Literacy and Education

An Overview
 Sub sectors
Literacy
Pre Primary Education
Elementary Education
Secondary Education
Pre University Education
Vocational Education
Technical Education
Collegiate Education
 Literacy
Literacy attainments in Karnataka are still average.
Census data indicates that literacy rate moved from 30% in
1961 to 67.4% in 2001. Gender, caste, and urban-rural and
regional inequities persist.
Urban literacy is 81.05%; rural literacy 59.68%
Male literacy is 76.29%; female literacy is 57.45%
Rural female literacy even as per 2001 census is as low as
48.5% with literacy rates in Gulbarga and Raichur
lingering at around 29%.
Rural SC female literacy rates in Gulbarga and Raichur is
even lower.
 Initiatives in literacy
First efforts Vishweshwariah started Vigyan;
operationalised 3000 rural libraries in Mysore.
In the 1940s, MSAEC set up to develop reading material:
Belaku, its weekly magazine is published even today.
Post independence efforts focused on social and workers
education.
FFLP in the 1960s reached out to the relatively well off
farmer; left marginal farmers, agricultural labourers,
chiefly women, outside its scope.
NAEP in 1978, conceptualised to draw in NGOs, youth for
literacy skills and social awareness, was short lived.
 The campaigns approach rekindling
hope
Started with Bijapur and DK - sense
of determination and excitement
unsurpassed.
Extended in phases thruout the state.
Partnership with Mahila Samakhya
forged.
Against 80 lakh people proposed to be
covered, 35 lakhs achieved
predetermined levels of literacy.
KNSN introduced in 1997-98 to reach
the unreached.
PL&CE suffered due to organisational
fatigue. Massive relapse likely.
Some sustainable models have
emerged - NDLS in DK.
Campaigns have had huge positive
outcomes for UPE.
 Pre-primary education
Pre primary education and nutrition
taken up through 40,170 anganwadi
centres.
All AWWs undergo a 3 month JOC at 24
AWTCs. Refresher training is sporadic.
Huge charter of responsibilities; deptl
and community support systems
virtually absent.
Pre-school focus is primarily on songs
and stories: concepts of shape, size,
colour through thematic approach. Even
the highly motivated cannot cope.
Pre school education (3-6 years)
hampered by lack of age specific
techniques for child interaction,
inadequate/ inappropriate play material,
complete absence of drawing material
and poor infrastructure.
 Elementary education: number of
institutions
Rapid increase in primary schools from 25800 in 1960 to over
48,000 in 1998-99.
6th AIES indicates

91% of the population is served by a LPS within the habitation

and 96% has a school within 1 km.
60% served by an HPS within the habitation; 85% has an HPS
within 3 kms.

S/Govt norms for opening new schools have since been revised; all
habitations with a 200+ population have an LPS.
80% of the schools are government schools: aided and unaided
institutions account for 10% each.
 Elementary education: enrolment

Enrolment in primary schools have kept pace with expansion.

From 23 lakhs in 1960 enrolment now exceed 83 lakhs.
Percentage of enrolment in government schools is over 90% in
rural areas, but less than 50% in urban areas.
Growth rates in enrolment:
All districts of Gulbarga division recorded a phenomenal
10 fold increase since 1960;
Districts in Bangalore division have been average;
Belgaum division disappointing;
Districts of DK and Kodagu exhibit moderate growth rates
on account of declining birth rates.
 Estimated out of school children
Bangalore (U) 50214 65292 11.1 14.4 12.7
Bangalore 49380 69749 27.8 38.7 33.3
Belgaum 105918 127654 28.1 34.3 31.2
Bellary 47289 83975 21.4 38.8 30.0
Bidar 20557 33768 14.2 23.9 19.0
Bijapur 61597 110307 18.4 34.1 31.2
Chikmaglur 22510 29809 23.4 31.0 27.2
Chitradurga 47421 72535 20.4 32.0 26.1
D. Kannada 40102 54939 15.3 20.7 18.1
Dharwad 104567 138213 26.7 36.3 31.4
Gulbarga 67668 100945 22.6 35.0 28.7
Hassan 42376 52845 27.2 33.4 30.3
Kodagu 9002 12219 20.5 28.7 24.6
Kolar 52759 76843 22.2 32.2 27.2
Mandya 39201 59123 24.4 35.8 30.2
Mysore 98227 130951 30.5 40.5 35.5
Raichur 89241 144480 33.2 54.4 43.8
Shimoga 51318 58553 26.8 30.9 28.8
Tumkur 46949 72847 20.2 31.3 25.7
U. Kannada 27532 36386 22.7 31.1 26.8
State
 Variation in teacher pupil ratio
TPRs increased in the 1980s and early 1990s. Since then
there has been a healthy declining trend.
Over one lakh teachers recruited between 1993-94 to 1999-
2000 through computerised counseling system of recruitment
and appointment, significantly reducing nepotism, corruption
and malpractices. Overall TPR reduced to 1:41.
System of computerised counseling extended to teacher
transfers. Nevertheless, significant inter-district, inter-block
and inter-school imbalances persist.
New programme of computerised redeployment to address
imbalances in teacher deployment in final stages of
development.
Low learning achievement
Poor quality of learning major area of
concern, essentially because of:
Prevalence of multigrade teaching
despite massive teacher recruitment.
Inappropriate TCH syllabi do not
prepare teachers to deal with ground
realities.
In-service training inadequate
particularly at HPS stage.
Curriculum perceived as irrelevant by
community
Non availability of subject teachers
in HPS.
UNICEF and DPEP assisted Nali Kali
programme problem of low learning
achievement showing encouraging results
 Secondary education: institutions
Fourfold increase since 1968-69 from 1830 to 8589 high
schools
Average annual growth rate 11%
6th AIES indicates
81% of the population served by high school within 5 kms
90% served by high schools within 8 kms
7% of the population travels beyond 8 kms to reach high
school mostly from habitations with populations below
500 in which independent high schools are not viable
Large presence of private institutions in high school sector
2/3rd are private aided or unaided
Secondary education - enrolment
Increase in enrolment from 1.6
lakhs in 1960 to 17.7 lakhs in
1999-2000
Enrolment of girls has increased
much faster from 37,000 in 1960
to 7.8 lakhs
Nonetheless enrolment of girls is
much lower than that of boys (9.9
lakhs)
Enrolment in
Government 6.88 lakhs
Private aided 6.99 lakhs
Private unaided 3.84 lakhs
Secondary education: number of teachers

Seven fold increase in number of teachers from 10634 in

1960 to 67065 in 1998-99.
Overall TPR in high schools
Government 1:22
Private aided 1:23
Private unaided 1:26
Institution wise imbalances in TPR sought to be corrected
through computerised counseling system
 Secondary education quality and
infrastructure
Infrastructure facilities much below minimum requirements
Only 49% have toilets
Only 37% have laboratories
Only 15% have libraries.
Not surprising therefore that SSLC pass percentage is only
44%.
622 government and 738 private schools had a pass
percentage below 20%.
In 35 government and 45 private institutions not a single
child had passed.
But pass percentage for girls has been consistently higher
than that of boys.
 Pre-university education
Institutions
2 year PU course introduced in 1971-
72
1276 institutions imparting PU
courses;
44% in the government sector;
43% in the private aided
13% in the private unaided sector.
54.5% are in rural areas
Problem of unviable institutions 105
govt. and 198 private institutions with
a student strength below 25. Problem
largely confined to Bangalore,
Tumkur, Chitradurga districts.
Enrolment
As per 6th AIES enrolments were
2.51 lakhs 34% in rural areas
Enrolment in private aided
institutions constitute 50% of the
total enrolment; 40% enrolment is
in government institutions.
Girls enrolment is 36%: in rural
areas girls enrolment is 34.5%.
Majority of the girls are enrolled
in Arts courses (64.8%)
 PU courses

Only 389 institutions offer science courses of these 14%

do not have laboratory facilities.
25% have a combined lab for physics, chemistry and
biology.
Poor infrastructure partly accounts for the high degree of
wastage with only 35% of the students passing each year.
Achievement of girls has been higher than that of boys not
only in percentage terms, but also in terms of actual
numbers.
 Vocational education
Vocational education introduced as a
CSS in 1987-88
Courses designed in five broad areas:
Agriculture
Engineering
Health
Banking and Accountancy
Humanities
1427 courses have been started in PU
colleges covering 34 trades, enrolling
35000 students
Despite impressive coverage in terms
of numbers, the numbers of students
employed in trades has been
woefully small.
 Technical education
Karnataka has a large infrastructure in technical education
77 engineering colleges: 6 govt. 60 unaided and 11 aided
53,391 enrolled
184 polytechnics: 44,738 enrolled
6 junior technical schools
3 colleges of fine arts
The % of girls in engineering colleges and polytechnics is
16.5% and 16% respectively
All seats in govt engineering colleges and 95% of the seats
in private colleges are filled on the basis of merit through
CET.
 Tertiary education
Increase in the number of colleges from 15 govt. + 29
aided to 933 in 1999.
151 Govt. first grade colleges
301 private aided colleges
481 private unaided colleges
60 law colleges (1 in govt. sector)
Physical infrastructure has not kept pace with growth in
the number of institutions only 60 govt. colleges have
their own buildings (53 under construction)
 Tertiary sector: enrolment
1.96 lakh boys and 1.22 lakh girls enrolled in 933 colleges.
Meritorious students by and large opt for engineering and
technical courses.
Significant decline in the share of the sciences in total
enrollment from 34% in 1965 to 13 % in 1996-97
Analysis of data on the live registers of EE indicates that
50% of the educated unemployed are from the Arts stream.
Share of women in enrolment in higher education
marginally improved from 17% in 1965 to 29% in 1991-92
 The challenge ahead
What teachers say:

This school, its timings, textbooks, curriculum has been designed for which
child? Whose school is it anyway? For the child who has, but it is being run
in the name of the child who has not. I feel our schools should be
restructured from the perspective of the deprived child.
Latif
The school is actually meant for the poor. People with money always find
ways for their children to learn. We have to eliminate needless inequality of
opportunity. We have to ensure that the poor children learn.
Kodanramreddy
The education system should reach out to children from the most deprived
families. The whole system needs to change to make this happen.
Vijaya Kumari
Thank
you