Pratham, a Mumbai and Delhi based NGO, in the field of
primary rural education for nearly a decade, recently
facilitated an all India survey, ASER 2005 (Annual
Status of Education Report).
The
objectives of ASER 2005 were:
*to know and understand the status of learning and
teaching in randomly selected areas in each district.
*to
inform parents, elected representatives of PRI,
teachers, and administrators about the findings.
*to
help and to participate in finding solutions to low
literacy and numeracy levels at elementary stages.
*to
encourage future district-level SSA plans to be based
on local needs .
*to
assist in effective implementation of plans.
The ASER 2005 West
Bengal survey was financed by Calcutta Foundation. On
the 27th of January, 2006, the West Bengal state
report of ASER 2005 was presented to the Governor of
West Bengal, Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in presence of
the representatives of all the partner groups in West
Bengal, children and general public.
Calcutta Foundation is working together with Pratham
and Inspiration towards improving the overall level of
elementary education in rural Bengal, by establishing
mobile libraries and carrying out other useful study
programmes.
ASER 2006
Calcutta
Foundation also provided funds to carry out the Annual
Status of Education Report (ASER) survey in 2006 in
West Bengal ,
to assess the rural primary education status.
ASER
2006 was conducted in 28 states in
India
in
the months of October and November and one of the key
findings of ASER 2006 was that out of the 58% children
who could be marked as readers 90% could comprehend
what they read. However, at Std V level, almost 47%
children could not read a Std II non-technical text
fluently. This means the rest are at a risk of not
understanding, on their own, much of what is written
in their textbooks.
|
West
Bengal
: ASER 2006 RURAL FINDINGS (all rural districts)
|
|
|
|
West Bengal
|
READING
: % OF CHILDREN WHO :
|
|
|
Std
|
Cannot even recognize letters
|
Can recognize letters but not more
|
Can read words but cannot read sentences
|
Can read an easy four line para (Std 1 level)
but not a page long story
|
Can read a one page story at Std 2 level of difficulty
|
Total
|
|
|
Std I
|
13.6
|
53.7
|
24.1
|
6.0
|
2.7
|
100
|
|
|
Std II
|
4.7
|
21.8
|
40.9
|
22.7
|
10.0
|
100
|
|
|
Std III
|
1.2
|
7.3
|
23.6
|
44.6
|
23.4
|
100
|
|
|
Std IV
|
0.4
|
4.4
|
10.2
|
33.8
|
51.2
|
100
|
|
|
Std V
|
0.5
|
1.2
|
6.5
|
26.6
|
65.3
|
100
|
|
According to
West Bengal
primary school
textbooks, children are expected to read simple texts
by end of Std 1. By end of Std 2, children are
expected to read complex texts.
The Read India campaign hopes to dramatically change
the picture shown above.
A similar campaign tried out in Madhya Pradesh
in 2005-2006 led to very significant
improvements.
ASER 2006 MP
