By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Around one-fourth of the children between the age group of 15-16 years in the State are in the ‘Not in School’ category, the percentage which is above the national average and much higher than the neighbouring states, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2012 has revealed.
The study which was conducted across seven districts of the State covering 30 villages and 600 households per district shows that about 18.8 per cent of the children between the age group of 15-16 and 5.2 per cent of the children between the age group 6-14 in the State are drop outs.
As per the ASER findings, this percentage is above the national average which is 17 per cent for the 15-16 age group and 3.5 per cent for the 6-14 age group. It is also higher than neighbouring states like Manipur with only 5.3 per cent (6-14) and 18.8 per cent (15-16) and Mizoram with 1.5 per cent (6-14 years) and 8.1 per cent (15-16 years).
“The percentage of school dropout children, especially in the rural areas in the State is a big concern and needs immediate attention. It is for the concerned people at the district as well as the state level to use these findings and prepare their own action plans,” ASER coordinator for North East, Ashoke Mutum, told reporters here on Wednesday.
As far as enrolment of children is concerned, the reports stated that in 2012, 94.7 per cent of children in the age group 6-14 years were enrolled in the State. But the same is below the national average of 96.5 per cent and 98 per cent or more for Manipur and Mizoram.
Meanwhile, the percentage of children (6-14 years) going to private schools is high in the State. About 52.6 per cent of the children in this age group are enrolled in private institutions and the percentage is more than half the national average which is only 28.3 per cent.
2012 has been a bad year for basic learning and Arithmetic for Indian children and Meghalaya in specific. In 2010, 85.8 per cent children enrolled in class V were able to solve simple two-digit subtraction problems with borrowing and the percentage saw a steep decline to 64.8 per cent in 2012.
The report states that the percentage of children enrolled in class III who can solve subtraction problems in the State is better than India average but relatively poor than the neighbouring states. In Meghalaya, less than 30 per cent of children in third standard achieved what was expected of them in second standard. The reading level of students in Meghalaya is higher and better than other states with 64.6 per cent compared to 48.5 per cent of the national average.
“Meghalaya’s goal should be to achieve all the class III children reading class II level text comfortably,” Mutum said.
Meanwhile, the percentage of children in class I and II who cannot read words is 80.9 per cent and 56.2 per cent respectively.
The percentage of children who cannot read sentences in class III, IV and V is 61.3 per cent, 44.4 per cent and 31.8 per cent respectively.
Further, the report also states that in Meghalaya, the private inputs in education in the form of private schooling and/or in the form of private tutors is more than half with 56.2 per cent as compared to the national average of 45.2.