India's Greatest School Education Challenge – In BIMARU states

What does 'IndiaSpend' analysis tell us?

• By 2020, India will have the world’s largest working population–869 million.
• But, IndiaSpend analysis of indicators on literacy, school enrolment, learning outcomes, and education spending across four states – with 43.6% of India’s school-age population –revealed that India is unprepared to educate and train its young population.

What are literacy rates in BIMARU states?

• India’s literacy rate has increased 8.66 percentage points to 74.04%, between 2001 and 2011, according to Census, but wide variations exist across states.
• The crisis in education is apparent in the BIMARU states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – with 445.1 million of India’s 1.2 billion population.
• Bihar had a literacy rate of 61.8%, Rajasthan of 67.1%, UP of 67.7% and MP a rate of 70.6% in 2011, lower than the all India average of 74%. School outcomes are also lower in the four BIMARU states.

What is the status of students in BIMARU states?

• In 2014-15, fewer students moved from grade V to grade VI in UP, with a transition rate of 79.1%, when compared to Goa, with a transition rate of almost 100% in 2014-15.
• In MP, as few as 34.1% of children in grade V could read a grade II text in 2014, compared to 75.2% in the case of Himachal Pradesh, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014.
• Similarly, in Rajasthan, 45.9% of children in grade V could ‘at least’ subtract, compared to 87.4% in Mizoram.
• Only 2.5% of school age children live in the four states–Kerala, Mizoram, Tripura and Goa–with the highest literacy in India, compared to 43.6% in the four BIMARU states.
• Any reform in education in the BIMARU states would have the greatest impact for India.

What is at stake?

• UP and Bihar will have India’s youngest populations over the next 10 years, as IndiaSpend reported, together accounting for 31% of Indians between five and 14 years.
• The productivity of India’s young population would depend on how these states improve health, education and employment opportunities.
• Variations across states in India exist not only in literacy and enrolment but also in factors that might impact future enrolment and learning.
• For instance, life expectancy at birth, one of the factors found to affect literacy in India, according to this 2005 World Bank study, varies across states.

What are the factors that affects School enrolment?

• School enrolment is affected by a number of factors including parent’s education, the wealth of a household, midday meals, infrastructure and more.
• Still, the BIMARU states spend less on education than their more literate counterparts.
• For instance, MP spends Rs 11,927 per student, while Tamil Nadu spends Rs 16,914 per student, the EPW reported in September 2016.
• Another important factor, parent’s education – impacts school education. As many as 99.1% mothers in Kerala – received schooling, compared to 30.3% mothers in Rajasthan in 2014, according to the ASER.
• Further, factors such as wealth have a greater effect on enrolment in poorer states.

Conlcuding remarks:

Overall, in India, children from rich families are more likely to be enrolled in school than children from poor families, but this gap is greater in UP and Bihar than it is in Kerala, according to a 2001 study published in the journal Demography.

Read about “Story Of Higher Education In India”: Click Here

Category: Mains | GS – II | Education

Source: Business Standard