Annual Status of Education Report indicates hard realities of our Education system

New Delhi: The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) points to a dismal picture of education system in India, especially rural India.

One on side, we aim to become a global power by taking the advantage of demographic dividend, on the other hand we ignore the realities prevalent in our education system where our standards are far from satisfactory.

With the current standards in our education system, the programmes like Skill India will not reap benefits for the youth. Instead, demographic dividend will turn into demographic disaster.

According to the news reported in Hindustan Times, the data released by ASER reveals disturbing facts with respect to the education system.

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As per the data released by the ASER,

• 40% of the students aged between 14 and 18 surveyed in rural schools of 24 states could not tell the time from the clock.
• 46% of them couldn’t read and understand three out of four instructions
• 57% couldn’t do even basic Mathematics
• 25% couldn’t even read fluently in their own language.

The reasons for poor performance are identified as:

• Poor infrastructure
• Gaps in quality and quantity of teachers
• Irrelevant curriculum
• Outdated teaching methods that ignore the media-rich environment

The solution lies in improving the quality of education in schools through:

• Hiring and assessing teachers on the basis of merit
• Constant evaluation of learning outcomes
• Rewards for schools that perform well