With a dip in attendance of enrolled children and their poor learning levels, rural education in Karnataka is in a pathetic state, the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2007 has revealed.

The report, prepared by a voluntary organization PRATHAM with support from UNICEF and Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, showed that a drop in the percentage of out-of-school children over 2006 was perhaps the only silver lining in an otherwise gloomy picture of rural education in the State.

The percentage of out-of-school children reduced from 4.9 in 2006 to 3.5 in 2007, even as the attendance of enrolled students showed a downward trend.

For example, in 2005 83.5 per cent of the enrolled children in Standard I-IV/V were attending school, while it was 78 per cent in 2007. In 2005, only four per cent schools were there with less than 50 per cent enrolled children attending and it rose to 10 per cent in 2007. While 77.4 per cent schools in 2005 had 75 per cent and more enrolled children attending, it came down to 66 per cent in 2007.

Measuring the English reading level of Standard V children, the report said only 20.2 per cent could read capital letters, 24.3 per cent small letters and a meager 13.8 per cent easy sentences.

For Standard VI and VII students, the competence in reading easy sentences in English increased marginally — around 29 per cent in Standard VI and 46 per cent in Standard VII had mastered that skill. While pupil-teacher ratio based on children enrolled and teachers appointed showed an upward trend with 23.5 per cent in 2007 compared to 22 per cent in 2005 for classes I-IV/V, the ratio based on children and teachers present showed decline — 23 per cent in 2005 to 19.8 per cent in 2007.

However, village schools in Karnataka had comparatively done well in terms of physical infrastructure and mid-day meals with 97 per cent schools being covered at present under the school-feeding programme. The percentage of schools with toilets increased from 52 per cent in 2005 to 74.5 per cent in 2007. Over 90 percent classes had blackboards and a majority of children in these classes had textbooks, notebooks and pencil.