Regional Disparity in Educational Development in Murshidabad District, West Bengal
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RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary 2021; 6(1):140-147 Original Article https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2021.v06.i01.028 Double Blind Peer Reviewed Journal https://www.rrjournals.com/ Regional Disparity in Educational Development in Murshidabad District, West Bengal Ananta Halder*1, Lusika Datta2 & Paramita Santra3 *1Assistant Professor, Bijoy Krishna Girls’ College, Howrah, West Bengal 2Research Scholar, Diamond Harbour Women’s University, West Bengal, India 3Student of B.Ed. Programme, Bijoy Krishna Girls’ College, Howrah, West Bengal ABSTRACT Article Publication Education plays an important role in the development of the country and the quality Published Online: 17-Jan-2021 of life of the people. But the regional disparity in educational facilities hinders the development of a nation. There are many districts in West Bengal where regional *Author's Correspondence disparities in educational development are noticeable. The objectives of this study are to understand the block wise literacy status, to explore the distribution pattern of Ananta Halder educational facilities and to find out the pattern of regional disparities in educational Assistant Professor, Bijoy Krishna Girls’ development in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The entire study is based on College, Howrah, West Bengal secondary data, collected from District Census Handbook (DCHB) of Murshidabad (2011) and District Statistical Handbook (DSHB) of Murshidabad district, 2014. anantateaching[at]gmail.com Fifteen indicators have been selected to depict the educational development. To fulfill the objectives of the study authors used quantitative techniques namely, Mean, © 2021 The Authors. Published by Standard deviation, Standard (Z) score and Composite mean Z-score. This study Research Review Journals analyzed the level of disparity among 26 blocks of Murshidabad district by dividing into four levels of development. The study reveals that the blocks namely Bharatpur- This is an open access article under the CC I, Farakka, Samserganj, Bhagawangola-II, Suti-I and Suti-II fall in low literacy status. BY-NC-ND license Nabagram, Bharatpur-II, Burwan, Khargram and Berhampore have got high score in (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- educational facilities. In respect to literacy status, educational facilities and nc-nd/4.0/) educational development Suti-I and Suti-II blocks are in low level development whereas Nabagram and Berhampore blocks secured higher level of development. Regional inequality in education in Murshidabad district can be noticed due to least number of primary schools, unequal teacher student ratio, not well facilitate schools and also responsible for government indifference. So there is a need to reduce the disparities among the blocks of the district in respect of educational facilities, educational development by proper government attention and growing awareness in the low educational developed blocks. The finding of this study will help the policy makers to take decision to remove the regional disparity in educational development. Keywords: Regional Disparity, Educational Inequality, Literacy status, Educational development 1. Introduction Education is a valuable resource for every human being. Education can afford the basic needs of human life and effects on the improvement of the country. According to Mahatma Gandhi, “by education, I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man body, mind and spirit". He also opined each and every person should be educated otherwise the country will remain in back foot. So, after independence it is shown that emphasis is given in elementary education and it became a fundamental right of the people. As a result government of India has undertaken some initiatives to spread free and compulsory education for all children. But till now inequality in education is there in the regions of the country. This inequality hinders overall development of a region. Regional disparity is defined as differences between economic performance and welfare between countries or region (OECD 2002- 140 Research Review International Journal of Multidisciplinary Vol-6 | No-1 | Jan-2021 03). Regional inequalities in education hinder socio-political, cultural, technological development of India. As a result India is lagging behind from the developed countries in global development competition. Due to the regional disparities in most of the Indian states, India is still known around the world as under developing country. So, people should get aware on disparity in development and focus on quantity & quality of educational facilities. Factors like School types (Govt. vs. Private), Location (rural vs. urban) and population group (privileged vs. marginalised ethnic group) enhance disparity in education (Bhatta, 2008). Providing sufficient educational facilities in primary education for backward region people is a challenging task to the authorities (Kundu, 2012). Efforts of developmental programmes should not give benefit to society by excluding some areas or groups (Handa, 2014). Micro level regional planning is needed to giving better facilities to the backward and least developed blocks (Hoque & Hashmi, 2020). Therefore, reducing regional inequality by increasing management and public awareness in education should be introduced. 2. Statement of the problem Murshidabad district is one of the backward districts in the state of West Bengal. Education Index is an important index of Human Development Indicators (HDI). According to West Bengal HDI report, 2004 Murshidabad district ranked 16th among the seventeen districts of the state. Due to large number of illiterate people and backward communities in Murshidabad district, most of the people in the district are unaware of the benefits of education, so they do not encourage their children to study. As the district is also economically underdeveloped, boys are being taught to earn money without being educated and girls are being forced to be engaged in biri industry or facing marriage, which enhances the number of school dropouts. Several blocks of Murshidabad district such as, Suti-II, Samsergang, Bhangwangola-I, Farraka etc. are facing various international border related problems and the rate of development of education is very low. Due to lack of proper government action in these underdeveloped areas, few blocks are lagging behind from other developed areas which are creating regional inequality in education in entire Murshidabad district. The Kandi block and its adjoining blocks included in the district have been flooded several times in the last decade, leading to natural disasters and possibility of future disasters, which causes economic disruption in the district and damages government property such as schools, colleges and hospitals and the property of the resident. There is no general university in this district. So, students have to suffer to achieve higher education and sometimes they leave the educational platform. 3. Objective The main intension of the study is to analyse the regional disparity in the study area. The study put forward following objectives- 1. To understand the literacy status of different blocks of Murshidabad district. 2. To explore the disparity of education facilities in Murshidabad district. 3. To find out regional disparity in educational development of Murshidabad district. 4. Study Area Murshidabad district has been selected for study the regional disparity in educational development. Murshidabad district is located in the middle part of the state West Bengal. According to Census 2011, the district of Murshidabad has total area of 5,324 sq. km and the total population of the district is 7.103 million. The district has been divided into 5 subdivisions and 26 Blocks for administrative purposes. The overall literacy rate of the district is 62.59%. According to 2011 census the district has average literacy rate 67.53%, male literacy rate is 69.95%, and female literacy rate is 63.09%. There are 1886 inhabited villages but have only 1584 sishu siksha kendras (DSHB 2014). In the district 4107 general recognized schools and 25 degree colleges but no general university (DSHB 2014). Table 1: Sub-division wise distribution of blocks Block Sub-Division Name Number DOMKAL Raninagar-I, Raninagar-II, Jalangi, Domkal 4 LALBAGH Lalgola, Bhagawangola-I, Bhagawangola-II, Murshidabad-Jiaganj, Nabagram 5 KANDI Khargram, Kandi, Burwan, Bharatpur-I, Bharatpur-II 5 SADAR Beldanga I, Beldanga II, Baharampur, Hariharpara, Nowda 5 Farakka, Raghunathganj-I, Raghunathganj-II, Sagardighi, Samsherganj, Suti-I, JANGIPUR 7 Suti-II Source: Prepared by researchers based on DSHB, 2014 141 Research Review International Journal of Multidisciplinary Vol-6 | No-1 | Jan-2021 5. Database and Methodology 5.1. Nature of the Study: Descriptive research method has been used in the present study. 5.2. Source of the Data: The present study is based on secondary data, collected from District Census Handbook (DCHB) of Murshidabad (2011) and District Statistical Handbook (DSHB) of Murshidabad district, 2014. 5.3. Description of the indicators/variables: Literacy status and educational facilities are two important factors that depict the educational development of a region. After determining the factors, the researchers have selected 15 indicators (X1-X15). These indicators have been grouped into 2 categories. These are- (i) Indicators of Literacy Status (LS): X1 Percentage of total literate to total population, X2 Percentage of Male literate to male population,