Skip to main content

Gujarat has 2.72% rural graduates, worse than 14 major Indian states: SECC data

 
One of the major “policy thrusts” adopted by the Government of India is known to be to follow a still unexplained “Gujarat model of education” for the country as a whole. Not only very little official information is available on what this “model” is and how top policy makers wish to pursue it, latest data of the Socio Economic and Caste Survey (SECC), released by the Centre suggest that Gujarat one of the worst performers at higher levels of learning.
SECC data, collected in 2012-13, but had to “wait” till they were checked and rechecked by different state agencies before they were released, are still incomplete, as they lack gender and caste breakup, especially for education. Yet, they do point out that just about 2.72 per cent of the rural people of Gujarat are graduates, which is one of the worst in the country.
In fact, there are as many as 14 out of 21 major Indian states which perform better than Gujarat on this score. And, only poorer states have a still lower proportion of graduates – West Bengal (2.67 per cent), Bihar (2.28 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (2.24 per cent), Assam (2.21 per cent), Jharkhand 2.14 per cent), and Chhattisgarh (2.12 per cent).
The situation is not very different for the rural population whose highest level of learning is up to higher secondary. In this category, Gujarat’s 4.77 per cent of rural population has attained higher secondary education, which is worse than 13 other states of India.
The states which have performed worse than Gujarat on this score are Madhya Pradesh (4.52 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (4.46 per cent), Jharkhand (3.88 per cent), Rajasthan (3.81 per cent), Bihar (3.63 per cent), Odisha (3.62 per cent), and West Bengal (3.46 per cent).
In fact, the SECC data suggest that, while at the primary level of learning, almost all those who studied in Gujarat may have passed out. However, things worsened as one reached higher levels of education. Thus, Gujarat has the sixth highest literate per cent of rural population, and the highest per cent of rural population which has primary level as the highest proportion of education.
However, as for the higher primary level, where the “compulsory” promotions taking place at the primary level finally end, Gujarat’s percentage of those with the highest level of education (eighth standard) is one of the worst. With 9.11 per cent, the only state which has a still lower proportion of higher primary (or middle) as the highest level of education is Bihar (8.81 per cent). 
While the data do not provide any gender or caste breakup, an earlier Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) suggested that in the age-group 11-14, Gujarat's 7.6 per cent of girls were found to be “not in school” as against the all-India average of 4.4 per cent. Further, in the age group 15-16, a whopping 30.2 per cent of girls were “not in school” as against the all-India average of nearly half as much, 17.3 per cent.
ASER survey by high profile NGO Pratham said that state-wise distribution of “not-in-school” girls in the age-group 11 to 14 that all states except two perform better than Gujarat – Rajasthan, which failed to send 12.1 per cent of girls, and Uttar Pradesh which failed to send 9.2 per cent of girls to school. Coming to the age-group 15-16, only one state, Rajasthan, performed worse than Gujarat, Rajasthan, which failed to send 31.4 per cent girls to school.

Comments

TRENDING

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

Patriot, Link: How Soviet imbroglio post-1968 crucially influenced alternative media platforms

Adatata Narayanan, Aruna Asaf Ali Alternative media, as we know it today in the age of information and communication technology (ICT), didn't exist in the form it does today during or around the time I joined formal journalism at Link Newsweekly as a sub-editor in January 1979. However, Link, and its sister publication Patriot, a daily—both published from Delhi—were known to have provided what could be called an alternative media platform at a time when major Delhi-based dailies were controlled by media barons.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Behind the scene? Ex-IAS, now Modi man in Yogi Cabinet, who lined up Mahakumbh VVIP comforts for Gujarat colleagues

The other day, I was talking to a senior IAS official about whether he or his colleagues had traveled to the recently concluded Mahakumbh in Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of his intense Hindutva drive. He refused to reveal any names but said he had not gone there "despite arrangements for Gujarat cadre IAS officials" at the Mahakumbh VVIP site. "The water is too dirty—why take the risk?" he asked.