Dec 08 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Enrolled, but not educated
Dake Kang
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Government data on rising enrollment rates hides a critical fact -actual attendance rates in rural areas and among poorer children is abysmally low
Mohit is enrolled in Class VII at a government school in a village just an hour from Bhopal. He goes to school most days, has a good group of friends he likes socializing with, and says he “wants to be a doctor”.Mohit cannot read.
When he’s given a Class V textbook — two years below his grade — his eyes go blank; his fingers trace the words, but he remains silent. The same thing happens when he’s given a Class II textbook. Mohit frequently skips school to work as a laborer. Despite being technically enrolled in school for the past seven years, the actual amount of time Mohit has spent at school is far less than his Class VII status would suggest.
“He only started coming to school more regularly one or two years ago,” his teacher says. “For a year he didn’t come to school at all. Even now he misses two or three days of school at a time.” According to his teacher, he’s one of 10 or 20 children in his school who come to class only once or twice a month.
Of a total enrollment of roughly 180, only 120 children or so show up on most days.
In fact, stories like his are common across the country.
Despite rising enrollment rates, with the Out of School rate dropping over 30% from 4.28% to 2.97% in the past five years according to the National Sample Survey, the actual attendance rate remains astoundingly low.
According to the 2013 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey, the average rural attendance rate on any given day is a mere 71.8%, declining from 73.4% in 2010. Though some of this can be attributed to mundane day-to-day factors such as illness, a lot of it isn’t. The worldwide average attendance rate in schools is 91%, as per the UNICEF — suggesting other factors are at work here.
This means although the vast majority of children are nominally enrolled in school, a huge number do not actually attend school regularly.
Many of them are working.
Attention has already been drawn to the 50 lakh or so child labourers in India, as well as the estimated 60 lakh out of school; but far less attention has been paid to the millions of children who are technically “in” school, but are effectively shortchanged out of an education because they miss school to work.
“Once enrolled, a child cannot be taken off the rolls till 14 — even if heshe doesn’t come to school,” says Mohit’s teacher. “There are families who migrate looking for temporary jobs in other places,” the headmaster of another school nearby says.
“The kids — they get pulled out of school for months at a time, and when they come back they’re hopelessly behind and difficult to teach.
There are four or five such kids in my class like that.” Priya is one such child.
Born to an illiterate mother and manual labourer father, she was enrolled in Class V English-medium class last year, despite being around 15 years old. She was frequently pulled out of school to work as domestic help. “She would come three days, then disappear for three,” Priya’s former teacher Harshini Shanker says. “Then she disappeared for an entire month.” In that month, Priya had completely forgotten how to do division, and her English ability stagnated. Being enrolled in an English-medium class, Priya found it difficult to follow the lessons. “She was a weak student in the first place,“ Shanker says, “and the constant absences made it worse. Because she didn't learn anything, neither Pinki nor her parents saw the point in her going to school. Pinki herself would prefer to work because it was a far more productive than coming to school.It was a self-reinforcing cycle.“
Government surveys may report good news in education, pointing to figures such as rising enrollment numbers, but these numbers need a closer look. “How meaningful is this data?“ says education expert Vimala Ramachandran. “India has been chasing these numbers. But being enrolled is no guarantee of actual attendance.“
When he’s given a Class V textbook — two years below his grade — his eyes go blank; his fingers trace the words, but he remains silent. The same thing happens when he’s given a Class II textbook. Mohit frequently skips school to work as a laborer. Despite being technically enrolled in school for the past seven years, the actual amount of time Mohit has spent at school is far less than his Class VII status would suggest.
“He only started coming to school more regularly one or two years ago,” his teacher says. “For a year he didn’t come to school at all. Even now he misses two or three days of school at a time.” According to his teacher, he’s one of 10 or 20 children in his school who come to class only once or twice a month.
Of a total enrollment of roughly 180, only 120 children or so show up on most days.
In fact, stories like his are common across the country.
Despite rising enrollment rates, with the Out of School rate dropping over 30% from 4.28% to 2.97% in the past five years according to the National Sample Survey, the actual attendance rate remains astoundingly low.
According to the 2013 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey, the average rural attendance rate on any given day is a mere 71.8%, declining from 73.4% in 2010. Though some of this can be attributed to mundane day-to-day factors such as illness, a lot of it isn’t. The worldwide average attendance rate in schools is 91%, as per the UNICEF — suggesting other factors are at work here.
This means although the vast majority of children are nominally enrolled in school, a huge number do not actually attend school regularly.
Many of them are working.
Attention has already been drawn to the 50 lakh or so child labourers in India, as well as the estimated 60 lakh out of school; but far less attention has been paid to the millions of children who are technically “in” school, but are effectively shortchanged out of an education because they miss school to work.
“Once enrolled, a child cannot be taken off the rolls till 14 — even if heshe doesn’t come to school,” says Mohit’s teacher. “There are families who migrate looking for temporary jobs in other places,” the headmaster of another school nearby says.
“The kids — they get pulled out of school for months at a time, and when they come back they’re hopelessly behind and difficult to teach.
There are four or five such kids in my class like that.” Priya is one such child.
Born to an illiterate mother and manual labourer father, she was enrolled in Class V English-medium class last year, despite being around 15 years old. She was frequently pulled out of school to work as domestic help. “She would come three days, then disappear for three,” Priya’s former teacher Harshini Shanker says. “Then she disappeared for an entire month.” In that month, Priya had completely forgotten how to do division, and her English ability stagnated. Being enrolled in an English-medium class, Priya found it difficult to follow the lessons. “She was a weak student in the first place,“ Shanker says, “and the constant absences made it worse. Because she didn't learn anything, neither Pinki nor her parents saw the point in her going to school. Pinki herself would prefer to work because it was a far more productive than coming to school.It was a self-reinforcing cycle.“
Government surveys may report good news in education, pointing to figures such as rising enrollment numbers, but these numbers need a closer look. “How meaningful is this data?“ says education expert Vimala Ramachandran. “India has been chasing these numbers. But being enrolled is no guarantee of actual attendance.“
