Eleventh Five Year Plan

Education 3Source: Selected Educational Statistics, 2004–05.FIGURE 1.1.1: Enrolment in Elementary EducationTABLE 1.1.1GER in Primary and Upper Primary SchoolsStages Gross Enrolment Ratio %age2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 pointincreasePrimary (I–V)Boys 105.3 97.5 100.6 110.7 5.4Girls 86.9 93.1 95.6 104.7 17.8All 96.3 95.3 98.2 107.8 11.3Upper Primary (VI–VIII)Boys 67.8 65.3 66.8 74.3 6.5Girls 52.1 56.2 57.6 65.1 13.0All 60.2 61.0 62.4 69.9 9.7Elementary (I–VIII)Boys 90.7 85.4 87.9 96.9 6.2Girls 73.6 79.3 81.4 89.9 16.3All 82.4 82.5 84.8 93.5 11.1Source: Selected Educational Statistics, 2004–05.children, each. The number of such districts declinedto 29 in 2005–06. An independent study 1 estimated thatabout 6.9% of the total children in the 6–13 age groupswere out of school and of them 2.1% accounted fordropouts and 4.8% for never-enrolled children, a bulkof whom apparently belonged to the poorer segmentsof rural households.1.1.16 The social composition of out-of-schoolchildren indicates that 9.97% of Muslim children,9.54% of Scheduled Tribes (STs), 8.17% of ScheduledCastes (SCs), and 6.97% of Other Backward Class(OBC) children were out of school and an overwhelmingmajority (68.7%) was concentrated in five States,viz., Bihar (23.6%), UP (22.2%), West Bengal (WB)(9%), MP (8%), and Rajasthan (5.9%).UNIVERSAL RETENTION1.1.17 It is increasingly realized that retaining thedisadvantaged children enrolled in schools is a far morechallenging task than enrolling them into educationalsystem. Around 22% children dropped out in classes Iand II. Several factors, apart from their adverse socioeconomicconditions are responsible for this. Theopportunity cost of girl-child education is quite highin the rural set up and she is often a ‘nowhere child’,1Social and Rural Research Institute (2005), New Delhi.