Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi January 17: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today said that school education in government schools in rural areas continues to be in bad shape, as the latest Annual Status Education Report (ASER) has depicted the dismal picture in these institutions. The LGP said failure on education front at the grassroots level could dash India’s hope of becoming a global growth hub.
The spokesman of the LGP said here on Thursday that Annual Status Education Report for rural India makes for dismal reading for which the state and central governments cannot escape the responsibility. The spokesman said survey conducted in 596 rural districts across 28 states covering 3.5 lakh household and 5.5 lakh children has painted a grim picture of school education which is quite disturbing for the country’s balanced development. The spokesman said the report has given ample indication that Right to Education plan has failed to yield positive result, as 56% students in class VIII cannot divide a three-digit number with single digit one; 72% in class V cannot do division at all and 70% of class III are not able to do any subtraction. The story is far worse than what it was a decade ago in 2008, the report said and added that students are struggling with reading as well and one out of four children are leaving class VII without basic reading skills. The spokesman said this demonstrated lack of interest of highly paid teaching staff in these schools. The spokesman said now after implementation of 7th pay commission report the teachers cannot complaint about low wages but they have, as survey indicated, failed to improve the standard in these schools. The spokesman said the government except sloganeering on education has not made adequate efforts to improve the system in rural areas.
The spokesman said with this gloomy scenario the plan of overall development and welfare cannot be achieved. The spokesman said poor infrastructure, gaps in quality and quantity of teachers and antiquated teaching methods have added to this depressing situation. The spokesman said instead of focusing on frivolous matter like re-writing history and other misleading propaganda the NDA government should lay stress on deploying modern tools of education in rural areas to improve the situation. The spokesman said school education in rural areas needs to be brought on right track to solve an array of intractable problems such as casteism, gender inequality and lack of opportunity for rural youth.
