Representative file image | Photo Credit: AM Farooqui
The mention of Chitrakoot district in Bundelkhand evokes images of poverty and drought, but last month, it was one of two districts to receive praise for implementing Samagra Shiksha, the education ministry’s push for holistic education for school A plan baby. Chitrakoot emerged as one of the two best districts among the nearly 1,200 applications received across categories for the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration.
Abhishek Anand (32), a 2014 batch IAS officer and current District Magistrate (DM) of Chitrakoot, said Hindu That a team of 900 government officials had worked hard over the last one year to give a massive facelift to the government schools in Chitrakoot.
“As a result, enrollment in 1,256 government schools for classes 1 to 8 has increased by 10% from 1.48 lakh in March 2022 to 1.61 lakh in March 2023. What is more heartening is that 60% of the increased pool were girl students,” he said .
When Mr. Anand joined his new posting as DM of Chitrakoot last year, he worked on parameters such as infrastructure, introduction of smart classes, drop-out tapping, inclusive education for people with disabilities and involving the local community in the process. Started focusing on school up gradation through medium.
Around Rs 87 crore was spent on mission mode, apart from the budget of 380 schools, to build toilets and ensure they have clean water. Drinking water coolers were also installed. Shri Anand informed that the school boundary walls were secured in 480 schools and electricity connections for fans and light bulbs were ensured in 110 schools.
In his earlier stint as Bareilly’s Municipal Commissioner, Mr. Anand had worked on setting up 80 smart classrooms, an experience that came in handy in Chitrakoot. Out of 1,256 schools, 280 schools were equipped with smart classrooms that have TVs and projectors with pre-loaded content and learning materials, as internet connectivity is sometimes poor and streaming of content can be slow. Another ₹5 crore was spent on SmartClass.
The results of this facelift have been encouraging. The walls were painted in bright colours, a children’s library was equipped with a multitude of books, indoor games like carrom boards and hula-hoop rings, projectors and TVs ensured that children learned in an interactive way.
“SmartClasses are a game changer in the way students receive education. Animations, quizzes and map viewing help students understand the material better, so much so that schools with SmartClasses have seen higher enrollments and children are more likely to attend schools were so attached that they did not want to go back home,” Mr Anand said.
Noting that children of seasonal migrants used to drop out of school, he organized the concept of Maa Samuh Or mothers’ meetings where teachers and principals would meet migrant parents every fortnight to encourage them to re-enrol their children. “2,700 children who had dropped out of school have joined back,” he said.
Holistic Education Focusing on inclusive education, Mr Anand said he identified 67 children with disabilities, including those with cerebral palsy, and allotted 13 special teachers to visit their homes to take classes.
He said that by July, the district is targeting to upgrade 550 additional schools with SmartClass, which will cover 75% of the schools. “NITI Aayog is providing funds for this upgradation for 150 schools, while for the rest we are getting CSR funds from Shiv Nagar Foundation, ICICI Foundation and Sampark Foundation,” he added.
District authorities initially faced opposition from panchayats and gram pradhans or village heads when they proposed the upgrade. “Putting money into schools meant they would not get a chance to spend it elsewhere and there was a lot of resistance initially. But we showed them pictures of good schools and conducted workshops to ensure participation.”
Another major challenge was dealing with teacher absenteeism, as the distance between schools in Bundelkhand was huge and teacher attendance was an issue. “We have set up a control room at the district headquarters and will call fifty random phone numbers for teachers every day to verify whether the teachers are present in the allotted schools or not. We will take punitive action if the teacher remains absent without notice. This led to compliance,” he explained.