Indian Economy, 5th edition (108 page)
Read Indian Economy, 5th edition Online
Authors: Ramesh Singh
(i)
Strengthening of 1,000 existing vocational schools and establishment of 100 new ones through state governments;
(ii)
Assistance to 500 vocational schools under the PPP mode;
(iii)
In-service training of seven days for 2,000 existing vocational teachers and induction training of 30 days for 1,000 new ones;
(iv)
Development of 250 competency based modules for each individual vocational course;
(v)
Establishment of a vocational education cell within the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE);
(vi)
Assistance to 150 reputed NGOs to run short-duration innovative vocational education programmes; and
(vii)
Pilot programme under the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF) in Class IX in Haryana and West Bengal.
Saakshar Bharat/Adult Education
The National Literacy Mission, recast as
Saakshar Bharat
(SB) launched by the Prime Minister on September 8, 2009, reflects the enhanced focus on female literacy. The literacy rate according to the 2001 census was 64.83 per cent, improving to 74.04 per cent in 2011.
The literacy rate improved sharply among females as compared to males. While the literacy rate for males rose by 6.9 per cent from 75.26 per cent to 82.14 per cent, it increased by 11.8 per cent for females from 53.67 per cent to 65.46 per cent. The target of the Eleventh Five Year Plan is to achieve 80 per cent literacy. With just one year to go for the Twelfth Five Year Plan, 74 per cent literacy has been achieved. Literacy levels remain uneven across states, districts, social groups, and minorities. Since the Mission has been envisaged as a people’s programme, stakeholders, especially at grassroots level, have due say and role in its planning and implementation. The decentralised model of the Mission provides PRIs a pivotal role in implementation of the programme at district level.
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012
The
ASER-2012
was released on
Jnauary 17, 2013
– we may have a look in two parts:
I. Positives Changes or Status Quo
Rising enrollment:
In 2012, 96.5 per cent of all 6-14 year olds in rural India are enrolled in schools. This is the fourth consecutive year that enrollment levels have been 96 per cent or more. In 2006, in eight major states, more than 11 per cent girls in the age group of 11 to 14 years were not enrolled in school. By 2011, this figure had dropped to less than 6.5 per cent in 3 of these states (Jharkhand, Gujarat and Odisha) and less than 5 per cent in 3 others (Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal).The situation in these states remained more or less unchanged in 2012. However in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the proportion of out of school girls (age 11-14) has increased from 8.9 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively in 2011 to more than 11 per cent in 2012.
Private school enrollment is rising in most states:
Private school enrollment of 6 to 14 year olds has risen steadily since 2006 from 18.7 per cent in 2006 to 28.3 per cent in 2012. Increase in private school enrollment is seen in almost all states, with the exception of Kerala, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura (where private school enrollment was over 40 per cent even last year). There was of more than 40 per cent enrollment in Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya in private schools. This percentage is 60 per cent or more in Kerala and Manipur. Since 2009, private school enrollment in rural areas has been rising at an annual rate of about 10 per cent. If this trend continues, by 2018 India will have 50 per cent children in rural areas enrolled in private schools.
Better provision of girls’ toilets:
The proportion of schools without toilets (girls + boys) has fallen from 12.2 per cent in 2011 to 8.4 per cent in 2012. The proportion of schools having toilets usable separately by girls has improved from 32.9 in 2011 to 48.2 percent in 2012.
More libraries in schools and more children using them:
The proportion of schools without libraries has declined from 28.7 per cent in 2011 to 23.9 percent in 2012. Children were seen using the library in more schools as well–up from 37.9 per cent in 2010 to 43.9 per cent in 2012.
Compliance on pupil-teacher ratio and Classroom-Teacher ratio:
At the All India level, there has been a consistent rise in the proportion of schools complying with RTE norms on pupil-teacher ratio, from 38.9 per cent in 2010 to 42.8 percent in 2012. In 2012, Nagaland stands out with 93.0 per cent of schools in compliance ahead of Kerala (92.0 percent) which was the highest last year. In Jammu & Kashmir, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura, more than 80 per cent schools are in compliance with these norms.
No major changes in buildings, playgrounds, boundary walls or drinking water:
About 61.1 per cent of visited schools had a playground in 2012 compared to 62.8 percent in 2011. However, there has been marginal increase of 0.8 percent in the proportion of all schools that have a boundary wall in 2012 from the last year. Nationally, the proportion of schools with no provision for drinking water remained almost the same at 17 per cent in 2010, 16.7 per cent in 2011 and 16.6 percent in 2012. The proportion of schools with a useable drinking water facility has remained steady at about 73 per cent.
II. Negative Changes
Classroom Teacher ratio is declining:
There has been a decline in the proportion of schools with at least one classroom per teacher, from 76.2 per cent in 2010 to 74.3 per cent in 2011 and further to 73.7 percent in 2012. However, departing from the national pattern, in states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal there has been an increase in teacher classroom ratio this year.
Declining basic reading levels:
In 2010, 46.3 per cent of all children in std V could not read a std II level text, which has increased to 52.3 percent in 2012.
Arithmetic levels also show a decline across most states:
Basic arithmetic levels estimates show a decline. For example, nationally, 29.1 per cent of Std V children could not solve simple two digit subtraction problem with borrowing in 2010 which increased to 39 per cent in 2011 and further to 46.5 per cent in 2012. Barring Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, every major state shows signs of substantial drop in arithmetic learning levels.
Children’s attendance has declined:
Children’s attendance (for std I-V) shows a decline from 74.3 per cent in 2009 to 71.3 per cent in 2012 in rural primary schools. However, children’s attendance in some states shows an increase over time. For example, in primary schools of Bihar, average attendance of children increased from 57.0 per cent in 2007 to 58.3 per cent in 2012, in Karnataka from 88.0 per cent in 2009 to 89.1 per cent in 2012, in Kerala it has increased from 91.9 percent in 2009 to 94.4 percent in 2012 and in Odisha from 74.1 per cent in 2009 to 77.5 per cent in 2012.
More than half of all Std 2 and Std 4 classes sit together with another class:
Nationally, in rural government primary schools, students who sit in multi-grade classrooms is rising.
Higher and Technical Education
With the intention of allocating higher amount of funds for primary and secondary education, the central government did put the higher education in the non-priority sector in the era of economic reforms.
4
Though the governmental committment for the development of the sector has not diminished and has taken a new and practical orientation, in future the private sector resources will be harnessed for its proper development.
5
An important challenge in the higher education sector is to bring about reforms not only in the institutions of higher learning but also in the regulatory structures of the higher education system. There are also the challenges of maintaining quality and excellence while ensuring rapid expansion and attracting and retaining good faculty in adequate numbers to meet the demands of the rapidly expanding sector.
The higher education system of India is one of the largest in the world in terms of the number of colleges and universities. While at the time of Independence, there were only 20 universities and 500 colleges with 0.1 million students, their number has increased to
690
universities and university-level institutions and 35,539 colleges – of the 690 universities, 44 are central universities, 306 state universities, 145 state private universities, 130 deemed universities, 60 institutes of national importance plus other institutes, and 5 institutions established under State Legislature Acts, as per the latest
Economic Survey 2012-13
.
A number of initiatives
6
have been taken during the
Eleventh Plan
period with focus on improvement of access along with equity and excellence, adoption of state-specific strategies, enhancing the relevance of higher education through curriculum reforms, vocationalization, networking, and use of IT and distance education along with reforms in governance in higher education – major ones are as given below:
•
16 central universities were established which include conversion of three state universities to central universities. Seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), 8 new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 10 new National Institutes of Technology (NITs), 5 Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs), and 2 Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) were also established.
•
The National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) which
aims
at “providing high speed broadband connectivity to universities and colleges and development of e-content in various disciplines” is under implementation. The low cost access-cum-computing device
Aakash 2
was launched in
November 2012
.
•
A Scheme of
Interest Subsidy on Educational Loans
to economically weaker sections (EWS) students was introduced from 2009-10.
•
An Expert Group was set up by the Prime Minister in order to suggest ways of enhancing employment opportunities in Jammu and Kashmir and to formulate job plans
involving the public and private sectors
. Among the key recommendations of the Expert Group, one is offering scholarships over the next five years, to encourage the youth of Jammu and Kashmir to pursue higher studies outside the state – being implemented since 2011-12.
•
To address the increasing
skill challenges
of the Indian IT industry, the government has approved setting up of 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) on
PPP basis
– to be completed in
nine years
from 2011-12 to 2019-20.
HEALTH
With the National Population Policy, 2000 the idea of family welfare and population control have gone for major shift in the approach. Now, the government thinks that once the living conditions and awareness of the masses are improved, the population will be automatically controlled. Due to this also factors such as nutrition, drinking water, healthcare, education, shelter, social welfare and social security measures, etc. are given due care. The implementation of the social sector related areas in an integrated manner is supposed to have an inherent impact on the matter of population control.
7
The National Health Policy of 2002 and the priorities set in the successive Five year Plans provide the framework for the implementation of policies and programmes for health care. The National Health Policy seeks to provide prophylactic and curative health-care services and aims at achieving an acceptable standard of good health amongst the general population in the country by increasing access to the decentralised public health system.
Access to the decentralised public health system is sought to be increased through establishment of new infrastructure in deficient areas and upgrading of existing infrastructure. Success in eliminating or controlling diseases such as small pox, leprosy, polio, and TB is indicative of the progress made in some areas of health. Overall sex ratio in the country has increased from 933 in 2001 to 940 as per
Census 2011
. Despite progress made on many fronts, there are areas of concern as progress has been quite uneven across regions with large-scale inter-state variations and rural and remote areas continue to have deficit in health facilities and manpower.
HUNGaMA Survey
8
A reduction in the prevalence of child malnutrition is observed:
Prevalence of child underweight has decreased from 53 per cent to 42 per cent; this represents a 20.3 per cent decrease over a 7 year period with an average annual rate of reduction of 2.9 per cent.
Child malnutrition is widespread across states and districts and starts early in life:
42 per cent of children under five are underweight and 59 per cent are stunted. Of the children suffering from stunting, about half are severely stunted; about half of all children are underweight or stunted by age 24 months.
Birth weight is an important risk-factor for child malnutrition:
Prevalence of underweight in children born with a weight below 2.5 kg is 50 per cent while that among children born with a weight above 2.5 kg is 34 per cent.
Household socio-economic status has a significant effect on children’s nutrition status:
Prevalence of malnutrition is significantly higher among children from low-income families. Children from Muslim or SC/ST households generally have worse nutrition indicators.
Girls’ nutrition advantage over boys fades away with time:
Nutrition advantage girls have over boys in the first months of life seems to be reversed over time as they grow older, potentially indicating neglect vis-à-vis girls in early childhood.
Mothers’ education level determines children’s nutrition:
Prevalence of child underweight among mothers who cannot read is 45 per cent while that among mothers with 10 or more years of education is 27 per cent; 92 per cent mothers had never heard the word ‘malnutrition’.
Giving colostrum to the newborn and exclusive breastfeeding for first 6 months of a child’s life are not commonly practiced:
51 per cent of the mothers did not give colostrum to the newborn soon after birth and 58 per cent mothers fed water to their infants before 6 months.
Hand washing with soap is not a common practice:
11 per cent mothers said they used soap to wash hands before a meal and 19 per cent do so after a visit to the toilet.
Anganwadi Centres are widespread but not always efficient:
There is an Anganwadi Centre in 96 per cent of the villages, 61 per cent of them in pucca buildings; the Anganwadi service accessed by the largest proportion of mothers (86 per cent) is immunization; 61 per cent of Anganwadi Centres had dried rations available and 50 per cent provided food on the day of survey; only 19 per cent of the mothers reported that the Anganwadi Centre provides nutrition counseling to parents.