What is the News ?

Recently, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the first State of Elementary Education in Rural India report.

Facts About:

Key Highlight of the Report:

Pan-India survey was conducted by the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU), across 6,229 rural households in 20 states, focussing on 6 to 16-year-old children in rural communities.

Equality Among Gender: Parents from rural communities believe that a child’s gender, whether a boy or a girl, should not hinder their educational aspirations. 

• Total of 78 percent of parents of girls and 82 per cent of parents of boys wanted to educate their children to graduation and above.

Parental participation: About 84 percent of parentsregularly attend parent-teacher meetings, demonstrating their active involvement in their children’s education.

Role of Parents: Majority of children (62.5 per cent) are under the supervision of their mothers when it comes to their studies, while 49 per cent are supervised by their fathers.

• Over 38 per cent of parents opt for private tutors to further enhance their children’s education.
• About 26 per cent of the children study under the supervision of a private tutor.

Drop Outs: Out of the total dropped-out children, around one-fourth of male children discontinued their education during primary schooling, due tolack of interest in studies.

• Dropout rate for female children is high at 35 per cent, due to the need to contribute to the family’s earnings. 
• A higher proportion of both boys and girls dropped out of school after completing the primary school education (75 per cent for boys and 65 per cent for girls).

Increased access to smartphones: Nearly half, 49.3 percent of students in rural India have access to smartphones. 

• 76.7 percent of these students primarily use their phones for entertainment purposes, such as playing video games and watching movies. 
• Only 34 percent of smartphone-accessible students use their devices for study-related downloads, while 18 percent access online learning through tutorials.

Learning Environment at Home: 40 percent of parents have age-appropriate reading materials available at home, beyond school books. 

• Only 40 percent of parents engage in daily conversations with their children about their school learning, while 32 percent have such discussions a few days a week.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/education/78-parents-in-rural-india-want-their-daughters-to-study-till-graduation-and-beyond-report-8885528/#:~:text=in%20family's%20earnings.-  ,According%20to%20the%20survey%2C%20one%2Dfourth%20of%20male%20children%20dropped,after%20completing%20primary%20school%20education.