Corporates, govt initiatives bridging education divide: Study

Public banking system should be made more broad based and inclusive of responsibilities towards the adequate and fair allotment of funds in rural areas for education, it said.

Assocham said that government should relax norms for setting up schools by corporates and industries located in the countryside, for children of its employees and workers.

The licensing requirements and conditions should be relaxed by the government in order to promote corporate activities in rural education sphere.

“Although there remains a huge gap between the urban and rural education status, the continued efforts of government have started paying dividends,” Assocham President Sajjan Jindal said.

The expenditure status report on rural education should be formulated and made available for public scrutiny. The services of NGOs should be availed in monitoring the actual progress of rural schools, it added.

The study said literacy rate in states would undergo a change with Goa presently at fourth position having 79.6 per cent literacy in its rural side, likely to emerge as the lead state, displacing Kerela (90 per cent) to the second position.

Maharashtra, with 70.36 per cent literate rural population, would move to the third position from the current sixth place, the report said.