In West Bengal, students’ enrollment all-time high with 3/4 taking pvt tuition

In the 15-16 years age group, the out-of-school rates decreased, drastically among the boys. For boys in the 15-16 years age group, it dropped from 19.2% in 2018 to 7.4% in 2022. Among the girls, it dropped from 4.8% in 2018 to 2.6% in 2022.

When it comes to students from classes I to VIII taking paid tuition classes, West Bengal ranked at the top with almost three-quarters of students (74.2%) doing so, followed by Bihar at 71.1%. Notably, according to the report, West Bengal is one of the states with the lowest private school enrollment and highest private inputs (tuition) in schooling.

In the learning trend, the proportion of children who can read simple English sentences and comprehend them increases as children move to higher grades.

Reading levels for class III fell sharply between 2018 and 2021, but this drop has been reversed between 2021 and 2022, according to the report. For example, the percentage of Class III children in government schools who can read class II-level text dropped from 36.6 to 27.7 between 2018 and 2021. However, it improved marginally to 32.6 in 2022, still lower than in 2018. Among the class V students who can read class II-level text, it dropped from 50.5 in 2018 to 48 in 2021 to 47.1 in 2022.

Across grades, the girls, however, continued to outperform boys in basic reading of class II-level text.

In 2022, one out of three children in class III is at “grade level” in basic arithmetic. Although this level is higher than some other states, there is still a long way to go for a majority of children to be at “grade level”, the report said, adding that though there was learning loss between 2018 and 2021 for primary grades, there is evidence of recovery in the last one year.

The report also stated that in schools across the state, the RTE (Right To Education) provisions have increased since 2010. “About 82.9% schools reported that they have a separate pre-primary class in the school, but only 7.8% had a separate teacher for pre-primary classes. Only 13.6% schools in West Bengal reported receiving a notification to implement Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) activities with children in classes I to III and only 9.1% schools had a teacher who was trained on FLN — the lowest in the country,” the report said.

As per the report, 18 districts were covered and 510 villages surveyed for the report in West Bengal. A total of 10,770 houses were surveyed and 11,994 students were tested, it added.