Haryana is among the top five States in the country for having high enrolment rates in the private schools at the elementary stage. The State registered 54.2 per cent enrolment rates in the private schools at the elementary stage, as per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2014) released this week. Other States with higher private school enrolments are Manipur (73.3%), Kerala (62.2%), Uttar Pradesh (51.7%) and Meghalaya (51.7%).
The report indicted that the people prefer the private schools over the Government schools in Haryana. The private school enrolment (children aged 6-14 years) in Haryana has increased 43 per cent in 2006 to 54.2 per cent in 2014. The boys’ enrolment in private schools was 60.1 per cent, much higher than of girls with 47 per cent.
Also, the performance of private schools was found to be much better than Government schools during the survey in Haryana. While 82.8 per cent children enrolled in Standard III in private schools can read at least a Std I level text, the percentage was much lesser in Government schools with only 36.5 per cent.
Similarly, 81.3 per cent children enrolled in Std V in private schools could read a Std II level text while the percentage was 53.9 children in Government schools. In case of children in Std III who can do atleast subtraction, there were 74.7 per cent children in private schools as compared to only 24 per cent in Government schools in 2014.
As per the ASER 2014, 71 percent children in Std V could do division by school type in Haryana’s private school while the percentage was only 30.8 percent children in Government schools.
The English reading levels were also much higher in private schools than Government in Haryana. The private schools recorded 92.9 per cent children in Std V who can read at least words against 48.7 per cent in Government schools.
Overall, nearly 50 per cent children in Std V of Haryana can not do division and 50 percent in Std V can not read English sentences. The private school enrollment at all India stands at 30.8 per cent including 34.5 per cent for boys and 26.9 per cent for girls (aged 6-14 years).
Apart from this, a large number of schools were found to be not meeting the RTE norms in Haryana. 15.5 per cent schools in Haryana have no facility for drinking water, 2.4 per cent have no toilet facility and 4.6 per cent schools have no separate provision for girls’ toilet.