Maha youth good at daily budget but failure in maths

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), Maharashtra, by NGO Pratham shows that a good number of students in the age group of 14-16 go to school in Ahmednagar and Satara. However, while these children can count money and manage daily budget, they cannot do academic maths.

In Ahmednagar, the literacy rate is 79.1% whereas in Satara it is 82.9%. In Ahmednagar, 90.7% youth (male and female) between age 14-18, 96.3% between age 14-16 and 80.6% between age 17-18 were enrolled in standard XII or below. Also, only 12.7% youth between age 17-18 are enrolled for under graduation or other. Whereas in Satara district 87.6% youth (male and female) between age 14-18, 97.1% between age 14-16 and 71.8% youth between age 17-18 were enrolled in standard XII or below. Only 15.5% youth age 17-18 are enrolled for under graduation or other in Satara.

In Ahmednagar, 75.7% youth were able to do daily task like counting money and 69.3% were able to manage a budget. In Satara, 80.8% youth were able to count money and 66.1% were able to manage a budget. But in academics at arithmetic levels only 34.0% youth were able to do division, 26.6% youth subtraction and only 39.5% were able to recognise the numbers (10-99) or below in Ahmednagar. In Satara, only 39.1% youth knew division, 25.1% knew subtraction and 35.9% could recognise the numbers (10-99) or below.

The digital knowledge of the youth between age group of 14-18 in Ahmednagar shows that 14.2% youth never used mobile, 46.3% never used internet and 31.4% never used a computer. In Satara, 9.2% youth never used mobile, 40.9% never used internet and 20.5% never used a computer.

Farida Lambay, co-founder, NGO Pratham, said: "This time our survey was different, and we chose the age group of 14-18 who are adolescents just to find out where are these children after standard VIII as we hear about a lot of dropouts. And the good news is that a majority of them from Maharashtra were found in schools. In Ahmednagar and Satara, it was found that these children can do functional maths that is calculation in day-to-day life easily, but when given a theory or academic maths their performance was low."