The state of Indian education

For the first time, the proportion of children who are not enrolled in school falls below three percent, according to ASER (Rural) 2018 report

GN Bureau | January 15, 2019


#school   #literacy rate   #children   #ASER report   #education sector   #India education  


In India, 50 percent of all boys in the age group 14 to 16 can correctly solve a division problem as compared to 44 percent of all girls, reveals the 13th ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) (Rural) 2018. The nation-wide household survey provides a snapshot of children’s schooling and learning for a representative sample of children across rural India. ASER 2018 reached 596 districts in rural India. A total of 3,54,944 households and 5,46,527 children in the age group 3 to 16 were surveyed.

Following are the major findings of the 2018 survey:
 
Schooling level
 
·       The proportion of children (age 6-14) who are not enrolled in school has fallen below 3 percent for the first time and stands at 2.8 percent
 
·       All India proportion of girls (age 11-14) out of school is at 4.1 percent, decrease from 10.3 percent in 2006
 
·       The percentage of children (age 6-14) enrolled in private schools was 30.6 percent in 2016 and is almost unchanged at 30.9 percent in 2018
 
Reading and Maths
 
·       The percentage of all children in Std III who can read Std II level text is 27.2 percent, a an increase from 21.6 percent in 2013.
 
·       The figure for government school children in Std III who are able to do at least subtraction has not changed much, from 20.3 percent in 2016 to 20.9 percent in 2018.
 
·       The proportion of children in Std V across India who are able to do division has inched up slightly, from 26 percent in 2016 to 27.8 percent in 2018.
 
·       All India figure for the proportion of girls (age 14 to 16) who can read at least a Std II level text is very similar to that of boys. Both around 77 percent. However, girls outperform boys in many states like Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
 
Attendance
 
States with student attendance of 90 percent or more in primary schools in 2018 were Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Those with teacher attendance of 90 percent or more in 2018 were Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
 
School facilities
 
The Right to Education Act was implemented in 2010 and the first cohort of students to benefit from its provisions completed 8 years of compulsory schooling in 2018. Nationally, substantial improvements are visible over this 8-year period in the availability of many school facilities mandated by RTE. The fraction of schools with usable girls' toilets doubled, reaching 66.4 percent in 2018. The proportion of schools with boundary walls increased by 13.4 percentage points, standing at 64.4 percent in 2018. The percentage of schools with a kitchen shed increased from 82.1 percent to 91 percent, and the proportion of schools with books other than textbooks available increased from 62.6 percent to 74.2 percent over the same period. However, deficiencies are particularly marked in Jammu and Kashmir and most of the north-eastern states.
 
Sports facilities
 
In 2018, about 8 out of 10 schools had a playground available for students, either within the school premises or close by. A playground was accessible in more than 90 percent of schools in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Maharashtra. But more than a quarter of all schools in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkhand did not have access to a playground.
 

Comments

 

Other News

WAVES Summit: A Global Media Powerhouse

In 2019, at the inauguration of National Museum of Indian Cinema, prime minister Narendra Modi had expressed his wish to have a forum of global repute similar to the World Economic Forum, Davos, for India’s media and entertainment (M&E) industry. That wish became reality with the WAVES Summit in

India’s silent lead crisis

Flint, Michigan, was a wake-up call. Lead contamination in water supplied to homes in that American city led to a catastrophic public health emergency in 2014, which is yet to be fully resolved. But India’s lead poisoning crisis is ten times worse- larger, quieter, and far most devastating. Nearly ha

‘Dial 100’: A tribute to the police force and its unsung heroes

Dial 100  By Kulpreet Yadav HarperCollins, 232 pages, Rs 299  A wife conspires with her ex-lover to mur

India’s economic duality: formal dreams, informal realities

“Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true.” – Joan Robinson In its pursuit of becoming a $5 trillion economy, India has laid significant emphasis on formalizing its economic architecture—expanding digital payments, mandating

Targeting root causes of cancer with green policies

The Budget 2025 was splashed across headlines with its innumerable numbers and policies, but lurking behind the balance sheets is a threat that it has not accounted for yet — the silent, merciless clutches of cancer. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that it remains one of humanity`s mo

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now





Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter