Enrolment in govt schools down 7.7% in 2014: Report

Patna: Students' enrolment in state government schools had increased from 72% in 2006 to 90.1% in 2011 but the trend reversed to 82.4% in 2014. It was revealed in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the largest non-government household survey undertaken in rural India and facilitated by Pratham Education Foundation.
The survey measured the enrolment status of children between 3 and 16 years of age and basic reading and arithmetic abilities of children between 5 and 16 years through a detailed process that uses a common set of testing tools and a comprehensive sampling framework.The report said enrolment in government schools in Bihar increased and declined in private schools during 2006-2010 because of several incentives like uniform and bicycles to girl students by Nitish Kumar government.
Delivering a lecture on 'Elementary education in Bihar: Challenges and promising directions for evidence-based action 2005 to 2014', on the second day of the international conference to celebrate silver jubilee of Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Pratham's CEO Rukmini Banerji said, "The enrolment share in private schools increased from 5.0% in 2009 to 12% in 2014 mainly due to teachers' absenteeism in government schools."
Children's attendance in schools continues to be a problem area. Strong monitoring in 2012-2013 resulted in their better attendance in classes. However, 2014 showed a decline. "Across India, Bihar continues to be one of the states with lowest children attendance in schools. Other studies corroborate the data," she said.
Earlier, country director of IGC India-Bihar programme and former JNU professor Anjan Mukherji said significant work has been done by the organization in the state during the last few years.
Speaking on 'Caste in Indian Economy', Professor Kaivan Munshi of Cambridge University said, " Recent genetic studies have found the existence of 4,000 distinct caste groups in India and less than 5% marry outside their castes."
Bihar assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary narrated the story of ADRI's formation and growth over the last 25 years. Sudipto Mundle, Emeritus Professor at National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) was in the chair. Lord Meghnad Desai was the chairperson at the inaugural session in which ADRI member-secretary Shaibal Gupta shared the organization's journey during the last 25 years.