The record of West Bengal on the elementary education and adult literacy front so far, by any reckoning, has not been spectacular. Almost thirty percent of the state's population remained illiterate at the beginning of the present century. A significant proportion of children, especially girls and those belonging to the underprivileged groups, either do not enroll in schools or drop out at an early stage. Although commendable efforts have been made by the government in recent years to spread elementary education among the masses, a great deal remains to be done to realize the goal of universal elementary education in West Bengal. In policy discussions mention is often made of various constraining factors, the empirical and analytical bases of which do not always seem very strong. However. it is now being increasingly perceived that the problem largely lies on the supply side - the low quality of education received in schools, inadequate post literacy and continuing education efforts, and so forth. In this background, it seems obvious that there is an urgent need for further investigation into the scenario of literacy and primary education in West Bengal.
We. at the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (lDSK), devised a strategy to promote research in this specific area. We invited research proposals from young teachers, scholars i'lnd researchers, focusing on different aspects of literacy and primary education in West Bengal. Through a rigorous process of screening, ten proposals were selected and small research grants were offered to the researchers to carry out their proposed research. Professor Prabhat Datta and Dr. Dipankar Sinha of the Department of Political Science, Calcutta University, were in charge of research supervision, who were helped by the faculty of IDSK at various stages. The researchers also drew on the advice of a group of experts at various stages of their research, and all ten of them have completed their studies and submitted reports.

The problem of dropout at the primary stage. for good reason, has been the central theme in almost all the studies. Severn I studies have confirmed that the demand side problems, such as compulsions of work to supplement family income, are rather less serious than the supply side bottlenecks. Most parents from low-income households literate or illiterate - do realize the value of education, and many of them spend a very high proportion of their income on their children's education. Ironically, the high cost of ' free' education to poor families seems to be a major deterring factor - many children drop out because their parents cannot afford to pay for private tutors. In recent years various efforts have been made to improve the situation. Our researchers have found that Sishu Siksha Kendras (SSK) and the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) have made some contribution in this regard, but the effort has to go further and embrace many dimensions that apparently lie outside the narrow domain of education.
We do not intend to summarise all the findings of the studies here. We feel that the results should be widely disseminated among the educationists, scholars, policy makers and Qthers interested in the problems of illiteracy and primary education. With this aim we have planned this Working Paper Series. All the results will ultimately be put together and presented in a monograph in the near future.
                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                            Amiya Kumar Bagchi
cheap cigarettes                                                                                                                             Director , IDSK

Working Paper 1 (July, 2004)  :

 Primary Educaton Among  Low Income Muslims in Kolkata :  Slum Dwellers of Park Circus   

 by  Dr. Zakir Husain     zakir@vsnl.net , dzhusain@yahoo.com

Abstract
The low level of literacy in the Muslim community is traditionally explained in terms of the values characterising Muslim society. Based on a field survey of slum dwellers in Park Circus and Topsia, this research questions this explanation. It is argued that economic factors and uncertainties in the labour market combine to create a different perception of the cost-benefits of education. The study also examines other facets of education-related decisions: its cost and components, the choice of educational institutions and the preferred medium of instruction, presence of any gender bias, and the relation between drop-outs and child labour.

Working Paper 2 (July, 2004)  :

 Impact of District Primary Education  Programme (DPEP) on Primary Education : A study of South 24 Parganas 

 by Suman  Ray    suman_ray1@yahoo.co.in

Abstract
The study, conducted in two areas in South 24 Parganas, aimed at investigl1ting the changes in enrolment, retention and dropout that could be attributed to the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). It was found that the programme had positive impact on enrolment and dropout. As the dropout was found to be due to economic compulsion, the provision of mid-day meal had been effective in retaining students belonging to the poorer families. The student-teacher ratio has been found to be too high to implement effectively the new techniques of teaching in some of the schools in the study areas. Most of the schools do not have the basic infrastructure like separate classrooms, and this can partly explain non-enrolment and dropout.