More children in rural areas preferring pvt schools: report

New Delhi: Enrolling in private schools is no more confined to urban centres alone as an education report, released today, says increasing number of children in rural areas are also preferring the private ones. Though the report did not specify any reason for this, it says enrolment between 6 and 14 age group in private schools rose from 18.7 per cent in 2006 to 25.6 percent in 2011 in all states except Bihar. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) for rural areas 2011 prepared by Pratham, says in states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur and Meghalaya, there has been an increase of over 10 per cent points in private school enrolment in the past five years. [caption id=“attachment_183859” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The report released by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, says between 30 and 50 percent of children in rural areas are enrolled in private schools. AFP”] [/caption] The report released by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, says between 30 and 50 percent of children in rural areas of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland are enrolled in private schools. The report was prepared based on a survey covering 558 districts, over three lakh households and six lakh children and 16 thousand villages. Though enrolment in rural areas between 60 and 14 age group stood at an impressive figure at 96.7 per cent, the report says attendance has shown a decline from 73.4 percent in 2007 to 70.9 per cent in 2011 in rural primary areas. In Bihar, for example, attendance of children dropped by nine per cent during the past four years while in Madhya Pradesh, it dropped from 67 per cent to 54.5 per cent in four years. In Uttar Pradesh, the decline in attendance was about seven percent. PTI