-The Hindu     No significant difference between rural and urban outcomes The government's own assessment of how much children are learning in schools says that 86 per cent of children in class III can recognise words in their own language and 69 per cent can do simple numerical additions. Maharashtra and the four southern States, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur perform better than the national average on both tests. The findings of the third...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: If in 2010, half of Jharkhand's Class V children in government schools could read Class II textbooks, only 34 fifth graders out of 100 could do so in 2013. But don't blame the child, blame the lack of teachers. The standard of Jharkhand's state-run schools is plummeting through the years, says Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013, prepared by NGO Pratham, which annually undertakes an assessment of the...

-The Hindustan Times The recently released Annual Status of Education Report (Aser) 2013, which covers every rural district in India, contains some good but mostly bad news. Enrolment in India's primary schools is still at an impressive 96%, and the number of schools compliant with the Right to Education (RTE) Act norms, such as providing drinking water and usable toilets, continues to rise. But much of this is undermined by a...

-The Hindu The latest ASER report finds once more that our government schools don't necessarily produce students who can read. That's why the work of volunteers becomes vital. Satyavathi studies in Class V in a government school in Hoskote, Karnataka. She was reading an entire page of text, rocking on her feet as she read. At the end, she stopped and looked at me, and when I smiled, she let out a...

-Live Mint At 287 million, India has 37% of the total population of illiterate adults across the world, according a Unesco report New Delhi: The world will miss its goal of universal education by 2015, with millions of children and adults still to be schooled, said a United Nations (UN) body. India has the highest population of illiterate adults, 287 million, 37% of the total population of such people across the world,...