22 August, 2006

My dear Arjun Singhji,

Your Ministry has issued an advertisement in the national press on 20 August, 2006 in which  inter alia it says:

“SSA programme covers all children in the 6-14 age group studying in over 9.50 lakh schools and alternative education centres.”

I think the claim that all children are studying in schools and alternative educational centres in questionable.  Anyone can see, even in urban areas, children  of this age group 6-14 engaging in many activities other than school studies.

NGO’s have estimated that only 60% of the children of this age group are attending schools, even if all the para-schools and schools without teachers are counted.

Perhaps the terms ‘alternative education centres’ needs to be clarified.  What are they?  Are they recognized by the State educational authorities as schools equivalent to normal primary, middle and high schools?

On behalf of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat we once again request you to conduct an All India Survey, to begin with, only in respect of age group 6-10 and publish the data, block/Municipality and Panchayat/Mahalla-wise, their population, number of primary schools required according to national norms, and the number of government primary schools which actually exist, even on paper.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

 (SYED SHAHABUDDIN)

Shri Arjun Singh,

Minister of Human Resource Development,

Government of India,

301, C-Wing, Shastri Bhawan,

New Delhi – 110 001.