Young India struggles to read, write

Though total student enrolment has shot significantly up to 96.7% in 2013 from 93.4% in 2005 under the UPA regime, the learning outcomes in India’s schools have been at dismal levels, as per the recent figures released by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), prepared by the non-profit Pratham Education Foundation. The report, which measured the quality of learning in the pupils by testing their reading, writing, and arithmetic abilities shockingly reveals a decline of about 15% (since 2005) in the proportion of Class 5 children who can read a Class 2 level text. Further, the proportion of Class 8 students who can solve division problems has also fallen by almost 23% during the same period. If one has to believe figures, in 2005, three of every five students in Class 5 were able to read the text books prescribed for Class 2, in 2013, quite disappointingly, only one of the two can do the task. The pathetic state of education brings into question the tax levied by the Congress-led UPA to fund education and also the Right to Education Act enacted by it in 2010 to ensure access to education for all children between the ages of 6 and 14. But it reflects from the figures that the focus has been on quantity of enrolments – which the party would not miss to highlight in the upcoming general elections - and not on quality as the learning outcomes remain pretty poor!