According to the latest 'Annual Status of Education Report', while elementary school enrolment levels in India's villages are high across the country, there is a lot of scope for improvement in school facilities. Most urgent is that attention needs to be paid to the learning component at government schools. While more than 90% of Indian children in rural areas may be attending primary school, nearly half of them cannot read simple sentences or do simple math, according to a recent nationwide survey conducted in 485 rural districts across 28 of India's 35 states and union territories. Despite the government's concerted efforts, 1.4 crore village children still remain out of school.
However, a pleasant surprise thrown up by the 'Annual Status of Education Report ' (ASER) conducted by the Delhi-based non-governmental organization Pratham together with hundreds of local NGOs, is that students in Bihar and Chhattisgarh (states that have the worst educational facilities) show higher learning capabilities in reading and arithmetic compared to children from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat which have higher enrolment rates and better school infrastructure.
School-going children in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, home to India's infotech hubs, were among the bottom five in terms of arithmetic abilities -- 76% of Standard V students in Karnataka and 68% in Tamil Nadu were unable to do simple division. "These states must seriously examine the way mathematics is taught in schools," the report suggests. These states are in the company of Orissa, where 69% of children showed poor math ability, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh where the figures were 68% and 62% respectively.
Kerala tops in terms of reading capability, whereas West Bengal tops in arithmetic. However, the former finds a place only in reading ability, and Haryana only in arithmetic.
The results of the government-commissioned survey are an indictment of its much-vaunted elementary education drive, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which aims to achieve universal elementary education by 2010.
The survey shows that while 93.4% of the 332,971 children interviewed in 191,057 households in 9,521 villages across the country were enrolled in school, attendance rates did not match up, and the quality of education they receive did not give them an edge over the millions of Indian children in villages who do not go to school.
The survey measured the schools' success in imparting the three 'R's (reading, writing and arithmetic -- considered the fundamentals of formal learning), along with enrolment and attendance rates, to draw the government's attention to the promise of making education a fundamental right of the Indian child.
Many states like Kerala, Karnataka, Uttaranchal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat have less than 4% of children in the 6-14 age-group out of school.
In fact, Goa has overtaken Kerala as the state with the lowest number of out-of-school children -- only 0.3% of all children in the tiny coastal state do not go to school, compared to 1.6% of Kerala's children. Karnataka comes third with 1.9%, followed by Uttaranchal (2%), Tamil Nadu (2.7%) and Maharashtra (2.8%). Gujarat placed seventh, with 3.6% of its children out of school. Madhya Pradesh comes eighth with 4%, followed by Punjab (4.3%), West Bengal (4.4%), Chhattisgarh (4.7%), Haryana (5.3%) and Uttar Pradesh (7.3%). Andhra Pradesh (7.4%), Orissa (8.9%), Jharkhand (9.8%) and Rajasthan (10.4%) are at the bottom of the list. Bihar comes in last in terms of enrolment figures.
However, a pleasant surprise thrown up by the 'Annual Status of Education Report ' (ASER) conducted by the Delhi-based non-governmental organization Pratham together with hundreds of local NGOs, is that students in Bihar and Chhattisgarh (states that have the worst educational facilities) show higher learning capabilities in reading and arithmetic compared to children from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat which have higher enrolment rates and better school infrastructure.
School-going children in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, home to India's infotech hubs, were among the bottom five in terms of arithmetic abilities -- 76% of Standard V students in Karnataka and 68% in Tamil Nadu were unable to do simple division. "These states must seriously examine the way mathematics is taught in schools," the report suggests. These states are in the company of Orissa, where 69% of children showed poor math ability, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh where the figures were 68% and 62% respectively.
Kerala tops in terms of reading capability, whereas West Bengal tops in arithmetic. However, the former finds a place only in reading ability, and Haryana only in arithmetic.
The results of the government-commissioned survey are an indictment of its much-vaunted elementary education drive, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which aims to achieve universal elementary education by 2010.
The survey shows that while 93.4% of the 332,971 children interviewed in 191,057 households in 9,521 villages across the country were enrolled in school, attendance rates did not match up, and the quality of education they receive did not give them an edge over the millions of Indian children in villages who do not go to school.
The survey measured the schools' success in imparting the three 'R's (reading, writing and arithmetic -- considered the fundamentals of formal learning), along with enrolment and attendance rates, to draw the government's attention to the promise of making education a fundamental right of the Indian child.
Many states like Kerala, Karnataka, Uttaranchal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat have less than 4% of children in the 6-14 age-group out of school.
In fact, Goa has overtaken Kerala as the state with the lowest number of out-of-school children -- only 0.3% of all children in the tiny coastal state do not go to school, compared to 1.6% of Kerala's children. Karnataka comes third with 1.9%, followed by Uttaranchal (2%), Tamil Nadu (2.7%) and Maharashtra (2.8%). Gujarat placed seventh, with 3.6% of its children out of school. Madhya Pradesh comes eighth with 4%, followed by Punjab (4.3%), West Bengal (4.4%), Chhattisgarh (4.7%), Haryana (5.3%) and Uttar Pradesh (7.3%). Andhra Pradesh (7.4%), Orissa (8.9%), Jharkhand (9.8%) and Rajasthan (10.4%) are at the bottom of the list. Bihar comes in last in terms of enrolment figures.
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