At a time when access to higher education is being widely debated — the President signed the OBC quota Bill today — comes another reality check that the problem lies at a more basic level: a national report on the status of elementary education, prepared by NGO Pratham, has shown that enrolment figures of children, between 6 and 14 years of age (this corresponds to Class I - Class VIII), have not improved.

In fact, these have dipped — with 6.8 per cent of these children not in school in 2006 as compared to 6.5% the previous year.

Significantly, more and more children in this age group are joining private schools rather than those run by the government — a trend seen in all states across the country.

This report is based on a sample size of 15,610 villages and covering over 7.5 lakh children surveyed during October and November 2006. In each of the 549 districts, 30 villages were chosen — only 20 villages were chosen in 2005 — and children and their mothers, were interviewed. The report will be released here tomorrow by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Its key findings:

• For mothers who have had no schooling, chances that their children are out of school is much higher (almost 10%) than that of those who went to school (2.5%).

• In several states and UTs, there has been a dip in enrollment at the primary level. In Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the share of children not in school has jumped almost 12 times over last year; Goa (5 times), Karnataka (4 times), Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh (double of last year).

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