Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Monday, January 19, 2009

education performance - india

the annual survey of education report is an annual report on how 'india is learning'.
in its 4th report - ASER 2008 - released in Jan 2009, there are some interesting results.

background

they are among the few tests to check student learning.
they check rural kids from Std 1 to Std 5 (i.e., the primary cycle of schooling). they test reading ability (alphabet, words, sentences, paragrpahs) and mathematical ability (numbers, subtraction and division).

results
1. ASER 2008 estimates that 44% children in Std 5 cannot read a Std 2 text

2. the worst performing state (in educational attainment) is tamilnadu. this has been the case since the first report. this is inspite of TN having great numbers in the general parameters of enrollment, infrastructure, etc.

3. enrollment in private schools has increased from 16.4% in 2005 to 22.5% in 2008. this is just rural india. comparing the educational attainment, students in private schools are doing 5-15% better than their peers in schools

4. In Bihar, children (6 – 14 year old) not on school have dropped steadily over the last four years from 13.1% in 2005 to 5.7% in 2008. Over the same period, the proportion of girls 11-14 not in school has dropped from 20.1% to 8.8%.

5. 56.6% of all 5 year-olds are enrolled in schools rather than in pre-schools.

6. in Chattisgarh, the proportion of children in Std III who could read a Std I level text has increased from 31% in 2007 to 70% in 2008. MP has also shown similar improvement.

7. STD booths are present in 58.5% villages while 48.3% village households have a cell phone or a land line connection.

the full report can be downloaded here.

4 comments:

Airspy said...

Why is this happening in TN? I always thought we got better at these things.

csm said...

airspy - it is indeed a toughie to answer how the academic levels are so low in a state where the other social (pop control, health indicators, etc) and educational parameters (literacy, enrollment, etc) are top of the charts.
but nevertheless, it is a fact that this low levels were on display from ASER 2005.
and major initiatives through the public system and NGO systems (www.eurekachild.org) have been in place for over 3 years just to correct this imbalance.
while MP, C'garh have been able to show spectacular increases in a short span of time, it is quite inexplicable that TN continues to flounder.
afraid, this is not an answer to your query. but have none.

Mrinalini said...

This report is an eye opener. My son studies in one of the 'traditional' schools and I had no reason to think that they were not up to the standard. I recently attended a Multiple Intelligences Xplored event conducted by Inventure Academy and was surprised to see that 'traditional' teaching does not necessarily help develop a child's inherent talent. I think India needs to revamp its educational policy to accommodate the requirements of this generation.

csm said...

hi mrinalini - welcome to the blog.
just for the record. this report only covers the schools in rural india.
not to to say that the urban schools fare to the levels we desire.
i would direct you to a more troubling study on the 'best schools' in the urban geographies - http://www.ei-india.com/whats-wrong-with-our-teaching

you are correct about your observations on the need for a major revamp.
cant see it happening soon though.