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Showing posts with the label elementary education

Ability versus Aspiration

The Right to Education Act came into force in 2010. However, the trend towards universal elementary education was well in place before that. For example, for the age group 6 to 14, enrollment levels have been high and rising for quite some time. Even as early as 2005-6, the first Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) and an independent household survey commissioned by the Ministry of Human Resource Development around the same time, confirmed that well over 90 per cent children in this age group were enrolled in school. In fact, tracking ASER data over time, we can see that for children (6 to 14) in rural India, enrollment rates have over 95 per cent for over 10 years now. What are the implications of almost all children being in school? It is well known that enrolment is high. What is less known is that for the first time in the history of India, we are beginning to see cohorts of children almost all of whom have completed eight years of schooling. Census data suggests...