ASER 2012 (rural) a revelation of the sorry state of affairs of education in Assam

Updated on: Wednesday, February 27, 2013

In what seems to be a revelation of the sorry state of affairs of education in Assam, the Annual Status of Education Report-ASER 2012 (rural) was released here on Tuesday.

As per the survey, as against the national average of 96.5 per cent, merely 95.6 per cent children in the state in the age group of 6-14 years were enrolled in school. The percentage of children not enrolled in schools has gone up from 4.2 per cent in 2011 to 4.4 per cent in 2012.

Over 20 per cent of children in the age group of 15-16 years were not enrolled in any school. The state ranks fourth in the country when it comes to maximum number of dropouts of children from school.

However, the number of children enrolled in private schools has increased to 16 per cent from 14.5 per cent in 2011.

An official of ASER, Dhurbajyoti Gogoi said, "Reading level of Assam is lower than the nation average. Comparatively, Mizoram has shown better performance over time.

"ASER's survey mainly focuses on the status of schooling and basic learning. We covered around 567 districts in the country, more than 16,000 villages, nearly 3.3 lakh households and about 6 lakh children. It also finds out whether the Right to Education Act (RTE) has been effectively implemented or not," Gogoi added.

Through the survey, it was observed that 27% of the children enrolled in schools were opting for private tuitions. Basic reading and arithmetic continues to be a cause of serious concern. Around 43.5 per cent children are weak in maths and cannot solve simple two-digit subtraction. Ability to read and comprehend easy English sentences is also low in Assam.

ASER 2012 (rural) a revelation of the sorry state of affairs of education in Assam

More Education news