Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, MARCH 1
ANNUAL Status of Education Report 103 (ASER 2013) released by Pratham for the fifth consecutive year showed that the enrollment of children in the age group of 6 to 14 years in schools in Nagaland is as high as 96% or more. The ASER 2013 also revealed that 98.8% of children in this age group in the State are enrolled in schools.
ASER 2013, the largest annual household survey of children in rural India that focuses on the status of schooling and basic learning, was released at Pratham ASER Centre Dimapur today.
Facilitated by Pratham, ASER is collected by local organizations and institutions in each rural district.
ASER 2013 Nagaland was released after survey of 262 villages in 10 districts of the State and 11,869 children (3-16 years) in 5972 households.
As per the survey, the proportion of school girls in the age group 11 to 14 in India has declined since 2012 whereas in Nagaland, 1.3% girls in the age group of 11 to 14 were not enrolled in school for the year 2013.
The ASER survey facilitated by Pratham showed that in the age group 6 to 14, there has been an increase in private school enrollment in Nagaland from 36.1% in 2010 to 39.4% in 2013. The ASER for other states also shows that in Manipur and Kerala more than two thirds of all children in the age group of 6 to 14 are enrolled in private schools while less than 10% are in private school in Tripura (6.7%), West Bengal (7%) and Bihar (8.4%), although these numbers have grown substantially since 2006.
The report also showed that in Nagaland, the proportion of children in Std. I-V who received some form of private input into their schooling (private school, private tuition or both) has increased from 38.5% in 2010 to 42.1% in 2013. "
The ASER 2013 survey also showed that since 2012, improvement is seen in children's ability to read. In Nagaland, the percentage has increased from 52.9% in 2012 to 62.4% in 2013 whereas at the All India level, for Std. III, the proportion of children who can read at least a Std. I level paragraph has risen slightly from 38.8% in 2012 to 40.2% in 2013. Nationally, the proportion of all children in Std. V who can read a Std. II level text remains virtually the same since 2012, at 47% and in Nagaland it has increased from 52.6% in 2012 to 56.4% in 2013.
The report also shows that in Nagaland, 44.5% children of Std. III in government schoola could at least do subtraction in 2012, as compared to 69.0% in private schools. However, in 2013, 36.2% of Std. III students in government schools were able to do basic subtraction or more, as compared to 51.6% of Std. III children in private schools.
Depressingly, the report which shows the national proportion of all children in Std. V who could solve a three-digit by one-digit division problem has increased slightly while in Nagaland it has decreased from 34.6% in 2012 to 24.6% in 2013, which is even below than All India average.
During ASER 2013, 14,724 government schools with primary sections were visited across rural India whereas in Nagaland 255 schools were visited for the survey. The ASER 2013 through random sampling shows that the proportion of "small schools" in the government primary school sector shows a growth while in Nagaland, 50.6% of Std. I-V and 23.9% of Std. I-VII/VIII government schools are reported as "small schools".
The overall report of ASER facilitated by Pratham shows that the compliance with most measurable Right to Education (RTE) norms shows a mix response in Nagaland. In Nagaland, the proportion of schools that comply with RTE pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) norms has increased, from 91.9% in 2010 to 92.3% in 2013. However, classroom-teacher ratio (CTR) has decreased from 78.6% in 2010 to 59.8% in 2013.
In Nagaland, the percentage of schools with no drinking water facility has declined from 73.7% in 2012 to 70.6% in 2013 which is much higher than India average of 17% in 2010 to 15.2 % in 2013.
Since 2010, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of schools with a useable toilet in India from 47.2% in 2010 to 62.6% in 2013. Nagaland has only 63.2% usable toilets in the schools while 38.0% schools did not have separate toilet for girls which is higher than India average 19.3%.
In Nagaland, 66.8% schools had no library in 2013 as compared to 91.0% in 2011. The All India figure for schools with no library provision dropped from 37.4% in 2010 to 22.9% in 2013.
Nationally, mid-day meal was served on the day of the visit in 87.2% of schools in 2013. This year, in 14 states, mid-day meals were seen in more than 90% from the schools visited. But sadly the report showed that only 28.1% of schools serve mid-day meal in Nagaland which is comparatively the lowest.
