Table of Contents
CURRENT AFFAIR
- On January 14, 2020, the Non-Profit Organization Pratham released its annual report, Annual Status of Education Report, 2019.
- The report is based on the survey conducted in 26 districts that covers 36,000 children in the age group of 4 to 8 years.
Topics Covered
- The role of NGOs.
- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes.
- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources, etc.
- For Prelims: Brief overview of stats.
- For Mains: Concerns, challenges highlighted by the survey and ways and measures needed to address
Key Findings of the report
- Number of girls enrolled in government schools is higher than number of boys.
- On the other hand, number of boys enrolled in private institutions is higher than that of girls.
- The report says that around 56.8% of girls and 50.4% of boys are enrolled in government schools.
- In the age group of 6-8 years, 61.1% of girls and 52. 1% of boys were enrolled in government institutions.
- According to RTE act, 2009 (Right to Education act), children should enter Class I at the age of 6. But according to the report, 4 out of every 10 children entering Class I are less than 5 years old.
Suggestions of the report
- The existing network of Anganwadi Centres should be strengthened and expanded.
- Early language, numeracy, social and emotional learning tasks are closely related to age of the children.
- Therefore, it is mandatory to put children into primary grades at the right age.
- The age band of children between 4 and 8 are seen as continuous progressive stages.
- Therefore, utmost importance should be given in designing curriculum for these stages.
QUALITY OF EDUCATION-SIGNIFICANCE
- India’s demographic dividend depends on the learning level of students.
- The quality of education has a direct bearing on any
- With some 240 million students or nearly 20% of the Indian population in school, their quality of learning or lack of it assumes significance for the competitiveness of the country.
- It has an impact on the quality of life, efficiency at the workplace, and labour productivity issues.
WHY EDUCATION REFORMS???
- Every year, 12 million youth enter the labour market in
- Only 24% of 18- to 37-year-olds who dropped out of school before completing the primary level can read.
- India’s tertiary education system is the second largest in the world, after China.
- India also needs to overhaul its short-term skilling
- Adult learning is an important channel for readjusting skills to fit in the future of work.
- The demand for certain skills is going up in today’s labour markets.
- According to the World Development Report 2019, India needs to focus even more strongly on the quality of education it offers to its greatest asset—its citizens.