NSO survey highlights urban-rural education divide in India

With the introduction of National Education Policy 2020, India is looking forward to several reforms in the education sector starting from the Academic Bank of Credit to multiple entry and exit points in higher education. But will it be easy to address the urban-rural divide and implement all the proposed policies without any shortcoming?

A comparison between two National Statistical Office (NSO) surveys on education confirms the persistent urban-rural divide on all fronts -- from literacy, accessibility to schools, household expenditure on education, to availability of schools and access to computer and internet.

Availability of primary schools

According to the 2014 report, titled, “Education in India”, which surveyed over 36,479 rural households and 29,447 urban households, nearly 67 per cent of rural households and 83 per cent of urban households reported upper primary schools within one-kilometre distance.

When a similar survey was conducted between July 2017-June 2018, with a sample of over 1.13 lakh households and 1.52 lakh students, the finding remained largely unvaried. In rural areas, about 68 per cent of households reported the availability of upper primary schools within the one-kilometre distance as compared to 80 per cent of urban households.

This gap further increases when secondary schools are taken into account. In the 2014 survey, 37 per cent of rural households as compared to 73 per cent of urban households reported secondary schools within a one-kilometre radius.

Similarly, 38 per cent of rural households and 70 per cent of urban households had access to secondary schools within such a distance, as per the recently released 2018 survey.

Literacy rate

Literacy rate in India was about 77.7 per cent, according to the 2018 report, as compared to 76 per cent in the previous report. When a comparison was drawn, not only did urban areas fare better than rural areas in both the surveys, but also there was a striking gap between the male and female literacy rates.

As per the 2018 report, rural areas had 73.5 per cent literacy rate while in urban areas, the literacy rate was reported at 87.7 per cent. The male literacy rate stood higher at 84.7 per cent than female literacy rate at 70.3 per cent.

Likewise, in the 2014 survey, the literacy rate in rural areas was 71 per cent compared to 86 per cent in urban areas. The difference in literacy rate among males and females was observed with male literacy rate higher at 83 per cent than female literacy rate at 68 per cent.

Accessibility

Only four per cent of rural households have access to computers as compared to 23 per cent in urban areas as per 2018 report. In 2014, nearly six per cent of rural households and 29 per cent of urban households were found to possess a computer.