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 spoken 1 . 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 139 Estelar
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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,
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
153
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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
Lower Primary Schools 35 62 21 48 166
Primary Schools 110 95 39 92 336
Junior High Schools 48 36 16 47 147
Secondary Schools 30 23 11 28 92
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.
154
Estelar
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
Lower Primary Schools 13 20 05 11 49
Primary Schools 60 53 07 61 181
Junior High Schools 28 15 03 13 59
Secondary Schools 10 02 03 02 17
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
155
Estelar
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.
District Primary Schools
Upper-Primary Schools
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)
156
Estelar
Table No.4.16
Primary Schools in rural areas According to type of Management, (30-09-2009)
HSS= Higher Secondary School, • DW= Drinking Water • UU= Usable Urinal • PG= Playground • T= Total
166
Estelar
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
4.16 Students Teacher Ratio (Rural and Urban schools)
171
Estelar
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
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