E-Paper
School enrollment in state up by 1.9%, still behind national tally: Survey
While the enrollment in government schools in the state increased from 44.3% to 59.6% in four years, the country-wide figure saw a rise from 65.6% to 72.9% in the same period, the annual survey by a private non-profit suggested.
The enrollment of children in the age bracket of 6-14 years in schools has improved from 95.2% in 2018 to 97.1% in 2022 in Uttar Pradesh. However, the state still lagged behind the national average of 98.4%, according to the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) that was released in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The ASER, according to which the overall enrollment across the country has increased at all levels despite the prolonged closure of schools, resumed its survey nationwide after a gap of four years. In UP, the survey was conducted in 2,096 villages in 70 districts and included 91,158 children in the age group of 3-16 from 41,910 households.
While the enrollment in government schools in the state increased from 44.3% to 59.6% in four years, the country-wide figure saw a rise from 65.6% to 72.9% in the same period, the annual survey by a private non-profit suggested.
Girls not enrolled in schools: Against the country-wide average of 2%, the percentage of girls in the age group of 11-14 years not enrolled in schools in Uttar Pradesh stood at 4%. However, this number has significantly reduced over time. It was 11.1% in 2006 and 7.4% in 2018, the findings suggested.
On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh, after Madhya Pradesh, has the highest number of girls in the 15-16 age group not enrolled in schools. Only three states—MP (17%), UP (15%), and Chhattisgarh (11.2%)—have more than 10% of girls in this age group even when the national average stood at 7.9%.
Enrollment in the pre-primary age group: As of 2022, 78.3% of three-year-olds were enrolled in some form of an early childhood education centre in the state. This is a 7.1-point increase over the 2018 levels.
Paid private tuition classes: The percentage of children of classes 1 to 8 taking paid private tuition classes increased from 15.9% in 2018 to 23.7% in 2022. Nationally, the figure stood at 30.5%.
UP students got their arithmetic right
Children in Uttar Pradesh who can work out at least subtraction sums have increased from 26.9% in 2018 to 29.0% in 2022. The figure is slightly higher than the national average and better than most neighbour states, according to ASER-2022.
The improvement was visible in both government and private schools.
The percentage of class 5 students who can do division sums improved from 29.8% in 2018 to 31.7% in 2022 in the state, against the national average of 25.6% in 2022. While Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Sikkim showed slight improvements, a steep drop of over 10 percentage points over 2018 levels was seen in Mizoram (from 40.2% to 20.9%), Himachal Pradesh (from 56.6% to 42.6%) and Punjab (from 52.9% to 41.1%).
Drop in basic reading ability
Nationally, children’s basic reading ability dropped to the pre-2012 levels, ‘reversing’ the slow improvement achieved in the intervening years. And the situation was no different in the state, according to the ASER findings.
In UP, the overall percentage of children in class 3 who can read class 2-level text dropped from 28.3% in 2018 to 24.0% in 2022. However, this figure has increased by 4.1% in government schools.
The overall percentage of class 5 children who can read class 2-level text fell from 52.4% to 46.4%. While the number improved by 2.1% in government schools, it fell from 68.8% to 63.3% in private schools. Nationally, the figure fell from 50.5% to 42.8%.
Although the basic reading ability among class 8 students also reduced, the drop was significantly smaller as compared to the observed trends among class 3 and 5 students.
Box: Improvement in children’s ability to read simple English
The ability to read simple English sentences among class 5 students in Uttar Pradesh improved from 18.6% in 2016 to 24.1% in 2022, which is similar to the national average. Half of them (55.5%) can also tell the meaning of these sentences.
