F. Illiteracy and disparities in education
Literacy Rate: 2011 - 74.04%, 1951 - 18.33%
Number of Illiterates: 2011 - 272.95 million, 2001 - 304.15 million
Literacy Rate 2011 - Male 82.14%, Female 65.46%
84% of the Indian illiterate population lives in rural areas
Rural Literacy - 59.21%, Urban Literacy - 80.06%
Officially, 35 million kids are out of school - actual figure may be 60 million Dropout Rate after Class 8 - 47%
Study by the ICSSR in 1974 under the coordination of I.P. Desai. It covered 14 states and was concerned with the situation and problems of SC ad ST school and college students in the country. This study, pointing out apathy of ST students to education, indicated that illiteracy increases inequality and prevents occupational as well as social mobility.
Victor D'Souza traced the pattern of disparity between the education of the SCs and the others in Punjab and pointed out how the structure of caste system, caste behaviour, economic factors and the form and operation of welfare programmes influence the pattern.
V.P. Shah pointed out relationship between education and untouchability in Gujarat. Sachchidananda Sinha has described the situation of SC students of colleges in Uttar Pradesh.
Similarly, there have been studies on women by K. Ahmad and others in terms of significance of education to their role in a developing society.
Baker studied the aspirations of female students with a view to understanding the problems they encounter in making use of educational facilities.
Chitnis studied the impact of co-education on Muslim women students in Bombay.
Gore - Rural residence, low caste, and low economic standing definitely tend to deny opportunities of education to a girl.
Amartya Sen - Knowledge is indicator of participatory development.
According to Prasad, unless tribals are taught both their tribal dialects and state languages, teachers are given incentives for working in Isolated areas, single-teacher system is replaced by two or more teacher system, and unless school timings are fixed according to the convenience of the local people, an education will remain inaccessible to the vast majority of SC/ST students. Only especially crafted education policy will fulfil the needs of SCs and STs.
Education is related to equality of opportunity. This is perceived on the basis of the findings of one empirical study conducted in eight states in 1967 on the social background of students (age, sex, caste, father's occupation, father's education, etc.) studying at various levels-high school, college and professional colleges. This study presented two possible propositions:
Education is a priority with those in the white-collar group, and children in this group use educational facilities more than other groups; andEducation is differentially available to those who do not belong to white-collar group Programmes for Universal Elementary Education have included:
National Policy on Education, 1986 Operation Black Board, 1987 Shiksha Karmi Project
Lok Jumbish Programme
Mahila Samakhya, 1989
District Primary Education Programme
National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, 1995
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, 2000
Mid-Day Meal Scheme, 2001
86th Amendment Act in 2002 - Article 21A to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years as a fundamental right
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009