AN APPRAISAL OF RURAL EDUCATION
Dr. Huchhe Gowda
This paper examined the rural education in India. Majority of India still lives in villages and so the topic
of rural education in India is of utmost importance. A survey shows that even though the number of rural
students attending schools is rising, but more than half of the students in fifth grade are unable to read a
second grade text book and are not able to solve simple mathematical problems. Not only this, the level of
maths and reading is further declining. Though efforts are being made, they are not in the right direction.
The reason cited for this problem in surveys is the increasing number of single classroom to educate
students from more than one grade. In some states attendance of teachers and students is also declining.
These are a few reasons why schools have failed to educate rural India. This shows that male education
level is greater than that of female educational level in the same region, while urban segment is better
than that of their rural counterparts. However, rural males level of literacy is less than not only that of
urban males, but also that of urban females. On the basis of social groups, the educational level of the
males among the rural section is worse than that of the females belonging to the others category. Similar
differences can be seen within urban males and urban females, wherein the educational levels of the ST
and SC population lagging behind that of the OBC and others, and also the extent of rural education
among various segments of population on the basis of secondary data.
ccording to 2011 census, Indias population
is around 121 crore. Three fourth of this
population can become the nations strength,
helping the economy to grow. More the rural India
learns and sharpens its skills, the better it would help
the economy. Mahatma Gandhi had also said that
India cannot progress unless the villages progress
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which is very much applicable. Rural education will
prepare India for a better tomorrow. Quality and
access to education is the major concern in rural
schools as there are fewer committed teachers,
lack of proper text books and learning material in
the schools. Though Government schools exist, but
when compared to private schools then quality is
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Rural Education in India
It was once rightly said by the father of our
nation Mahatma Gandhi that India lives in its
villages. People residing in villages represent the
true image of real India. However, due to lack of
literacy and education, the rural India witnesses
many drawbacks. Some government schools in rural
India are overly packed with students, leading to a
distorted teacher- student ratio. In one such remote
village in Arunachal Pradesh there are more than
300 students in class X which makes nearly 100
students in each classroom. In such a situation it is
impossible for teachers to pay full attention towards
each and every student, even if they are willing to
help. Every village is not provided with school which
means that students have to go to another village to
get education. Owing to this parents usually do not
send their daughters to school, leading to a failure in
achieving rural education in India.
Poverty is another setback. Government schools
are not as good and private schools are expensive.
This results in a very low number of students actually
clearing their secondary education and taking
admission in a colleges for further studies. So the
drop-out-rate at the secondary level is extremely
high in villages. Only parents who can afford college
education send their kids to secondary schools. If
parents are not able to send their wards for higher
education then all their previous efforts get wasted
as completing just secondary education means a low
paying job and the person is again struck in the same
never ending cycle of money, life and poverty. Most
textbooks are in English and since people in rural
areas either speak their native language or Hindi,
but not English that defeats the purpose. This results
in lack of their interest in studies. Hence majority
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of students do not bother to study, which means a
decline in their education level. Neither students nor
teachers take any interest in studies which is why the
level of education is declining in India despite many
efforts.
Need for Rural Education
Education enables an individual to look at
society and its aspects with a wider perspective.
Without education, people are unable to develop
the basic sense required. Around three fourth of
the countrys population belong to the rural area.
With literate and educated rural Indians, our country
might emerge as a developed nation.
Present Scenario of Rural Education
Considering Indias earlier state, rural education
condition has been still improving. However, the
rural school have been suffering a lot. The schools in
rural regions are very few at different far off places
and children residing in one village dont prefer
travelling, considering it as a waste of their time and
money. The problem of commuting becomes a main
drawback for these schools. The condition of schools
is such that they dont provide the students with
clean drinking water. The education quality is also
not up to the mark. Because the teachers there are
paid lesser, they tend to get reluctant towards their
teaching or prefer remaining absent for the day.
Most of the times, the teachers selected to teach
are also not very well qualified to educate the rural
children. Method of teaching also lacks in all aspect.
Most of these schools have a very poor or mediocre
infrastructure. Hence, the students are deprived
of the essential facilities like sports educations,
extracurricular activities and basic computer training
classes. One of the most serious problems is that
the number of school dropouts is increasing in
these areas.
It is noted that the percentage of not literate
persons among the rural males has declined from
45.5 per cent in 1993-94 to 29.4 per cent in 200910; the proportion of those who are literate upto
the primary level has moved up from 33.7 per cent
to 35.7 per cent; that of middle school too has
increased from 10.9 per cent to 16 per cent, while
the percentage of those who are literate upto the
secondary level or above has gone up from 9.8 per
cent to 18.8 per cent between 1993-94 to 2009-10.
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a major issue. Majority of people living in villages
have understood the importance of education and
know that it is the only way to get rid of poverty. But
due to lack of money they are not able to send their
children to private schools and hence depend upon
government schools for education. Above that, in
some of the government schools there is only one
teacher for the entire school and if they dont show
up at work, then it is a holiday. If the quality along
with number of teachers and, that too committed
teachers can be improved in these schools, then
aspiring rural children and India can fulfill their
dreams of doing something great.
In the case of rural female, illiteracy rate has
declined from 67.9 per cent in 1993-94 to 46.7 per
cent in 2009-10, while their levels of literacy upto the
primary level has moved up from 23 per cent to 31.8
per cent; that of upto middle school has increased
from 5.6 per cent to 11.1 per cent and that of upto
secondary level or above too has increased from 3.4
per cent to 10.3 per cent in the same period. The
educational level of urban males suggests that the
illiteracy level has decreased from 24.1 per cent to
16.4 per cent between 1993-94 and 2009-10, while
the percentage of primary level literacy has come
down from 33.2 per cent to 27.4 per cent, while
that of upto middle school level has gone up only
marginally from 14.5 per cent to 15 per cent and upto
secondary or above level of literacy has moved up
from 28.1 per cent to 41.1 per cent in that period.
It is observed that among the rural males, the
rate of illiteracy ranges from 35.8 per cent among the
ST, 33.1 per cent in the case of SC, 25.3 per cent for
the Other Backward Class (OBC) and 17.4 per cent in
the case of others. This indicates that the proportion
of illiterate population is considerably higher among
the ST and SC communities than among the OBC and
others. Among the literates, the proportion of those
with primary level of education is higher among
the ST (26.4 per cent) and SC (27.6 per cent) than
among the OBC (25.2 per cent) and others (23.1
per cent), which underlines the fact that among
the marginalised section (ST and SC), educational
level is mostly centred at the primary level. This is
underscored more so by the fact that at higher levels
of education, the rate is less among the marginalised
section than among the OBC and others.
In the case of urban females, level of illiteracy
has moved down from 38.4 per cent in 1993-94 to
26.4 per cent in 2009-10 and that of upto primary
level literacy too has declined from 31 per cent to
27 per cent, while that of middle school literacy
has gone up from 11.8 per cent to 13.6 per cent
and literacy level upto secondary level or above has
increased from 18.7 per cent to 33 per cent between
1993-94 to 2009-10.
Moreover, such difference aggravates with
the level of education. For instance, at the middle
school level, the difference in rate between the
marginalised section and others is only 1-2 per cent,
which grows to 2-5 per cent at the level of graduation
and above. Among rural females too, there are intergroup variations, in which the marginalised section
lose out to the others not only at the higher rungs of
education, but even at the primary level of education
and needless to say, the rate of illiteracy is higher
among the ST (58.3 per cent) and SC (58.1 per cent)
than among the OBC (51.4 per cent) and others (36.6
per cent). However, the degree of difference in the
rates of education does not go up as in the case of
males, but remains constant at around 2 per cent
in favour of the OBC and others. This is not due to
higher levels of education among the marginalised
section, but because of the low educational levels
among the OBC and others. For instance, the
proportion of those who have graduation or above
level of education among the SC and ST is around 1
per cent, which is 1.8 per cent among the OBC and
3.5 per cent in the case of others.
This indicates that general educational levels
have gone up among all sub-groups, though there
are intra and inter-gender variations. For instance,
educational levels differ between males and females
in both rural and urban areas, while gender-wise,
there are differences between the rural males and
urban males and between the rural females and
urban females. Though the illiteracy rate of the
rural and urban females has declined over the years,
it is still not only higher than that of their male
counterparts, but the female illiteracy rate in 200910 is higher than that the males illiteracy rate that
existed in 1993-94. Hence, educational attainment
among the females, whether in the rural or urban
areas, lags behind that of male population by two
decades. Moreover, rural males level of literacy is
less than not only that of urban males, but also that
of urban females. For instance, in 2009-10, 29.4 per
cent of the rural males are illiterate, which is only
26.4 per cent among the urban females, while the
proportion of rural males who are literate upto
secondary level or above is 18.8 per cent, which is
33 per cent among the urban females.
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Apart from the differences among the social
groups within both the rural males and rural
females, there are inter-gender and intra-group
differences as well. For instance, the rate of illiteracy
among the rural ST males is 35.8 per cent, while it is
58.3 per cent in the case of the rural ST females and
such differences can be seen across all groups and
all levels of education. Thus, overall, 26 per cent of
the rural males are illiterate during 2009-10, which
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September 2013
is 49.8 per cent among the rural females; 25.3 per
cent of the former are literate upto the primary
level, which is 22 per cent in the case of the latter
and 4.5 per cent of the males are graduates or
educated more, which is only 2 per cent in the case
of the females. Thus, the ST and SC communities
are the least educated, which is even much worse
among their female folk. The data also indicates the
fact that the rate of literacy is lower among the ST
and SC males than among the females belonging to
the others. Thus, those who are educated upto the
higher secondary level among the rural ST males
is 5.7 per cent, which is 6.7 per cent among the
other females, and it is 2.2 per cent and 3.5 per
cent respectively in the case of those who have
graduation or above qualification.
Literacy Rates in Major States of India
This section examines the literacy rates of the
population in the major states of the country on the
basis of their area and sex and Table no. 3 presents
the relevant data pertaining to 2011 Census.
The table indicates that at the All-India level,
total rural literacy rate in 2011 is 68.91 per cent,
which is 84.98 per cent in the urban India and
hence, there is a difference of 16 percentage points.
Among the rural females, 58.75 per cent of them are
literate, which is 79.92 per cent among their urban
counterparts and thereby projecting a difference of
more than 21 percentage points and among the rural
males, the overall rate of literacy is 78.57 per cent visa-vis 89.67 per cent in the case of urban males and
thus, the latter is higher by around 11 percentage
points. This suggests that spatial variation exists
among all three categories, viz., female, male and
persons, which is the worst in the case of females.
Moreover, there are also gender variations within
the same region. Thus, within the rural area, the
male literacy rate is higher than that of female rate by
around 20 percentage points, while it is less than 10
Area and Sex-wise Literacy Rate in Major States of India, 2011
States
Rural
Urban
Female
Male
Person
Female
Male
Person
Andhra Pradesh
52.05
70.24
61.14
75.02
85.99
80.54
Assam
64.09
76.51
70.44
85.71
91.84
88.88
Bihar
50.82
71.90
61.83
72.36
84.42
78.75
Gujarat
62.41
83.10
73.00
82.08
92.44
87.58
Haryana
60.97
83.20
72.74
77.51
89.37
83.83
Himachal Pradesh
75.33
90.48
82.91
88.66
93.72
91.39
Jammu & Kashmir
53.36
75.51
64.97
70.19
84.90
78.19
Karnataka
59.60
77.92
68.86
81.71
90.54
86.21
Kerala
90.74
95.29
92.92
93.33
96.83
94.99
Madhya Pradesh
53.20
76.64
65.29
77.39
90.24
84.09
Maharashtra
67.38
86.39
77.09
85.44
93.79
89.84
Orissa
61.10
80.41
70.78
80.70
91.83
86.45
Punjab
66.47
77.92
72.45
79.62
87.28
83.70
Rajasthan
46.25
77.49
62.34
71.53
89.16
80.73
Tamil Nadu
65.52
82.08
73.80
82.67
91.82
87.24
Uttar Pradesh
55.61
78.48
67.55
71.68
81.75
77.01
West Bengal
66.08
79.51
72.97
81.70
89.15
85.54
All- India
58.75
78.57
68.91
79.92
89.67
84.98
Note: Figures in percentage.
Source: Government of India, (2012), Census of India, 2011, Provisional Population Tables, Census of India, New Delhi.
September 2013
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percentage points in the case of urban India. Hence,
gender difference exists within the rural and urban
areas, which is especially higher in the rural areas.
Among the major states, in the case of rural females,
the lowest rate of literacy is found in Rajasthan (46.25
per cent), followed by Bihar (50.82 per cent), while
the highest rate is found in Kerala (90.74 per cent),
and followed by Himachal Pradesh (75.33 per cent).
This indicates the degree of difference between the
lowest literacy rate and the highest literacy rate, as
far as rural females are concerned, which diverges
by more than 44 percentage points. Compared to
the All-India average, out of the 17 major states, the
performance of 6 states is worse, while that of 11
states are better.
the major states of the country; the difference in the
rate of literacy of the rural males is higher than that
of urban females and even at the All-India level, the
urban females outperform rural males.
In the case of rural males, the lowest rate of
literacy is found in Andhra Pradesh (70.24 per cent),
followed by Bihar (71.90 per cent). The highest rate
of literacy is seen in Kerala (95.29 per cent), which
is succeeded by Himachal Pradesh (90.48 per cent).
Hence, in the case of rural males, the extent of
divergence is only 25 per cent between the least and
highest rate of literacy. Against the All-India average,
9 states perform worse out of the 17 major states,
while only 8 states perform better. Among the urban
females, the lowest rate of literacy is seen in Jammu
and Kashmir (70.19 per cent), which is followed by
Rajasthan (71.53 per cent), while the highest rate of
literacy is again found in Kerala (93.33 per cent) and
it is succeeded again by Himachal Pradesh (88.66
per cent). Hence, the difference between the least
and the highest rates of literacy is only around 23
per cent, while it is 44 per cent in the case of rural
females. Against the All-India average, 8 out of the
17 states perform worse, while the remaining 9
states outperform the national average.
Sources: NSSO 2007-08
As far as the urban males rate of literacy is
concerned, the highest rate is found obviously
in Kerala (96.83 per cent), which is followed by
Maharashtra (93.79 per cent) and at the other
extreme, Uttar Pradesh (81.75 per cent) performs
very poorly, which is followed by Bihar (84.42 per cent)
and thus, the least and the highest rates differ by 15
percentage points. Thus, against the national average
of 89.67 per cent, 8 states performance is worse,
while 9 states outperform the national average. This
indicates that the rural females perform the worst as
far as their literacy is concerned, since it is not only
the least, but also there is a huge difference among
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Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in Rural areas
Gross Enrollment Ratios across Areas
Sl.
No
Area
GER
(Percentage)
Male
GER (Percentage)
Female 2004-05 2007-08
01
Rural
8.3
13.7
8.4
11.1
02
Urban
13.7
29.6
16.2
19.0
03
Overall
12.7
17.1
14.2
17.2
GER amongst caste groups along Rural and
Urban areas
Sl. No
Categories
GER (Percentage)
Rural
Urban
01
SC
9.6
22.4
02
ST
7.1
32.2
03
Total
15.1
28.2
04
Others
19.2
41.2
Sources: NSSO 2007-08
An analysis of the GER amongst caste groups
along Rural and Urban areas bring out stark inequities.
It is observed that GER for SC ( 9.6%), ST (7.1%), OBC
(15%) in rural areas is quite low compared to their
respective GER in urban areas. This major difference
calls for greater attention and there is a need to improve
education facilities as well as opportunities for these
social groups to have access to higher education.
Initiatives by Government for Rural Education
The rural population accounts for a little more
than 70% of Indias enormous population. Hence,
it is extremely essential that the government takes
appropriate initiative for the welfare and betterment
of rural India. Mahila Samakhya is one such scheme
which mainly focuses on the womens literacy from
rural areas. Under this scheme, the rural women are
asked to attend meetings and seminars for better
awareness. Presently, the National Bal Bhavan has 10
and 68 affiliated bal Kendra and bhavans respectively.
This scheme includes social as well as educational
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The last two decades have seen the emergence
of a number of education-specific support
institutions, such as the District Primary Education
Programme (DPEP) and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
State Implementation Societies, State Councils of
Educational Research and Training (SCERT), State
Institutes of Educational Management and Training
(SIEMAT), District Institutes of Education and Training
(DIET), Block Resource Centres (BRC), Cluster Resource
Centres (CRC), and, in rural areas, Village Education
Committees (VEC), as well as an increased involvement
of NGOs, that have acted as a counterweight to
what is often an overly bureaucratic and hierarchical
administration. The last decade or so has also seen the
establishment of the Panchayati Raj or village council,
and this body is playing an increasingly important role
in education in rural areas across the country. Currently
an estimated 95 per cent of the rural population living
in 826,000 habitations has a primary school within 1
km and about 85 per cent of the population has an
upper primary school within 3 km.
Another flagship scheme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
is in process of being implemented for education in
every district of India. This scheme primarily focuses
in providing appropriate elementary education to all
the children within the age group of 6-14 years by
2010. This programme will mainly cover educational
needs for girls, and scheduled caste and scheduled
tribes. Due to this programme, many new schools
will open in places that did not have facilities and
proper infrastructure.
Suggestions and Conclusion
Infrastructure needs for providing effective rural
education. Education infrastructure broadly includes
teachers, teachers guides to the curriculum and
syllabus, non-consumable learning materials (such
as curriculum materials for students, textbooks,
visual aids, and equipment), consumable learning
materials (such as chalk, paper, pencils, exercise
books), school buildings, including water facilities,
latrines, and school furniture. A highly qualified,
experienced, and competent teacher could probably
be an effective educator with fewer resources than
an untrained, poorly educated, and inexperienced
teacher. People, including parents and school
personnel, are largely unaware of the full intent of
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the recent legislation passed by Indian Parliament.
A large number of school personnel are also not
aware of funding available to include students with
disabilities in regular schools. There is some evidence
that those educators who are knowledgeable about
government policies and laws concerning integrated
education tend to have positive attitudes toward
implementing such programs. There is also evidence
when parents are knowledgeable and supportive of
integrated education; they tend to have a positive
effect on school personnel. Thus, unless people,
especially parents of children with disabilities and
school personnel, are made knowledgeable about the
various provisions enshrined in the Act, the Central
and State governments commitment to providing
integrated education will be in vain. Although some
attempts are being made to disseminate information
about the education to parents, to government
officials and non government organizations, they
have been extremely limited in coverage.
There is a difference between city and village
student not in terms of brain or development but
their initial environment, skills, learning ability,
availability of infrastructure, and access to different
facilities. All of these must be considered while
making the curricula which should not be different
but how it is going to be taught would make the
difference. Encourage the genuine rural students
who are interested in education and make them
competent. There are many examples of success in
rural education in India like the Barefoot college, 8
Day Academy and Gurukul School in Bihar. These
are innovative and successful examples of schools
running in rural India. It is the time to replicate such
efforts as our country and its rural population is very
vast which means one of two stories of these kinds
wont make any difference. Instead of this large
number of such schools are required in rural India. It
is also absolutely mandatory to evaluate the success
of the schools and students at each and every level.
Timely assessment will throw light on present
problems and achievements. Let us try to build a
solution around these problems which will resolve
the overall issues of rural education in India.
[The author is a Assistant Professor, Department
of Studies in Economics, Rani Channamma University,
Vidyasangama, PBNH-4, Belagavi-591156, Karnataka
E-Mail :hgowda_smtd@rediffmail.com]
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activities. This scheme also helps in recognising the
childrens talent for specific educational stream.
