HOPE FOR YOUNG

Sharp decline in out-of-school kid count

From 1.3 Cr In ’05, Numbers Drop To 80 Lakh This Year

Akshaya Mukul | TNN

New Delhi: In another feather to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s cap, the number of out-of-school (OOS) children in the 6-14 age group has come down dramatically from 1.34 crore in 2005 to 80.4 lakh in 2009.

In percentage terms, 4.22% of the total children in this age group are not going to school as per the latest figures. The first survey of 2005 had showed that 6.94% children in this age group were OOS.

This has been revealed in the comprehensive survey by Social Research Institute of Indian Market Research Bureau of OOS children in the country. The survey, done for HRD ministry, corroborates the prestigious private survey by Pratham. In early 2009, Pratham had put OOS children at 4.3%.

The big news is Bihar’s success story and Rajasthan and UP’s poor performance. The north-south divide is also clear. Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra and TN have OOS children ranging between just 0.38% in Kerala to 1.4% in AP.

Right now the basic figures of the survey, conducted in January, have come out and more facts will surface once the report is finalized. But sources said there has been a significant decline in OOS Muslims, STs and girl students. However, the decline is not significant in case of SC children. Decline in OOS girl students is a testimony to the success of Kasturba Gandhi Ballika Vidyalaya.

In 2005, when the first survey was carried out, Bihar was the second worst performer in terms of OOS children — 31.7 lakh constituting 17% of children in the state in the 6-14 age group. Now, only 13.15 lakh are OOS. In percentage terms, this is just 7%. On the other hand, in Rajasthan, OOS children’s number has gone up. In 2005, 6.9% or 7.95 lakh children were OOS. Now it is 10 lakh taking the OOS children to 8.21%. Sources said the state’s poor performance can be attributed to lack of proper SSA monitoring. UP showed negligible decline in OOS children—from 8.15% in 2005 to 7.58% now. Numerically, it declined from 29.95 lakh during the first survey to 27.64 lakh. Bengal and MP, among the bad performers in 2005, have also done well. While Bengal has brought down its OOS children to 5% from 8.67% in 2005, MP figure is down from 8.63% to 2.45%.