12-01-2007, 02:21 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Arjun Singh's gift </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
India slips in school education index
UNESCO's sixth edition of the Education for All Monitoring Report indicates uneven progress with regard to education in the last one year. What is positive is that more and more children have enrolled in the world's primary schools since 2000. Thus, many more of them will now receive the benefits of school education. Also, some gender biases witnessed in school admissions seem to have diminished, with many more girls now enrolling than ever before. That progress has been made is indicated by factors such as the increase in global spending and that in the aid for education. <b>On the downside, far too many schools are of poor quality, which nullifies the value of the instruction provided in them</b>. The result of this varying quality is that many leave the education system without drawing much benefit from it and, hence, lack basic literacy and mathematical skills. This renders the system highly unequal by making quality education accessibly only to a few. That is why there is high adult illiteracy. It's a sorry state of affairs that despite the growth of schools and the rise in the numbers of teachers and students, education remains out of the reach of many. As the report points out, a reason for this is that there is a high cost to schooling. Public funds are often insufficient to meet all the costs and private education remains expensive. What is not good news is that India has slipped five ranks down to 105 since last year with regard to various global education parameters. This lack of performance in the education sector may compromise the country's ability to meet the UN's Education for All goals set for 2015. The contrast with strides made elsewhere in the world is much more striking when it comes to gender disparity.
<b>Sadly, as much as 66 per cent of children who are not in school in India are girls. The overall dropout rate in India is also not as good, with up to 14.4 per cent not attending class after the first grade.</b> Unfortunately, the Government has not been successful in implementing its programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which has resulted in this poor performance. Unfortunately, these programmes have been treated more for employment generation, to the neglect of their basis function. Despite the pessimism of the report, the Government remains optimistic about doing better in future, with Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh hopeful of achieving up to 85 per cent literacy by 2012. He has reiterated the Government's resolve to put every child in school in the next five years. Hopefully, the Government will be able to live up to its promise.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Pioneer Edit Desk
India slips in school education index
UNESCO's sixth edition of the Education for All Monitoring Report indicates uneven progress with regard to education in the last one year. What is positive is that more and more children have enrolled in the world's primary schools since 2000. Thus, many more of them will now receive the benefits of school education. Also, some gender biases witnessed in school admissions seem to have diminished, with many more girls now enrolling than ever before. That progress has been made is indicated by factors such as the increase in global spending and that in the aid for education. <b>On the downside, far too many schools are of poor quality, which nullifies the value of the instruction provided in them</b>. The result of this varying quality is that many leave the education system without drawing much benefit from it and, hence, lack basic literacy and mathematical skills. This renders the system highly unequal by making quality education accessibly only to a few. That is why there is high adult illiteracy. It's a sorry state of affairs that despite the growth of schools and the rise in the numbers of teachers and students, education remains out of the reach of many. As the report points out, a reason for this is that there is a high cost to schooling. Public funds are often insufficient to meet all the costs and private education remains expensive. What is not good news is that India has slipped five ranks down to 105 since last year with regard to various global education parameters. This lack of performance in the education sector may compromise the country's ability to meet the UN's Education for All goals set for 2015. The contrast with strides made elsewhere in the world is much more striking when it comes to gender disparity.
<b>Sadly, as much as 66 per cent of children who are not in school in India are girls. The overall dropout rate in India is also not as good, with up to 14.4 per cent not attending class after the first grade.</b> Unfortunately, the Government has not been successful in implementing its programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which has resulted in this poor performance. Unfortunately, these programmes have been treated more for employment generation, to the neglect of their basis function. Despite the pessimism of the report, the Government remains optimistic about doing better in future, with Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh hopeful of achieving up to 85 per cent literacy by 2012. He has reiterated the Government's resolve to put every child in school in the next five years. Hopefully, the Government will be able to live up to its promise.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->