SHILLONG, FEB 27: The 2012 Annual Status of Education Report shows that Meghalaya is far below the national average insofar as enrollment of children in schools is concerned with only 94.7 per cent of children in the 6-14 age group going to schools as against the national average of 96.5 per cent.
Addressing a press meet here on Wednesday, Ashok Mutum, the north-east coordinator of Pratham, the NGO which prepared the report, said even the neighbouring states of Manipur and Mizoram are on par with the national average with 98 per cent or more enrolment of children in schools in the last five years.
The findings of the report also revealed that around one fourth of the children in the 15-16 age group drop out of schools in the state as against the national average of 17 per cent. Here, too, Mizoram (12.5 %) and Manipur (8.1 %) have a far low dropout rate.
With 56.2 per cent of children in the 6-14 age group enrolling in private schools, Meghalaya is ahead of the national average of 23 per cent. The ASER survey covered seven districts, 173 villages, 3412 households, 7148 children (3 – 16 years) and 129 schools in the state.
The report also states that basic reading and arithmetic continue to be a cause of serious concern even though Meghalaya has recorded a slight improvement since 2011. “It has been a bad year for basic arithmetic for children in India. In the 2010 report, 85.5 per cent of children enrolled in Class V were able to solve simple two-digit subtraction problems with borrowing, which has declined to 64.8 per cent in 2012,” said Mutum.
The findings said that based on RTE norms, the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) shows improvement over time. “In 2010, the proportion of schools meeting PTR norms was 54.3 % and this has increased to 65.4 % in 2012,” said Mutum.
The report further said while the infrastructure at schools had improved throughout the country, that is not the case in Meghalaya where the rate of improvement is either slow or showing no improvement at all. 81.6 per cent of the schools do not have drinking water. The proportion of schools with useable toilets has increased from 24.5 per cent in 2010 to 30.9 per cent in 2012. Approximately 53.3 per cent of schools visited had separate toilets for girls. Midday meal was being given in 29.7 per cent of the schools that the survey team had visited, said the report. (By Our Reporter)
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