Question : WORLD BANK REPORT ON SECONDARY EDUCATION

(a) whether in its recent report, the World Bank has stated that India`s Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) in secondary school is 40% as compared to 70% in East Asia and 82% in Latin America and that 48% secondary school students in India never go beyond that level;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether Government has conducted any study in this regard;

(d) if so, the outcome thereof; and

(e) the concrete measures taken by the Government to encourage secondary and higher education in the country?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT(SMT. D. PURANDESWARI)

(a) & (b) The World Bank report “Secondary Education in India: Universalizing Opportunity” (January, 2009) has mentioned that the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) at the secondary & senior secondary level in India at 40 percent is far inferior to the GERs of countries in East Asia (average 70 percent) and Latin America (average 82 percent). It also states that the incompletion rate of secondary education in 2004-05 in India was 48% (11% drop out in classes IX and X, and 37% failure in 10th grade examination).

(c) & (d) As per the Selected Educational Statistics-2006-07 of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for secondary stage (classes IX and X) was 53.27%, and GER for classes IX to XII was 41.13%.

(e) With the objective to universalise access to secondary education and to improve its quality, a centrally sponsored scheme called Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) has been launched in March 2009 by the Central Government. The scheme envisages enhancing the enrollment ratio to 75% for classes IX and X within 5 years by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance of every habitation, improving quality of education imparted at secondary level through making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms and removal of gender, socio-economic and disability barriers.