When rural Odisha still has around 5 per cent out of schoolchildren in the age-group of 7-16 years and when the dropout level in the same age-group zooms to a high of around 23 per cent, the shocker for the State’s education mandarins is that school education in rural areas has gone pricey in two years (2014-16).
Such a bombshell was dropped by the ASER (Annual Status of Education in Rural areas) 2016 report released recently here as it shows that when around 40 per cent of the children studying in Class-VIII are unable to solve a simple arithmetic problem like ‘division’ along with a higher proportion (45 per cent) unable to read an easy sentence in English subject, the problem for many children from poor households now is that they have to shell out double the amount they could afford in 2014 for tuitions.
The ASER report shows that when in 2014 a whopping around 61 per cent children studying in Classes-I-V took tuitions by paying below Rs 100, the proportion in 2016 saw a steep fall to even below 50 per cent (48.6). In contrast, children are now paying Rs 200 on tuitions increased by 6 per cent; and children spending more than Rs 200 and even more than Rs 300 on tuitions increased by around 3 per cent each.
This trend is not an isolated case. Nearly 24 per cent of students studying in Classes-VI-VIII were spending Rs 100 on tuitions in 2014, but the proportion shrunk to a mere 18 per cent in 2016. On the contrary, a rise of around 11 per cent had been observed in children spending more than Rs 200 or Rs 300. The corresponding price curve has been steeper in case of private schools vis-a-vis Government schools, finds the report.
What comes significant here is when the cost of school education has been so high in rural Odisha, the cost of higher secondary education (+2) could be anybody’s guess. The result: Out of schoolchildren at the +2-level age-group in Odisha stood at a national high of over 18 per cent against the national average of 15 per cent. But an important fact needs noting is out-of-schoolchildren in 6-14 years age-group in Odisha is below the national average of around 4 per cent.
Another evident fallout factor with regard to cost of education and enrolment revealed by the ASER 2016 report is that in the last decade when enrolment in private schools in rural Odisha had almost doubled to around 12 per cent, enrolment in Classes-VI-VIII remained almost static at around 4-6 per cent during the period. Similarly, enrolment in Government schools was around 91 per cent in the 11-14 years age-group, but the figure slipped to a low of around 75 per cent in the age-group of 15-16 years.
However, a fact of solace for State Government is that enrolment in the State has increased significantly in almost all the age-groups though the dropout rate has almost remained static during the last half decade.