Problem of Tribal Education: Issues & Challenges

Abstract

Tribes have a diverse way of living with a distinct traditional pattern. Maximum numbers of tribal communities lived in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh Bihar Orissa (Gonds, Dhuriya, Nayak, Tharu, Shariya, Baiga, Panika, Agaria, Bhotia etc) They live a despondent life without enough possessions and have a lot of issues and problem such as economic problem, literacy, unemployment, housing problem etc., a lot of informative problem are faced by tribal communities. Hence government is trying his best to resolve all these problems with the implementation of new schemes & Problems. This study concentrations on the made by government schemes for upliftment of the tribes and deliberates the major challenges to solve the educational problem.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

New researches are always required to be conducted continuously to identify the areas of rural development and credit for rural scheme where improvements are needed. India is a developing country, where majority of the population resides in rural areas and for the rural development, poverty reduction needs to be the focus of all development programs. The basic cause of the problem of poverty has been the found to be the economic dependence and lack of access to the credit. Poor have been considered to be non-bankable. They are deprived of the basic financial services in the lack of saving and collaterals to be offered to the finance provider. Consequently, the poor have to depend upon the informal channels of finance like private moneylenders who generally, exploit them in the name of financial help and often, lead to lifetime indebtedness among the borrowers. Education has emerged as a major intervention aimed at poverty reduction. Access to financial services-savings, credit, insurance, money transfer-is one element of human development. In this Study education is defined as a developmental concept which provides access to the so far un-served strata of the Tribal population. That is why it is very important to have integrated approach of education to solve such difficulties which can ensure gradual growth & development in Socio-economic status of Tribal population in the Study.

The present study attempts to highlight some important aspects like government schemes on socio economic status, expenditure, self-employment opportunity, empowerment to the people and reduced economic dependency. On the other hand, microfinance increases investment and productive capacity in the production and development of small and medium scale enterprises. The present study is expected to make an important contribution in the field of economic development by filling the gap in literature on the subject at the State level. Persons of different religious communities, caste and tribes live in this vast and miscellaneousIndia.

About 8.06% of the total population in India are people of indigenous race of tribe. According to the 2011 census 8.72 % of the country in scheduled tribes of these, 4.12 % are men and 3.83 million are women. Male literacy is 68.20 % and female literacy is 47.70 %. We know that education is a whole person development designed to inculcate knowledge skills and attitude necessary to empower individuals to cope efficiently with their environment. However in a highly competitive world the quality of performance has become the basis factor for personal and social progress and it is generally measured by achievement. The current study was carried out among tribal.  As tribes are underprivileged and troubled communities in India. They live in isolation and backward therefore they have to face many problems and issue in their life.

These problems are following

1. Socio Economic Problem: Generally,  we  can  find  the  conditions  of  tribal  communities  in  most  of  the  countries including India are very distressful. People / population of schedule tribe don’t have a proper source of income. They are  unable  to  fulfill their  basic  needs  like  food,  proper  clothes  and enough shelter. The condition of these tribes is poor so they can’t afford a good school for their  children  and  they  complied  to  send  them  to  work  as  child  labour  so they  could  earn some  money  for  their  livelihood.  Vijay lakshmi  2003  identified  the  problems  of  tribal students.  some  factors  like  most  of the tribal children  were engaged in  crucial  family  were like cattle gazing, labour on work sites, collecting firewood and other minor forest products, stone quarrying, mining and home based work such as processing forest products.
2. Illiteracy: The world's largest tribal population resides in India. Tribals make up about 8.6 percent of the total population of the nation. They rank among the most marginalized people in the nation. According to the Census of 2011, only 59 percent of STs were literate. According to a Parliamentary Committee this week, despite government initiatives to encourage education among Scheduled Tribes (STs), their literacy rates relative to the national average have remained low.
3. Indebtedness: They must rely on money Landers since indigenous regions lack proper banking infrastructure. Because of their limited and inefficient land holdings, which result in lower crop yields, they have a long-standing debt to these moneylenders.
4. Unemployment: The tribes primarily live in the hills and forests. Tribes are jobless since there are no industry or employment prospects. They make a living through secondary sources of income include husbandry, farming, poultry, weaving on a handloom, and artisan work.
5. Housing Problem: Every person needs a home to shelter them from the effects of the seasons and other threats. The tribes struggle to maintain cleanliness and a healthy environment because they live in one- and two-room huts, lack houses made of bricks made from tree leaves, roots, and branches, are not protected from seasonal temperature changes, and share their living space with farm animals such as cattle.
6. Drinking Water Problem: The usual supply of drinking water is not available to scheduled tribes. They exist by utilising the water that is gathered in little ditches. Their health is endangered by this.
7. Nutritional Problem: Due to an unbalanced diet, tribal people also experience this issue; they are susceptible to diseases caused by vitamin deficiencies, such as night blindness.
8. Transport Problem: Numerous settlements are still not connected to the network of existing roads due to insufficient road infrastructure.
9. Exploitation: Big farmers, non-tribal businesspeople, and land speculators do take advantage of the tribal. Debt is virtually always present, persistent, and nearly unavoidable. Even though it arises in the context of an economic transaction, the exploitation of debtors by creditors is a common example of a social problem. For scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, being in debt becomes a permanent condition that is even passed down from father to son. Economic causes and widespread exploitation are to blame for the predicament. (Government of India report, 1967, p.no. 75)
10. Educational Problem: Scheduled tribes are a distinct target group under the current planning model since they are the legally weaker segment of society. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of ST children at the elementary levels of education has increased significantly as a result of the government's determined efforts at the central and state levels, even more than that of their nontribal counterparts. For example, the (GER) of ST children at the primary stage is 137 as opposed to 116 of their non-tribal counterparts. The comparable numbers for the Upper Primary level are 88.9 compared to 85.5, and for the Elementary stage, they are 119.7 compared to 104.3. (Statistics for School Education 2010-2011). As a result, these kids' involvement is now about proportional to their population share at the elementary school level. Dropouts, though declining over years, are significantly large at this level: the dropout rate of ST children at primary school level is 35.6% as against 27% of their non-tribal counterparts.
11. Negative Parental Attitude: Given that the tribe's literacy percentage is lower than that of the broader population. Tribal parents often lack formal schooling and have poor educational backgrounds. They do not wish to enrol their girl child in a coeducational school because there is no support in their town for students to continue their education. When Jayawal et al. (2003) looked at how parental support affected tribal students' academic ability, they discovered that parents with better incomes gave their kids noticeably more help. On the other hand, parents of underachievers did not have a strong desire for their kids to advance in society.
12. Basic Amenities in School: Most schools in indigenous regions don’t have basic amenities like bathrooms, running water, electricity, or large enough classrooms for effective instruction. The study on the issue of tribal pupils in secondary schools was carried out by Vijayalaxmi in 2003. The study's findings show that the infrastructure and non-meal programmes at residential schools are highly subpar.
13. Communication Problem: Children from the tribe cannot understand the official or regional language used by the teacher in the school. They can only communicate in their own tongue. They believe the instructor is speaking a foreign language.the appointment of non  tribal techers in tribal schools is common in india, according to Gautham, V. 2003, who concentrated his research on the education of tribal children. The teacher struggled to grasp the children's language, and the pupils struggled to understand the teacher in the other direction.
14. Government laws for Upliftment: Tribes are quite adrift in terms of technology and education. The state and federal governments have a specific duty to support the scheduled tribes.

Article 46 of the Indian Constitution states that the state must support the weaker groups of the population, especially STs and SCs, and must shield them from social injustice and other forms of exploitation.

According to article  154 (4) the states must provide particular provisions for the advancement of any socially and educationally underprivileged class of citizen , such as STs and SCs. Dissimilar language writing and culture are provided in article 29(1). For ST, it is more significant. Untouchability is completely prohibited by article 17 and is a crime if committed in any way.

According to article 350 (A) every state and local government must make an effort to provide students with suitable facilities for instruction in their mother tongue during the primary stage of education.

According to Article 350(A), every state and local authority within the state shall make reasonable efforts to provide suitable facilities for instruction in the mother language to the children who belong to the minority group at the primary stage of education.

 In the national policy of education from 1986, it was acknowledged that tribal peoples were unquestionably far behind the general population in schooling.

II. CURRENT CHALLENGING ISSUES FOR TRIBAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

In the area of tribal education in India, there are a number of difficult problems that are emerging.

A. Bad Economic Context

Tribal people in India rely on agriculture or other traditional economic pursuits for a living. They make less money from these jobs, which prevents them from providing a suitable education for their kids. They don't take their kids to school in this condition; instead, they send them to pay jobs.

B. Isolation (Interior Inhabitation)

The tribal people of India live in remote hills and forested areas without access to modern amenities.To go to the schools, they must travel a great distance. It results in absenteeism, dropout, and also their refusal to enroll in school.

C. Teaching Medium

The teaching language in schools is either English or a regional language. The tribal people speak a unique dialect that prevents their children from understanding what is taught in schools. The educational level of indigenous children is being lowered by this phenomenon.

D. The Parents' Attitude

The tribal population is uneducated, illiterate, and unaware of the importance of education. They just focus on making sure their family survives. They believe that if their kids had to work, it would be better. This is the rationale behind why tribal parents send their kids to labour rather than education.

E. Problem Related To Teachers

Teachers must travel from far-off urban areas because tribal settlements lack adequate lodging options. This inconvenience will cause students to skip or be absent from class. Students will be disconnected from the school as a result.

Teachers may not be fluent in the indigenous tongue, but they do instruct in formal languages. As a result, the value of tribal education is reduced by the hiring of unqualified outside teachers.

F. Suggestion for Ongoing Problem

There are many critical issues and problems in the field of tribal education. There are following suggestion for improvement of in this field. Proper awareness campaign should be organized to create the awareness about the importance of education. Extensive literacy campaign in tribal dominated districts may be undertaken on a priority basis to literate the tribal. The attitude of the tribal parents towards education should be improved through counseling and guidance. All study material should be supplied in local languages of tribes. It is suggested to appoint more tribal teachers and female teachers in the tribal areas. The ecological, cultural, psychological features of tribal children should be consider carefully by the teachers in tribal areas. Since higher education among the tribes is less, special ST scholarships should be provided to the tribal students perusing higher education, particularly in medical, engineering and other vocational streams.  More residential schools should be established in each states and districts and extended up to PG level in tribal areas.

Government also try to established social security of students , especially of adolescent girls is of great concern in residential schools and higher level officials should check the functioning of schools frequently relating to the teaching methods , working hours and attendance registers. Parents and children are should be provided motivational programme by experts in various fields. The value of education should teach to tribal parents.

Conclusion

The secret to tribal development is education. Children from tribal groups participate relatively little. Despite the fact that the tribes are developing in India, the rate of growth has been relatively sluggish. If the government doesn’t use some severe measures to promote tribal development we’ll tell a story about education and how it fares among the tribes. Of suffering, hopelessness, and death, It is now appropriate to consider it. Seriously about inclusive growth and aboriginal education. So, various government measures are urgently needed, to address this issue, planners and policy makers should greater money for tribal programmes in the federal and state budgets education. So now is the moment to give inclusive growth and tribal education some serious thought. Therefore, it is vital for thinkers, planners, and decision-makers to work to address the issue and allocate more money from the federal and state budgets for tribal education. To include indigenous youth in the main stream of economic development, more possibilities and simple access should be provided.

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Copyright © 2023 Dr. Ashish Kant Chaudhari. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.