THE QUEST FOR QUALITY IN SCHOOL EDUCATION: A FIELD EXPLORATION IN THE VICINITIES OF BASTAR, CHHATTISGARH

There is a growing concern among the academicians, teachers, parents about the lack of access, participation, underachievement of learners in schools. This situation is bleaker in the case of the learners of tribal dominant areas who still lack the opportunity for quality school education. A pilot study for a case study of the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh state was planned with an objective of developing a comprehensive understanding of the attitudes and aspirations of the learners, the parents and the envisioned role of the teachers towards schooling. The study was conducted in two blocs of Jagdalpur district in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. A random purposive sampling was used for collecting the data. It included ten students each from 6th to 8th class of Residential and NonResidential schools. Observations, Group discussion, Semi-Structured, open ended interviews were used as the tool for data collection, distinctively, with all the stakeholders of the schooling system i.e. the students, the parents, the teachers, and the personnels of state school education. The enquiry was purely exploratory in nature, unfolded series of issues and challenges confronting the quality of school education system as a whole. It pointed towards the need for better prepared teachers capable of serving in tribal dominant areas, a more engaging experiences for the learners, concerned eagerness among the parents to send their children to school and thereby an intervention for quality school education.