Education in Sikkim Estelarshodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/69112/6...different districts...

CHAPTER- 4

Education in Sikkim

“The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization

pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian”

William Gilmore Simms

In the context of early education in Sikkim, different modes of educational

developments took place in the kingdom. The process was started with cultural

education than social and institutionalized education through religious temples and it

ended with the modern formal institutionalized education centres called school.

However, once Sikkim was exposed to external world there was a need for speedy

adaptation of modern education system to provide basic knowledge of outside world

and to know how to face the new and diverse challenges.

4.1 Development of Education System in Sikkim in early days

Sikkim, a small kingdom fails to emphasis in the field of education, and

manages to develop the urban centres in the early days. The three different ethnic

groups of people (Lepcha, Bhutia and Nepali) with un-common religion have their

own language, while the royal families of the Kingdom were from Tibetan race so

Tibetan was the general language in the very early day of Sikkim. Latter on, when the

Nepalese settlers began to overshadow the local population of Bhutia and the Lepchas

the Nepali language began to be widely spoken1. Family plays an important role to

develop the behaviour and the responsibilities of the children in the society. Thus,

family was the focal point of nearly all educational endeavours in Sikkim. The elder

member of the family lead the children in various works in the house like, in rearing

cattle and growing crops for gaining practical experience. By doing this the children

and the adolescents knew the roots, fruits, plants, and animals. This way they were

preparing themselves for the further life understanding fully about coping with the

prevailing situation and crisis, adjusting to environment, making distinction between

good and bad or between harmful and useful things. The next educational institution

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in early days of human life is society. Like any other place in the world, Sikkim was

also influence by the behaviour of the society.

The three different ethnic groups of Sikkim follow three different languages

for communication. With the establishment of a settled Government by the three

Lamas in present Yoksam (West Sikkim)2 a new age with a new language deepened

its roots in Sikkim and the language was Tibetan. So from there onwards the Tibetan

language was the main language and letter on it has been converted to Bhutia which is

used by the present Bhutia community of Sikkim. When the Nepalese community

increased in Kingdom due to migration from Nepal, than the Nepali, local language of

Nepalese people has became the main language of Sikkim, and still today the Nepali

language is the lingua franca of Sikkim3. In this way Sikkim witnessed the

development of education in small kingdom in both the manner of formal and the

informal education. Establishment of monasteries encouraged the formal education in

Sikkim for the first time. While in Sikkim there were three groups of habitation with

three different religions, so it was not possible for those who were not from the

Buddhist religion to join the formal education, because the monastic institutional

learning centres provided education in a religious way.

L .A Waddell wrote in his book ‘Lamaism in Sikkim’, published way back in

1894, has given a complete list of monasteries in native Sikkim with the number of

monks in each, from what he say, official information supplied by Lama Ugyen

Gyatsho. As per the list of 35 monasteries widely distributed, the first one that was set

up in 1697 A.D was Sanga Cholling with 25 monks in study. The second was Dubdi,

built in 1701, with 30 monks and the third that followed was Pemiongchi built in 1705

with 108 monks. The last monastery in the list was that of Singtam (Lepcha village

name) built in 1884 which had six monks. In addition to the monasteries in this list

there are several other religious buildings called by the people, ‘Gompas’, but by the

Buddhist priest or Lamas they are called Temples. Sanga Cholling is open for all

section of the society and also for females and even for deformed persons.4

Monastic system of education failed to develop the social structure of Sikkim

which consisted of the three different religious groups. This kind of system was only

developed for a particular religion that was Buddhism. Guided by religious fervor and

ideal of Hindu philosophy they were prompted for the establishment of Pathsala for

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upholding Hindu tradition of Vedic rites and rituals. Finally the 10th Chogyal of

Sikkim, Maharaja Sidkeong Tulku introduced the modern system of formal education

in Sikkim. He was the only ruler of Sikkim who had been educated in a university

abroad, Oxford University, who gave to education in Sikkim a new dimension

towards its growth as modern education5.

4.2 Role of missionaries in the development of education

The foreign Christian missionaries were active with missionary zeal in the

field of education in several parts of India from very beginning of the nineteenth

century at the same time the Christian missionaries also wanted to develop the

modern education system in the hills of Sikkim and Darjeeling to spread the Christian

religion. The church of Scotland Missionary wanted to spread Christianity and the

elementary education to the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim and Bhutan. So for this,

Church of Scotland missionaries from Kalimpong made several visits to Sikkim in the

1880s, but were unable to obtain permission for a missionary to reside there. In 1883

the Scottish University Mission Association decided to support the people of Sikkim

in the field of education under the leadership of Sir. Reverend Macfarlane. In the

beginning the children were taught by the teachers from Darjeeling and Kalimpong

and then from Sikkim itself. So the Christian missionaries’ tried to establish the

formal education centres with specific routine and with the available resources. The

infrastructural development in Sikkim was just an imagination at that time even for

the education institutions there were no such buildings except monasteries, which

were the administrational head of the Kingdom. So the missionary’s schools were run

in houses of bamboo or mud-walled structure of poor shape.

This is how the people of Sikkim travel in the road of education for the first

time. The economic condition of the villagers was not good, so they are not able to

spend much for the education of their children. This kind of circumstances will force

the teachers to leave the underpaid job. Such are the problems which were faced by

the missionaries in their initial days.

The formal system of education installed by missionaries in the Kingdom of

feudalistic in character, was provided only the basic education to the people of

Sikkim. In the absence of books and paper, teachers used to teach in oral character,

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the teaching learning activities of reading, writing, and arithmetic was designed by the

teacher himself and the duration of courses was two years.6

4.3 Role of British Govt. in the development of Education

When J. C. White was appointed in Sikkim as a first British Political Officer7

by British Government, he educated the royal prince and children of some influential

families like the lamas and Kazis. J. C. White was also interested to establish an

English boarding school at Gangtok. He also provided financial support to the

missionaries’ schools. The establishment of Bhutia Boarding school in 1906 and the

Nepali Boarding school 10978 encourage the communal disorder in Sikkim. So to

maintain peace and to abolish the communalism in Sikkim both these schools were

combined to form one high school called Sir Tashi Namgyal High School in 1925,9

which was named after the Maharaja of Sikkim – Tashi Namgyal.10 In the case of

Girls’ education the mentality of Sikkim’s people was is not good from the beginning.

In 1921, three government schools in three different places called Namchi (South

Sikkim), Rhenock (East Sikkim) and Pathing (East Sikkim) started functioning, which

was established by the Kumar Sidkeong Tulku because of his concern towards girls’

education. In 1915 the number of the students increased to 13. Due to the need of

time, the curriculum was revised and subjects like spinning and lace making were also

introduced in 1918. 1924 for the first time in Gangtok the First Girls’ School was

opened in Sikkim by Christian Missionary, Mary Scott11. Including English

Education, cooking, first aid, and needle work were the curriculum of the school.

Before 1939, it upgraded up to middle school level. In 1941, the Sikkim Durbar builds

a new school building with Hostel facility, in the memory of the Maharaja Kumra

Paljor Namgyal (At present this school is run as Paljor Namgyal Girls’ Senior

Secondary School). In 1945, it was recognized as a high school by Calcutta

University, it is not a government school at present, but at present also government of

Sikkim provides the financial support to this school.12 Due to the negative response of

the Maharaja Tashi Namgyal towards the Christian Missionary activities in Sikkim,

most of the Christian Missionaries schools were in rural areas of Sikkim only.

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4.4 Role of Durbar in the development of Education

With the increase in in-migration of Nepalese from neighbouring area into

Sikkim and the advancement of education in Darjeeling through Christian

missionaries, the Sikkim’s ruler was forced to develop the educational to centres in

the Kingdom. In 1945 the post called Inspector of school was created for the first time

under the Department of education for the fulfilment of educational development in

the Kingdom.13 While the formation of Department of Education and the Inspector of

school in the closing decade of mid-20th century was not up to the mark in the field of

educational development. But when, the goodwill visit of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in

1952, the picture of educational development was totally changed and Sikkim was

blessed with the first seven year of development plan which was made by the

Planning Commission of India. That plan covers each and every aspects of

development like the improvement of road and communications, the promotion of

education by opening more school, expending of health facilities, and finally the

setting up of small and large scale industries based on Sikkim natural wealth. The

number of experts of the Indian Planning Commission visited Sikkim and drafted a

seven-year economic development plan for the period starting from1954 to 1967. That

was the first seven-year plan in Sikkim with the total amount of 325 Lakhs offered by

the Indian Government (excluding directly spend by Government of India for the

extension of the national highway to northern and eastern Sikkim) before merge to

India.14 The Durbar of the kingdom had decentralized the administration on four

different districts namely Gangtok in East Sikkim, Geyzing in West Sikkim, Mangan

in North, and Namchi in South, with district officers in every district in 1963, to

maintain and stabilize the development in different sector15.

4.5 Administrative Structure of the Education Department in Sikkim

before 1975

The administrative formation of education department in pre-merger period

was un-organized and it was directly under the control of Durbar where one of the

Councillors of the royal Durbar generally looked after it. The expansion of the

department of education in pre-merger period was just a miner effort for the

development of traditional school which is based on religion, monasteries (school for

Buddhist Lamas) and Patshala (School for Hindu priests). But for the development of

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modern institutionalized education through Schools they appointed a first Inspector of

schools in 1945. In 1953 the first Executive Councillor of the department was

appointed and was assisted by three Inspectors of Schools one in Headquarters and

others in the districts. So to maintain the equal status in society the demand of school

education was increased by different communities of the state. To fulfil the demand of

the people, Durbar of Sikkim develops the Plan of investment scheme with the help of

the India Government and implemented it from 1954. While the investment in

education sector was just 7.4% of the total outlay of plan investment of first plan

(1954-61)16 and under this development plan an Educational Administration was set-

up created.

4.6 Administrative Structure of the Education Department in Sikkim

after 1975

After 1975 when Sikkim became the part of Indian Union, the educational

administrative structure of the state was well organized from top to the bottom to

match the modern system of education. The department of education has maintained

its own Ministry under the control of Education Minister (Political Head of the

department). The next supreme head of the department was the Secretary of the

Department who is in-charge of the department and he was responsible for the

formulation of policy, planning, implementation of project and other matters related

to establishment. At present the structure of educational Administrative set-up in

Sikkim there are two divisions on Human Resource Development Department

(Department of Education), the Administrative and the Academic section. Under the

Director of Academic there are seven units of Planning and Statistics, State Institute

of Education, National Literacy Mission- Adult Education and Non- Formal

Education, Expansion and Scholarship, Language Education, Text-Books and Library.

For the Technological education like Computer education, Vocational Education etc,

they have different units like Vocational Education units for Vocational Education,

District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) for Teacher’s Education which is

for Primary Teachers, Educational Technology for Technological education,

Computer Technology for the Computer education. Besides all these division and

units the Accounts Service, Engineering section and Chief Pay and Accounts are

functioning within the parameter of Administrative division. The above mentioned

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divisions and units of Education Department of the state are functioning from the state

head office called Human Resource Development Department located at Gangtok,

(Capital). Besides the radius of the HRDD, in district level the District Education

Offices are functional. In the field level there is no separate administrative office. So

the Block Administrative Centres are responsible for the development of education

with overall development.

4.7 Structure of School Education in the State of Sikkim

(a) Structure of School Education before 1975

In the absence of fixed rule for the length of the courses of infant classes,

people of rural as well as urban areas of Sikkim, parents send their children to school

for basic knowledge, which is necessary to get admission in class one in the present

system of education. After the formation of education department the standard of

education has been improved. During that period Sir Tashi Namgyal High School at

Gangtok was recognized high school under the West Bengal Board of Secondary

Education and the newly established Education Department of Sikkim is trying to

recognize all the schools under the same Board, for this purpose, S. R. Ghosh, the

Director, went to Calcutta, because, as mentioned earlier the First Girls’ School was

opened in Sikkim by, the Christian Missionary and it was recognized as a high school

by Calcutta University, and he returned with a positive reply17. Later on the problem

of text-books was solved by the Parasmani Pradhan, whose book was widely used in

Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Dooars sides of West Bengal18. But the price of the text-

books was a bit higher than the prescribed rate and the availability was limited in the

market. Due to the influence of the British, Darjeeling was much advance as

compared to Sikkim in the field of education. In the absence of paper and the text-

book, the pupils of Sikkim first used to learn on the basis of stone-pebbles (Dhunga

class)19 and maize-grain (Makai class)20 in the Infant class to write or to counting.

This kind of teaching technique was used by the teacher for five or six month on

regular basis. Besides letter or alphabets, the number from 1 to 100, multiplication

tables, name of days and months and simple arithmetic are in the curriculum of the

study. This kind of education system provides only the basic education to the pupils,

which was not fit in the developmental work of the kingdom. They did a massive

change in the history of education in Sikkim. In the period of 1954- 1975 the Durbar

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of Sikkim focused on the educational development, but the political issue in Sikkim

spoiled the peaceful situation and growth of educational development.

(b) After 1975

The present structure of the education system in Sikkim is well organized and

maintained by its own ministry. According to the norms of National Education Policy

the Primary education stage means from Class I to VIII, which is further divided into

two level, first level includes from Class I to V, and Second level includes from Class

VI to VIII. But in Sikkim the structural behaviour is quite different from the National

Education Policy of India, in Sikkim the school education system is divided into four

stages. Table no. 4.1 shows the class wise structure of Schools in Sikkim and name of

the level.

Table No. 4.1

Class-wise and level-wise name of the school

Class Name of the level in Sikkim

Class I to V Primary School,

Class VI to VIII Junior High School or Upper Primary,

Class XI to X Secondary School or Lower Secondary

Class XI to XII Senior Secondary Schools or Higher Secondary

School

Source: Mohammed Yasin and Durga P. Chhetri 2012

There is also a provision called Pre- Primary centres to provide pre-school

education. To join the Pre-Primary centres, children should be 4 years old21. The

Class-wise designation of the teacher in Sikkim is shown in table no. 4.2

Table No. 4.2

Stage-wise designation of the teacher in Sikkim

Class Designation of the Teacher

Class I to V Primary Teacher

Class VI to X Graduate Teacher

Class XI to XII Post- Graduate Teacher

Source: Department of Education, Government of Sikkim

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To cover the entire problem or to achieve cent per cent enrolment, the

government of Sikkim formulate progressive policies and implementation of plan,

programmes and other schemes in the interest of state through five year plan policy.

Below table shows the plan investment in the education sector through five year plan

from 1954 onwards.

Table No. 4.3

Plan Investment in the Education Sector in Sikkim

Plan Period of Five Year Plan

Total Outlay (Rs. Lakh)

Outlay for Education (Rs.

Lakh)

% Share to Total Outlay

First Plan (1954-61) 324 24 7.4

Second Plan (1961-66) 637 79 12.4

Third Plan (1966-71) 971 77 7.9

Fourth Plan (1971-75) 2,036 179 8.8

Fifth Plan (1974-79) 4,010 297 7.4

Sixth Plan (1980-85) 14,780 1,035 7.0

Seventh Plan (1985-90) 28,240 3,719 13.17

Eighth Plan (1992-97) 77,036 8,335 10.82

Ninth Plan (1997-02) 1,09,132 18,770 17.2

Tenth Plan (2002-07) 1,65,574 21,855 13.2

Source: Sikkim Development Report 2008,P-75

The Government of Sikkim has given importance to the education sector

through various plans in different periods. After implementation of five years plan in

Sikkim with the help of the Government of India the demand of the educational

institutions in Sikkim was increased due to the increasing number of the Students.

The investment on education sector in various plans in different period of time has

shown wide fluctuation. In first plan period 7.4% of the total outlay was invested in

education sector, similarly in second plan it was 12.4% and in fourth and fifth plan

8.8% and 7.4% of the total outlay was invested respectively. In Tenth five year it was

13.2%.

The Provision of Nursery education Pre-Schooling facilities in the Public

sector, linking of pre-primary education programme with the Integrated Child

Development Scheme and the improvement in pre-primary education facilities,

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Operation Blackboard Scheme, Establishing a school of language for the

development of languages, namely, Bhutia, Lepcha and Limboo etc are the main

objectives of the Eighth Five Plan of the state., the table given below (table no. 4.4)

shows the total percentage of literacy of the state from 1981 to 2011. The maximum

gap between male and female literacy was 21.75% in 1981which makes the total

percentage of 34.05% literacy in state. When the people of Sikkim understood the

importance of education then only state achieved increase in female literacy. At

present (2011 census) the female literacy rate in state is 76.43% where as in national

level the female literacy rate is 65.46%. The establishment of girls’ school and

reservation for them on the administrative sectors has been able to promote the girls

education in Sikkim. The gender gap on the basis of literacy according to the census

of India is 10.87%.

Table No. 4.4

Sex wise literacy rate in Sikkim: 1981-2011

(Number in percentage)

YEAR STATE MALE FEMALE % of Gender Gap.

1981 34.05 43.95 22.20 21.75

1991 56.94 65.70 46.76 18.94

2001 68.81 76.04 60.41 15.63

2011 82.20 87.30 76.43 10.87

Source: Provisional Population Totals, Paper 1of 2011. Sikkim Series 12, Census of

India 2011

Table No. 4.5

Rural- urban literacy of the state by sex, 2011

(Numbers in percentage)

Rural Urban

Male Female Male Female

85.42 73.42 92.94 85.19

Source: Provisional Population Totals, paper 2, Volume 2 of 2011, Rural- Urban

Distribution of Population Sikkim, Series-12, Census of India 2011.

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In Sikkim out of 2, 13,840 rural populations of females, 73.42% of them are

literate and on the state wide rural male population of 2, 42, 122, 85.42% are literate.

In the urban area the 92.94% of male and 85.19 of female are literate, the total male,

female population of urban area is 79539 and 72187 respectively. The overall literacy

rate in the state is 82.20% with the gap of 9.44% between rural and urban literacy rate

of the state. The high rate of urbanization and the infrastructural development has led

to increase in the number of schools in urban areas which further lead to the increase

in rate of literacy. The next factor for the high rate of literacy in urban sector is in-

migration of literate people from different parts of state and from outside in search of

jobs in various sector. Among the North eastern region Sikkim stands on 5th position

on the basis of urban population.22. According to the Census of India 2011

(Provisional data) the overall literacy rate in Sikkim is quite high as compare to Bihar

(63.82%), Utter Pradesh (69.72%), Rajasthan (67.06%), Haryana (76.64%) and

Uttarakhand (79.63%). The District-wise literacy rates of Sikkim shown in below

table.

Table No. 4.6

District wise literacy rate of the Sikkim, 2001-2011

(Number in percentage)

District Literacy rate 2001 Literacy rate 2011

Rural Urban Rural Urban

North 66.8 79.1 76.73 83.02

West 58.5 78.0 78.22 90.07

South 66.6 88.5 81.11 87.64

East 72.0 83.9 80.84 89.74

Source: Provisional Population Totals, paper 2, Volume 2 of 2011, Rural- Urban

Distribution of Population Sikkim, Series-12, Census of India 2011.

The data presents in above table implies that, the literacy growth of state was

68.81% in 2001 and in 2011 it increased to 82.20%, the state achieved 13.39% of

growth in literacy. The west district is in the 1st position for the urban literacy growth

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rate with 90.07% in 2011 and 3rd on the basis of rural literacy growth rate. But in

2001 it was only 78.00% which is the minimum urban literacy rate of the district in

Sikkim. The state successfully achieves increase of 12.07% in growth rate literacy in

the west district. The difference between literacy growth rate of rural and urban in

south and the east district is less than 10% in 2011 which was more than 10% in

2001.The east district of the state is in the 2nd position on the basis of urban and the

rural literacy growth rate according to the provisional census report of 2011. The

south district is on 3rd position with 87.64% in urban literacy growth rate and 2nd in

rural literacy growth rate with 81.11% in 2011. The last one is north in both the rural

and urban literacy growth rate with 76.73% and 83.02%.

4.8 Expansion of education before 1975

Table No. 4.7

Number of Schools, Teachers and Students in Sikkim, 1960

School (Category) No. of Schools

No. of Teachers Primary

No. of Student

High School 6 114 4,662

Junior High School 13 155 3,903

Upper Primary 53 207 2,815

Lower Primary 38 91 1,141

Total 110 567 12,521

Source: Dr. Dick B. Dewan, (2012), Education in Sikkim, An historical retrospect

Pre- Merger and Post Merger Period, Tender Buds’ Society, Pedong, Kalimpong,

(Darjeeling Dist.) 734311, (ISBN – 9789350677278), P- 242

The above table shows the quantitative expansion of education till 1960. As

mentioned earlier there were only 21 schools in Sikkim but with the increase of

investment in education sector, there were 110 schools which provided education to

the total number of 12,521 students with the working force of 567 teachers in the state

in 1960. The teacher student ratio in different level was 1:41 in High School, 1:25 in

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Junior High School, 1:14 in Upper Primary and 1:13 in Lower Primary School, the

total number students makes only 7.72% literacy rate based on 1961census, (the

remaining 4.60% was not included).

With the increase in the number of school Durbar appointed two more

inspectors of school under the Education Department in 1962. After decentralization

of the kingdom’ administration to four different district as mentioned earlier, the

responsibility of the educational development came under the supervision of district

office and the facility for the teachers to draw the monthly salary from it were the

major steps taken by the Durbar for the educational development.

By 1970, there were 226 Primary Schools, 31 Junior High Schools and 6

Higher Secondary Schools, which, made the total of 263 educational institutions

(Excluding Public Schools and Evening College) in Sikkim where the 21,631 students

are, enrolled23 (17,657 in Primary Schools, 3,291 in Junior High Schools, and 683 in

Higher Secondary Schools). The overall development of education in Sikkim was

acceptable as a separate Kingdom till 1975.

4.9 Expansion of Education after 1975

After 1975 when Sikkim merged to India as 22nd state of Indian Union, the

state government gradually in assistance with the central Government has been taking

necessary steps to make Sikkim one of the modern and developed State of India. For

the development of Primary, Secondary, and the Tertiary sector in the state the

government of post-merger Sikkim requires a large educated work force to maintain

its various functions like administration, welfare, development for eradicating its

backwardness. From that movement the centralized monarchical system of the

political system in the state was replaced by the liberal democratic system. This newly

formed liberal democratic state provided equal educational opportunities for all the

citizens of the state, with the different schemes and policies of education of the central

government like the Basic Education formulated by Gandhiji and the National Policy

of 196824 for the development of elementary education in state. The total number of

1561 school (Pre-Primary Centres, Government Aided Pre-Primary Schools,

Government Primary Schools, Junior High Schools, Secondary Schools, higher

Secondary Schools, Degree College, Teachers Training Institutes and Law Colleges)

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in Sikkim are able to provides modern education to the total number of 60,518 pupils

in 1981 and the total number of 2,799 teacher are engaged in the field of educational

development.25 The table No.4.8 shows the Category-wise educational institutions,

enrolment of students and teachers in Sikkim in 1981.

Table No. 4.8

Category-wise Educational Institutions, Teachers and Enrolment of

the Students in Sikkim in 1981

(Number in absolute excluding the Teacher Student Ratio)

Type of

Institutions

No. of

Teachers

No. of

student

Teachers

Student Ratio

No. of

institutions

Pre-Primary Centres

110 3,300 1:30 110

Govt. Aided Primary School

1,220 25,071 1:20 133

Govt. Primary Schools

NA NA NA 227

Junior High Schools

496 10,628 1:21 48

Secondary Schools

581 15,254 1:26 31

Higher Secondary Schools

369 6151 1:17 9

Total 2776 60404 1:22 (Average

ratio)

558

Source: Compilation from different table from ‘Education in Sikkim an historical

retrospect pre merger and post-merger period by Dick B. Dewan (2012).

In the expansion phase of education in Sikkim during 1980s, the education

department of the state formed two different branches with equal power, the

Academic section, and the Administrative section in 198026. To implement the

National Policy in education, the administrative section of state education Directorate

focuses on quantitative expansion rather than qualitative improvement of education in

state. The construction of school buildings, appointment of teachers, opening of new

schools in school-less villages and up-gradation of schools are in the top position on

the development policy of the state Government. Below table (Table No. 4.9) shows

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the total number of children from 4 to 14 years age-groups and the number of children

in school from same age groups in 1981 in Sikkim,

Table No. 4.9

The Number of Children in 4-14 Age- Group and the Number of Children in

Schools in Sikkim, 1981

(Numbers in absolute)

Age-group No. of Children

1981 census

No. of Children in Schools

4- 5 years 8,018 1,976

5- 6 years 8,018 3,907

6- 11 years 39,397 27,710

11- 14 years 23,360 13,333

Total 78,793 46,926

Source: ‘Education in Sikkim an historical retrospect pre merger and post-merger

period by Dick B. Dewan (2012). P- 328.

According to the table No. 4.9, out of 78793 children from 4-14 years age

groups in Sikkim according to 1981 census only 59.55% are enrolled (class I to Class

X) in different schools remaining 40.55% are out of school. The main reason for the

low enrolment in the elementary level is the mentality of the village people, there is a

popular saying in Nepali- “Pari lekhi kay kam, hollow joti khao maan”, means to

make two ends meet, you have to plough the field, then what is the use of reading and

writing. The common people of rural Sikkim depend of agriculture for the daily needs

and for the food, so for that the maximum member of the each household are engaged

in the Primary Sector. Somehow the geographical condition of state, the climatic

condition and lack of social structure of transportation, other factors for the dropout

and the low enrolment of the pupils is discuss in the last portion of the chapter.

4.10 Expansion of Schools in state according to their types of

management

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The Table No.4.10 shows the district wise and the stage wise Government schools in

Sikkim in 1984.

Table No. 4.10 The District wise distribution of the Government Educational Institutions of the

Different stages in Sikkim in 1984

(Number in absolute)

Stages Districts Total

North South East West

Pre-Primary Schools 26 21 89 29 165

Lower Primary Schools 23 48 54 93 218

Primary Schools 27 69 87 56 239

Lower Secondary Schools 11 26 34 20 91

Secondary Schools 03 09 16 09 37

Higher Secondary Schools 01 02 06 02 11

Total 91 175 286 209 761

Source: ‘Education in Sikkim an historical retrospect pre merger and post-merger period by Dick B. Dewan (2012). P- 336

The small and the Youngest State of India called Sikkim have been able to increase the modern educational institutions in state within the period of nine years after the state merged to India. According to the Table no. 4.10 there are 761 schools in 1984 in Sikkim against 558 in 1981. The demand of educational institutions in Sikkim is increasing with the increase in total population of the state. Below table show the total number Government educational institutions in state in 2005.

Table No. 2.11

District-wise and Category-wise Government Schools in Sikkim in 2005

(Numbers in absolute)

Categories East West North South Total



Junior High Schools 48 36 16 47 147


Senior Secondary Schools 19 10 3 9 41

Total 242 226 90 224 782 Source; Data supplied by Human Resource Development Department, Government of Sikkim.

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The Government of Sikkim made a ground level policy for the development of

educational structure in the state by using development programme through five year

plan policy. After 38 years of merging Sikkim is now able to produce the maximum

human resources to lead the state in the global position through modern technology.

With the implementation of different policies and programme Sikkim has been able to

increase the educational institutions. The maximum numbers of schools are in the

East district. In 2005 there were 1094 schools in the state, out of which 312 schools

were runs by private organization, local bodies, and Government Aided. Table No.

4.12 shows the district-wise private, local body and Government Aided Schools in

2005.

Table No. 4.12 District-wise Private, local Body, and Government Aided School in 2005

(Numbers in absolute) School Level East West North South Grand Total



Junior High Schools 28 15 03 13 59


Senior Secondary Schools 04 01 0 01 06

Grand Total 115 91 18 88 312

Source; Data supplied by Human Resource Development Department, Government of

Sikkim.

Below table shows the total number of school in Sikkim Government as well as other,

Table No.4.13 Schools belonging to Different Categories in Sikkim, (30-09-2009)

(Numbers in Absolute) SL. No.

District Primary Schools

Upper-Primary Schools

Secondary Schools

Higher Secondary

Schools

Total No. of

Schools 1 East 159 64 46 22 291

2 North 67 18 14 4 103

3 South 206 72 36 12 326

4 West 169 53 34 12 268

5 Total 601 207 130 50 988

Source: aises.nic.in/state Report?stateId=11

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According to table no.4.13, the south district of Sikkim has maximum number

of schools (326), while the number of Secondary and Higher Schools is quite lower

than east district. The total number of educational institution in north district is just

103 no. and it is because of low population and the practice of Lamaism (monks,

generally enrolled in Monastic Schools). The data shows that, the maximum pressure

on educational institutions is in east district.

Table No.4.14

Total Number of Primary Schools According to type of Management in Sikkim,

(30-09-2009)

(Numbers in Absolute)

SL. No.

District Government Local Body

Private Aided

Private Unaided

Total

1 East 124 01 03 31 159 2 North 52 00 05 10 67 3 South 141 06 02 57 206 4 West 147 02 06 14 169 5 Total 464 09 16 112 601

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport? stateId=11

According to above mentioned data (Table No.4.14), the combined percentage

of private educational institutions run by Local Body, Private Aided and Private

Unaided in total percentage of Primary Schools in Sikkim is 22.79% (137 primary

schools) against 77.20% (464 primary schools) of Government Primary schools. The

overall number of primary schools in south Sikkim is more than other three districts,

but in respect of government Primary School, west Sikkim is on the 1st position.

Table No. 4.15 Schools in rural areas belonging to Different Categories (30-09-2009)

(Numbers in Absolute) SL. No.



Secondary Schools

Higher Secondary

Schools

Total No. of

Schools 1 East 157 62 49 21 280 2 North 67 18 14 04 103 3 South 194 70 31 09 304 4 West 169 52 34 12 267 5 Total 587 202 119 46 954

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11)

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Table No.4.16

Primary Schools in rural areas According to type of Management, (30-09-2009)


SL. No.

District Government Local

Body

Private Aided

Private Unaided

Total

1 East 124 (78.98%) 01 (0.63) 03 (1.91%) 29 (18.47%) 157 (100%)

2 North 52 (77.61%) 00 (00%) 05 (7.46%) 10 (14.92%) 67 (100%)

3 South 141 (72.68%) 06 (3.09%) 02 (1.03%) 45 (23.19%) 194 (100%)

4 West 147 (86.98%) 02 (1.18%) 06 (3.55%) 14 (8.28%) 169 (100%)

5 Total 464 (79.04%) 09 (1.53%) 16 (2.72%) 98 (16.69%) 587 (100%)

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11

According to above mentioned data (Table No.4.16), through horizontal

measurement, in the rural area of east district the total percentage of Primary Schools

run by Government, Local Body, Private Aided and Private Unaided is 78.98%,

0.06%, 1.91% and 18.47%. In North district 77.61% of primary schools are run by

Government, the Primary schools run by local body in north district is zero, 7.46% of

private Aided Primary schools and 14.92% of Private Unaided Primary schools are in

north district. Accordingly the percentage of Primary schools run by Government,

Local Body, Private Aided and Private Unaided in rural parts of south district is

72.68%, 3.09%, 1.03% and 23.19% respectively, in west district 86.98% of primary

schools are run by Government, 1.18% are run by local body, 3.55% are run by

Private Aided and 8.28% by Private Unaided schools. According to the vertical

measurement 79.04% of primary schools are run by Government, 1.53% by Local

body, 2.72% by Private Aided and 16.69% are run by Private Aided. According to

table no.4.16, the district-wise share to the overall Primary schools in rural areas of

Sikkim is 26.74% (157) by east district, 11.41% (67) by north district, 33.04% (194)

by south district, and 28.79% (169) by west district.

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4.11 Schools in Urban Areas according to their types of management

Table No. 4.17

Schools in urban areas belonging to Different Categories (30-09-2009)


SL. No.



Secondary Schools

Higher Secondary Schools

Total No. of Schools

1 East 02 02 06 01 11 2 North 00 00 00 00 00 3 South 12 02 05 03 22 4 West 00 01 00 00 01 5 Total 14 05 11 04 34


The category-wise distribution of schools in rural and urban areas of Sikkim

shows zero number of Higher Secondary Schools in urban area of north district, the

total number of 4 Higher Secondary Schools does not come under the jurisdiction of

district headquarter of north district called Mangan. In north Sikkim there is only one

town called Mangan.27

Table No.4.18

Primary Schools in urban areas According to type of Management, (30-09-2009)


SL. No. District Government Local Body

Private Aided

Private Unaided

Total

1 East 00 00 00 02 02

2 North 00 00 00 00 00

3 South 00 00 00 12 12

4 West 00 00 00 00 00

5 Total 00 00 00 14 14


According to Provisional data maintain by 8th All India School Education

Survey, Department of Education Survey and Data Processing, Ministry Human

Resource Development of India, there are only 14 numbers of primary schools run by

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Private Aided institutions (02 in East district and 12 in South district) in urban sector

of Sikkim.

Regarding Upper-Primary Schools, table no.4.19 shows the distribution of

total number of schools run by Government, Local Body, Private Aided, and Private

Unaided in rural and urban areas of Sikkim,

Table No. 4.19

District-wise distribution of Upper-Primary School in Rural and Urban Areas

According to Type of Management, (30-09-2009) District Government Local Body Private Aided Private Unaided Total

Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total

East 44 01 45 01 00 01 03 00 03 14 01 15 64

North 18 00 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 18

South 50 00 50 04 00 04 01 00 01 15 02 17 72

West 33 01 34 02 00 02 02 00 02 15 00 15 53

Total 145 02 147 07 00 07 06 00 06 44 03 47 207


According to the above mentioned data (Table No.4.19), there are 64 upper-

primary schools in east district, out of which 45 schools are run by Government, 01

school run by Local Body, 03 schools are run by Private Aided institutions and 15

schools are run by Private Unaided institutions in Sikkim. The total number of Upper-

Primary Schools in rural part of state is 202, out of which 145 Schools are run by

Government, Local Body which operates only 07 schools, 06 Upper-Primary schools

are under Private Aided institution and 44 Upper-Primary Schools under Private

Unaided, which provides education to the children of rural areas of Sikkim. There are

only 5 Upper-Primary schools in urban parts of the state, out of which 02 are

Government and 03 are under Private Unaided educational Institutions. In Sikkim

there are 207 Upper-Primary Schools, out of which 60 schools are under the private

educational institution (07 schools under Local Body, 06 schools under Private Aided

and 47 schools under Private Unaided) and 147 Upper- Primary Schools under direct

control of the Government. The maximum number of Upper-Primary schools is in

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South district (72) with zero number of same schools in urban parts. North district of

Sikkim has only 18 numbers of Upper-Primary schools, with no schools in urban are

and under Local Body, Private Aided, and Private Unaided.

Table No.4.20

District-wise distribution of Secondary School in Rural and Urban Areas

According to Type of Management, (30-09-2009) District Government Local Body Private Aided Private Unaided Total

Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total

East 31 00 31 00 00 00 02 00 02 07 06 13 46

North 14 00 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14

South 31 01 32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 04 36

West 31 00 31 01 00 01 00 00 00 02 00 02 34

Total 107 01 108 01 00 01 02 00 02 09 10 19 130


According to the data mentioned above (Table No.4.20), there are 130 Secondary

Schools in Sikkim, where 108 schools are run by Government of Sikkim, 01 school is

run by Local Body, 02 schools are run by Private Aided institutions and 19 schools

are run by Private Unaided institutions. The maximum number of Government

Secondary Schools is located in rural parts of Sikkim, where in rural part of East,

South and West district the total number of Government Secondary is same.

Table No.4.21

District-wise distribution of Higher Secondary School in Rural and Urban Areas

According to Type of Management, (as on 30-09-2009)

District Government Local Body Private Aided Private Unaided Total

Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total State

East 17 00 17 00 00 00 01 01 02 03 00 03 22

North 03 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 01 04

South 08 02 10 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 01 00 12

West 12 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 12

Total 40 02 42 00 00 00 02 01 03 04 01 05 50


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According to table no.4.21, with the absence of Higher Secondary Schools run

by Local Body there are 50 Higher Secondary Schools including government and

those schools run by Private Aided and Private Unaided educational institutions

which provide education facility in rural as well as in urban sectors of state, out of

which 42 schools is run by Government, 03 schools run by Private Aided and 05

schools are run by Private Unaided institutions. In rural part of Sikkim there are 46

Higher Secondary Schools which provides the education facility. Accordingly in

urban sector the total number of same school is just 04, where 02 are Government, 01

is Private Aided and 01 is Private Unaided institution. According to district-wise, the

eastern part of Sikkim has maximum number of Government and Private Unaided

Higher Secondary Schools.

4.12 Infrastructure condition (Rural and Urban schools)

Table No.4.22 District-wise distribution of School in Sikkim According to Type of School

Buildings, (as on 30-09-2009) District East North South West State

Schools P PP K T P PP K T P PP K T P PP K T Total

Pry. S 107 35 17 159 48 18 01 67 140 47 19 206 91 60 18 169 601

UPS 49 13 02 64 13 05 00 18 60 10 02 72 30 21 02 53 207

SS 37 09 00 46 14 00 00 14 30 05 01 36 26 08 00 34 130

HSS 21 01 00 22 04 00 00 04 12 00 00 12 12 00 00 12 50

Total 214 58 19 291 79 23 01 103 242 62 22 326 159 89 20 268 988


• Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary School, HSS= Higher Secondary School,

• P= Pucca Buildings • PP= Partly Pucca Buildings • K= Kuchcha Buildings • T= Total

The Above mentioned data (Table No.4.22) shows that, the maximum schools

are run in Pucca infrastructure or buildings. It shows that the infrastructural facility in

Sikkim for the development of education is good, while the total number of schools in

Sikkim includes the educational institutions run by Local Body, Private Aided and

Private Unaided institutions. According to the data mention in table no. 4.22, out of

601 number of Primary Schools, 386 schools have Pucca Buildings, which is more

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than 50% of the total primary schools of the state, in 160 schools the infrastructural

condition is Partly Pucca which is only 26.62% and lastly there are 55 schools which

have Kuchcha infrastructure. The maximum number of Pucca School Buildings is in

South district followed by East West and North that is 140, 107, 91 and 48

respectively. The overall infrastructural facility in Upper-Primary Schools is good and

there are 152 schools where the schools buildings are Pucca and 49 schools are able

to educate the children in Partly Pucca Buildings and there are 06 schools where the

condition of schools buildings is Kuchcha. Again, the maximum number of Upper-

Primary schools runs on Pucca Buildings is in south Sikkim (60 schools). In the total

numbers of 130 Secondary Schools in Sikkim, 107 schools have Pucca Buildings, 22

schools have Partly Pucca Buildings and only 1 school has Kuchcha Building which

is located in south district. Regarding Higher Secondary Schools there are 50 Higher

Secondary Schools in state, out of which 49 schools have Pucca Buldings, and only 1

school run in Partly Pucca Building located in East district. In Sikkim the total

number of 694 schools are runs in Pucca Buildings, 232 schools provides education in

Partly Pucca Buildings and 62 schools runs in Kuchcha Buildings. The percent of

Kcuhcha School Buildings to the total school is 6.27%. In future the Government of

Sikkim able to replace every single Kuchcha School Building with Pucca School

building. The infrastructural mode of schools Buildings in rural and urban sector of

Sikkim is shown in below table, (table no. 4.23)

Table No.4.23

District-wise distribution of School in Rural Areas of Sikkim According to Type

of School Buildings, (as on 30-09-2009) District East North South West State


Pry. S 105 35 17 157 48 18 01 67 128 47 19 194 91 60 18 169 587

UPS 47 13 02 62 13 05 00 18 58 10 02 70 30 20 02 52 202

SS 31 09 00 40 14 00 00 14 25 05 01 31 26 08 00 34 119

HSS 20 01 00 21 04 00 00 04 09 00 00 09 12 00 00 12 46

Total 203 58 19 280 79 23 01 103 220 62 22 304 159 88 20 267 954

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11 • Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary School, HSS= Higher

Secondary School, • P= Pucca Buildings • PP= Partly Pucca Buildings • K= Kuchcha Buildings • T= Total

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The infrastructural behaviour of educational institution is good in rural parts of

the state. The maximum numbers of schools have Pucca Buildings. There are 954

schools including Government and Private educational institutions in rural parts of

Sikkim, out of which 661 (69.28%) schools have Pucca School Buildings, 231

(24.21%) schools runs in Partly Pucca Schools Buildings and the total number of 62

(6.49%) schools in rural parts of Sikkim still provides education in Kuchcha School

Buildings. In district-wise, south district has maximum number of schools have Pucca

Schools Buildings (304 schools), in east district 203 schools have Pucca Schools

Buildings, in west district 159 schools have Pucca Schools Buildings and in north

district there are 79 schools, where Government of Sikkim was able to construct the

Pucca School Buildings. In rural areas of north district there is only one school which

still provide primary education through Kuchcha School Building.

Table No.4.24

District-wise distribution of School in Urban Areas of Sikkim According to Type

of School Buildings, (as on 30-09-2009) District East North South West State


Pry. S 02 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 12 00 00 12 00 00 00 00 14

UPS 02 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 02 00 01 00 01 05

SS 06 00 00 06 00 00 00 00 05 00 00 05 00 00 00 00 11

HSS 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 04

Total 11 00 00 11 00 00 00 00 22 00 00 22 00 01 00 01 34

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11 • Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary School, HSS= Higher

Secondary School, • P= Pucca Buildings • PP= Partly Pucca Buildings • K= Kuchcha Buildings • T= Total

According to the table no. 4.24, out of 34 schools in urban parts of Sikkim, 33

schools have Pucca School Buildings and only one Upper-Primary School in urban

sector located in west district has Partly Pucca School Building.

The development of educational institution is a long-term process, where the

change in infrastructural behaviour of institution within the limited period is not

possible. So, in Sikkim investment in public sector depends in state revenue, though

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the central Government provides some financial aid. State Government’s invests in

public sector by itself alone in some sector like Electricity, Health, Transportation,

etc.

4.13 Availability of Facilities with the school Premises (Rural and

urban Schools) Below table show the district-wise school according to the availability of

facilities like Drinking Water, Usable Urinal and Playground within the school

premises.

Table No. 4.25

District-wise distribution of School Sikkim According to Availability of Facilities

within School Premises, (as on 30-09-2009)

District Availability of Facilities Within School Premises East North South West

Schools DW UU PG DW UU PG DW UU PG DW UU PG

Pry. S 146 134 88 60 54 24 188 187 44 131 136 101

UPS 62 60 53 16 18 15 68 68 62 47 45 44

SS 45 43 35 14 13 12 35 31 33 30 33 29

HSS 20 21 21 04 04 04 12 12 11 12 11 11

Total 273 258 197 94 89 55 303 298 150 220 225 185


• Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary School, HSS= Higher Secondary School,

• DW= Drinking Water • UU= Usable Urinal • PG= Playground

According to table no.4.25, out of 159 Primary Schools in east district of

Sikkim, 146 schools have Drinking water Facility, 134 schools have Usable Urinal

Facility and 88 schools have Playground facility. In north district out of 67 primary

schools, 60 schools have Drinking water Facility, 54 schools have Usable Urinal

Facility and 24 schools have Playground. Similarly in south district out 206 primary

schools 188 schools have Drinking water Facility, 187 schools have Usable Urinal

and only 44 schools have Playground Facility. In west district the total number of

Primary School are 169 out of which 131 schools have Drinking water Facility, 136

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schools having Usable Urinal Facility and 101 schools have Playground Facility.

There are 201 Upper-Primary Schools in state and out of 64 schools in east district, 62

schools have Drinking water Facility, 60 schools have Usable Urinal Facility. In north

district out of 18 Upper-Primary Schools, every school has Usable Urinal facility, 16

Upper-Primary schools have Drinking Water Facility, and 15 schools have

Playground Facility. In south district 68 UP Schools (Upper- Primary) have Drinking

Water facility and Usable Urinal Facility and 62 UP Schools have Playground.

Similarly in west district, the total numbers of 47 schools have Drinking Water

Facility, 45 Schools have Usable Urinal Facility, and 44 schools come under the

schools which have Playground within the school premises. In the matter of Primary

Facilities in Secondary Schools east district has maximum number of schools (45

schools) where the Drinking Water Facility is available. There are 43 schools where

the Facility of Usable Urinal is available and there are 35 schools which come under

the category of school having Playground Facility within the school premises. In

north district there are 04 higher Secondary School, where every school is facilitated

with Primary Facilities (Drinking Water, Usable Urinal and Playground). In east

district there are 22 higher Secondary School out of which 20 schools have Drinking

Facility and in 21 schools where Usable Urinal and Playground Facility is available.

Below table shows the district-wise distribution of schools in rural areas of Sikkim

according to availability of primary facility within the school premises,

Table No.4.26

District-wise distribution of School in Rural Parts of Sikkim According to

Availability of Facilities within School Premises, (as on 30-09-2009) District Availability of Facilities Within School Premises

East North South West Schools DW UU PG DW UU PG DW UU PG DW UU PG

Pry. S 144 132 86 60 54 24 176 175 140 131 136 101

UPS 60 58 52 16 18 15 66 66 60 46 44 44

SS 39 37 30 14 13 12 30 26 29 30 33 29

HSS 19 20 20 04 04 04 09 09 08 12 11 11

Total 262 247 188 94 89 55 281 275 237 219 224 185

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11 • Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary

School, HSS= Higher Secondary School, • DW= Drinking Water • UU= Usable Urinal • PG= Playground

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According to the table no. 4.26, the total number of 157 Primary Schools in

east district, 144 schools have Drinking Water Facility, 132 schools have Usable

Urinal, and 86 schools have facility of Playground for their children. Similarly in

north district, out of 67 Primary schools 60 schools have Drinking Water Facility, 54

schools have Usable Urinal, and 24 schools have Playground within the school

premises. In south district out of 194 primary schools, 176 schools have Drinking

Water Facility, 175 schools have Usable Urinal, and 140 schools have Playground

within the school premises. In west district there are 169 primary schools, where 131

schools have Drinking Water Facility, 136 schools have Usable Urinal Facility, and

101 schools have Playground Facility within the school premises. In rural areas of

Sikkim the facilities like drinking, play ground and Usable Urinal are available only

in four Higher Secondary Schools in North District, where the total number of Higher

Secondary schools is also four. Every Secondary Schools (there are 14 Secondary

Schools) of north district have facility of Drinking Water, the Usable Urinal Facility is

on 13 schools and 12 schools is having Playground facilities. Below table show the

district-wise schools in urban parts of Sikkim with the facilities of drinking water,

usable urinal, and playground within the school premises.

Table No.4.27

District-wise distribution of School in urban parts of Sikkim According to

Availability of Facilities within School Premises, (as on 30-09-2009)

District Availability of Facilities Within School Premises

East North South West

Schools DW UU PG DW UU PG DW UU PG DW UU PG

Pry. S 02 02 02 00 00 00 12 12 04 00 00 00

UPS 02 02 01 00 00 00 02 02 02 01 01 00

SS 06 06 05 00 00 00 05 05 04 00 00 00

HSS 01 01 01 00 00 00 03 03 03 00 00 00

Total 11 11 09 00 00 00 22 22 13 01 01 00

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11 • Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary School,

HSS= Higher Secondary School, • DW= Drinking Water • UU= Usable Urinal • PG= Playground • T= Total

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According to table no.4.27, almost every school of urban area has primary facility within the school premises. In eastern side there is one Primary and one Secondary school where the facility of playground is absent. There are 08 Primary and 01 School in south Sikkim and 01 Upper-Primary School in west district where the playground facility is absent.

4.14 Enrolment (Rural and Urban schools) Below table show the district-wise and sex-wise and level-wise enrolment of student

in urban area of Sikkim

Table No.4.28

District-wise and Sex-wise Enrolment of Students in different level of School in Urban

Areas of Sikkim, (as on 30-09-2009) District Level-wise enrolment

Primary Schools Upper-Primary Schools Secondary Schools

Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total

East 1373 1294 2667 580 721 1301 195 373 568

North 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

South 1181 1100 2281 601 507 1108 469 315 784

West 00 00 00 65 82 147 00 00 00

Total 2554 1394 4948 1246 1310 2556 664 688 1352


Table No.4.29

District-wise and Sex-wise Enrolment of Students in Higher Secondary Schools in Urban

Areas of Sikkim, (as on 30-09-2009) District Enrolment of Students in

Higher Secondary Schools Total Boys and Girls State (Urban)

Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total

East 00 291 291 2148 2679 4827

North 00 00 00 00 00 00

South 308 125 433 2559 2047 4606

West 00 00 00 65 82 147

Total 308 416 724 4772 4808 9580


Table no. 4.28 and 4.29 shows the enrolment of students in urban area in

different level. According to it, the Gross enrolment of girl’s is higher than boys in

urban area, out of 9580 students 4772 (49.81%) are boys and 4808 (50.19%) are girls.

The total enrolment rural areas of 9580 students shares only 7.26% in the Gross

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enrolment of State. In particularly, the East district constitutes the maximum number

of girls’ student in total enrolment of students in district level and South district

constitute the maximum number of boys in district level total enrolment of the

students. While the West district constitutes minimum percentage to the total

enrolment of the students in district level that is 147 students (1.53%), out of which

65 (44.22%) are boys and 82 (55.78%) are girls. The reason for the low share is like

high percentage of population lives in rural area. Actually in Sikkim there is no such

place called urban areas till the first municipal election. So instead of urban centres

there was Notified Town Area (NTA), which are not fulfil the criteria of towns cited

in the Census in terms of total population, density and percentage of male workers in

non-agricultural pursuits28. That is why those schools come under the parameters of

district Headquarters include as urban schools. The Urban Development and Housing

Department has taken steps to make the town sustainable for larger population by

concentrating on urban sanitation, drainage, parking areas, vehicle free areas,

shopping areas, amusement parks etc.

Table No.4.30

District-wise and Sex-wise Enrolment of Students in different level of School in

Rural Areas of Sikkim, (as on 30-09-2009) Level-wise enrolment

District Primary Schools Upper-Primary Schools Secondary Schools

Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total

East 14408 14046 28454 6263 7451 13714 2776 2991 5767

North 2812 2934 5746 1151 1299 2450 441 509 950

South 9948 9905 19853 3229 3790 7019 1114 1206 2320

West 9659 9526 19185 3708 4228 7936 1283 1395 2678

Total 36827 36411 73238 14351 16768 31119 5614 6101 11715


According to table no. 4.30 and 4.31 total numbers of 122450 students are

enrolled in rural area schools in Sikkim, where 60127 (49.10%) are boys and 62323

(50.90%) are girls. It shows that enrolment of Girls is higher than boys in rural area.

While Gross enrolment in district level shows that, East district constitute the higher

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percentage of both boys’ and girls’ enrolment as compare to other three districts. In

general East district share 41.75% in Gross enrolment of the students in rural area,

North district share minimum percentage to Gross enrolment in rural area that is

7.92%. Similarly, the South district and North district shares, 24.51% and 25.81%

respectively. As mention earlier the low population and tradition of Lamaism cause

the enrolment of students in North district. The rural area shares 92.74% enrolment to

the total enrolment of the students in different schools in state.

Table No.4.31

District-wise and Sex-wise Enrolment of Students in Higher Secondary Schools

in Rural Areas of Sikkim, (as on 30-09-2009)

District Enrolment of Students in Higher Secondary Schools

Total Boys and Girls State (Rural)

Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total East 1713 1480 3193 25160 25968 51128

North 263 293 556 4667 5015 9702

South 387 435 822 14678 15336 30014

West 972 835 1807 15622 15984 31606

Total 3335 3043 6378 60127 62323 122450


4.15 Number of Teachers (Rural and urban schools)

According to table no.4.32, there are 2917 teachers in primary level, where

1279 (44.77%) are female teachers and 1638 (55.23%) are male teachers in rural

sector. In Upper-Primary level the total numbers of 962 (55.75%) teachers are female

and 1141 (54.25%) are male teachers which gives the total of 2103 in rural sector of

Sikkim. In Secondary level out of 1972 teachers, 1095 (55.53%) are females and 877

(44.47%) are male teachers and in Higher level out of 1704 teachers, 889 (52.17%)

are females and 815 (47.83%) are males which shows the female teacher are less than

male teachers in state, but the district wise combination of teachers in different level

especially in east district has maximum number of female teachers (1911).

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Table No.4.32 District-wise, level-wise and Sex-wise distribution of Teachers of Sikkim in Rural

Area (as on 30-09-2009) District Position of Teachers in different district State

East North South West

Schools M F T M F T M F T M F T M F T

Pry. S 507 458 965 170 145 315 448 401 849 513 275 788 1638 1279 2917

UPS 355 420 775 91 96 187 380 271 651 315 175 490 1141 962 2103

SS 398 440 838 102 70 172 280 182 462 315 185 500 877 1095 1972

HSS 326 593 919 87 65 152 151 99 250 251 132 383 815 889 1704

Total 1586 1911 3497 450 376 826 1259 953 2212 1394 767 2161 4471 4225 8696

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11 • M= Male, F= Female, T= Total. • Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary

School, HSS= Higher Secondary School,

Table No.4.33

District-wise, level-wise and Sex-wise distribution of Teachers of Sikkim in

Urban Areas (as on 30-09-2009)

District Position of Teachers in different district State East North South West

Schools M F T M F T M F T M F T M F T Pry. S 03 28 31 00 00 00 18 61 79 00 00 00 21 89 110

UPS 15 25 40 00 00 00 05 19 24 05 07 12 25 51 76

SS 27 69 96 00 00 00 26 54 80 00 00 00 53 123 176

HSS 18 34 52 00 00 00 56 76 132 00 00 00 74 110 184

Total 63 156 219 00 00 00 105 210 315 05 07 12 178 427 546


• M= Male, F= Female, T= Total.

• Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary


According to above table (Table No.4.33), the overall number of female

teachers is more than male in urban sector of Sikkim, out of 546 number of teachers

in 34 schools of urban sector 427 (78.20%) are female teachers and 178 (21.20%) are

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male teachers. In district wise distribution the number of female teachers are more

than male teachers.

Below table (Table No.4.34), show the district-wise, level-wise and sex-wise

distributions of School teacher in state, where the number of female teachers in east

district is more than male teacher in state, out of 3716 Primary Teachers in state 2067

(55.62%) are female and remaining 1649 (44.38%) are male, but in same district, in

primary level the male teachers are more. In state the total number of 9242 teachers

are engaged in education sector including Primary, Upper-Primary, Secondary and

Higher Secondary Level, where 3980 are female Teachers, which is only 43.06% of

the total Teachers. The overall number of female teacher in other three districts is

comparatively lower than male teachers, but in Upper-Primary level in north district

the female teachers are more than male teachers (91 male teachers and 96 female

teachers).

Table No.4.34

District-wise, level-wise and Sex-wise distribution of Teachers of Sikkim (as on 30-09-2009)

Position of Teachers in different district

District East North South West

Schools M F T M F T M F T M F T

Pry. S 510 486 996 170 145 315 466 462 928 513 275 788

UPS 370 445 815 91 96 187 385 290 675 320 182 502

SS 425 509 934 102 70 172 306 236 542 315 185 500

HSS 344 627 971 87 65 152 207 175 382 251 132 383

Total 1649 2067 3716 450 376 826 1364 763 2527 1399 774 2173


• M= Male, F= Female, T= Total.

• Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary


4.16 Students Teacher Ratio (Rural and Urban schools)

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Table No.4.35 District-wise and level-wise ratio of Students Teacher in Rural Schools of Sikkim

(as on 30-09-2009) District Position of Teachers in different district

East North South West Schools T S R T S R T S R T S R Pry. S 965 28454 29:1 315 5746 18:1 849 19853 23:1 788 19185 24:1 UPS 775 13714 17:1 187 2450 13:1 651 7019 11:1 490 7936 16:1 SS 838 5767 7:1 172 950 6:1 462 2320 5:1 500 2678 5:1

HSS 919 3193 3:1 152 556 4:1 250 822 3:1 383 1807 5:1 Total 4397 51128 12:1 826 9702 12:1 2212 30014 14:1 2161 31606 15:1

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11 • T= Teacher, S= Student, R= Ratio.(Students/ Teacher) • Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary


According to Table no. 4.35, in rural sector the students’ Teacher ratio is quite

high as compare to other levels. East district the ratio in primary and upper-primary

level is 29:1 and 17:1 respectively which is high in rural areas as compare to all other

above. It shows the high pressure on teaching process among the primary and upper-

primary teachers. The crowded and sound-full environment of the class room

becomes the important factor for the high dropout in primary level and upper-primary

as compare to other level in state. Table below shows the students/teacher ratio in

schools of urban areas.

Table No.4.36

District-wise and level-wise ratio of Students/Teacher in Urban Schools of

Sikkim (as on 30-09-2009) District Position of Teachers in different district

East North South West Schools T S R T S R T S R T S R Pry. S 31 2667 86:1 00 00 00 79 2281 28:1 00 00 00 UPS 40 1301 32:1 00 00 00 24 1108 46:1 12 147 12:1 SS 96 568 6:1 00 00 00 80 784 8:1 00 00 00

HSS 34 291 8:1 00 00 00 132 433 3:1 00 00 00 Total 156 4827 40:1 00 00 00 315 4606 15:1 12 147 12:1

Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11 • T= Teacher, S= Student, R= Ratio.(Students/ Teacher) • Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary


According to the table no. 4.36, the maximum ratio is 86:1 in primary Schools

of East district, which is also highest in urban area. Due to high rate of urbanization

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and in-migration, the pressure on educational institution is more in eastern part of

Sikkim as compared to other three districts and responsible for the maximization of

students: Teacher ratio. As in rural area, the ratio in Secondary and Higher Secondary

School also decrease in urban area. The decreasing trends of ratio reflect less

possibility of dropouts in schools. While the primary education or the primary level

plays a important role in school education, where every child needs a proper care and

attention for mental development but the maximum ratio between student teacher

cause the teaching learning phenomenon. Below table shows the ratio of students/

Teacher in different level and districts in Sikkim,

Table No.4.37

District-wise and level-wise ratio of Students/Teacher in Sikkim (as on 30-09-

2009) District Position of Teachers in different district

East North South West Schools T S R T S R T S R T S R Pry. S 996 31121 31:1 315 5746 18:1 928 22134 23:1 788 19185 24:1

UPS 815 15015 18:1 187 2450 13:1 675 8127 12:1 502 8083 16:1

SS 934 6335 7:1 172 950 6:1 542 3104 6:1 500 2678 5:1

HSS 971 3484 4:1 152 556 3:1 382 1255 3:1 383 1807 5:1

Total 3,716 55955 15:1 826 9702 12:1 2527 34620 14:1 2173 31753 15:1

\Source: aises.nic.in/stateReport?stateId=11 • T= Teacher, S= Student, R= Ratio.(Students/ Teacher) • Pry. S= Primary School, UPS= Upper-Primary School, SS= Secondary


According to the table no 4.37, the students/Teacher ratio in Sikkim is less

than 30:1, (except in primary level in East district that 31:1) which means teachers

can provide good education in good environment. While the maximum ratio is 31:1

(Students/Teacher) in East district in primary level and minimum is 3:1

(Students/Teacher) in north district in Higher Secondary level. In primary level

teachers play an important role for the development of pupil in every aspect, so for

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development of education along with the quality and quantity the ratio should be

minimize with the appointment of teachers according to the need of the schools.

In General, the status of the traditional educational institution in Sikkim is

still on top for the religious development. The Government of Sikkim gives full

attention for the development of the traditional schools. In 2005 there are 60

traditional educational institutes like Sanskrit Pathsalas, monastic schools and

Madarsas in Sikkim.29 There is no Sanskrit Pathsala in North district. The main

reason for the Zero number of Sanskrit School in North district is, that the region is

declared as a ‘Tribal region’ where the Bhutia and the Lepcha community of the state

tribe’s community lived. The people of these two communities are from Buddhist

religion, so for the development of religion and for the development of culture they

follow the Lamaism through Monastic Schools instead of taking admission in Sanskrit

School. The Sex-wise Enrolment of Pupil in the School at Different Stages in Sikkim

in 1984 and 2009 is shown in table no.4. 38

Table No. 4.38

Sex-wise Enrolment of Pupil in the School at Different Stages in Sikkim, 1984

and 2009


Categories 1984 2009 Total

Schools Boys Girls Total Boys Girls

Primary 34,982

(57.52%)

25,839

(42.48%)

60821

(100%)

39381

(50.36%)

38805

(49.64%)

78186

(100%)

Lower

Secondary

8,102

(60.35%)

5,321

(39.65%)

13423

(100%)

15597

(46.33%)

18078

(53.67%)

33675

(100%)

Secondary 2,112

(66.73%)

1,053

(33.27%)

3165

(100%)

6278

(48.04%)

6789

(51.96%)

13067

(100%)

Higher

Secondary

613

(66.06%)

315

(33.94%)

928

(100%)

3643

(51.29%)

3459

(48.71%)

7102

(100%)

Total 45,809

(58.48%)

32,528

(41.52%)

78337

(100%)

64899

(49.15%)

67131

(50.85%)

132030

(100%)

Source: For 1984-‘Education in Sikkim an historical retrospect pre merger and post-

merger period by Dick B. Dewan (2012). P- 336

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Above, table no. 4.38, shows the gross enrolment of girls and boys in 1984

and 2009. According to it, in primary level the gross enrolment of girls is 49.64% in

2009 against 42.48% in 1984. It shows that the state achieved 7.16% growth in

enrolment of girls in primary level. While in total enrolment of girl in all schools,

State achieves 51.62% growth in gross enrolment of girls in 2009 as compare to 1984.

The growth rate in different level in 2009 as compare to 1984 is 22.43% in primary

level, 60.14% in lower primary level, 75.78% in Secondary level, and 86.93% in

Higher Secondary level. The overall growth in enrolment of students in 2009 was

40.77%. Sikkim started providing all the possible and needed opportunities and

facilities for the Girls in the state only after 1975 when Sikkim became the state of the

Indian Union. According to table no. 2.13, out of 78414 student enrolled in primary

level only 7102 (9.06%) of them were able to complete the secondary level in 2009,

out of which 3459 were girls and 3643 were boys, which was just 1.53% in 1984.

The total numbers of 9242 teachers were engaged in different educational institutions

in Sikkim in 200930 against 4265 in 198431.

4.17 Problem of Dropouts Sikkim achieved the tremendous growth in gross (Boys and Girls) enrolment

of students in different level of educational institutions within two and half decades.

While, the percentage of students who were able to complete the academic

qualification of Higher Secondary level was very low as compare to total enrolled

students in primary level. According to the data mentioned in table no. 2.13, in 1984

out of 60821 students enrolled in primary level only 13423 students were able to join

in lower Secondary level. The percentage of dropout children were 77.93% (47398),

out of which 20518 (43.29%) were girls and 26880 (56.71%) were boys. But in 2009

the percentage of dropout decreased by 34.98%, where the percentage of dropout was

42.95% out of which 20843 were girls and 23896 were boys. Again out of 13423

students only 3165 (23.58%) students were able to complete the lower Secondary

level and join the Secondary level which gave 10258 (76.42%) number of the total

dropout students in 1984, further out of which 4268 (41.61%) were girls and 5990

(58.39%) were boys. In 2009 the percentage of dropout in lower Secondary level was

61.20%, which shows that state achieved decrease of 15.22% in dropout percentage

within the two and half decades. The total numbers of dropout children in Secondary

level in 1984 was 2237 (70.68%) , which shows that only 21.32% of students were

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able to complete the secondary level. However, in 2009 the total number of 7102

(54.35%) students completed the secondary level it shows the improvement of

16.33% in dropout percentage. According to table no. 2.13, out of 78414 student

enrolled in primary level only 7102 (9.06%) of them were able to complete the

secondary level in 2009, out of which 3459 were girls and 3643 were boys and in

1984 which was just 1.53%.

After merge to India the investment on education sector was not able to justify

the demands of poor people of Sikkim. The agriculture sector was a main sector for

livelihood in the hilly State like Sikkim, where maximum numbers of people were

directly dependent on agro-based industry, but the absence of commercial market

stopped the circular flow of money in two sector economy, so they were not in a

position to pay the school fees, which forced them to withdraw their children from

different levels of schools. The insufficiency of schools within the manageable

distance was also responsible for high rate of dropouts and low enrolment of the

student in schools. The practice of the child labour present in high level of society, the

helpless parents of the society send their children to works as a response to poverty

are few kinds of practice that forced the parents of the poor families in society to

access the credit on the basis of child income.

However, the present scenario of the State is totally different from the past.

The poverty is not only the main reason for the high rate of dropout and low

enrolment of students in educational institutions. Last but not the least; the corporal

punishment is also responsible for high dropout in higher level.

The scenario of elementary education in Sikkim was not appreciable till 1975.

Even after 1975 with the massive expansion in school education, the newly

established Department of Education failed to spread the pre-primary education in

Sikkim. As a result, Department of Education in Sikkim neglected the importance of

Pre-primary education in early years of educational development.

Thus in the absence of Pre-primary education centres the younger ones were

taught some basic knowledge of alphabets in English as well as Nepali and basic

numbers from 1 to 100. This kind of method was applicable only for those families

who were literate, but the majority of people in Sikkim was illiterate which cause the

problem at the time of admission of their children in formal system of education. For

the quality education in pre-primary education, the existing schools of the state

offered basic education through conversation the class I into beginner’s class. In 1989

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there were 528 pre-primary education centres in Sikkim and in 1996 there were 739

pre-primary education centres in Sikkim with the total enrolment of 19946 pupils

(10424 boys and 9522 girls), with 939 school mothers (Teachers who teach in Pre-

Primary centres) who are responsible for the overall development of pupils.32 The

establishment of pre-primary education centres is able to develop the habits of daily

presence of children in schools in their behaviour. The occasional visit of doctors and

nurses was able to provide good health care. The children from 4 – 6 age groups were

easily adjusted in learning through play ground method. At present all the per-primary

centres are attached to every school in Sikkim. The vacant places of pre-primary

centres are filled by different centres like, EGC (Education Guarantee Centre), ICDS

(Integrated Child Development Scheme) etc in Sikkim, as well as in Country. In 2005

there were 475 ICDS and 37 EGC centres for the development of children before

admissions to schools in Sikkim.33

According to the data published, regarding population Density of Schools,

2002-03 (No. of Schools/ Thousand People) in Sikkim Development Report 2008,in

Sikkim there were 6.60 pre-primary and primary schools/1000 people, 0.61 Upper

Primary schools/1000 people, 0.36 Secondary Schools/1000 people and 0.16 Senior

Secondary Schools/ 1000 people. In district level, the east district had the lowest

coverage with just 1.52 schools (All Categories)/ 1000 population, in south 2.19

schools/1000 population, in west 2.26 schools/1000 population and in north

2.53schools/1000 population.34 The above mention data shows that the east district

had maximum pressure in the field of educational development while in north district

the pressure was low because of the low population. The table no.4.39 shows the

population density of schools in 2002-03 (No. of Schools/1000 people).

Table No. 4.39

Population Density of Schools, 2002-03 (No. of Schools/ 1000 People)

Category of Schools East West North South Sikkim

Pre-Primary and Primary 5.10 7.85 8.74 7.49 6.60

Upper Primary 0.52 0.67 0.57 0.71 0.61

Secondary 0.28 0.37 0.62 0.41 0.36

Senior Secondary 0.18 0.15 0.17 0.14 0.16

Average 1.52 2.26 2.53 2.19 1.93

Source: Sikkim Development Report, 2008.

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‘Regarding accessibility of the elementary education within the habitation and

walk-able distance in Sikkim, the total of 50.5% of the rural population were able to

join the primary schools (Class I-V) between 0-0.5 kilometre in 1978, which was

much lower than the national average of 85.13% (78.53% within their habitation and

6.60% up to 0.5 kilometre) of the rural population. After 15 years that is in 1993

Sikkim was able to achieve improvement of 18.38% in accessibility of elementary

education, in 1993 the total of 73.88% of the rural population were able to join the

primary education within the 0.5 km (65.5% within the habitation and 8.29% up to 0.5

km) as against the national average of 85.50% (77.81% within the habitation and

7.69% up to 0.5 km). In 1978, Sikkim has only 13.22% of rural population with

accessibility between 0-1.0 km from the habitation as against national averages of

45.57%, in case of upper primary schools (VI-VIII). In 2002, 87.28% of the rural

population had access to primary school within the 1 km of walking distance and

83.63% to upper primary school within 3 km of walking distance. Regarding

accessibility of secondary school in Sikkim in 2005, 80.45% of the rural habitation

accessed within the 5 km of walking distance and 66.95% of them had access to

senior secondary school within 8 km.’35 The establishment of Educational Guarantee

Scheme (EGS) at every school less habitation to provides the basic education

facilities. “According to the Annual Report 2005-2006 of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

(SSA) in Sikkim, there are 37 Education Guarantee Scheme centres in Sikkim

covering 850 children. All these centres are run by different registered Non

Government Organizations (NGOs) under the supervision of District Project Offices

of the State. In 2005, following NGOs were selected to run the EGS Centres in

different districts of the State,

1) Bidya Bharati –Headquarter in Gangtok, East Sikkim (East District)

2) Milan Samaj Sewa Samiti, Mellidara, West Sikkim (West District)

3) Himalayan Education Society, Temi Tarku, South Sikkim (South District)

4) Teesta Tendong Club, Burmiok Tokal, South Sikkim (South Sikkim)

5) Mutanchi Lhom Aal Shezum, Headquarter in Mangan, North Sikkim (North

District)”36

“The Government of Sikkim takes some major steps in partnership with the

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), local government and with NGOs for providing

elementary education to all children in the age group 6-14 years in Sikkim. Besides

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involving all the government organizations, the state Government encourage the Self

help Group, Teachers, parent activities and women’s organizations to strengthen the

accountability in implementation of the programme called elementary education. The

main goal of SSA is to ensure and achieve universal access, universal enrolment,

universal retention and universal achievement. The SSA project has been

implemented in all the four districts of Sikkim.37 The management structure of SSA at

the state level has five tiers viz, State, District, Block, Cluster and School Level. The

state project office is located at Gangtok under the control of state project director

who is also a Director of Human Resources Development Department of Sikkim. In

district level the District Collectors of different districts are the chairman of the SSA

units. The Joint Directors of each District acts as Vice Chairman cum District Project

Head of SSA. In Sikkim, the Sub-Divisions are declared as Blocks for the

implementation and management of SSA activities. For the betterment of school

activities the SSA appoints the School Managing Committee in each government

school consisting of teachers, Social workers and Parents. There are 09 Block

Resource Centres, 131 Cluster Resource Centres and 783 School Managing

Committees in Sikkim.38 The involvement of general people in education sector not

only encourage the Parents to send their children to school, but it also monitor the

activities of the schools like Quality education, needs of the school, numbers of

teachers, infrastructural development and so on. At the beginning of the Project the

total numbers of out of school children were 15033, which was 13.70% of the

children population of the state. After five years of implementation of SSA the

percent of out of school children was reduced to 9805 at the end of 31th March 2006,

which out only 8.94% of the total children population39. Under the innovation of

activities of SSA, the state achieved enormous success in enrolling out of school

children with the formation of EGS Centres, New Primary Schools, and Upgraded

Upper Primary Schools. “The achievements made under the SSA till mid 2005 are;

• Construction of 21 new buildings for primary schools within the state.

• 104 additional rooms have been constructed.

• 433 toilets for schools have been constructed.

• Drinking water facilities in 274 schools have been made available.

• 90 schools have been provided with electricity facility.

• Boundary walls to 27 schools have been provided.

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• 40 new primary schools have been opened in habitations where there is

no school.

• 37 primary schools have been upgraded to upper primary schools on

need basis and

• 22 alternative schools are functioning in the school-less habitation

where establishment of primary schools does not meet the norms.”40

The status of the traditional educational institution in Sikkim is still on top for

the religious development. The Government of Sikkim gives full attention for the

development of the traditional schools. In 2005 there are 60 traditional educational

institutes like Sanskrit Pathsalas, monastic schools and Madarsas in Sikkim.41 There

is no Sanskrit Pathsala in North district. The main reason for the Zero number of

Sanskrit School in North district is, that the region is declared as a ‘Tribal region’

where the Bhutia and the Lepcha community of the state tribe’s community lived.

According to the 8TH AISES (All India Education Survey) out of 1262 habitations in

state, 679 habitations have Primary schools facility within them, and 376 habitations

have facility of Upper Primary Schools within them. The percent of habitations where

the facility of Primary and Upper-Primary level is available within them is 53.80%

and 29.79% respectively. In 335 (26.54%) habitations the facility of Primary Schools

is available within one kilometres but not within them and in 592 (46.90%) habitation

the facility of Upper-Primary School is available within three kilometre but not within

them. The total number of 248 (19.65%) habitation have Primary Schools beyond one

kilometres and in 294 (23.29%) habitations have the facility of Upper-Primary

Schools available beyond the distance of three kilometre.42

According to data published by Annual Status of Education Report (Rural)

2012 (ASER), “out of 100% of total students between the age group of 6-14 including

boys and girls, 67.8% are in Government Schools, 28.7% are in Private Schools, 0.8%

in other (Children going to Madarssa and EGS and 2.7% are not in School. In the age

group of 7- 16 including girls and boys, 72.3% are in Government School, 23% are in

Private School 1.1% and 3.7%are not in school. The age group of 15-16 (Boys) has

maximum percentage of not in School children’s which is 10.7%. The percentage of

girls is more than boys between the age group of 15-16 years which is 84.8% in

Government School against 75.6% of boys. In 2012, 50.1% of children having age of

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3 years are enrolled in Balwadi or Anganwadi, 33.9% in LKG/ UKG and 16% are out

of School in rural areas of Sikkim. The high percentage of out of School children in

the age of 3 years is just because of high fees of private schools or Balwadi/

Aganwadi Centres are not nearby residence. Again 12% of 5 years children are

enrolled in Balwadi/Aganwadi, 9.9% are in LKG/UKG, 23.1% in Government

Schools, 47.7% in Private Schools and 3.3% are in other educational institutions, and

the percentage of not in School or pre-school is 4.2% in same age.”43

Sikkim has been awarded the best performing state in the field of education

among smaller States for the two consecutive years in 2004 and 2005 by India Today

Magazine44, but still the quality education is the major concern in the present world.

The involvement of people in management of school committee is always serious in

the quality of education and infrastructural facilities. The quality education needs equal

focus on Input = Process = Output mechanism or like input = output process. The

availability of proper and adequate infrastructural facility is one of the major indicators

of quality education. Therefore, children of the pre-primary classes are like the

children attending Balwadi, Aganwadi etc in other sister states. The facility called Mid

Day Meal program is also available in Pre-Primary classes and EGS Centres for the

nutritional supports from concerned department.

The main obstacle in spreading of education in Sikkim is the poverty of its

people, so the state government has taken a number of measures to make schooling

less expensive and also extend financial support to the weaker section of the society.

Thus the facilities like free School Uniform, Textbooks, and Exercise Copies, raincoats

up to the Primary level and Textbooks and Exercise Copies at subsidized rate for the

students of class VI-VIII are the major step taken by the state Government of Sikkim

in the education sector.45 The provision of Mid Day Meal Scheme under Union

sponsored scheme at primary level (Class I to VIII) is also there. The facility of 50%

subsidy under the State Government Policy, the ST/SC girls are also facilitated with

textbook subsidy at the rate of Rs 150/ child/ year for class VI-VIII. The Welfare

Department of Sikkim also provides the scholarship facility for SC/ST Children. Other

facilities like Prerna Scholarship, Merit Scholarship are provided by Human Resource

Development Department, Government of Sikkim.46

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The above mentioned facilities and the provision for the quality education bring

maximum people under the ambit of education. Despite implementation of policies for

the quality education by the state government from ground level, a large number of

private schools have come up in Sikkim. According to the State Development Report

2008, 45% of private schools are in east district, where the pressure on educational

institution is maximum due to high population, accordingly 25% in south and 22% in

west district of Sikkim47. Generally the private schools are the profit motive

entrepreneurships where the cost of education is expensive where no traces of

subsidies are found in any ground. Here the profit motive entrepreneurship does not

mean that, in private schools the quality of education and the standard of teaching is

neglected, instead, the private schools use the global language as a medium of

instruction which is English right from the beginning. The high class society of Sikkim

and those parents who are able to bear expensive education admit their children in

private schools, so their children can speak English and they can face more competitive

atmosphere in the future.

********

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End Notes

1 Dewan, Dick B. (2012), ‘Education in Sikkim, An historical Retrospect, Pre- Merger

and Post-Merger Period’ Published by Society for the Procurement and Sales of

Books, Tender Buds’ Society, Pedong, (Kalimpong), Dist. Darjeeling. P- 108.

2 Ibid p- 47

3 ibid p-102

4 Ibid -136-137

5 Mohammad, Yasin and Durga P. chettri (2012), ‘Politics, Society and Development

insights from Sikkim’, Published by Kalpaz Publications C-30, Satyawati Nagar,

Delhi-110052. P-260

6 Dewan, op cit (2012), P -212

7 Mohammad Yasin, Durga P. Chettri, op cit (2012), p-259

8 Chettri, Durga P. (2010)- “Sikkim Chronicle” , (Ed), IMPACT Publication, Bidhan

Road, Near Hotel Dolly Inn, Siliguri- 01, P- 39

9. Dewan, op cit (2012), p 214

10 Mohammad, Yasin, Durga P. Chettri, op cit (2012), p-258

11 Dewan, op cit (2012), ‘P- 177

12 Mohammad, Yasin, Durga P. Chettri, op cit (2012), p-261

13 Dewan, op cit (2012), pp - 215- 216

14 Joshi, H. G. (Reproduced in 2010), ‘Sikkim Past and Present’, Mittal Publications,

4594/9, Daryaganj, New Delhi- 110002, India (ISBN – 8170999324), Pp – 211-213.

15 Dewan, op cit (2012), pp - 222

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16 Sikkim Development Report (2008), Planning Commission Government of India,

Published by Academic Foundation 4772-73/23 Bharat Ram Road, Darya Ganj, New

Delhi-110002.

17 Dewan, op cit (2012), ‘p- 225

18 ibid P- 226

19 Name of the class, when students used stones to make alphabets.

20 Maize-grains were used by the students to make alphabets and for counting.

21 Mohammad, Yasin, Durga P. Chhetri op cit (2012), p- 261.

22 Census of India 2011, Provisional Population Totals Paper 2 Volume 2 of 2011

Rural – Urban Distribution of Population Sikkim Series-12 p- 19

23 Subba, J. R. (2011), ‘History, Culture and Customs of Sikkim’, Gyan Publishing

House, 23, Main Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi- 110002, (ISBN; 8121209641),

P- 170

24 Devendra, Thakur and D. N. Thakur, (1997), ‘New Education Policy, Studies in

Educational Development’, Deep and Deep Publications, F-159, Rajouri Garden, New

Delhi-110027, (ISBN: 817100864X), Pp- 9-10.

25 Ibid, Pp- 295-296

26 Ibid, P- 325

27 Census of India 2001, Provisional Population Totals, Paper 2, Volume 2of 2001,

Rural- Urban Distribution of population Sikkim Series-12, P- 3

28 Mohammad, Yasin, Durga P. Chettri (Editors) op cit (2012), P- 37

29 Sikkim Development Report 2008, Planning Commission Government of India New

Delhi, Academic Foundation, 4772-73/23 Bharat Ram Road, (23 Ansari Road), Darya

Ganj, New Delhi-110002, (ISBN 13: 9788171886685), P- 75

184

Estelar

308Th All India School Education Survey (Provisional Statistics), Department of

Educational Survey and Data Processing, Ministry of Human Resource Development,

Government of India, (www.google.co.in/Flash Report National-Home All India

School Education Survey, State-wise Report

31 Dewan, op cit (2012), P- 337

32 ibid

33 Annual Report 2005-06 Sarva Siksha Abhiyan Sikkim, published by HRDD, Govt.

of Sikkim, Gangtok P-17




35 ibid P- 77

36 Annual Report 2005-2006, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Sikkim, Published by HRDD,

Govt. Of Sikkim, Gangtok P- 30

37 Annual Report 2005-2006, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Sikkim, Published by HRDD,

Govt. Of Sikkim, Gangtok P- 22

38 ibid

39 ibid, P- 32




41 ibid P- 75

42 8th All India School Education Survey (As on 30-09-2009) (Provisional data), link-

www.aises.nic.in/surveyoutputs

185

Estelar

http://www.google.co.in/Flash

43Annual Status of Educational Report (Rural) 2012, Provisional, January 17, 2013,

Published by ASER Centre, B-4/54,Safdarjung Enclave, Near Kamal Cinema, New

Delhi 110029, P-235

44 Sikkim Development Report 2008, op cit P- 81

45Annual Report 2005-06 op cit , Pp- 36-37

46 ibid, P- 37

47 Sikkim Development Report 2008, op cit P- 85

186

Estelar

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