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.