New Delhi: If you think the government's primary education programmes are not working, this report is sure to surprise you. Children in rural India are going to school and they are doing it in large numbers.
That's what the Annual State of Education Report says brought out by NGO Pratham. The report comes out from data collected from 485 districts in rural India.
The findings say that 93 of every 100 children in rural India go to school between the ages of 6 and 14. This means about 11 million children are not in school or have never been in one.
This is particularly true of states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. These states taken together are home to 71 of every 100 children who don’t go to school.
For every 100 out of school children between the ages of 6 and 10, 52 are girls and 48 are boys. And this becomes 55 and 45 between the ages of 11 and 14.
But the question this survey raises is not just one of simple enrollment but a more serious one of functional illiteracy. The survey found that in many states, even class V students could not read a text or solve a sum meant for a class II student.
In states like UP, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka, more than 49 per cent of class V students could not read a class II level text. More than 68 per cent class V level students could not solve a class II level simple division.
But there's some good news on the infrastructure front.
70 of every 100 schools visited by the survey team were serving mid-day meals to its students.
So now, it can be said that the basic infrastructure for primary education in rural India is in place. The government and the Planning Commission could perhaps look at ways in making teaching effective.
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