THE 9th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) by the non-profit Pratham organization focusing on the status of schooling and basic learning of children in rural India leads to conflicting impressions. It is the third year of implementation of the Right to Education Act and enrollment has shot up to more than 96% children in the age group of six to fourteen. But the regrettable fact is that these school children are not up to the mark in literacy skills and arithmetic. The proportion of children who, at the end of class V can read a class II text remains at a mere 47% which is hardly an improvement on 2012. At the end of the lower primary school level, only one in four children can work out division sums. That is part of class III or IV curriculum in most states. It marks a very marginal increase over 2012. In the Programme for International Student Assessment evaluating skills and reading and mathematical plus scientific literacy in ten countries, India ranked nearly at the bottom. The outlay in education in India has jumped with the implementation of RTE but learning levels have hardly improved. The government covers up its failure questioning the survey design or alleging bias.
ASER does find a small but significant rise in enrollment over 2012 in private schools and in the number of children taking private tuition. Private tuition is a contentious issue. It should be noted that the number of children going to school is not as important as what they learn. Enrollment should not be equated with proper education. This paper hailed the UPA government at the New Year for achieving almost 100% enrollment at the primary level. But that may have been premature considering what these children actually learn in the classroom.
