Mathur Ritika Passi

Do children stay in school? Completion
rates measure how many of those enrolled
stay on till the last grade. 4 For grades I-X,
dropout rates fell from 71% in 1990-91 to
47% by 2014. This means that nearly half
the children that join grade I drop out by
grade X, with a spike during grades VI-VIII
(Figure 1).
Are children learning? Since 2001, the
National Council of Educational Research
and Training (NCERT) conducts the
Do children have access to early childhood
education and care? India has one of
the most comprehensive early childhood
programmes in the Integrated Child
Development Scheme (ICDS), which as of
2013 covered 63.5% of all children in the
six months-six years age group. 7 Over
one million Anganwadis exist today, each
one catering to 30 children on average. 8
Despite its scale, ICDS has not led to
significant reductions in malnutrition, or
marked improvements in childhood learning.
Figure 1: Dropout Rates (Primary, Elementary and Lower Secondary)
National Achievement Survey to measure
learning at grades III, V and VIII. 5 Results
show that on average, nearly a third of the
students scored below 50% in language
questions and a quarter of the students
scored below 50% in mathematics.
The Annual Survey of Education Results
(ASER) was more disappointing. The 2014
results show over half of all grade V children
unable to read a grade II test fluently. States
like Bihar and Jharkhand showed worsening
reading levels in the past five years. The
proportion of children in grade V that
can do division, a grade II skill, stood at
26%. The proportion of grade II children
unable to recognise single digit numbers has
increased to 19.5% in 2014 as compared to
11% in 2009. Amongst grade VIII students,
the proportion able to correctly solve a three
digit by one digit division problem decreased
to 44% in 2014, compared to 68% in
2010. 6
Can the youth and adult population read
and write? One-third of all Indian adults, a
fifth of Indian men and two-fifths of Indian
women above the age of 15 years cannot
read or write. In absolute numbers, over
287 million people were illiteratein 2011,
a number that has remained stagnant over
the past decade. 9
Do school leaving students continue to
higher education? The GER for higher
education rose from 8% in 2001 to 21% in
2012. Despite this rapid rise, nearly fourfifths
of both boys and girls do not study
beyond school. Expansion of universities
and colleges have lagged behind growth of
schools. Even accounting for larger batch
sizes, there are only 712 universities as
compared to over 36,000 colleges, 233,845
secondary and senior secondary schools,
and 1,191,719 primary and upper primary
schools.
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