Annual Status of Education Report: High enrolment, but poor learning levels among students in Gujarat villages

In Gujarat, as many as 15,557 households in 779 villages of 26 districts were covered in the 2016 ASER. It revealed that enrolment rate of children in Gujarat villages was 97.6 per cent, against the national average of 97 per cent.

However, the attendance level of enrolled children has declined to 83 per cent in 2016 from 85.5 per cent in 2014.

Among all age groups, the percentage of out of school girls in the age group of 15-16 years at 23.5 per cent was the highest. Also, the proportion of out of school children has declined in last two years, whereas the percentage of out of school boys has risen from 16.8 to 18.7 per cent.

Despite a 7 percentage point improvement in number of students in Class III able to read least Class I text, the basic reading and arithmetic levels remained disappointing in Gujarat.

READ: Government schools performance better than private: report

The reading levels in Gujarati of Class V children in government schools continued to fall from 53.7 per cent in 2014 to 40 per cent in 2016. Only 53 per cent students of Class V could read Class II-level text. Also, only 13.3 per cent students of Class VIII could read Class I-level text.

Arithmetic was a cause of serious concern too. While only 35 per cent students of Class V could identify numbers from 10 to 99, even a lower than half of what (16.1 per cent) could do division and only 26.7 per cent were able to do subtraction in Class V.

From the results, it was revealed that children were not even learning basics as only 18.3 per cent students of Class III were able to do subtraction, which they were expected to do by Class II. Similarly, only 14.5 per cent students in Class V could do division.

The percentage of government school students in Class III who can do at least subtraction has declined from 23.5 per cent in 2010 to 18.3 per cent in 2016. Similarly, the percentage of students in Class V and Class VIII who can do division has also declined in the last six years. For instance, 19.6 per cent students in Class V could do division in 2010 and this has declined to 14.5 per cent in 2016. In case of Class VIII students, this has declined from 54.1 to 33.9 per cent in 2016.

In English, government school results were much lower than their private counterparts. As 66.1 per cent students of Class VIII government schools could read sentences as compared to 95.6 per cent in private schools.

Out of those who could read English words, only 55.9 per cent of Class VIII students could tell their meanings and 66.3 could tell the meaning of sentences.

“The Annual Status of Education Report, ASER, 2016 was released in New Delhi Wednesday after a break of one year. This is the eleventh annual report. Facilitated by Pratham, the survey is carried out by volunteers from local partner organisations in almost all rural districts,” said Chirag Vyas, ASER regional member for Gujarat.

Every year, ASER finds out whether children in rural India go to school, whether they can read simple text and whether they can do basic arithmetic. In 2005, 2007 and every year since 2009, ASER has also included a visit to one government school in each sampled village. In 2016, ASER visited 15,630 government schools across rural India. In Gujarat, ASER volunteers visited 644 government schools.

Infrastructure

From 36.5 per cent in 2010, the number of schools where Class II students were sitting with one or more classes increased to 53.3 per cent in 2016. Similarly, from 33 per cent in 2010, students of Class IV observed sitting with one or more classes increased to 50 per cent.

School infrastructure facilities such as availability of drinking water, availability of usable toilets have seen a decline. There has been a marginal increase the availability of other facilities like mid-day meal.

From 12.7 per cent schools with no separate toilet provision for girls, this percentage has declined to 2.4 per cent in 2016. Also, separate provision, unlocked and useable girls’ toilet category has increased from 49.9 per cent to 81 per cent.

Other highlights
Additional private tuition expenses: While the majority students in rural Gujarat are enrolled to government schools, the trend of private tuition is also very minimal. Only 4.8 per cent students from Class I till V in private schools are taking additional tuition and 7.9 students of government schools taking tuition. In higher classes from Class VI till VIII, this is even lower in private schools that declined to 3.6 per cent as against 9.3 government school students.

Age variation: The Right to Education (RTE) Act states that a child should be six-year-old when he/she enters Class I. In Gujarat, only 63.3 per cent students are 5-year-old when they enter Class I, while 5.4 per cent students are above the age of 8.

State’s regional earning levels: Among regions, the central region has been at the lowest in all categories, including reading and arithmetic. For instance, the lowest percentage of 57.6 students in Class III-V could read Class I level text, 27.7 per cent do subtraction, 63 per cent students from Class VI till VIII could read Class II level text and 22.9 per cent could do division. The region comprises of Ahmedabad, Anand, Dahod, Kheda, Narmada, Panchmahals and Vadodara.