Education, Careers & Professional News
Centre Stops Grants To `One-Teacher Schools’
Funds used to create hatred
NEW DELHI: The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has stopped grants to `Ekal Vidyalayas` (one-teacher schools) run by the Friends of Tribal Society (FTS) in tribal belts of the country in collaboration with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
This follows a study which revealed that the FTS was misusing these funds, and using the grants for creating disharmony amongst religious groups and creating a political cadre.
Since 1999-2000, the FTS was being provided assistance for its One Teacher Schools` project better known as Ekal Vidyalayas under the Innovative & Experimental Education component of the Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative & Innovative Education.
Acting on complaints that Government funds were being used to support institutions some of which masqueraded as non-governmental organisations that promote perverted ideologies, the UPA Government ordered an enquiry into the functioning of the FTS soon after it took office last year.
Pending enquiry, the Government did not release grants to the FTS in the last fiscal and now that the report has come in the Ministry has decided to stop funding completely.
As per funding details available for last three fiscals, the FTS in West Bengal got a grant of Rs. 49.97 lakhs in 2002-03, and three units of the organisation West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand were allocated a total of Rs. 1.04 crores in 2003-04. While the West Bengal unit got one of the largest allocations under the scheme in 2002-03, the FTS cornered nearly half the amount sanctioned across the country the following year.
Funds diverted
According to the enquiry committee, funds sanctioned by not only the HRD Ministry but also the Ministries of Rural Development, Tribal Welfare, Science and Technology and Women & Child Development were being diverted to generate hatred toward minorities, and condition the minds of children. As a case in point, the report cited the use of `Jai Shri Ram` as response to roll call in the classroom, and use of Hindu Gods to teach the English alphabet.
The committee visited Singhbum district in Jharkhand, and Tinsukhia and Dibrugarh districts of Assam, and found that the FTS worked under numerous names and identities. Besides trying to condition minds, the committee found that names of many students “enrolled“ in the Ekal Vidyalaya registers were copied from government-run schools. Neither was reading and learning material provided to students despite specific allocations to the FTS. And, where they were provided, it was through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and not the FTS.
Acknowledging the role of non-formal education for universalisation of elementary education, the committee called for a review of the schemes to support such endeavours. It recommended that alternative schooling be allowed only in places without formal schools. Also, noting that the FTS and the Bharatiya Janata Party got foreign funds in the name of tribal education, the committee suggested that these sources of funding, too, be put under the scanner as they were being used for a divisive agenda.