derivatives of lysergic acid, including systematically reacting the acid group with various reagents, to produce the corresponding amides, anhydrides, esters, etc. One of these derivatives was the diethylamide, made by addition of the –NC2H5)2 group, and it was named LSD-25. But the new substance didn’t appear to have any particularly useful medical properties, although the research report noted, in passing, that â€Å"the experimental animals became restless during the narcosis†. (May, 1998). LSD was not looked at for the next five years until Hoffman couldn’t get this new substance out of his mind and decided to reexamine LSD. Hoffman stated: â€Å"A peculiar presentiment- the feeling that this substance could possess properties other than those established in the first investigations- induced me, five years after the first synthesis, to produce LSD-25 once again so that a sample could be given to the pharmacological department for further tests.† So, in the spring of 1943, he repeated the synthesis of LSD-25. Hoffman is quoted in his laboratory journal on April 19, 1943. 17:00: Beginning dizziness, feelings of anxiety, visual distortions,

Malachi Constant/Unk raped a young woman and murdered his best friend. :: English Literature

Malachi Constant/Unk raped a young woman and murdered his best friend. Why does the reader feel sympathy for him instead of anger? In 'The Sirens of Titan' there are many places where the reader would feel anger towards Malachi Constant/Unk if it is read out of context. However there are also many occasions where the reader feels sympathy and forgives Malachi/Unk. This is helped by Winston Niles Rumfoord who knows everything and Winston's wife, Beatrice, who is another main character. Malachi Constant was born rich and had everything he wanted but the reader finds out after few chapters that he had not had a happy family life. His mother was a whore and he only ever met his father once in his life. "You said you had a very unhappy childhood and made everyone listen to how unhappy it was." In this quote the language is simple and repetitive. This is perhaps to show the annoyance this character has for Constant. It also makes the reader feel less sympathetic here though because he was moaning and complaining which is not a good attribute in people. This might be so that later on the reader can see how they judged him unfairly so that when there is less proof of something bad happening to him they are more easily forgiving of him. This brings out the readers sympathy because the reader realises this is what leads to his financial ruin and bankruptcy because he gets drunk and depressed and gives away all his oil wells. However if we had not read this part then the reader would feel angry at wasting what he had. "Every courageous thing he [Constant] had done had been motivated by spitefulness and goads from childhood" In this quote there are lots of strong negatives that suggest a very powerful outside force. All the words here are emotive and indicate another source had dominance over Constant's life. We, the readers, are told he tries to hard to be sophisticated and fashionable and this makes the reader sympathetic because the reader pities him and relates to him for trying so hard to 'fit in' with others. "Everything Rumfoord did he did with style, making all mankind look good. Everything Constant did he did in style - aggressively, loudly, childishly, wastefully" This is a direct comparison with Rumfoord and shows how young, eager and naÃÆ'Â ¯ve Constant is in contrast to Rumfoord who is much older and knows everything. The adverbs are all negative showing how Rumfoord is a good person but Constant takes everything for granted. The story follows Constant and then Unk throughout the book giving only important facts such as what they look like and character points Malachi Constant/Unk raped a young woman and murdered his best friend. :: English Literature Malachi Constant/Unk raped a young woman and murdered his best friend. Why does the reader feel sympathy for him instead of anger? In 'The Sirens of Titan' there are many places where the reader would feel anger towards Malachi Constant/Unk if it is read out of context. However there are also many occasions where the reader feels sympathy and forgives Malachi/Unk. This is helped by Winston Niles Rumfoord who knows everything and Winston's wife, Beatrice, who is another main character. Malachi Constant was born rich and had everything he wanted but the reader finds out after few chapters that he had not had a happy family life. His mother was a whore and he only ever met his father once in his life. "You said you had a very unhappy childhood and made everyone listen to how unhappy it was." In this quote the language is simple and repetitive. This is perhaps to show the annoyance this character has for Constant. It also makes the reader feel less sympathetic here though because he was moaning and complaining which is not a good attribute in people. This might be so that later on the reader can see how they judged him unfairly so that when there is less proof of something bad happening to him they are more easily forgiving of him. This brings out the readers sympathy because the reader realises this is what leads to his financial ruin and bankruptcy because he gets drunk and depressed and gives away all his oil wells. However if we had not read this part then the reader would feel angry at wasting what he had. "Every courageous thing he [Constant] had done had been motivated by spitefulness and goads from childhood" In this quote there are lots of strong negatives that suggest a very powerful outside force. All the words here are emotive and indicate another source had dominance over Constant's life. We, the readers, are told he tries to hard to be sophisticated and fashionable and this makes the reader sympathetic because the reader pities him and relates to him for trying so hard to 'fit in' with others. "Everything Rumfoord did he did with style, making all mankind look good. Everything Constant did he did in style - aggressively, loudly, childishly, wastefully" This is a direct comparison with Rumfoord and shows how young, eager and naÃÆ'Â ¯ve Constant is in contrast to Rumfoord who is much older and knows everything. The adverbs are all negative showing how Rumfoord is a good person but Constant takes everything for granted. The story follows Constant and then Unk throughout the book giving only important facts such as what they look like and character points

Friar Lawrence to Blame for Romeo and Juliets Death :: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Friar Laurence’s interference in the families of Romeo and Juliet set much of the fighting, rage and death of these characters into motion. Romeo and Juliet is the title of a great tragedy. This tragedy has been caused by Friar Laurence’s involvement in the marriage of Romeo and Juliet, the Friar’s lying to Capulet and his family, and his involvement in the false death of Juliet. Friar Laurence’s involvement in the marriage of Romeo and Juliet has caused a tragedy. Romeo and Juliet thought that they fell in love, but the Friar should have known that they were just kids and they were really rushing into things. In Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence says, â€Å"These violent delights have violent ends. Is loathsome in his own deliciousness, and in the taste confounds the appetite: Therefore love moderately: long love doth so, too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.† When he says this, he is giving Romeo a warnin. Also, Friar Lawrence should have known at the time, that Romeo was loving with his eyes and not with his heart. For example, Romeo was in a relationship with Rosaline, before marrying Julliet. Inonclusion , the Friar did not have the expierence to know that they were kids. The Friar thought that this marriage will end an ancient grudge of two prominent families, when it will only separate them even more. Friar Laurence was helping Capulet and Lady Capulet mourn over Tybalt’s death. Paris says, "With these times of woe afford no time to woo!" . If everything was thought about clearly and not rushed through then none of this would have happened and Romeo and Juliet would not have died such a tragic death. Another example of the Friar lying is by not telling Montague and Lady Montague of Romeo and Juliet’s elopement. This only made matters worse, and now both Romeo and Juliet are dead. The Friar made this marriage a huge mistake, and he could have stopped the whole thing right there and then by just saying no. The bad advice keeps coming. Hold, daughter. "I do spy a kind of hope, Which craves as desperate an execution, As that is desperate which we would prevent. If, rather than to marry County Paris,"When Juliet turns to Friar Lawrence in desperation because her parents are forcing her to marry Paris, the Friar concocts the crazy scheme for Juliet to fake her own death.

Research Paper in Society and Culture

Society and Culture Research Paper Marriage and Family: Nature and Scope (Belgium) Submitted by: Kate Danica M. De Jesus Submitted to: Ms. Sherryl Pajulas OUTLINE Topic: Marriage and Family: Nature and Scope (Belgium) Introduction: History Subtopics: a. the nature of marriage b. the selection of marriage mates c. the nature of family d. basic function of the family (Belgium) e. changes in the family f. family organization and disorganization g. culture and custom (Belgium) Conclusion: Acknowledgement I’m not a perfect person for me not to seek a help for others.To do a research paper is not an easy task that’s why I do acknowledge fist, God for never getting tired for giving me His guidance, strength and wisdom while I’m doing this. Second is my family who always there for me and for their support financially and morally. Also because they never stop loving me as what I am and who I am. Third is my friends who never let me down, they never get tired to cheer me u p that I can do this, they make me inspired. Fourth, I acknowledge those who also help me to have reference in this research paper, also because of they give patience to me, because without hem maybe I didn’t finish this research paper. 1 History Belgium According to its history, the name ‘Belgium' is derived from  Gallia Belgica, a  Roman province  in the northern most part of  Gaul  that before Roman invasion in 100  BC, was inhabited by the Belgae, a mix of  Celtic  and  people. A  gradual immigration  by Germanic  Frankish  tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the  Merovingian  kings. A gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire.The  Treaty of Verdunin 843 divided the region into  Middle  and West Francia  and therefore into a set of more or less independent  fiefdoms  which, during the  Middle Ages, were  vassals  either of the  King of France  or of the  Holy Roman Emperor. Many of these fiefdoms  were united in the  Burgundian Netherlands  of the 14th and 15th centuries. [18]  Emperor Charles  V  extended the  personal union  of the  Seventeen Provinces  in the 1540s, making it far more than a personal union by the  Pragmatic Sanction of 1549  and increased his influence over the  Prince-Bishopric of Liege.The  Eighty Years' War  (1568–1648) divided the Low Countries into the northern  United Provinces  (Belgica Foederata  in  Latin, the â€Å"Federated Netherlands†) and the  Southern Netherlands  (Belgica Regia, the â€Å"Royal Netherlands†). The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish  and the  Austrian  Habsburgs  and comprised most of modern Belgium. This was the theatre of most  Franco-Spanish  and Franco-Austrian wars  during the 17th and 18th centuries.Following the  campaigns of 1794 in the French R evolutionary Wars, the Low Countries—including territories that were never nominally under Habsburg rule, such as the Prince-Bishopric of Liege—were annexed by the  French First Republic, ending Austrian rule in the region. The reunification of the Low Countries as the  United Kingdom of the Netherlands  occurred at the dissolution of the  First French Empire  in 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon. And in 1830, the  Belgian Revolution  led to the separation of the Southern Provinces from the Netherlands and to the stablishment of a Catholic and bourgeois, officially French-speaking and neutral, independent Belgium under a  provisional government  and a  national congress. Since the installation of  Leopold  I  as king on  21 July  1831 (which is now celebrated as Belgium's  National Day, Belgium has been a  constitutional monarchy  and  parliamentary democracy, with a  laicist  constitution based on the  Napoleonic code. Alth ough the franchise was initially restricted,  universal suffrage  for men was introduced after the  general strike of 1893  (with  plural voting  until 1919) and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the  Catholic Party  and the  Liberal Party, with the  Belgian Labour Party  emerging towards the end of the 19th century. French was originally the single official language adopted by the  nobility  and the  bourgeoisie. It progressively lost its overall importance as Dutch became recognized as well. This recognition became official in 1898 and in 1967 a Dutch version of the  Constitution  was legally accepted. [23] The  Berlin Conference  of 1885 ceded control of the  Congo Free State  to  King Leopold  II  as his private possession.From around 1900 there was growing international concern for the extreme and savage treatment of the Congolese population under Leopold  II, for whom the Congo was primarily a source of revenue from ivory and rubber production. In 1908 this outcry led the Belgian state to assume responsibility for the government of the colony, henceforth called the  Belgian Congo. [24]  Germany invaded Belgium in 1914 as part of the Schlieffen Plan  to attack France and much of the  Western Front  fighting of World War  I occurred in western parts of the country. The opening months of the war were known as the  Rape of Belgium  due to German excesses.Belgium took over the  German colonies  of  Ruanda-Urundi  (modern day  Rwanda  and  Burundi) during the war, and they were mandated to Belgium in 1924 by the  League of Nations. In the aftermath of the First World War, the  Prussian districts  of  Eupen and Malmedy were annexed by Belgium in 1925, thereby causing the presence of a German-speaking minority. The country was again invaded by Germany in 1940  and was occupied until its  liberation by the Allies  in 1944. After World W ar  II,  a general strike  forced king  Leopold  III, who many viewed as collaborating with Germany during the war, to abdicate in 1951. The Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960 uring the  Congo Crisis; Ruanda-Urundi followed with its independence two years later. Belgium joined  NATO  as a founding member and formed the Benelux group of nations with the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Belgium became one of the six founding members of the  European Coal and Steel Community  in 1951 and of the  European Atomic Energy Community  and  European Economic Community, established in 1957. The latter is now the European Union, for which Belgium hosts major administrations and institutions, including the  European Commission, the  Council of the European Union  and the extraordinary and committee sessions of the  European Parliament. Nature of marriage According to the catholic, the true nature of marriage, a husband and wife living in openness to life, is a lso a witness to the precious gift of the child and to the unique and irreplaceable roles of both a mother and a father. In creating new life, the unitive and procreative purposes of marriage come together. Marriage, therefore, is not confined wholly to the loving intimacy of husband and wife but strives in generosity to go beyond this to bring new life into being. This procreative meaning of marriage involves not only the conception of children but also their upbringing and education.The loving communion of marital spouses is the primary context in which children are both conceived and brought up in love. It is true that some marriages will not result in procreation due to infertility, even though the couple is capable of the natural act by which procreation takes place. Indeed, this situation often comes as a surprise and can be a source of deep sadness, disappointment, anxiety, and even great suffering for a husband and wife. When such tragedy affects a marriage, a couple may be tempted to think that their union is not complete or truly blessed.This is not true. The marital union of a man and a woman is a distinctive communion of persons which even infertile couples continue to manifest. 4 Selection of marriage mates According to my research, Selecting a mate is a process that is to a large extent culturally defined. Who is considered as a suitable marriage partner differs across societies. Various criteria can be used in the evaluation of a suitable partner. Some of these are physical beauty, personality, education, wealth, social class, ethnic or racial identity and more.The relative importance of one criterion over another depends on the type of marriage that is being considered – an arranged marriage or one based on the Western concept of romantic love. Arranged marriages have been very popular worldwide and are still being practised today. This is so because an arranged marriage represents more than a union of two individuals; it is in fact the union of two families. It can also be a basis for creating alliances between important families, communities or even countries and nations. Therefore, arranged marriages usually require careful choice and negotiations.Another reason why arranged marriages have been and are still being practised is that young people have sometimes been considered as being too inexperienced to make such a decision as that of selecting a life-long partner. The parents and other older relatives then take the responsibility of finding a suitable mate for the young people. Even though arranged marriages are still being widely practiced, marriages based on romantic love are growing in popularity. This is so because of the influence of the mass media and its effectiveness in spreading the Western image of romantic love across the world.Exclusive emotional attachments are now greatly desirable in a marriage. 5 Basic Function of Family The Belgian standard living is one of the highest in Europe, per capita in come is high increasing, and a large part of economy is directed toward production for the consumer market. Housing is less crowded than in most of Europe. The pace of life in the cities is hectic, yet the Belgians know how to relax, and they do so at side walk cafes and at the restaurants known throughout Europe for the preparation of the Belgians favorite dishes; mussels, deep-fried potatoes, oysters, endive, and Flemish waterzoei (chicken). is an important consideration for anybody to grow up with a  family. Household camping along the Meuse. Although modern informality is making in roads among the students generations, the traditions of the tight family circle and formal relations with others is maintained. The whole is still focus of life. Regionalism is strong, and while they may visit the capital on occasion, many Belgians prefer not to wonder far from their place of birth. 6 Changes in the family Sociologists study society and how it is organized. They study what a society believes and how it is changing.They explain how people behave, but not how they ought to behave. Almost every society is based on the family. Some societies have nuclear families. In the nuclear family, the parents and children live together in one house. Other societies have extended families. In this kind of family, there are grandparents, parents, children, uncles, and other relatives all living together. In some societies, there are tribes. A tribe is a group of extended families that have the same ancestors. Throughout history there have been slow changes in the family and in family life, but today the family is changing quickly.This change causes many problems for the society and the individual. One of the major reasons for this fast change in the family is the change in how people earn their money. Today more and more people work in factories that make automobiles, furniture, clothes, and thousands of other products. Fewer people work on farms or make products at home. Peop le work in industry instead. This change is called industrialization. The ownership of land in an industrial society is not as important as it was when people lived in villages. 7 Family Organization and DisorganizationAccording to my reference, in Belgium, the population can be broadly divided into three linguistic groups. A majority are Flemings of Germanic stock who speaks dialect similar to Dutch. The Walloons, of Celtic antecedents, originally spoke dialect that differed markedly from Parisian French. These dialects have now nearly disappeared and have been replaced by a slightly belgicized version of French. Although in the countryside near mons (Bergen) and liege (luik) they still may be heard occasionally. The German speaking population of Belgium numbers less than 90,000 people.Yet because it is concentrated about Eupen and malmedy and near the boarder with luxem, bourg, it has been able to win language rights in those areas. Also in Belgium, the religion of both Flemish an d Walloons is Roman Catholic, but with markedly different attitudes. Many Walloons give roman doctrine a liberal interpretation and are not strict in their attendance at mass. In the Flemish areas of Belgium the churches are crowded. Roman Doctrine is strictly adhered to and seldom questioned, and the local clergy have considerable influence within their parishes.On a higher level the arch- bishop of Mechelin (Malines) enjoys universal respect and is one of the national leaders a portion of the salaries of the Roman Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, and Jewish clergy the protestant denomination in Belgium are not strong, although they have grown since World War II. 8 Culture and Custom The Flemish of Germanic bloods, and the Walloons, with the Latin ties, have been less than odds in cultural endeavors than the linguistic situation would seem to indicate. Belgium’s artistic output has coincided with the years of its greatest economic expansion for example, the Burgundian period. The 15th century was especially rich in painting, music, architecture, and literature. By the end of the 17th century, artistic production was nearly at a stand still. After 1830, with Belgian independence, a rebirth of the arts began and gathered momentum toward the close of the century. The 20th century has witnessed ever-increasing cultural activity. The traditions of Flemish school were carried on into the Italians. In the 17th century Peter Paul Pubens and his baroque school evaded a direct Italian influence. He painted religious and pagan scenes as well as landscapes and portraits. The 18th century showed little interest in painting.Romanticism in the 19th century was represented by Gustav Wappers, Louis Gallait and Hendrick Seys. An impressionist school produced Rik Wouters, who was a sculptor. In the 20th century, James Ensor, the father of Flemish expressionism, was very influential with his experimental forms. While Flanders produced the most outstanding works of painting, it was Walloons territory, Hainaut and Liege that produced the musical genius of the country. The musical contribution of Belgium to European culture is less well known than its painting but no less remarkable. The art of modern music was born on what is now Belgian soil.Because of the linguistic division of the country, Belgium has always possessed two literatures, French and Flemish. The Matter is further complicated by the fact that Flemings have, at times, written their works in French. The literature of this meeting ground of Germanic and Romance civilizations must be considered under its two divisions, French and Flemish 9 Conclusion Belgium is a constitutional monarchy in Western Europe. An independent nation since 1830. The labor there was only about 6 percent of their population is employed in agriculture, and there has been a continuing slow decrease in the number of farmers.Increments in the labor supply have generally occurred in the manufacturing industries. Most farme rs own their own land. Many find it necessary to supplement the income gained from their small acreage by taking part-time jobs in the towns. In the economic expansion of the first half of the 1960’s, employment in manufacturing went up approximately 12 percent, laborers from abroad especially Italy, have been attracted by these conditions, yet unemployment has continued to exist in the Borinage and West Flanders. Also in Belgium, income is also gained from Belgium’s transportation facilities.Although the rail system is the densest in Europe and successfully handles a high- volume freight and passenger service, as much or more freight is transported on the inland waterway system. Belgium’s educational system is highly developed despite the ill of two major controversies. The law established that it is the national government’s responsibility to see that satisfactory schools of all kinds are within reach of all children. 10 Table of contents pageAcknowled gement 1 History 2-3 Nature of marriage 4 Selection of marriage mates 5 Nature of the family 6 Basic function of the family 7 Changes in the family 8 References: http://vcampus. uom. ac. mu/soci1101/571marriage_partner_selection. html http://mycatholicweb. org/marriage/the-true-nature-of-marriage http://www. okanagan. bc. ca/Assets/Departments+(Education)/International+Students/Documents/ESL+Quiz. pdf Belgium Map 11 Belgium places 12 The Belgium Flag 14 13

Educational Disparity in India

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION â€Å"I have a heart full of dreams To emulate Lakshmi, my neighbour, Who merrily goes to school; To wear skirts in gorgeous colours; To become a Collector and travel in a car; But, alas, trapped in a heap of matchsticks I am still far from free! † Etymologically, the word education is derived from the Latin term educatio (â€Å"a breeding, a bringing up, a rearing), from educo (â€Å"I educate, I train†) which is related to the homonym educo (â€Å"I lead forth, I take out; I raise up, I erect†), from e-  (â€Å"from, out of†) and  duco  (â€Å"I lead, I conduct†).Education  in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any  experience  that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts. In its narrow, technical sense, education is the formal process by which society deliberat ely transmits accumulated knowledge, skills, customs and values from one generation to another, e. g. , instruction in schools. It means the development of character or mental powers by means of giving intellectual, moral and social instruction especially as a prolonged process.Indian society is characterized by its diversity be it in terms of religion, caste, region or language. This kind of diversity gives rise to people with very different kind of family backgrounds and demographic characteristics. Though diversity in any state is considered a healthy phenomenon but only when people of different caste, religion or region are provided with same kind of opportunities and growth prospects in terms of access to education, employment and other fundamental services. There should not be any kind of discrimination between individuals based on their caste, religion, region or sex.In this light, if we observe Indian society we find that, based on caste and ethnicity, it suffers from substa ntial inequalities in education, employment and income. If the inequalities are arising due to differences in level of efforts made by individuals of different backgrounds then it is morally acceptable but if inequalities are due to circumstances beyond the control of an individual such as caste, religion, region of birth, sex, ethnicity and so on, then it is deemed unethical and unacceptable and also calls for compensation in some form or other, from the society, to those who have suffered due to inferior circumstances.In the case of India this problem becomes much more relevant since historically the Indian society is severely divided into different caste, religion and other social group structures with several groups enjoying privileges more than other groups just because of their superior social status.So, as far as India is concerned, it is very important from the point of view of both academic interest as well as policy implication, to estimate the extent of inequality due to different circumstances of people as it will help in going to the root cause of prevailing income or wealth inequality, evaluating the age old government programs aimed at bringing equality in society, developing policies for bridging gaps between different sections of society and thus leading towards a state which is more just and equal. 1. 1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN INDIAMonastic orders of education under the supervision of a guru were a favoured form of education for the nobility in ancient India. The knowledge in these orders was often related to the tasks a section of the society had to perform. The priest class, the Brahmins, was imparted knowledge of religion, philosophy, and other ancillary branches while the warrior class, the Kshatriya, was trained in the various aspects of warfare. The business class, the Vaishya, was taught their trade and the working class of the Shudras was generally deprived of educational advantages.Secular Buddhist institutions cropped up alo ng with monasteries. These institutions imparted practical education, e. g. , medicine. A number of urban learning centers became increasingly visible from the period between 200 BCE to 400 CE. The important urban centers of learning were Taxila (in modern day Pakistan) and Nalanda, among others. These institutions systematically imparted knowledge and attracted a number of foreign students to study topics such as Buddhist literature, logic, grammar, etc.By the time of the visit of the Islamic scholar Alberuni (973–1048 CE), India already had a sophisticated system of mathematics. With the arrival of the British Raj in India the modern European education came to India. British Raj was reluctant to introduce mass education system as it was not their interest. The colonial educational policy was deliberately one of reducing indigenous culture and religion, an approach which became known as Macaulayism.With this, the whole education as well as government system went through chan ges. Educated people failed to get job because the language in which they got education had become redundant. The system soon became solidified in India as a number of primary, secondary, and tertiary centres for education cropped up during the colonial era. Between 1867 and 1941 the British increased the percentage of the population in Primary and Secondary Education from around 0. 6% of the population in 1867 to over 3. % of the population in 1941. However this was much lower than the equivalent figures for Europe where in 1911 between 8 and 18% of the population were in Primary and Secondary education. Additionally literacy was also improved. In 1901 the literacy rate in India was only about 5% though by Independence it was nearly 20%. Following independence in 1947, Maulana Azad, India's first education minister envisaged strong central government control over education throughout the country, with a uniform educational system.However, given the cultural and linguistic diversity of India, it was only the higher education dealing with science and technology that came under the jurisdiction of the central government. Hence the disparity existed and deepened. The government also held powers to make national policies for educational development and could regulate selected aspects of education throughout India. The central government of India formulated the National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1986 and also reinforced the Programme of Action (POA) in 1986.The government initiated several measures like the launching of DPEP (District Primary Education Programme) and SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, India's Initiative for Education for All) and setting up of Navodaya Vidyalaya and other selective schools in every district, advances in female education, inter-disciplinary research and establishment of open universities. India's NPE also contains the National System of Education, which ensures some uniformity while taking into account regional education needs. The NPE also stresses on higher spending on education, envisaging a budget of more than 6% of the Gross Domestic Product.While the need for wider reform in the primary and secondary sectors is recognized as an issue, the emphasis is also on the development of science and technology education infrastructure. CHAPTER 2 EDUCATION AND THE CONSTITUTION: SHAPING EACH OTHER Thinking about the interaction between the Constitution and education reveals that they are deeply interconnected, at profound levels of interdependence and complexity. Those connections are often strikingly visible, but are sometimes quite subtle. A fundamental interdependence was formed with the decision to formulate our governmental structure as a democratic republic.The Constitution created the necessity for adequate public education to prepare the citizenry to exercise the role of self-government. An educated voting public underpins a successful democratic structure, the importance of education to our democratic society. I t is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities. It is the very foundation of a responsible citizenship. Today it is the principal instrument for awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment.But it is not only our political system that is dependent upon a viable and successful educational system. Our economic system also proclaims its reliance upon well-trained and educated workers. And our social system rests on two largely accepted goals that each requires access to education – the â€Å"melting pot† which requires the successful absorption of diverse immigrant populations into a pluralistic social and cultural structure, and â€Å"upward mobility† which requires the permeability of class/caste barriers.Both goals are achieved substantially through the education system. 2. 1 LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK Article 45, of the Constitution of In dia originally stated: â€Å"The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. † This article was a directive principle of state policy within India, effectively meaning that t was within a set of rules that were meant to be followed in spirit and the government could not be held to court if the actual letter was not followed. However, the enforcement of this directive principle became a matter of debate since this principle held obvious emotive and practical value, and was legally the only directive principle within the Indian constitution to have a time limit.Following initiatives by the Supreme Court of India during the 1990s the Ninety-third Amendment Bill suggested three separate amendments to the Indian Constitution: * The constitution of India was amended to include a new article, 21A, which read: â€Å"The Stat e shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine. * Article 45 was proposed to be substituted by the article which read: â€Å"Provision for early childhood care and education to children below the age of six years: The State shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of sixteen years. † * Another article, 51A, was to additionally have the clause: â€Å"†¦ a parent or guardian [shall] provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, [a] ward between the age of six to fourteen years. The bill was passed unanimously in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, on November 28, 2001. It was later passed by the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, on May 14, 2002. After being signed by the President of India the Indian Constitution was amended formally for the eighty sixth time an d the bill came into effect. Since then those between the age of 6–14 have a fundamental right to education. * Article 46 of the Constitution of India holds that: The State shall promote, with special care, the education and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in particular of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of social exploitation. † Other provisions for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes can be found in Articles 330, 332, 335 and 338–342. Both the 5th and the 6th Schedules of the Constitution also make special provisions for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. CHAPTER 3 VIDYA, VEDA, AND VARNA The 1990s were good years for education in India.According to the 2001 Census, the literacy rate for men, over the entire decade, increased by 11. 8 (percentage) points and that for women by 15 points with the consequence that in 2000, 57% of India's (over 15) popula tion was literate, with a literacy rate of 68% among men and 45% among women. Many of the issues relating to literacy are reflected in school participation, defined as the initial enrolment of a child at school. The net enrolment rate of children, aged 6-14, at school varies across the states of India ranging from 99% for boys and 98% for girls in Kerala, to 91% and 84% in Tamil Nadu, to 69% and 56% in Madhya Pradesh.All-India school enrolment rates, for boys and for girls, vary considerably between the Hindu, Muslim and the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (hereafter collectively referred to as Dalits) communities: the enrolment rates for Hindu boys and girls are, respectively, 84% and 68% while for Muslim boys and girls they are 68% and 57% and for Dalit boys and girls they are 70% and 55%. In keeping more generally with recent research interest into issues of ethnicity and educational attainment in other societies the key question of inter-group differences in school enrolment rat e in India also needs further investigation.The raison d'etre is to examine whether, and to what extent, the enrolment of children at school in India are influenced by the norms, or other socio-economic characteristics, of the communities (Hindus, Muslims and Dalits) to which they belonged. There are two issues embedded in this study. The first is that inter-community differences between communities, in the school enrolment rates of their children, could be due to the fact that the communities differed in terms of their endowment of ‘enrolment-friendly' attributes. Call this the ‘attribute effect'.On the other hand, inter-community differences in enrolment rates could exist, even in the absence of inter-community differences in attribute endowments, simply because different communities, by virtue of differences in their norms, translated a given attribute endowment into different enrolment rates. Call this the ‘community effect'. The overall enrolment rate is, of c ourse, the outcome of both effects. The average probability of school enrolment is the sum of two (mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive) parts: one that is engendered by the ‘community’ effect and another whose antecedents are in the ‘attribute’ effect.The equation for the likelihood of being enrolled at school is separate for boys and for girls and, in each of the case, the variables differ as to whether the children are Hindu, Muslim or Dalit. Thus, the econometric estimates take cognisance of differences between the children both with respect to their gender and their religion or caste. The econometric estimates are based on unit record data from a survey of 33,000 rural households – encompassing 195,000 individuals – which were spread over 1,765 villages, in 195 districts, in 16 states of India.In many communities there is no tradition of sending children to school; more importantly, these traditions co-exist with well recognised and established social norms that condone child labour and accept out of-school children. Given that ‘the child is the father of the man’, children who do (or do not) go to school will, with a high degree of probability, grow up to be literate (or illiterate) adults. In turn, the life chances of an adult, and his or her children, will be greatly affected by whether or not he or she is literate.Consequently, if one is concerned with inter-community differences in economic and social outcomes, one should, as a corollary, be concerned with inter-community differences in rates of school enrolment. The determining variables used to specify the equations for the likelihood of boys and of girls being enrolled at school, were grouped as follows: 1. The communities to which the children belonged: Hindu, Muslim or Dalit. The respondents to the Survey were distinguished along caste lines as: Dalits (Scheduled Caste/Tribe) and non-Dalits. They were separately distinguished by reli gion as: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc.Consequently, membership of the two categories, caste and religion, could overlap: Dalits could be Hindu, Muslim or Christian and, say, Hindus could either be Dalits or non-Dalits. In this study, the two categories of caste and religion were rendered mutually exclusive by defining Hindus, Muslims, Christians (and persons of ‘other’ religions) as persons professing the relevant faith but who were not Dalits. No distinction was made by religion within Dalits though, parenthetically, it might be noted that over 90% of them gave their religion as Hindu.Because of the small number of Christians and persons of ‘other’ religions in the Survey, the analysis reported in this paper was confined to Hindus, Muslims and Dalits. 2. The regions in which the children lived: North; South; Centre; East; West. The Central region comprised Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh; the South comprised Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, K erala and Tamil Nadu; the West comprised Maharashtra and Gujarat; the East comprised Assam, Bengal and Orissa; and the North comprised Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. 3. The educational levels of the mothers and fathers of the children.These were classified as: illiterate; low, if the person was literate but had not completed primary school; medium, if the person was educated to primary level or above but had not passed the school-leaving examination (the matriculation examination, abbreviated, in India, to matric) administered at the end of ten years of schooling; high, if the person was educated to matric level or above. 4. The occupations of the fathers and the mothers. The mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive occupational categories were: cultivator, labourer, non-manual workers, and ‘unoccupied'. . Personal and household variables such as an index of the value of productive assets. 6. Village level variables relating to the general level of development of the village and, in particular, the provision of schools within the village. In terms of educational infrastructure, only 11% of the children in the sample lived in villages which did not have a primary school, though 50% lived in villages without anganwadi schools, and 30% lived in villages without a middle school within a distance of 2 kilometres.Of the children in the sample, 77% of boys and 64% of girls were enrolled at school. However, underlying the aggregate figures, there was considerable variation in enrolment rates by: region; community; parental occupation; and parental literacy status. In terms of region, enrolment rates were lowest in the Central region and highest in the South, the West and the North. However, in every region, except the South, enrolment rates for Hindu boys and girls were considerably higher than those for their Muslim and Dalit counterparts.In terms, of parental literacy, enrolment rates for children (both boys and girls) were substantially higher fo r children with literate parents relative to children whose parents were illiterate. When both parents were illiterate the gap between the enrolment rate of Hindu children, on the one hand, and Muslim and Dalit children, on the other, was considerable; however, when both parents were literate, the intercommunity gap in enrolment rates was almost non-existent. Lastly, in terms of ccupation, children whose fathers were labourers had the lowest rate of enrolment and children with fathers in non-manual occupations had the highest enrolment rate. These show that, with a handful of exceptions, the means of the factors were significantly different between the groups. In particular, a significantly larger proportion of Hindu children had parents who were both literate – and a significantly smaller proportion of Hindu children had parents who were both illiterate – compared to Muslim and Dalit children.In addition, a significantly higher proportion of Hindu children had fathers who were cultivators and a significantly higher proportion of Dalit children had fathers who were labourers: over half the Hindu children, in the relevant age-group, had fathers who were cultivators while, in contrast, well over one-third of Dalit children had fathers who were labourers. One reason that enrolment rates differed by community is that the distribution of the ‘enrolment-determining factors’ – region, parental occupation and literacy, availability of educational facilities – were unequally distributed between the communities.The other is that there were significant inter-community differences in ‘attitudes’ to education, both with respect to children in their entirety and with respect to boys and girls separately. 3. 1 The ‘Community Effect’: Religion and Caste as Influences on School Participation The NCAER Survey provides qualitative information on the reasons that parents gave for not enrolling their children at sc hool. Factors like ‘school too far’ or ‘school dysfunctional’ (‘demand-side’) did not play an significant role in non-enrolment; nor did their incidence vary across the communities.The incidence of demand-side factors – whereby family financial constraints or the fact that a child was engaged in non-school activity involving work either within or outside the home – was particularly marked for Dalit children: 34% of Dalit parents, compared with 29% of Hindu and 22% of Muslim parents, gave this as their reason for non-enrolment. These inter-group differences in the mean values of the ‘demand-side' reasons were significantly different between the communities.Another significant difference between Hindus and Dalits on the one hand and Muslims on the other, was in terms of the percentage of children who were not enrolled at school because their parents did not think education was important. This was 16% for Hindus and 17% for Dal its, but, at 23%, significantly higher for Muslims. The fact that some proportion of religious and caste groups consider education ‘unimportant’ suggests that Muslim religious and Dalit caste norms might matter for school participation.But, there are also several other explanations that might account for the lower enrolment figures for Muslims and Dalits which need to be located within the historical context of educational policy in India towards minorities. 3. 1. 1. Muslim Education in India In recent times the question of Muslims educational backwardness has been an important element of political and social rhetoric in India. Although Muslims are not alone in reflecting educational backwardness yet recent statistic shows they are one of the most backward communities in the field of education and literacy in the country.This fact is, no doubt, astonishing for those who know that the very first declaration of the Qur’an- ‘IQRA’ (to read) is about â⠂¬Ëœeducation’. And the Prophet of Islam, Mohammad (pbuh) termed education as basic obligation for every individual – male and female, the very first time in the history of mankind, in 610 (AD). However, this write-up endeavours to locate the educational problems of the post colonial Muslims in India and invites sincere review by the present academia to help practical enforcement of all educational plans to get Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) mission a success story by 2010.An important cause that may well affect Muslim education is the role of religious institutions and, in particular, the local clergy. It is conventionally argued that the status of women in Islam implies that Muslim parents may invest less in the human capital of their daughters than of their sons. Muslim parents may also be reluctant to send their children to government funded schools owing to the existence of alternatives in community based schooling (in the form of madrasas) and most particularly on a ccount of the lack of Urdu and Arabic language teaching in the formal system.Islam first came to India as early as 650 AD with the Arab traders, but it was only under Mughal rule, between the 12th and 17th centuries, that education was encouraged. The very first madrasa in India was established in 1781 by Warren Hastings and was called the ‘Calcutta Madrasah College for Muhammedans’. Madrasas were greatly encouraged under colonial rule in the 18th century and, in the second half of the 19th century, they were set up all over India by the Deobandis – a group of Muslims who were trained in the most orthodox madrasa in India, Darul-uloom in Deoband, founded in 1866.It was in this phase of their expansion that madrasas were funded primarily by individual contributions rather than by princely patronage and when they developed a formal institutional structure similar to western educational institutions, including their own presses for publishing in Urdu. In post-indepe ndence India, madrasas were allowed to be set up in India under Articles 30(1) and 30(2), which allows all minorities to establish educational institutions, and which also protects the property of minority educational institutions.In the 1990s, many madrasas have been set up, largely through funds from the Middle East, on the western coast of India and in the border regions of north-eastern India. Today, madrasas mainly teach the principles of the Islamic religion, including an elementary level of the reading of the Qur’an. The Indian government has tried at various times to encourage some madrasas to combine religious education with ‘modern’ subjects such as mathematics.For example, a programme was launched to modernise education in the madrasas in 1993, and some prominent madrasas such as the Darul-uloom in Deoband introduced reforms into their curriculum as a consequence. The Jamia Mohammadia Mansura in Malegaon, Maharashtra is reputed for its teaching of medi cal science, and the Darul-uloom Nadwar-ul-ulema in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh even teaches the English language and English literature as core subjects. However, although in some states such as Karnataka and Kerala, madrasas are a useful complement to the formal schooling sector, such efforts have not, in general, been successful.Urdu (which is spoken in only 3 countries of the world – India, Pakistan and Mauritius) is widely regarded by Muslims in India as ‘their' language. However, in post-independence India, Urdu was not given the status of a ‘modern Indian language’, despite the fact that a substantial proportion of Muslims and non-Muslims particularly in northern India use it as their primary language of communication; in schools Sanskrit was taught as the preferred alternative in the three-language (Hindi-English-Sanskrit) formula.This has had important implications for Muslim education in India particularly as it has tied the issue of education-provisio n with considerations of religious and political identity, and cultural autonomy. 3. 1. 2. Dalit Education in India In their analysis of school enrolment, Dreze and Kingdon found that Dalit children had what they term an ‘intrinsic disadvantage’ – they had a lower probability of going to school, even after controlling for other non-caste factors such as household wealth, parents’ education etc. Dalits – who, generally speaking, constitute the ‘untouchables’ of India comprise, approximately, 17. % of India’s population. Although, the practice of ‘untouchability’ is illegal in India, the reality of life is very different. Often, Dalits live in segregated colonies on the outskirts of villages, usually in the southern fringes because that is where the Hindu god of death, Yama, is supposed to dwell. Dalits are not allowed to use common crematoria. Sharecropping, a dominant form of agriculture in most parts of India is not common among Dalit households due to the concepts of ‘ritual purity’ observed by those within the caste system.More significantly, the practice of untouchability cuts right across religious boundaries, and is observed in day to day interactions not only by Hindus, but by Muslims, Christians, and other religious groups in India as well. Studies of education and caste in India show that the Dalits are less likely to send children to school. Acharya and Acharya [1995] report that the differences between Dalits and non-Dalits in dropout rates are very large: the dropout rates for Dalits are 17% higher than for others in Classes I-V, and 13% greater for those in Class I-VIII.The historical origins of inequality in the access to education by caste lie in colonial policy towards education. After 1835, education policy in the sub-continent was altered considerably by Macaulay’s Minute on Education which changed the dominant language of the curriculum to English, giving rise to what Nehru cynically termed an ‘education for clerks’. Western education both resulted in greater social prestige for the upper castes and greater inequality between castes.The success of the non-Brahmin movement in southern India meant that this inequality was addressed there by positive discrimination in favour of the non- Brahmins, in education and in jobs; however, this was not the case in other parts of India. The influence of religion and caste on school enrolment encompasses both sociological factors such as the role of cultural norms, and historical influences such as colonial and post-colonial policy towards education in India. Collectively, these non-economic factors might exert an important role on current schooling decisions, even after controlling for the economic factors that affect them.CHAPTER 4 THE RURAL AND URBAN DIVIDE India is a vast country with a large population of about 121 crores. About 70 per cent of the people live in villages. They ar e engaged in agriculture or small cottage industries. Though there has been rapid expansion of facilities for education in the urban areas, the rural areas have remained neglected to a great extent. The main reason for such lopsided expansion has been the attitude of our rulers. As in other matters, the urban vocal population has in this matter as well been able to get the lion’s share.Many Universities, Colleges and institutions of higher learning have been established in big urban centres and cosmopolitan cities. The villages and small towns have had to be contented with primary, middle and high schools, with certain exceptions of Intermediate Colleges and a few degree Colleges. The villages have not got their due share in the facilities for education. Education has been a state subject, i. e. , a responsibility of the state governments in their respective jurisdictions. Expansion of education required huge sums of money.The State governments with their limited resources ha ve not been  able to allocate as much funds to education as they should have done. Rich agriculturists could afford to send their wards to cities for education. The rest of the poor and non-vocal motions of the population suffered. The nature of agriculture is ill loch that all the members of a farmer’s family have to work in the fields. Thus the children of farmers start helping their parents in agricultural operations. This is a great hindrance to the expansion of education in the rural areas.If an analysis is attempted, it will show that the illiterates in the rural areas far outnumber their counterparts in the cities. Further break-up would show that not only adults but even children in the age-group 5—15 in the villages do not avail themselves of the facilities for education, available in their neighbourhood. It is not that there are no schools in the villages. Schools are there, but they are not in adequate numbers. Children have to go a long distance to attend schools. These schools are not as well equipped as the schools in urban localities. There are very few school buildings.Classes are generally held either under a shed a tree or in the open. The low-paid teachers of these schools do not pay enough attention to their students. The illiterate parents are not very enthusiastic about the education of their children. Many children in the villages do not go to school at all. The parents of even such children, as are enrolled in the school, pay little attention to their education. They appear to be convinced of the futility of the schooling of their children. They rather engage their children as helpers in the agricultural operations, which they consider better utilisation of their time and energy.Not only children, but a majority of adult men and women in the rural areas are illiterate. This is one reason of their being negligent towards their children’s education. To them there appears no better future for their children even if t hey take education. The large scale unemployment is another factor responsible for their indifference to their children’s education. Lack of enthusiasm in the village people for the education of their children is due to several other reasons. First of all most of them are themselves uneducated.Secondly, the gains of education have not reached the villages. Villagers are conservative in outlook. They do not like sending daughters to schools abridging their practices. So far as their sons are concerned,  they do not find any direct correlation between their education and future progress. Very little attention is being paid to the education of adults in villages. There is no doubt that a little education or even literacy will generate much confidence among the rural adults, who would find it useful in their occupation as well as in general life.It would be interesting to note that the objective of providing free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14 coul d not be achieved because of inadequate resources for school buildings and teachers, non-realisation by parents of the beneficial value of education, and poverty. The pool of illiterates and drop-outs grows wider each year, even as governmental efforts are being reinforced. Two-thirds of the non-enrolled children consist of girls. A vast majority of non-enrolled children are again from weaker sections of the community, like Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes, Muslims and landless agricultural labourers.Such children constitute the hard core of the problem. They do not attend school, and even if they do, they drop out soon after joining school. | RURAL-URBAN disparities, particularly in post-colonial India, have for long been one of the causes of concern for the policymakers. The disparities are seen in all spheres of human life – economic and non-economic. The extent of disparities, however, differ from region to region. The long colonial rule in India had created an urban-ru ral divide.What causes great concern now-a-days is the sharp increase in the level of disparities after a few decades of planning, especially because planning was conceived as an instrument to narrow down rural-urban disparities. Rural India encompasses a little less than three-fourths of the country's population and is characterised by low income levels, poor quality of life and a weak base of human development. Nearly one-third of the national income comes from villages, but there is a significant rural-urban divide especially when it comes to education.Agriculture is the mainstay of most post-colonial countries. It supports roughly two-thirds of the workforce. But the lion's share of India's national resources is directed to the non-agricultural sector. This is the primary reason why a vast Indian rural population has been left uneducated or with lowest levels of education. The inability of the government to address issues such as gender bias is also an important factor which has brought about educational disparity The agricultural sector has been growing at less than half the pace of the other sectors.During the Seventh Plan, agriculture and allied sectors grew at a rate of 3. 4 per cent, while the national economy grew at 6 per cent. In 1997-98, there was a negative growth of 2 per cent in the agricultural sector, although the national economy grew by 5 per cent. The slower rate of growth of agriculture has serious implications for the rural-urban relationship. In an article in  Alternative Economic Survey, Kripa Shankar has shown that it results in the further widening of the divide, as the following data relating to agricultural and non-agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) at 1980-81 prices indicate.The GDP per agricultural worker was Rs. 2,442. 49 in 1950-51, followed by Rs. 3,196 in 1970-71 and Rs. 3,627 in 1995-96. The GDP per non-agricultural worker rose sharply from Rs. 4, 469. 63 in 1950-51 to Rs. 9,179 in 1970-71 and to Rs. 16,715. 08 in 1 995-96. There has been a further steep rise after the Central government accepted the Structural Adjustment Programme. While the GDP per agricultural worker rose from Rs. 3,544. 98 in 1990-91 to Rs. 3,627 in 1995-96, the per non-agricultural worker rise was from Rs. 14,660 to Rs. 16,715. 08 during the same period.The data tend to show that the ratio between the agricultural output per farm worker and the average output per non-farm worker, which was 1:1. 83 in 1950-51, rose to 1:4. 6 in 1995-96. The introduction of the policy of liberalisation has affected non-farm employment in rural areas. In 1997-98, the annual increase in non-farm employment in rural areas was 4. 06 per cent. In 1983-84 it was 3. 28 per cent. During 1999-2000 it came down to 2. 14 per cent. The consequence has been a very slow reduction in rural poverty. In 1993-94 it was 39. 6 per cent, in 1999-2000 the figure came down marginally to 36. 35 per cent. According to one estimate, the average income of an urban dwe ller is four times higher than that of a rural dweller. Rural deprivation becomes crystal clear if we look at the data on rural India's contribution to the GDP and what the rural areas get back. Rural contribution is 27 per cent but the return is 5 per cent. As a result of the decrease in the actual value of the income from agriculture, inflation being one governing factor, the rural population is unable to afford and finance the education of their family members.Besides, the large family demands have to be met by curtailing expenses on some front. In this kind of a case most of the expenses are curtailed in the educational front. The Human Development Report of India (1999) attempted to divide the rural and urban house-hold on the basis of their incomes as shown in the table. The income status is reflected in the per capita consumption expenditure. In 1999-2000 the per capita per month consumption expenditure on the rural areas was Rs. 486. 08 and in the case of urban areas it was Rs. 854. 96, according to HDR 2002.If we look at the poverty data, a similar situation is noticed. India, a developing economy of over a billion people, recorded a relatively high economic growth during 1980-2000, especially during the 1990s, a decade known for noteworthy structural economic reforms. This period also recorded a decline in the incidence of poverty and improvement in parameters of human development such as levels of literacy, health and nutrition conditions. Development policies focussed on enhanced and targeted public investments in programmes that facilitated improvements in the quality of life of the masses, but the isparity remains. The disparities in the social development sector are mind-boggling. Rural adult illiteracy is a matter of alarming concern. In 2001, the urban literacy rate was 80. 06 per cent but the rural literacy rate was 59. 21 per cent. Thus, the difference in rural – urban areas in terms of percentage points is 20. 85. Data released by th e Planning Commission show that among illiterate people aged 60 years and above, 78. 2 per cent live in rural areas. In urban areas the figure is 48. 2 per cent. Of the illiterate people who are 15 years and above but not beyond 60 years, rural areas have 55. per cent and the urban areas 25. 1 per cent. Of the school-going children in the age group of 5-14 years, 82. 4 per cent live in urban areas. The rural figure is 63. 3 per cent. Kerala has been able to bring this disparity down quite considerably – 93. 2 per cent in villages and 94. 3 per cent in urban areas. Policymakers are of late talking about the introduction of technology to improve the quality of life of the people by enhancing education. The bias of the state in favour of urban areas is evident from the per capita expenditure on basic services.According to the estimate of the Eleventh Finance Commission, per capita expenditure on basic services in rural areas during 1997-98 was Rs. 24, but in urban areas it was R s. 49. Rural India contributes 27 per cent to the GDP, but gets back only 5 per cent, which is less than one-fifth of its contribution. While the share of expenditure on urban poverty alleviation programmes in the total budgetary allocation by the Central government declined from 1 per cent to 0. 8 per cent during the period between 1990-91 and 2000-01, the per capita expenditure for urban poor increased from Rs. 11 to Rs. 8 during the same period. But for the rural poor, the per capita expenditure it is just one-eighth of this. In a post-colonial capitalist country like India, uneven rural-urban development or rural-urban disparity is not unusual. While it is almost impossible to bring it to an end, it is possible to reduce the disparity to a tolerable level. It may be recalled that Gandhi emphasised on rural growth and pleaded for village swaraj. He wanted the engine of India's development to start rolling down from the villages. But it became clear from the discussions in the Con stituent Assembly that it would not happen. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar characterised villages as â€Å"a sink of localism, ignorance and communalism†. Nehru felt that villages were culturally backward and no progress could be made from such places. Urban bias was clearly reflected in the attitude of the policymakers. This seems to be continuing unabated. Apart from taking steps to increase human development facilities in the villages, such as health and appropriate infrastructure such as roads and marketing facilities, there is the need for generating employment, which can better the living conditions of villagers and thereby enable them to finance education seeking process.We need to adopt a long-term policy, keeping in mind the requirements of the rural and urban areas. A close look at the development plan exercises tends to demonstrate that ad hocism permeates the policy processes. CHAPTER 5 GENDER DISPARITY IN EDUCATION There is little denying the fact that investing in human capi tal is one of the most effective means of reducing poverty and encouraging sustainable development. Yet, women in developing countries usually receive less education than men. More so, women in general enjoy far less employment opportunities than men.Any claims and efforts then, to remove poverty and make women independent, can show results only if they address the issue of gender inequality in education. In recent decades, there have been large gains, no doubt on comparable levels, in basic rights and opportunities, in life expectancy and enrolment ratios for women. But despite these gains, the stark reality has not changed. There still are large gender disparities in basic human rights, resources, and economic opportunity, and in political rights. So until India is able to address this issue of gender inequality and resolve it, the vicious cycle of poverty will continue to pervade.This is because poverty leads to and aggravates gender discrimination – it is in the poorer se ctions and nations that instances of gender biases and inequality are more evident. Women and girls are at the bottom of the social, economic and political ladder. Access to the means to influence the development process is a rare and a difficult possibility. And yet, by the same logic, gender discrimination hinders development. So while denial of basic rights (be it education, employment or health care for women) is detrimental to women, this denial, ultimately also harms the society, the nation at large too, by hampering development.Clearly, the gender gap in education that are widespread, is an impediment to development. The only solution to this is gender equality, which strengthens a country’s ability to grow, to reduce poverty and provide its people – men, women and children – a better life. Just because gender inequality is inextricably linked to societal norms, religion or cultural traditions, it should not be either a deterrent or an excuse to gender se nsitive development planning. India represents a picture of contrasts when it comes to education and employment opportunities for girls.Cultural, social and economic factors still prevent girls from getting education opportunities so the question of equality is still a mirage. However, the rural and the urban areas present a contrast. In the rural areas the girl child is made to perform household and agricultural chores. This is one of the many factors limiting girls’ education. Cleaning the house, preparing the food, looking after their siblings, the elderly and the sick, grazing the cattle and collecting firewood are some of the key tasks they have to perform.Households are therefore reluctant to spare them for schooling. Physical safety of the girls, especially when they have to travel a long distance to school and fear of sexual harassment are other reasons that impede girls' education. In the urban areas, however, there is a discernible difference in the opportunities th at girls get for education and employment. Though the figures for girls would still be low as compared to boys, what is heartening to see is that whenever given the opportunity, girls have excelled more than boys.For instance, in the Central Board of Secondary Examinations for grades 10 and 12, which are at an All India level, girls have for over a decade now, bagged all the top positions and secured a higher over all percentage compared to boys. In employment opportunities too, women in India today have stormed all male bastions. Be it piloting aircraft, heading multi-national corporations, holding top bureaucratic positions, leading industrial houses, making a mark as photographers, filmmakers, chefs, engineers and even as train and lorry drivers, women have made it to all hitherto considered male bastions in India.However, this is not reason enough for cheer. For the number of girls and women who have been left out of education and employment opportunities, still far outweighs th ose who have got them. And what needs to change this scenario, is not just governmental efforts but a change in societal norms, in cultural and traditional biases and in general mindsets of people. And in this the media, the civil society, and the youth, the women and girls have a lot to contribute. CHAPTER 6 GOVERNMENT SCHEMES FOR PROMOTING EDUCATION . 1 The Growth of Centrally Directed Projects The national policies of 1968 and 1986 were developed through processes led by the Government’s Ministry of Education and subsequently its Ministry of Human Resource Development and involving widespread consultation at the state level. While the centre always contributed funding to the states through the planning commission process and annual incremental plan allocations, implementation responsibility lay squarely with the state authorities until 1976.From 1977, implementation responsibility lay jointly de jure with the state and the centre and through the 1980s and the 1990s central government became gradually to play a much more directive role in programmes for primary, through the modality of projects. Up to the 1980s there had been little or no foreign involvement in the planning and funding of programmes in basic education. But from the 1980s, and some years before the production of the 1986 national policy on education, a small number of foreign funded projects, designed to improve access to and the quality of primary education, were initiated in various states.These would become the forerunners of the more expansive District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of the 1990s and the country-wide Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme of the 2000s. 6. 1. 1 The Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project One of the first projects was the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project (APPEP) started in 1984 through a programme funded jointly by the Government of India, the UK government and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh. Starting in eleven districts and 328 pr imary schools the project was planned to reach all 48,000 schools in the state.A large scale construction programme designed to increase access to schooling was accompanied by a comprehensive human resource development programme for teachers, teacher educators and education administrators, the provision of materials to support activity-based learning and professional support for teachers on a continuous basis through teacher centres. 6. 1. 2 The Shiksha Karmi Project In the state of Rajasthan, the Shiksha Karmi Project (SKP) commenced in 1987 through a collaboration between the Governments of India and Sweden and the Government of Rajasthan.Literacy rates were lower than in Andhra Pradesh, especially among girls and women, and the SKP sought to counter teacher absenteeism in remote schools, increase enrolment, especially among girls, and reduce dropout. An innovative strategy was the substitution of frequently absent primary school teachers by a two resident Shiksha Karmis (educatio nal workers). This approach was inspired by a small scale project run and funded locally during the 1970s by an NGO, the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC), in which three experimental primary schools were run by village youth trained as they worked as teachers.Between 1978 and 1986 the experimental programme was expanded gradually to new sites with support from SWRC and other NGOs and the government of Rajasthan. The success of the small scale projects prompted the desire to expand the Shiksha Karmi idea on a larger scale. In 1987 foreign involvement and funding was formalised through an agreement for a ‘six-year’ joint venture between the governments of India and Sweden. 6. 1. 3 The Lok Jumbish Project Shortly afterwards, in 1988, the first draft of an even more ambitious project in the same state – the Lok Jumbish (People’s Movement) Project – was drafted.With three core components – the quality of learning, community involvement and t he management of education – it sought to transform the mainstream system in Rajasthan by building from it and interacting with it. Involving a politically radical strategy and complex design, the leaders of LJ saw it as ‘developer, demonstrator, catalyst and transformer of the mainstream education system from the outside’ (Lok Jumbish Joint Assessment, 1993). Many of its ideas were drawn from SKP and its predecessors, and, like SKP, it attracted financial support from the Government of Sweden, but on a much larger scale.Like the large scale Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project before it LJ was another example of a three way relationship between the central government, the state government and a foreign agency. LJ gave substance to the 1992 National Policy of Education’s declaration that the Government of India: will, in addition to undertaking programmes in the Central sector, assist the State Governments for the development of programmes of national importance where coordinated action on the part of the States and the Centre is called for.LJ also gave substance to the framework evolved in 1991 by the Central Advisory Board of Education for the availing of external assistance for basic education projects (Lok Jumbish Joint Assessment, 1993:74-76). In the case of LJ however, the partnership involved a fourth agency – the Lok Jumbish Parishad (LJP) – a non-governmental agency based in Jaipur, Rajasthan that worked alongside the state government. Indeed, were it not for the work and drive of those who established LJP, the Lok Jumbish project would probably never have materialised, nor would some radical elements of the programme have emerged.LJ had three major components – community involvement, the quality of learning and the management of education. The component envisaged for improvements in the quality of learning was not especially radical, even if it posed implementation challenges. It involved the traini ng of teachers and teacher educators, a curriculum and pedagogy reform led by the framework of minimum learning levels (MLL), and a system for professional support.The Programme for Community Mobilisation was more radical and involved the mobilisation of the community through public debate, the sharing of information and knowledge to create informed decisions and village household surveys to establish the numbers of children not attending schools and the reasons for non-attendance. Mobilisation involved the establishment in the village of a core group who became an activating agency for the village, the involvement of women’s groups in education decision-making and the involvement of male and female adults in the design of school buildings, construction and maintenance. . 1. 4 The District Primary Education Programme Already by the early 1990s the government had decided to launch the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) across seven states with support from a range of foreign donors. From an educational planning perspective DPEP represented a shift from removing supply side constraints to a greater focus on quality improvement. In 1994 DPEP was launched in the 42 mostly educationally disadvantaged districts in seven states.The DPEP strategy was drawn in tune with the national objectives of universal access, retention and achievement of minimum levels of educational attainment with a focus on girls and children belonging to socially deprived and economically backward sections of the society. Besides the achievement of the quantitative and qualitative targets within the stipulated period, the major thrust of the DPEP is to promote the decentralised management with active involvement of stakeholders that will have a considerable impact on the sustainability of the project beyond its life cycle.A senior administrator recalled the growing political will for basic education around this time. In contrast to some other sectors, education, and in particul ar universal elementary education (UEE) enjoyed consensus with respect to its value and to its need for financial investment. Since the early 1990s there has been a sustained approach from parties of all political hues in their support for UEE and the states themselves ‘have been trying to outdo each other’ (interview with the author). Barring some issues of governance in one or two states there has been a clear shift in the level of support for UEE.Political relations between the centre and the state are generally good, reinforcing an underlying push for reforms in UEE. Rarely are there any discordant views about how to move forward on the ‘easy’ elements of provisioning e. g. infrastructure. Discord revolves around how fast or slow state governments proceed (interview with the author). Evaluations of the impact of DPEP on a range of education performance indicators suggest that disparities in enrolment and retention were reduced the most in those district s with the lowest female literacy levels. In all 42 districts the percentage increase in female enrolment was 12. %. In the districts with very low female literacy rates the gain was 13. 2% and in districts with low female literacy rates it was 16. 2%. Positive change in the share of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe enrolment to total enrolment was also highest in those districts with the lowest female literacy rates. These enrolment gains were accompanied by reductions in the pupil:teacher ratio, in the pupil:classroom ratio and in repetition rates. While the centre promoted the DPEP programme, states also continued to innovate and to launch major programmes designed to support improvements in access to education.One example was the Midday Meal Programme for children in the lower primary grades introduced in Karnataka in 1995. The programme involved a dry ration of three kilograms of rice per month for each child enrolled in the school. The idea grew out of a huge grain surplus that was going to waste. Although the surplus did not continue, the scheme, once introduced, would continue. Inspired in part by a popular midday meal programme in the state of Tamil Nadu some 25 years earlier, the Karnataka scheme would become a central government initiative in 2004. Dry rations were replaced by a cooked meal and central government funding of 1. rupees per child per day were matched by 0. 5 rupees by the states. In principle the fund covered cooking costs, fuel, pulses and vegetables, salt and masala. In 2008 the programme was extended to the upper primary grades country-wide. Some 120 million children were fed on a daily basis in one million schools. Analysis of evidence generated from the PROBE survey conducted in the Northern states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the late 1990s indicated the positive impact of midday meal programmes on school participation in rural areas, especially among girls (Dreze and Kingdon, 2001). 6. 1. 5 Sarva S hiksha AbhiyanThe generally positive perception among many stakeholders of the results of DPEP across seven states led on to an even larger nationwide programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Translated from Hindi as ‘education for all movement’, SSA describes itself on its official website as: An effort to universalise elementary education by community-ownership of the school system. It is a response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country. The SSA programme is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode.In terms of the international discourse, SSA is the Government of India’s main programme for the delivery of Millennium Development Goal 2, the achievement of universal primary education by 2015. In terms of the national discourse it gives substance to the 2002 constitutional amendment on elementary education as a fundame ntal right. Its aim is to universalise by 2010 an improved quality of education for all children in India aged between the ages of 6 and 14 (Ward, forthcoming). Interestingly SSA’s self-description on the web employs the concept of ‘political will’.It describes itself as ‘an expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country’. SSA has certainly enjoyed ‘will’ and push from the centre. A senior bureaucrat commented that since SSA was a centrally sponsored scheme, the centre was pushing it very strongly. But political will and ownership at the level of the state is also important. The source of funding is key to will and ownership at state level. During the time of earlier DPEP the centre funded 85% of expenditure and the states 15%. SSA has introduced a tapering formula such that by the end of 2011/12 the ratio should be 50-50.SSA is further described as: * A programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education. * A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country. * An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education. * An effort at effectively involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools. A partnership between the Central, state and the local government. * An opportunity for states to develop their own vision of elementary education. In 2001 its performance targets (on the website described as objectives) were defined ambitiously as: * All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, ‘Back-to- * School' camp by 2003; All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007 * All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010 Focus on element ary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life * Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010 * Universal retention by 2010 The Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) referred to in the first target was introduced originally in 1977 under the title of the Non Formal Education Scheme. That scheme enjoyed only limited success and was re-launched in 2000 (GoI, 2002:29).Its aim was to provide further coverage in small habitations with no schools within a one kilometre radius. The current scheme targets out-of-school children in the 6-14 age group and uses strategies such as bridge courses, back-to-school camps, seasonal hostels, summer camps, mobile teachers and remedial coaching. For the last several years, many of these EGS centres have been upgraded to the full status of primary schools, but concerns remain about the quality of education which they offer as well as their long-term sustainability. 6. 1. 6 The Right to Education BillThe most significant change in national policy on access to elementary education in recent years was the Right to Education Bill. Although a number of states have had compulsory education acts on their statues for many years, some from before independence, these acts had not been formulated in a way that rendered them ‘justiciable’ i. e. no-one could be prosecuted if those rights were not met. In 1992, the Indian government signed the International Convention of the Rights of the Child. An important legislative spur came in 1993 when the Supreme Court ruled in the Unnikrishnan vs.State of Andhra Pradesh [1993 (1) SCC 645]. The Supreme Court ruled that Article 45 of the Constitution which asserted the obligation of the state to provide free and compulsory education up to age of 14 sh