Sample this: In rural Gujarat schools in 2011, 26.6% children could only recognise numbers 1-9 in class III while 16.3% of kids in that class could read letters but not words. These startling facts are brought out by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011 released recently.
Yet, there are positive aspects to the state scenario. While reading levels showed a decline in many states, in Gujarat the numbers for 2011 were better than for 2010. Arithmetic levels also showed a decline across most states, but there was no change in Gujarat.
Every year, ASER finds out whether children in rural India go to school, whether they can read simple text and do basic arithmetic. Eighteen months after the Right to Education Act came into effect in April 2010, ASER 2011 also visited more than 14,000 government schools in the country to assess compliance with some of the norms specified in the Act.
According to the report, 86.1% children in the 6-14 age group were enrolled in rural government schools in the state and 10.8% in private schools. This is close to the national figure of 96.7% enrolment. Attendance figures also showed a healthy rise.
Another heartening fact is that the proportion of girls aged 11-14 years not in school declined from 11.7% in 2006 to 6.1% in 2011 in the state.
While teacher attendance worsened, on the positive side, percentage of schools having no computers in class I-IV fell and proportion of class IV children sitting with one or more other classes also fell, said the report.
Is this the true picture? What do NGOs working in the field of rural education feel about the scenario in Gujarat? Sukhdev Patel, founder of NGO Gantar, feels that the enrolment figures do not give the accurate picture. "There are no authentic figures available for children eligible for admission in class I," he says.
Other problems education faces are poor quality and access. "There are no schools available in remote areas of Kutch, tribal regions and some parts of central Gujarat which conduct classes beyond class IV," says Patel. Another problem he cites is the exploitative conditions in which teachers function. They are paid poor salaries and their jobs are held in poor esteem.
Ravin Vyas of Avbodh, which conducts classes thrice a week in nine villages around Ahmedabad, says finding voluntary teachers is a major bottleneck. "Of course, poor infrastructure and illiteracy of parents are also hurdles. Getting good audio-visual content in local language is also difficult." The NGO has been active in the field of rural education since four years.
While girls are more sincere than boys in his experience, Vyas says it is difficult for them to continue education after class VII due to problems of access and social restrictions.
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