Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairperson of Planning Commission, released the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2006 at Vishwa Yuvak Kendra here today. The function was attended by dignitaries like Mr Eimar Barr, the UNICEF representative; Mr Champak Chatterji, secretary school education and literacy, MHRD, New Delhi, and Dr Madhav Chavan, director programmes, Pratham, Mumbai.
The report focuses on a citizen's initiative to understand the status of elementary education in India. Some 15,610 villages; 3,18,761 households; 3,13,135 mothers and 7,58,028 children were surveyed in October and November 2006. ASER unveiled the fact that some 68.6 per cent children aged four and below are enrolled in anganwadi or balwadi schools. While, some 46.6 per cent children aged five are enrolled in Std one in the above schools. By the age of 6 the school enrollment of children in India is 88.4 per cent.
Mr Ahluwalia commented, "ASER has contributed significantly in the second consecutive year. I believe that states and districts will make efforts to deliver better quality of education and measure the improvements in learning through internal and external evaluations." He added, "I firmly believe that this survey will play an important role in realising what is happening at the grass root level. "
UNICEF representative Mr Barr observed, "UNICEF welcomes ASER 2006 as an important contribution in assessing elementary education in India. Pratham is to be commended for spearheading this."
States such as Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana have shown significant progress in the area of learning achievement in Std I and II. Among these, MP has shown the most remarkable achievement by climbing from the list of bottom 5 to top five.
