Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 15: More than 23 per cent of students in the 15-16 years age group are out of school, according to an annual study on education in rural schools, titled ASER 2014, conducted by the Pratham Foundation.
As many as 23.8 per cent girls and 23.1 per cent boys are not attending school.However, the nationwide study that covered 812 rural government and private schools across 30 districts of Orissa also says that the schools have improved their performance on many fronts.
The student-teacher ratio, which was 22.5 per cent in 2010, has now sought up to 38.6 per cent. The classroom-teacher ratio, which was 74 per cent in 2010, came down to 68.3 per cent.“This year Orissa has shown improvement in some of the parameters.
However, the figures are not very drastic. There are many fronts on which the state government and authorities concerned need to work,” says Nikul Sahoo, ASER associate, Orissa, who is working for the organisation and research team for the last four years.
The 345-page report also points out that 15.8 per cent of rural primary and upper primary schools do not have toilet facility and that in 21.1 per cent of the schools that have the facility, the toilets are not of use.As many as 29.3 per cent of rural schools do not have separate toilets for girls, while in 8 per cent of the schools the toilets are locked.
