‘Only 53.4% children in class V can read a class II level text’: quality of education is shocking
New Delhi: While the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), released by Vice-president Hamid Ansari in Delhi gives a very hopeful picture of the enrolment aspect of primary education, its revelations on quality of education are disturbing indeed.
Another story on bihardays gives the readers a clear glimpse of data on Bihar which is indeed pleasing. But look at the following highlights from the nation-level survey:
Quality of education
‘Only 53.4% children in class V can read a standard II level text. This suggests that even after five years in school, close to half of all children are not even at the level expected of them,’ said the survey conducted by voluntary organization Pratham.
Madhav Chavan, chief executive of Pratham, said that ‘other than increased enrolment, there wasn’t much change in any other aspect of education’.
The survey pointed out a significant decline in basic math skills. “The proportion of standard I students who can recognize numbers (1-9) has declined from 69.3% in 2009 to 65.8% in 2010. The proportion of children in standard III who can do two-digit subtraction problems has decreased from 39% to 36.5%,” it underlined.
Hamid Ansari said that ‘challenge can be achieved with a sharp focus on quality improvement on teacher training and curricular material development’.
According to ASER 2010 the percentage of children out of school in Bihar is steadily declining. In 2006, 12.3% of boys and 17.6% of girls were out of school in the 11-14 age group. By 2010, the numbers had declined to 4.4% and 4.6%, respectively.
School buildings
Regarding compliance with RTE, ASER 2010 said that ‘60% of the 13,000 schools visited had satisfied infrastructure norms specified by the law. “More than half of these schools, however, will need more teachers’.
RTE requires that all schools have drinking water facilities, but nearly 30% schools don’t have it while around 50% don’t have usable toilets. Norms regarding playgrounds and boundary walls are not observed
Teachers
ASER found that teacher absenteeism was almost 45% in the 13,000 schools visited. Student absenteeism was almost half in these primary schools across the country.
Summing up
‘The RTE Act provides that all children will automatically progress from grade I through VIII without detention for any cause. In light of the fact that the existing system is unable to guarantee learning by children, this provision is likely to exacerbate the situation’, says Amit Kaushik, one of the authors, said in ASER 2010.
‘We need to urgently focus on ensuring adequate infrastructure, teachers, accountability and learning, if the next generation is not to be lost’, Kaushik continued by way of summing up.