Only 2% Indians above 15 yrs have technical education: Survey

Families earning more than Rs 2,540 per month the attendance rate in educational institutions is as high as 68 per cent, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Dec 19, 2006, 23:20:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Economists have related state of family's education to its income but a government survey released on Tuesday tells about this relation in the Indian context.

For the families earning more than Rs 2,540 per month the attendance rate in educational institutions is as high as 68 per cent and literacy rate 98 per cent. But, the families earning less than Rs 235 per cent month, the attendance rate fell below 43 per cent and literacy rate was just 53 per cent.

The national attendance rate is 50 per cent, which means the number of those in the 5-29 age groups who are in educational institutions. Those who are not in these institutes include the ones who have some education but dropped out. The study also shows relation between literacy and family income.

The National Sample Survey Organisation's Status of Educational and Vocational Training in India had found that attendance is higher in lower age groups and it falls dramatically as the children reach the age of supplementing family income. From attendance rate of 821 out of 1,000 kids in age group of 5-14, the number falls to 114 in the 20-24 age groups, which mean only 11.4 per cent students reach higher education institutions.

Various reasons were given by those not attending educational institutions but a common refrain was 'to supplement family income' --- about 55 per cent of those not attending any educational institution fell in this category.

But that was not the case for 30 per cent girls as they left schools for doing 'domestic chores'. The percentage of such girls was, however, higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas. Then, percentage of those considering that providing education to girl child is not necessary is as high as 17 in rural India.

The study also points at poor skills among Indians. Only two per cent above 15 years of age have a technical qualification with 15 per cent of them being degree holders, 57.6 diploma holders and 27.3 per cent certificate holders.

Email Chetan Chauhan: chetan @hindustantimes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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