Rise in reading, arithmetic skill -Khelen Thokchom

Rural secondary school students in the Northeast have better reading and arithmetic skills than the rest of the nation, an education survey has revealed, though the numerical knowledge in some states of the region is below the national average.

The survey was conducted by volunteers of the Annual Status of Education Report under a Delhi-based NGO, Pratham, for the Union human resource development ministry.

Among the Northeast states, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura are doing better when compared to the national average. However, Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya are below the national level as far as arithmetic is concerned.

The report, titled Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2011, Northeast India Report (provisional), was released by MLA I. Ibohalbi Singh here yesterday.

The national report was released by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal on January 16.

The all-India average says 10.4 per cent of the students up to Class VII in rural areas could not read letters at all, while 16.9 per cent could read only Class I text. Only 38.3 per cent could read the Class II texts.

Regarding the knowledge of arithmetic, 9.5 per cent of the students could not even recognise numbers. Only 23.4 per cent could do subtraction, but not division. Only 22.9 per cent could do division.

The overall situation is slightly better in the northeastern states.

Private school enrolment in the age group of 6-14 in Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland is above the national figure of 25.6 per cent. The percentages in Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland are 71.1, 53.3 and 40.9.

Manipur has the highest figures in private school enrolment in the country, followed by Kerala, 60.8 per cent.

However, the percentage of out-of-school children in the age group of 6-14 in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya is higher than the national figure. While the national out-of-school-children percentage is 3.3, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya recorded 3.8, 4.2 and 5.8 per cent respectively.

Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura have out-of-school-children percentage of 1.1, 0.6, 2.0 and 1.3 respectively.

Retired professor of Manipur University, N. Mohendra Singh, said thanks to lack of proper policy and teaching-learning method in the primary level students could not do well in Manipur.

Ibohalbi urged governments to use this data to take corrective measures and improve the education system.