Incentive for Marginalized Girls in Secondary Education: A Case Study of NSIGSE Scheme in India

• In Event: Gender issues in secondary school transition, participation and learning outcomes

Abstract

Incentive for Marginalized Girls in Secondary Education:
A Case Study of NSIGSE Scheme in India


Education is the pre-eminent device for the socio-economic, political and cultural transformation. At all times society from different social backgrounds has been interested to undergo the avenues of knowledge. The trials of making Indian women literate, seems to be an impeccable and uphill task as girls representing the socially challenged sections – landless agricultural labourers and un-lettered masses, could not send their girls to schools due to obvious reasons. This paper focuses on the innovative scheme offered to the girls belonging to the underprivileged sections by the government of India – National Scheme of Incentive for Girls in Secondary Education (NSIGSE), for accessing, enhancing and retaining all secondary school-going girls to successfully complete schooling and to make a better future. The paper analyzes systematically the scheme and its impact and impression on the school life of girls in the secondary and higher secondary classes, leading into making some impressive hallmarks in the annals of education of girls in India.
The objective of this paper is to analyze and understand how far this incentive scheme, National Scheme of Incentive for Girls in secondary Education (NSIGSE) benefits monetarily, such as the amount of the incentive as it is given only once in a life term to girls conditioning that they have to pass Class X examination and also to attain eighteen years of age. Attention will be given to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe girls, who are considered to be the disadvantaged sections of the society, who have been benefited through this scheme, and also how far this incentive helps them in getting academic excellence in education. A close look on the performance of the students, who have been awarded the incentive hopefully will reverberate the schemes well. The study envisages the perspectives of students, heads of the institutions, including teachers, where the students involvement and achievement is found to be more important than any other factor and that perpetuates among the poor children to propel themselves towards reaching the goal of scoring more and also enrolling themselves for higher education, and even to the level of reaching the highest degrees of research.
Field Survey became a significant research method to collect, receive and understand information personally by visiting schools, meeting the officers, heads of institutions, teachers and girl students, who all had a very important role in assessing the experience of the girls, parents and institutions after the implementation of NSIGSE at the institution level. The field work, which has been carried out in eight states of India – Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal exemplifies the process of the implementation of the scheme. These states have been selected so as to cover all the regions of the country – North, South, East, West, Central and North-East. This selection of states points out some of the strong and impinging experiences that the girls belonging to SC, ST and Backward families, have been undergoing tremendous problems and find it difficult to complete the secondary and senior secondary education as proper help and guidance are not given to them.
The objective of the NSIGSE scheme, which has been implemented effectively, has reduced the drop-out rate in Secondary and Senior/Higher Secondary Schools. Education in India, particularly girl’s education, has become a vital and most essential part of the progress and development, when the State brings new innovative programmes for helping those girls who are helpless without adequate and essential support at home and school, and it is inevitable the fact that only through education Indian women can be progressed. The strongly sympathizing attitude of the people with the State on this ‘affirmative action’ guaranteed that the students also realize and believe in the equity and democratization of equal opportunities initiated by the State machineries and its implementation as well as implications. The underprivileged sections of our society, which have been passing through under tremendous implications of inability and infringements to send their girls for schooling will get a boast up through this scholarship and also their children will be benefitted by getting proper systematic education from the childhood, so that it will make some indelible imprints in the annals of Indian education.

Dr. Panduranga Satyanarayana Raju Vetukuri
Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Finance
National University of Educational Planning and Administration
17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016
INDIA

E-mail: vetukuripsraju@gmail.com, vpsraju@nuepa.org
Mob: 91-9871239700

Author

• Panduranga S.R. Vetukuri, National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India