Despite the implementation of many Central and State-sponsored programmes for quality education and six years of implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, the status of public education in Odisha is deplorable. This is evident with the decreasing enrolment in Government schools and the increasing enrolment trend in the private schools.
The learning level of children in schools is also very disturbing.
As per annual status of education report (ASER), 8.8 per cent children in Standard III cannot read letters in Odia. Similarly, 21.1 per cent children in standard III can read letters but not more than that while 22.5 per cent can read words but not standard level or higher texts.
The report reveals that 13.4 per cent children in standard III can read standard I level text but not able to read their standard level text and only 33.4 per cent can read standard II level text. While 8.6 per cent children in standard III cannot even recognise numbers from 1 to 9 and 28.9 per cent children can recognise number of up to 9 but not more than that.
It further reveals that 35.2 per cent children cannot do subtraction while 21.3 per cent cannot do division and only 6.9 percent children in standard II can do division.
However, 85 per cent of people in Odisha depend on Government, mostly marginalised communities.
This was discussed at a consultation titled on ensuring quality education in Government schools: challenges, opportunities and good practices, organised by Odisha RTE Forum on Thursday here.
Bureaucrat Aurobindo Behera, OSCPCR member Sandyabati Pradhan, and experts from different fields participated in the deliberation.