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Educational Backwardness
The
National Policy on Education, 1986 (as modified
in 1992) says that, “(T)he country has
reached a stage in its economic and technological
development when a major effort must be made
to derive the maximum benefits from the assets
already created and to ensure that the fruits
of change reached all sections. Education is
the highway to that goal”. It also said
that the purpose of education is to provide
equal opportunity to all not only in access,
but also in the conditions for success. The
Sachhar Committee notes (p. 143): “More
than 1000 Muslim-concentration villages in West
Bengal and Bihar do not have any educational
institutions; in Uttar Pradesh, this figure
is 1943. The situation is worse in small villages.
The proportion of Muslim Concentration villages
(in all three size classes) with educational
facilities is lower than the total proportion
of villages that have such facilities. This
is particularly so in the case of smaller villages
where the differential is alarmingly high. This
indicates that Muslim concentration villages,
especially smaller ones, lack access to educational
institutions.
Literacy
The
literacy rate of the Muslims shown in the available
data seems to be misleading. It has been found
that who can read his religious book or a part
of it generally claims to be literate. The Sachhar
Committee Report clearly reasserts the findings
of the national Literacy Mission—1994,
that external evaluations indicate that many
so-called literates did not have the ability
to apply their reading and writing skills to
real-life situations, and often a substantial
proportion reverted to illiteracy within 4-5
years after leaving school. This aspect is not
taken into account by the Census definition.
At present, literacy rate in the country is
65%, 75.355 among males and 53.75 in females.
Literacy rate is also higher in urban areas
(79.9%) and 58.7% in rural areas. The low literacy
level of Muslims and SCs/STs is well documented
in research studies. This is shown in the following
data provided by the Sachhar Committee on page
54
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The
Mean Years of Schooling (MYS) of Muslims is
the lowest (about three years four months).
A comparison across socio-religious communities
regions both by gender and by place of residence
also reveal consistently lower levels of MYS
for the Muslim community. The MYS of Muslim
children is only 83% that of the MYS of all
children and the disparity is highest in the
case of rural boys (MYS of Muslims is only 78%
that of rural children), closely followed by
rural girls. It is interesting to observe that
the differential is higher among boys than among
girls even with regards to urban children. The
poor performance of children is also observed
in almost all the states, particularly in West
Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. In these two states,
the NYS among Muslim children is the lowest
among all socio-religious communities. The MYS
of Muslim children is lower than that of ‘all
Others’ in almost all states except Chhatisgarh.
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