96.7% of all 6-14 year olds in rural India are enrolled in school. This number has held steady since 2010.
Nationally, private school enrollment has risen year after year for the 6-14 age groups, increasing from 18.7% in 2006 to 25.6% in 2011. These increases are visible in all states except Bihar.
Nationally, reading levels are estimated to have declined in many states across North India. The All India figure for the proportion of children in Std V able to read a Std 2 level text has dropped from 53.7% in 2010 to 48.2% in 2011. Such declines are not visible in the southern states.
Basic arithmetic levels estimated in ASER 2011 show a decline. For example, nationally, the proportion of Std III children able to solve a 2 digit subtraction problem with borrowing has dropped from 36.3% in 2010 to 29.9% in 2011. Among Std v children, the ability to do similar subtraction problems has dropped from 70.9% in 2010 to 61.0% in 2011.
At the All India level, children’s attendance shows a decline from 73.4% in 2007 to 70.9% in 2011 in rural primary schools.
Nationally, for rural government primary schools, data suggests that over half of all classes visited are multigrade. For example, all India Standard 2 was sitting with one or more other classes in 58.3% of Std 2 classes in primary schools were sitting with another class. This figure is 53% for Std 4.
Between FY 2008-9 and FY 2010-11 the flow of SSA grants to schools improved significantly. however, this improvement occurred largely between FY 2008-9 and 2009-10. In fact a marginal decrease in the proportion of schools receiving grants is observed between FY 2009-10 and 2010- 11. The data suggest that schools tend to get their grants during the second half of the fiscal year.
At the All India level, there has been a marginal improvement in the proportion of schools complying with RTE norms on pupil-teacher ratio, from 38.9% in 2010 to 40.7% in 2011.
Nationally, the proportion of schools with no provision for drinking water remained almost the same – 17.0% in 2010 and 16.6% in 2011.