Pune: Maharashtra has a reason to smile this year as it has won accolades in school education, says the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018, which was released in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The state has fared well in almost all aspects including number of children going to school, school infrastructure and competency of the students.
The report showed that during random visits by the surveyors, Maharashtra was one of the states that was found to have 85 per cent and more attendance in schools.
As far as the basic reading competency of the students is concerned, though the number of students who can read well in the age group of eight to 10 years is low, which is less than 50 per cent. As the age increases, the competency is seen to be increasing. A similar trend was observed in the arithmetic competency.
The number of students enrolled in the primary schools has decreased sharply compared to 2010 though. While 91.5 per cent children were enrolled in 2010, the number has come down to 86.5 per cent in 2018.
The facility of toilets in the schools has been observed to have improved, as the number of usable toilets at schools has increased from 53 per cent in 2010 to 70 per cent in 2018. As far as availability of separate toilet facility for girls is concerned, even that number has increased from 43.2 per cent in 2010, to 63.9 in 2018.
While the number of students being enrolled in the government schools is high at the primary level, as the classes progress, the number of enrollment keeps getting smaller and smaller.
On the contrary, this number is high at private schools. Also, the government-run nursery schools, Anganwadis, have one of the highest enrollment percentages in the State at the per-school level.
State Education Minister Vi nod Tawdry congratulated everyone with a tweet that said, “Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018 reports a marked climb of improvement in student performance in the state. Average score showed an improvement of approx 30% in Math & 15% in languages, reflecting the success of efforts towards educational innovation in Maharashtra.”
The national findings too show that while at the lower levels (Std III, V, etc.) there is a rise in number of students faring well in languages and arithmetic, but there is not much change in the figures as we approach the higher classes.
