Punjab needs to closely study its education policy. The improvement in the State's literacy rate is below the national average.
The literacy rate has improved by a meager 6.1 per cent from 69.7 per cent in 2001 to 75.8 per cent in 2011. The nation, on the other hand has witnessed 8.16 per cent increase during the period.
A whooping 24.2 per cent of people in the State continue to be illiterate despite the tall claims of the State Government that it has adopted several measures to improve the
literacy rate. Punjab is nearly 10 per cent behind the Planning Commission's target of above 85 per cent literacy rate by 2011-12.
The only saving grace comes with improvement in academic skills of females. Female literacy rate has improved sharply as compared to the male literacy rate in the State. While the literacy rate for males rose from 75.23 per cent to 80.4 per cent marking a rise of 5.17 per cent, it increased by 7.34 per cent for females, from 63.36 to 70.7 per cent.
The gap between male-female literacy rates has also narrowed with women becoming more aware regarding their right to education. The literacy rate gap stood at 11.87 per cent in 2001 census. It has reduced to 9.7 per cent in Census 2011, a drop of 2.17 per cent.
Among males, 76.6 per cent are in rural areas, while 86.7 per cent are in urban areas. In case of female literacy rate, it is 65.7 per cent in rural areas, against 79.2 per cent in urban areas. The gap between males and females has reduced in rural areas by 2.4 per cent indicating that more and more countryside girls are pursuing education.
In rural areas, the gap between the literacy rate of males and females has dipped from 13.3 per cent in 2001 to 10.9 per cent in 2011. In urban areas, it has witnessed one per cent dip from 8.5 per cent in 2001 to 7.5 per cent in 2011.
With a total population of over 2.77 crore (2,77,43,338) and ranking 15th in India, Punjab still has as many as 90,33,338 (90 lakh) illiterates.
As per Census 2011, literate person is one who, aged seven and above, can both read and write with understanding in any language. In case, a person can only read and cannot write, is not treated as literate.
Though the State authorities claimed that greater attention has been given to the education sector during the past four years, it has failed to match up with the progress showed by the other States and Union Territories.
Among districts, Mansa has the lowest literacy rate of 61.8 per cent, followed by Muktsar with 65.8 per cent, Tarn Taran with 67.8 per cent and Barnala with 67.8 per cent among the bottom four districts in Punjab.
On the other hand, Hoshiarpur district is leading with 84.6 per cent, followed by SAS Nagar district with 83.8 per cent, Jalandhar district with 82.5 per cent and ludhiana with 82.2 per cent.