NEW DELHI: A day after Pratham's Annual Status of
Education Report (ASER) comes a comprehensive
report on elementary education by the National
University of Educational Planning and
Administration that showed spurt in enrolment, but
a marginal decline among
Muslim,
SC,
ST and
OBC students.
Across all social groups, enrolment of girls has
stabilized. But the sub-text of rise in overall
enrolment is that it is uneven across states.
States like Rajasthan and West Bengal have shown
big decline in enrolment. But, Delhi and Punjab
have shown dramatic increase in enrolment.
Enrolment in
primary
classes (I-V)
has increased to 13.52 crore from 13.34 crore in
2009-10. However, in Rajasthan it came down to
84.32 lakh from 86.27 lakh (2009-10). On the
contrary, in Punjab, it went up to 25.63 lakh from
18.50 lakh (2009-10). In upper primary schools
(class VI-VIII), enrolment has gone up to 5.78
crore from 5.44 crore. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Assam, Chhattisgarh and Tripura have shown massive
increase. Girls' enrolment in primary classes has
remained unchanged at 48.4% and 48.39% in upper
primary classes (2009-10).
Enrolment of
SC students
in primary/upper primary classes has come down
marginally to 19.06% from 19.81% (2009-10). Girls
form nearly 49% of the overall SC enrolment. In
case of STs' enrolment, there is a negligible
change of 10.7% from 10.93% (2009-10). Girls
continue to account for half of ST enrolment. But
OBC enrolment in primary level has come down to
40.09% from previous year's 42.15%. There is a
similar decline in upper primary classes as well.
A marginal dip can be noticed in enrolment of
Muslims in primary schools (13.04%) and upper
primary level (11.25%). In 2009-10, the enrolment
was a trifle better at 13.48% in primary classes,
and 11.89% at upper primary level.
Confirming the
ASER report,
percentage of government share to total schools
has come down to 78.15% (2010-11) from 80.37
(2009-10). The report says that between 2002-03
and 2010-11, 2.05 lakh new government schools have
opened, increasing the density of primary schools
per 10sq km to 3.45 from 3.35 (2009-10) and upper
primary schools to 1.63 from 1.5 (2009-10). There
are 10 schools per 1,000 child population in the 6
-11 age bracket, and seven schools per 1,000 child
population in the 11-14 category. In both
categories, the figure has remained unchanged for
two years.
For the first time, NUEPA survey also shows that
there are more recognized madarsas at 4,473 than
2167 unrecognized ones.
As for working of primary and upper primary
schools, the survey says 12.06% primary schools
have less than 200 working days, while 31.8% upper
primary schools have less than 220 working days.
In West Bengal, 70.83% of primary and 77.27% upper
primary schools worked less than 200 and 220 days,
respectively. This figure is higher in
north-eastern states and Puducherry. On an
average, upper primary schools have less working
days than primary schools. There has also been
decline in percentage of single teacher primary
schools. Enrolment in single-teacher primary
schools has remained unchanged at 6.11%.
As for infrastructure, there has been an increase
in percentage of schools (52.23%) schools with
girls' toilet and separate boys' toilet (35.44%).
In 2009-10, only 50.9% primary schools had girls'
toilet and 25.72% had a similar facility for boys.
Percentage of SC and female teachers to total
teachers has shown a marginal increase. But there
has been a marginal decrease in ST and OBC
teachers.
