 Definition of literacy

o Per Census Commission in India, 1991-> one who can read and write “with
understanding” in any Indian language
o 2011 census – 73% literacy from 64.8% in 2001 and 18% in 1951
o present national goal is to achieve literacy rate of 80% by end of XIIth Plan
Period
 As per the latest Education for All Global Monitoring report (GMR) - released by
UNESCO
o India has the largest population of illiterate adults in the world - 37 % of the
global total - ~287 million
 Education is neither a single commodity not a homogenous service. In order to
adequately envision its shortcomings, it is imperative to analyze in the form of a continuum,
both in terms of
o Quantity – the amount of educational institutions, number of teacher,
educational facilities
o Quality – the skill of teacher, content and relevance of pedagogy
 These two aspects are not exclusive, rather they coincide and superimpose themselves
upon each other.

Disparity in education can be understood in terms of

1. Urban-rural disparity
2. Rich-poor disparity
3. Caste, religion and gender based disparities
 Gender disparity
 Literacy rate per 2011
o Males – 82%
o Females – 65%
 However, gap has reduced w.r.t 2001 (from 22% to 16%)
 Religious disparity
 Per census 2001, order of literacy
 Jain (94%)> Christian (80%)> Buddhists (72%)> Sikhs (69%) >
Hindus (65%)>Muslims (59%)
4. Regional disparities
5. Private school vs Public school
6. Disparity in quality of teaching
7. Primary education vs higher education vs adult education

Programs
 Prior to 1976- education was a state subject, uske baad, concurrent list
 National Adult Education Program (NAEP, 1978), NPE (1986), Sarva Siksha Abhiyan,
Saakshar Bharat, RTE,2009
 National Literacy Mission(NLM), 1988
 o aims to educate adults in the age group of 15 - 35 over an eighty-year period
o Works with NGOs
o This was replaced by Saakshar Bharat (women-centric) in 2009.
Causes
1. Elitisism of our education system
a. Urban biasness of our education system
i. In matter of location, residential facilities for teachers and their
families.
ii. English centric school students have advantage over vernacular
language students
b. High cost of education
i. Only upper class and more recently middle class can afford the
escalating cost of education -> studies of De Souza
2. Regional disparity in treatment of education
a. Shoddy teaching infrastructure, connectivity (from home to school),
teacher absenteeism, state govt. focus (Kerela vs Bihar).
3. Economic reasons
a. Funding, intervention of private sector, low wages of teachers leading to
low motivation, high cost of education
4. Population and poverty
a. Child labor instead of child education
b. Education is treated as a drain on resources, especially when people
don’t have food to eat.
c. 70% of muslims in India live in rural areas and are small or marginal
farmers, artisans etc. i.e. engaged in occupations which do not accord high
importance to education.
5. Focus on quantitative expansion of educational institutions without focusing on
quality of education
a. Inept and non-uniform quality of teacher training
b. Teacher absenteeism,ineffectiveness of primary schools in retaining
students
6. Cultural and historical reasons
a. Status of girl child, opposition to education opportunities to dalits
b. Hindu and Muslim religion are traditionally more gender restrictive than
Christanity or Buddhism
i. Laws of Manu made women non-eligible for all scholastic
activities.
ii. Traditionalism is high in Islam which restricts girls from going to
public places for education.
c. Jains
 i. historically wealthy and were one of the first religious groups to
take advantage of western education.
ii. A high proportion of them resided in urban areas and the state
of Gujarat (which was the first state in country to have introduced
compulsory education)
d. High literacy rate of Christians
i. Role played by Christian missionaries
ii. Christians spend higher % of household income on education as
compared to Muslims and Hindus.
7. Historical reasons
a. Initial focus on other areas like poverty, industrial development
(highlighted by low funds till 7th 5 year plan (1990))