Bihar ranked 35th in education

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION REPORT

60% schools lack Toilets

Statesman News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan. 27: In about 60 per cent of primary and upper primary schools of the country, girl students have to share a common toilet with boys.

According to the latest statistics on "Elementary Education in India", prepared by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, the percentage of schools with provision for separate girls toilets is less than 25 in 10 states.

These include Arunachal Pradesh (12.16) Assam (10.02), Bihar (16.21), Chhattisgarh (13.33), Jammu and Kashmir (20.03), Jharkhand (15.46), Manipur (17.86), Meghalaya (8.76), Mizoram (21.32) and Tripura (21.12). The states where the percentage of schools with separate toilets for girls is more than 75 per cent include Delhi (89.01), Haryana (76.19), Kerala (76.89), Puducherri (84.88), Punjab (80.88) and Uttar Pradesh (78.20).
The percentage of such schools is 31 in West Bengal.

According to data received from about 1.20 million schools spread across 609 districts of 35 states and Union Territories, about 30 per cent of schools in the country are still without pucca buildings and about 14 per cent schools have no drinking water facility. The overall percentage of schools having computers is 13.43 per cent.

Students in aided and unaided private schools have a greater number of teachers, compared to those studying in government schools. While the average number of teachers per government school is 3.7, it is 8.5 and 6.5 in private aided and private un-aided schools, respectively.

The number of teachers who are untrained professionally is close to 22 per cent.

But 44.88 per cent of para-teachers, who form about 7.86 per cent of the total teachers at primary and upper primary schools in the country, are professionally untrained.

According to the document titled "Flash Statistics: Elementary Education in India: Progress towards Universal Elementary Education (UEE) 2006-07," Delhi tops the educational developmental index (EDI) for primary level and is ranked first.

Puducherri is second, Kerala is at No. 3, Bihar at 35, Jharkhand at 34, Uttar Pradesh at 24, West Bengal at 30 and Arunachal Pradesh at 33.

At the upper primary level, however, Kerala is on top, followed by Puducherri, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh.

Like the primary level, Bihar and Jharkhand are respectively ranked 35th and 34th at the upper primary levels of education also.

For composite primary and upper primary education, Kerala is ranked first followed by Puducherri, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

Bihar and Jharkhand are ranked 35th and 34th, respectively.

In 2005-06, Kerala was also ranked first for composite primary and upper primary levels of education. Delhi, however, which ranked second in 2005-06 moved to third position in 2006-07.