Even as India observes International Literacy Day on Saturday, a study has found that one out of every two students enrolled in schools drop out before reaching ninth standard.
NEW DELHI: Even as India observes International Literacy Day on Saturday, a study has found that one out of every two students enrolled in schools drop out before reaching ninth standard.
According to the revealing study carried out by the human resource development (HRD) ministry, one out of every four students does not go beyond class five. By class eight the dropout rate gets worse at 50.8 percent.
"The decline in dropout rates is only modest since 1990. The dropout rates of scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) children declined marginally from 68 percent and 79 percent respectively in 1990-91 to 57 percent and 66 percent in 2005," the survey found.
It further underlined that as many as 60 percent of SC and 67 percent ST girls leave school without completing upper primary cycle of education, compared to 51 percent of girls from the general population.
On Monday HRD Minister Arjun Singh said in parliament that the government was striving to achieve universalisation of elementary education by 2010 but confessed that one out of five teachers in the primary level was not attending class.
"Government is implementing the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (Education for All) programme for universalisation of elementary education by 2010, by augmenting availability of school infrastructure and improving the quality of education in elementary schools," Singh said.
The minister, however, confessed that as per the ministry's own survey conducted this year, nearly 20 percent of teachers are not attending school at the primary stage.
The Unesco, in its report ‘Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities: What can be done?’ has indicated a 25 percent teacher absence rate at the primary school level.
Singh had said, "Always there is problem of fund and we are yet to spend six percent of our GDP on education."
He further said that the country should not forget about elementary education.
"The quality of primary education is a matter of concern," he said.
Even as India is increasingly being recognised internationally as a knowledge hub, on the flip side only 10 percent of its total student strength is enrolled in higher education.
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