The Hindu Business Line : Survey throws light on poor state of school education

GOOD news for those who are worried about the state of affairs with regard to education is that 93.4 per cent of children in the age group of 6-14 years are enrolled into schools.

Bad news is 51.9 per cent (in the age group of 7-14 years) of them cannot read even a simple story (Standard 2 level difficulty). And over 41 per cent of the children cannot do a simple two-digit subtraction and over 65 per cent cannot divide a three-digit number!

This is just part of the story. A survey conducted by a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation across the country throws light on the poor state of school education in the country.

The provisional Annual Status of Education Report (ASER - 2005) was prepared by 775 NGOs, led by Pratham, involving 20,000 volunteers. As many as two lakh households were covered in 9,521 villages across 509 districts in the country. About 3.3 lakh children were interviewed.

"The survey has proved that all our fears on the status of education are not without any base. This is a realistic appraisal of school education," Dr Jayaprakash Narayan, social activist and National Coordinator of Lok Satta and VoteIndia, said.

Addressing a meeting organised to release the survey results for Andhra Pradesh here on Wednesday, he felt that the findings of the survey would put pressure on the Government to take steps to improve the state of affairs. Also, it would help initiate a meaningful discussion on a variety of issues that dogged school education.

He suggested that the Government should fund an independent National Testing Board to improve the lot of school education. While encouraging teachers in their efforts, it was very important to train teachers continuously.

The nationwide survey also had some surprises too, dispelling some popular myths. Bihar, which was considered to be a very backward State, showed a higher percentage of reading capacities among school-going children.

More Stories on : Education | Andhra Pradesh

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