The mention of Chitrakoot district in Bundelkhand conjures up images of poverty and drought, but last month, it was one of the two districts to receive accolades for implementing Samagra Shiksha, a scheme floated by the Ministry of Education with an emphasis on holistic education for school children. Chitrakoot stood out as one of the two best districts from nearly 1,200 applications received across categories for the Prime Minister’s Excellence Awards in Public Administration.
Abhishek Anand (32), an IAS officer of the 2014 batch and the current District Magistrate (DM) of Chitrakoot told The Hindu that a team of 900 government officials had worked extremely hard over the past year to give Chitrakoot’s government schools a massive facelift.
“As a result, enrolment in 1,256 government schools for Class 1 to 8 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 Chitrakoot’s DM last year, he started focussing on school upgradation through parameters like infrastructure, the introduction of smart classes, tapping drop-outs, inclusive education for people with disabilities and involving local community in the process.
Nearly ₹87 crore was spent on Mission Mode, over and above budget for 380 schools, to construct toilets and make sure they have clean running water. Drinking water coolers were also installed. School boundary walls were secured in 480 schools and electrical connection for fans and light bulbs was ensured in 110 schools, Mr. Anand listed.
In his earlier stint as the Municipal Commissioner of Bareilly, Mr. Anand had worked on installing 80 smart classrooms, an experience that came in handy in Chitrakoot. Of the 1,256 schools, 280 schools were equipped with smart classes that had TVs and projectors with pre-loaded content and learning material, as Internet connectivity is sometimes poor and streaming of content can be slow. Another ₹5 crore was spent on smartclasses.
The results of this facelift have been heartening. Walls were painted in bright colours, a children’s library was equipped with a multitude of books, indoor games like carrom board and hula-hoop rings, projectors and TVs ensured that children learn in an interactive way.
“Smartclasses are a major change in the way students receive education. Seeing animations, quizzes and maps help students grasp content better, so much so that schools with smartclasses saw more enrolment and kids were so attached to schools that they did not want to go back home,” Mr. Anand said.
Noticing that children of seasonal migrants used to drop out of school, he organised the concept of Maa Samuh or Mothers’ Meetings where teachers and principals would meet the migrant parents every fortnight to encourage them to re-enroll their children. “2,700 children who had dropped out, joined back,” he said.
With Samagra Shiksha focussing on inclusive education, Mr. Anand said they identified 67 children who had disabilities, including cerebral palsy, and allotted 13 special educators to go to their homes to take classes.
By July, the district is aiming to upgrade 550 additional schools with smartclasses, which will cover 75% of the schools, he said. “While NITI Aayog is funding this upgradation for 150 schools, we are getting CSR funds from Shiv Nagar Foundation, ICICI Foundation and Sampark Foundation for the rest,” he added.
The district officials initially faced a lot of resistance from Panchayats and Gram Pradhans or village heads when they proposed upgradation. “Putting funds in schools meant they would not get to spend it elsewhere and initially there was a lot of resistance. But we showed them photos of good schools, and held workshops to ensure participation,” he said.
Another big challenge was tackling teacher absenteeism, as the distance between schools in Bundelkhand was large and teacher attendance was an issue. “We set up a control room in district headquarters and would call fifty randomised phone numbers for teachers every day to verify if the teachers are present in allotted schools. If teachers were absent without information, then we would take penal action. This led to compliance,” he explained.
