India’s progress in the education sector hasn’t been exactly stellar. Although the latest Annual Status of Education Report brought out by Pratham, a leading NGO in the sector, says that 96 percent of children in rural India in the age group of 6-14 years are now enrolled in schools, the quality of education remains dismal.

The report says that just 69 percent of class I students in rural areas are able to recognise numbers between 1 and 9. It also says that the quality of instruction in subjects like arithmetic and english remains poor. The survey found that about half of the children in class V in rural areas are unable to read a class III textbook.

The report also found that the paid private tuition across the country is on the rise. 

Pratham surveyed 575 out of 583 rural districts in India. The data covered 16,291 villages, 338,027 households and 6,91,734 children. To know more about its findings click on this link: http://asercentre.org/asersurvey/aser09/pdfdata/National%20finding%20India.pdf