India’s crisis of learning | Anil Padmanabhan

Last week, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) published by the non-profit Pratham Education Foundation reported some disturbing findings about the state of education in rural India, which still accounts for a little under 70% of India’s population of 1.2 billion.
The findings essentially told us two things. The good news is that enrolment in elementary education is almost 100%. The bad news is that the education outcomes, as measured by abilities in reading, writing and doing maths, have deteriorated among children between the ages of six and 14.
The bottom line is that India has a crisis of learning. This obviously has grave implications for the future of an economy that was looking to harvest its demographic dividend, leave alone the circumstances of a social crisis being created by generating an army of semi-literate people unable to take advantage of the new economy.

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/NP9sz3gV4p6agKEERTkv3M/Indias-crisis-of-learning.html