Primary Education in India: Progress and Challenges
In recent decades India has made significant progress on access to schooling and enrollment rates in primary education but dropout rates and low levels of learning remain challenges for the state and central governments. Primary school enrollment in India has been a success story, largely due to various programs and drives to increase enrollment even in remote areas.
Kerala has become the first Indian state to achieve 100 percent primary education. The Vice-President of India, in January 2016, officially declared the 100 percent primary education status achieved by the state. Additionally, the quality of learning is a major issue and reports show that children are not achieving class-appropriate learning levels. Without immediate and urgent help, these children cannot effectively progress in the education system, and so improving the quality of learning in schools is the next big challenge for both the state and central governments.
Here are some interesting facts about the status of primary education in India:

- Expanding literacy to approximately three-quarters of the population in the 7–10 age groups by 2011, India has made progress in terms of increasing the primary education attendance rate over the years.
- As per the stats, around 29 percent of students in the 6 to 14 age group in the country receive private education.
- In India, 80 percent of all recognized schools at the elementary stage are government run or supported, thus, making it the largest provider of primary education in the country.
- Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, education for children for 6 to 14 years of age or up to Class 8 has been made free by the government.

- With an aim to universalize primary education in India, the District Education Revitalization Programme (DERP) was launched in 1994. Its main focus was to reform and vitalize the primary education system.
- The student-teacher ratio in India stands at 24:1 across all levels of schooling. This seems healthy in light of the Right to Education Act stipulation of a ratio of 30:1.
- The RTE act has called for sufficient infrastructure, but less than 5% schools have all the 9 facilities mentioned in the act. Over 30 % schools had no toilets and over 60 % had no playgrounds.
- In the past few years, this primary education scheme has shown a high Gross Enrollment Ratio of 93–95 percent in some Indian states.
Few challenges faced in the sector:

- As of 2011, the enrollment rate for pre-primary schools is 58 per cent and 93 per cent for primary schools. However, as per the studies, among rural children of age 10, half could not read at a basic level, despite the high overall enrollment rate for primary education.
- Some of the reasons cited for the poor quality of education in schools include the absence of around 25 per cent of teachers every day. Also, as per some online reports, the pupil to teacher ratio within the public school system for primary education is 35: 1.
- A study of 188 government-run primary schools found that 59 per cent of the schools had no drinking water and 89 percent had no toilets.
- The District Information system for education (DISE) data shows that only 6 out 10 schools in the country have access to electricity. Bihar is the worst offender with only 10 % of its schools having access to electricity. This a major issue for students to bear such a temperature during hot summers.
- The quality of teachers is also important for the learning outcomes but the DISE data shows that only 69 % of all school teachers in the country have a graduate degree or more.
Thus, even though education in India has improved dramatically over the last three decades. Schools being accessible to most children, both student enrollment and attendance are at their highest level, and teachers are adequately remunerated. The RTE Act guarantees a quality education to a wider range of students than ever before. However, challenges in implementing and monitoring high standards in teaching and learning outcomes across regional, cultural and socioeconomic subsets prevent India from fully achieving this goal.
Improving education is a critical area of investment and focus if the country wants to sustain economic growth and harness its young workforce. A weak foundation in primary education can derail the lives, careers, and productivity of tens of millions of its citizens. We all should contribute our part as well in improving the education system to make a significant difference.
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