Private schools get a rush of students, their slide less sharp

States with high private school enrolments include Haryana and Pondicherry, both over 50 per cent. States with government school enrolments include Tamil Nadu , Karnataka, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, each with more than 85 per cent, according to attendance figures.
Though learning outcomes have fallen all round, students of private schools continue to perform better than and have, in fact, gone farther ahead of government school students. In 2010, 33.2 per cent children in class III in government schools could subtract, compared to 47.8 per cent in private schools. In 2013, the gap has widened to one between 18.9 per cent in government schools and 44.6 per cent in private schools.

As a result, states with a larger proportion of private school students have fared better than those with a low proportion. For example, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, ASER notes, have shown a steady improvement in reading ability among class III students since 2009 .

The proportion of “small schools” (60 students or fewer) run by the government, incidentally, has increased from 27.3 per cent in 2010 to 33.1 per cent in 2013, which means nearly a third of all government primary schools are “small schools”. In Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Manipur and Mizoram, the count is as high as 60 per cent.