'1/4th of students across India take pvt coaching'

With the load of studies and ambition for a good job increasing, the dependency on private tuitions is constantly on a rise. Almost 1/4th of students across India take private coaching, says the latest National Sample Survey Office report on education.

“Taking private coaching classes, individually or in a group, at home or at any other place, by a single or more tutors for different reasons has become a present-day issue”, the report said. This was higher was the school level with nearly 40 per cent of children at primary level, 50 per cent at upper primary level and nearly 72 per cent students at the secondary and higher secondary level taking up private tuitions. It was noted that in states like Tripura (around 81 per cent) and West Bengal (around 78 per cent) majority of students were taking private coaching (combining school education and higher education) and substantially low at graduate and post-graduate level.

Given the focus on education, the expenditure per student in urban areas at primary level was found to be ` 10,083 per year — more than four times than that in rural areas. 

What can be a heartening news, the survey found narrowing of gap in literacy rates across rural-urban and male-female since 2007-08. The adult literacy (age 15 years and above) rate in India was around 71 per cent in 2014. And though literacy rates in rural India was much lower in comparison to their urban counterparts for all-age groups, the female literacy rates, especially in rural areas, had increased markedly for all ages since 2007-08.

Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Kerala, Goa, Delhi, Chandigarh and lakshadweep had more than 90 per cent of literates in 7+ age groups. But rural female literacy rates (for 7+ age) in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were still low in comparison to all-India average. A big reason could be access to schools as more than 12 per cent of rural households in India did not have any secondary schools within five kilometers.

Science and commerce remained the domain dominated by male while humanities and medicine (which includes nursing) had high female participation in education.

For male students, engagement in economic activities had been the most common reason for dropping out, while for females the dominant reason was engagement in domestic activities. It was also noticed that in urban areas the second major reason for leaving education was marriage for females after financial constraints.