Skill Letts
VIEWS, VOICE & WAYS OF SKILLS
An in house journal of Additional Skill Acquisition Programme
Schooling India, Skilling India
Schooling is irrelevant without skilling
Literacy in India
SDE Sajin M
As per the latest Census 2011 report, the illiteracy rate in India is 22 per cent. In 2014, the literacy rate of India increased by 10 percent. India’ s literacy rate has increased six times since the end of the British rule— from 12 per cent to 74 per cent in 2011. However, India has the world’ s largest population of illiterates.
The Slender Roads
More boys than girls are dropping out of the schools in India. As against 39 % boys who dropped out before completing elementary education in 2013-14, only 33 % girls did so, says the latest statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Development( MHRD). This is despite the fact the Right to Education( RTE) Act is in place since 2010, which mandates free and compulsory education to every child in the country up to class 8. However, it appears that the Act has led to higher enrolment but unable to ensure quality education and retention.
According to the Government’ s statics, the absolute number of outof-school children remains high and India currently has the largest non-literate population in the world with the absolute number of non-literates among population aged 7 and above being 282.6 million in 2011.
Incautious Educational System
This is the murky posture of Indian education, that almost seven decades after India’ s independence, a large fraction of population is sieved out without any scope of being intellectually productive The deliberate degradation of the examination system, and the abolition of English learning at the primary and lower secondary levels have created a condition where the standard of education at the Government-run schools has hit rock-bottom. Poor infrastructure adds to the agony. High charging private English Medium Schools have mushroomed to fill void. It is felt that the void has been deliberately created so that these schools can do roaring business peddling education. Most school buildings are unfit to be called‘ buildings’, many do not have a roof over their heads, most schools do not have toilets( especially for girls), and if they exist are in unstable state. One of the most damaging developments in recent years is degradation of language teaching.
Volume 2 Issue 3, March 2017 12