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Social audit of elementary education underway

Special Correspondent

Dropout rate still high with 70 p.c. children not completing school education

JAIPUR: Trying to make an independent assessment of quality of learning in schools, Pratham -- a non-Government organisation -- has taken up the largest-ever social audit of elementary education by covering over 500 districts across the country, including all the 32 districts in Rajasthan.

The initiative, launched with the support of a large number of citizens and institutions, is aimed at monitoring the state of primary education by mobilising grassroot activists and professionals.

Pratham Rajasthan is covering 12,800 households and 25,000 children from 640 villages in 32 districts of the State. The Managing Trustee of Pratham Rajasthan, K.B. Kothari, said here on Tuesday that an Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2005 would be prepared on the basis of the social audit. The process will continue till 2010 by when the Central Government has promised to universalise quality primary education in the country.

He said that though a significant progress had been made in the enrolment of children in the schools, the dropout rate was still very high with nearly 70 per cent children not completing the school education. A major reason for the trend, he said, was that learning in schools was "dismal''. The survey will cover the factors which influence a child's learning, such as the teachers' attendance, student-teacher ratio, teaching and learning material, teachers' training, basic infrastructure, toilets, drinking water, midday meals, working of village education committees, etc.

The Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, will release the first report in New Delhi on January 17.

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