Secondary Education – 60m schools?

Posted by Ninad on December 21, 2009 under All Posts | 2 Comments to Read

Enrollment in primary school has shot up to nearly 95 per cent level in recent years, due to a massive effort by the government, NGOs and other initiatives. However, there is a big bottleneck in the secondary education as enrollment drops to 50 per cent in grade 9 and 10.

Enrollment for girl student is particularly poor at the secondary level and drop outs of girls rise significantly due to distance, safety and lack of sanitation.

For the primary level, government has launched Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV). This is a residential school which caters primarily to girls who are first generation learners from disadvantaged castes. These schools provide free teaching, lodging and boarding until class 8. It is part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Central government’s program which aims at ensuring that all children between 6 and 14 years enter primary school.

The government has recently launched a sponsored scheme for secondary education – Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), which aims at setting up a mass secondary education structure. If the girls’ hostel scheme is extended beyond class 8 and if RMSA is successfully implemented, it could make a huge impact on secondary education in India.

Here are some facts on secondary education in India:

• Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for secondary education at 40 per cent is lower than 70 per cent in East Asia and 82 per cent in Latin America. It varies widely between States: Kerala (92 %), Bihar (22%), Jharkand (4%).
• 40 million children were enrolled in secondary education in 2008. Majority of them were boys from urban areas with privileged background
• 37 per cent of secondary students fail and 11 per cent dropout before the exam.
• There are 3 National Boards and 34 State and Union Territory Boards, with their own curriculum.
• 60 per cent of the secondary school system is privately managed

There is enough evidence to prove the importance of secondary education, particularly for girls, in bringing about social and economic change at the grass root level.

As Sam Carlson of the World Bank has commented:
“Secondary Education is vital for breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and provides hugely beneficial social impacts… It is a very high return on investment”