Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Drop in primary school children

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The overall enrolment of primary school children across the country in rural areas has declined, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), an annual statistical analysis of the quality of primary education across the country, released here on Saturday.

For girls in the age group of 7 to 10 years, the percentage of out of the school children stands below three per cent for rural India in 2007, while for girls in the age group of 11 to 14 years the percentage has plummeted from 10 per cent to 7.4 per cent last year.

However, the enrolment in private schools has increased from 18.7 per cent to 19.3 per cent last year with the rise especially noticeable in the older age group of 11-14 year olds.

The report notes a substantial increase in the proportion of children attending pre-schools such as anganwadis. The State along with Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Chattisgarh registered a 10 per cent increase in enrolment from 2006-2007, with Himachal Pradesh showing the highest increase at 30 per cent.

For the first time in the last three years, children were assessed on simple reading and comprehension tasks in English as a part of the survey.

Interestingly, when it comes to reading English, children from the State emerges way ahead of the national average of 15 per cent with 44 per cent of the students showing an affinity towards the language.

According to C.P. John, secretary, Pratham, the survey was qualitative in nature with the students, being assessed on the basis of their reading skills and mathematical abilities.

“Unlike the conventional survey, which focuses on taking stock of the number of black boards, teachers and infrastructure facilities, the ASER report looks at how the children study,” he said.

For instance, children who could read words in English were asked to say the meaning of the word in their own language.

The children were also examined for their ability to read and comprehend text by asking them oral questions.

Similarly, the mathematical aptitude of children was assessed on the basis of their problem solving skills.

Kerala, however, lags behind Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur when it comes to displaying mathematical skills.

A total of 30 villages in each of the 567 districts across the country were identified as samples for conducting the study.

The data collection was carried out by the volunteers of the Kudumbasree.

The ability to read English increases with age and years of schooling.

When 60.9 per cent of children in class I are unable to read capital letters in English by the time they reach class V, 27.9 per cent of the children can read easy sentences.

Education Minister M.A. Baby, who released the report said, the State government would intervene and take appropriate measures to improve the quality of education in certain areas of Palakkad, Idukki and Wayanad as highlighted by the report.

Mr. Baby lauded the effort taken by Paratham, in coming up with a report that provides a ‘micro-level’ assessment of the country’s primary education sector.

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