In 2010, ASER found that 96.5% of children in the 6 to 14 age group in rural India are enrolled in school. While 71.1% of these children are enrolled in government schools, 24.3 % are enrolled in private schools.
5.9% of girls in the 11-14 age groups are still out of school. However, this percentage has gone down as compared to 6.8% in 2009. In states like Rajasthan (12.1%) and Uttar Pradesh (9.7%), this percentage remains high and shows little change since 2009.
Enrolment in private schools in rural India increased from 21.8% in 2009 to 24.3% in 2010. This number has risen steadily since 2005 when it was 16.3% nationally. Between 2009 and 2010, the southern states have shown a substantial increase in private school enrollments. The percentage of children in private school increased from 29.7% to 36.1% in Andhra Pradesh, from 19.7% to 25.1% in Tamil Nadu, from 16.8% to 20% in Karnataka and from 51.5% to 54.2% in Kerala. Among other states, Punjab showed an increase from 30.5% to 38%. However, this proportion remains low in Bihar (5.2%), West Bengal (5.9%), Jharkhand (8.8%), Orissa (5.4%) and Tripura (2.8%).
Nationally, the percentage of five year olds enrolled in schools increased from 54.6% in 2009 to 62.8% in 2010. The biggest increase was visible in Karnataka where the proportion of five year olds enrolled in school increased from 17.1% in 2009 to 67.6 in 2010. Enrollment of five year olds increased substantially between 2009 and 2010 in several other states such as Punjab (68.3% to 79.6%), Haryana (62.8% to 76.8%), Rajasthan (69.9% to75.8%), Uttar Pradesh (55.7% to 73.1%) and Assam (49.1% to 59%).
Even after five years in school, close to half of all children are not even at the level expected of them after two years in school. Only 53.4% children in Std V could read a Std II level text.
The ASER studies only indicate that despite massive funds in place, not much has improved. It is time policy makers put an effort to ensure that every child goes to school. Quality education is the need of the hour and it is on all to ensure that teachers are trained and children taught well. Just going to school without really learning anything does not make much of difference.