SHILLONG: Availability of additional facilities in rural schools in Meghalaya has not shown any marked progress so far.
As per the 11th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2016, 98.3 per cent of the students do not have access to computer facilities. The figure was 98.5 per cent in 2014.
Meanwhile, 71.3 per cent of schools do not have libraries (2016) in comparison to 76.4 per cent in 2014.
As per the 2016 report, only 22.5 per cent of schools have library books that are being used by children on day of visit which cannot be seen as an improvement from 2014 when it stood at 22.1 per cent.
There is, however, a marked improvement as far as toilet facility in schools is concerned. As per the 2016 report only 2.3 per cent of schools do not have toilet facility as against 20.2 per cent in 2014.
In terms of private tuitions, in standards I-V, the percentage of children who go to government schools with no private tuitions is 38.8 per cent while that of children in private schools with no tuition stands at 44.8 per cent.
Tuition expenditures by government schools for standards I-V is 3.3 per cent (Rs 100 or less) and 22.6 per cent (Rs 301 or more).
However, for private schools, for standards I-V the tuition expenditure is 4.3 per cent (Rs 100 or less) and 25.8 per cent (Rs 301 or more).
ASER conducted the study in 129 government schools across the State.
