The Annual Status of Education Report 2010, the first baseline report for the Right To Education Act, shows that Maharashtra is ahead of the national average on the education front.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2010, the first baseline report for the Right To Education Act, shows that Maharashtra is ahead of the national average on the education front.
The survey is carried out every year by Pratham, a non-profit organisation that has worked in the field of education for the last 16 years.
Pratham released the Maharashtra data on Monday at the hands of state education minister Rajendra Darda. According to it, only 1% children in the state do not go to school, while 8.8% Std I children cannot read letters. Maharashtra’s performance has improved in recent years. The pupil-to-teacher ratio is one of the highest in the country with one teacher for every 30 students. This is a good sign when compared to guidelines prescribed by the government.
“When it comes to mathematics, only 41.4% Std V students in the state can perform division. While this is higher than the national average of 36%, it still means that nearly half of Std V students cannot divide numbers,” said Usha Rane, director for training, Pratham. She points to the fact that teacher productivity has reduced as they are not taking special efforts to help students. This is reflected in the poor performance of the state in maths and reading.
Maharashtra is one of the few states that fares well on attendance. More than 90% children enrolled in schools actually attended classes. Though Maharashtra may be ahead of other states on the education front, it still has a long way to go. For instance, 52.5% Std IV students cannot read textbooks of the Std II level in their mother tongue. Only 21.2% students studying in Std V can read easy sentences in English.
According to Rane, it is important for the government to set clear goals with regards to what it wants to achieve in the classroom. For instance, if 30% Std IV students in the state can read Std I textbooks in their own language, the state can work towards ensuring that they can at least read Std II textbooks.
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