Change In Education Status In Kachchh District –Post Earthquake

Abstract

Kachchh is the second largest district in the country with areas about 45692 square km out of which about 23320 square km is Rann (Desert) area. It forms part of the northwest –region of Gujarat State, representing 23.27% area of the State.During the earthquake a total of 13,823 deaths were recorded. About 18000 people were injured and 3,10,657 houses were fully destroyed. In selected areas during the earthquake a total number of 6101 deaths were recorded in the district. About 24.50% children who had not completed even one year of age died in the disaster.It was noted that literacy rate has grown slowly. In pre earthquake the effective literacy rate (adult literacy rate) was 80.69% which increased to 82.73% after the earthquake.Inrural areas effective literacy rate was 68.78 which increased to 72.79. Urban literacy rate has improved from 93.35 to 94.19. Due to better education facilities being available in urban areas, more literate persons are reported there than in the rural areas. In rural areas the problem of drop out is one of the major problems. The percentage of families with high drop out of school children is about 70%. Economic reason plays a very important role in determining the dropout rates .In selected areas the index value of education was 0.778 pre earthquake. It increased to 0.800 after the earthquake. During the field work it was found that the Vidya Sahayaks are not qualified and efficient teachers, so even-though there has been a quantitative increase in education, qualitative education has not increased in rural areas in Kachchh. Vidya Sahayaks are often transferred from one place to another after short periods of stay at one school. It affects quality of education. In urban areas 10% improvement is observed in higher education due to establishment of Kachchh University