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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Barely comprehensible

Barely comprehensible

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published Published on Jan 17, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 17, 2012
-Live Mint

Private school enrolment in the 6-14 age group has gone up to 25.6% in 2011 from 18.7% in 2006

If one wants to understand the dismal state of school education in India, there is no better place to look than the pages of the Annual Status of Education Report 2011 (ASER). Forget the detailed statistics, just look at the maps displaying basic school education facts. They reinforce only one fact: India is in an educational crisis.

Some facts are in order. On the one hand, the number of children (age 6-14) who are not enrolled in school has come down to just 3.3% in 2011 from 6.6% in 2006. On the other hand, the percentage of children in class V who are able to read a class II text has fallen to 48.2% in 2011 from 53.7% in 2010. The ability of these kids to do elementary math has also fallen. While educational statistics are complicated and inferring cause and effect a dicey matter, it can be safely said that the link between enrolment and the quality of learning is broken.
This is an important issue. The results should open the government’s eyes: a single-minded focus on enrolment and access (as exemplified by its recent attempts under the Right to Education, or RTE) is unlikely to bear fruit. Sound outcomes—in terms of better learning and quality of education—require something else, an aspect of the situation the government has not woken up to. This problem is especially acute in government schools where quality is at discount. ASER shows a rising trend in children being sent to private schools. Private school enrolment in the 6-14 age group has gone up to 25.6% in 2011 from 18.7% in 2006. Even a state like Kerala—where social spending and social sector indicators are much higher than most Indian states—has more than 60% children enrolled in private schools.

ASER is not alone in highlighting this problem. Mint had reported for the first time that the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, found Indian children at the secondary school level nearly at the bottom of the heap globally. Other studies have reported similar findings. The government needs to think harder about quality issues.


Live Mint, 16 January, 2012, http://www.livemint.com/2012/01/16204027/Ourview--Barely-comprehensibl.html?h=B


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