Did you ever see the Idea cell phone ad campaign on TV? It shows an old man trying to admit his granddaughter in a school. Advertisements such as these on television, print and radio show that corporate India is getting more and more interested in educational campaigns. We cannot escape the fact that education is key to growth and there is need to bridge the urban-rural divide in this sector.

According to the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), the percentage of households with no literate number in 2004-05 in the age group 15 and above was: rural 26.1%; and urban 8.4%, whereas in 1993-94, it was 37.1% for rural areas and for urban areas, it was 14.3%. The rural-urban divide in literacy rate has to be bridged urgently, given the corresponding population growth in the country. Meanwhile, according to a recent, independent Assocham study, ?Rural India is trying fast to catch up with those of urban areas as the present gap of 14% in literacy rate is set to narrow down in view of various schemes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), schemes at state level, active corporate initiatives in some states and several education campaigns launched by independent NGOs and media groups to educate rural masses.?

Now whether this is true or not remains to be seen. A question posed in the Rajya Sabha last year on primary education, that the Minister of Human Resources Development Arjun Singh replied to, shows some cause for concern. He referred to a study done by the World Bank in 2004, which indicated a 25% teacher absenteeism rate in primary schools in India. He said: ?The Government of India has conducted an independent study in 2006-07 across 21 states, which has revealed an average national teacher-attendance rate of 80.63% at the primary stage.

The SSA framework has been amended to provide for a greater role of Panchayati Raj bodies in the supervision and monitoring of schools, including attendance of teachers. The Government of India has advised states to monitor teacher attendance in elementary schools and put in place mechanisms to improve teacher performance and accountability.?

However, the literacy rates of populations aged above six years and above by different states shows huge differences (between 2005-06), according to a recent report on the Status of Adult Literacy in India brought out by the National Literacy Mission (NLM): Kerala, for instance, has a literacy rate of 89.9%, while Goa has a literacy rate 83.3%, Himachal Pradesh has a literacy of 81.3%; while Delhi has 84.4%; while Mizoram beats Kerala, and has a literacy rate of 91.1%. Tripura has a literacy rate of 80.2%; Sikkim at 76.6% is ahead of Tamil Nadu at 74.2%. Bihar has a literacy rate of 54.1%, Madhya Pradesh 60.9% and Uttar Pradesh has one of 61.6% while Rajasthan at 57.4% is behind Orissa at 68.8%. This data shows that Mizoram with 91.1% literacy rate is higher than Kerala that stands at 89.9% literacy rate. The government has implemented the SSA programme for the universalisation of elementary education by 2010, by augmenting availability of school infrastructure and improving the quality of education in elementary schools, according to Singh?s reply.

Spanning the period 2003-04, SSA has received an external funding of the order of $1 billion from the World Bank?s International Development Agency, DFID, UK and the European Commission. SSA is an ambitious programme meant to cover 19.2 crore children in the country and it evolved from the recommendations of the state education ministers? conference held in October 1998 to kick start Universal Elementary Education. The programme was launched in 2001-02.

Allocation of funds under SSA, since its inception has shown high growth from Rs 350-crore in 2000-01 to Rs 7, 800 crore in 2005-06, and to Rs 11,000 crore in 2006-07, representing an increase of 41% over the previous year (2005-06). According to government statistics, the total number of schools in India increased four-fold?from 223,000 in 1950-51 to 897,000 in 2002-03, and enrolment in the primary cycle during the same period jumped about six times?from 19.2 million to 122 million. The share of girls? enrolment in total enrolment at primary stage increased from 28.1% in 1950-51 to 46.8% in 2002-03. According to an All India Education Survey, 2002, at the primary stage, 87 of the habitations in the country have school facilities within one kilometre and at the upper primary stage, it happens to be 78%. Says a senior government official, ?Infrastructure is as crucial as the need for teachers in a school. Proper schooling can hardly be done out of makeshift schools.? The aim is to get children to attend school across urban and rural India through incentives such as the midday meal scheme.

The World Bank Aide-Memoire (January 2006) on the third joint-review mission of SSA mentions that the target of reducing the out-of-school children by 3 million per year is being exceeded. It mentions that the number of out of school children has fallen from 25 million in 2003 to 13.5 million as on March 2005. There are 48 districts in the country where more than 50,000 children are out of school, the highest being in Bihar (20), UP (15) and West Bengal (4), according to the World Bank report. According to the performance audit of SSA carried out by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India (March 2005), nationally, there were 71 children out-of-school per thousand. So efforts need to be speeded up in this direction. Gender parity continues to improve, with gender parity almost within reach at the primary level, according to the World Bank report. The girls to boys ratio at the primary level has increased from 0.90 in 2003-04 to 0.91 in 2004-05. There is also the fact that only 65% of the primary schools have pucca structures as against 69% of upper primary schools.

Meanwhile, according to government statistics (2000), Kerala continued its lead in literacy with 90.92%, followed by Mizoram (88.49%), Lakshadweep (87.52%) and Goa (82.32%). Maharashtra also recorded a fairly high literacy rate of 77.27%. In contrast, Bihar recorded the lowest literacy rate of 47.53%; the female literacy level in the state was much lower at 33.57%. Incidentally, Bihar also happens to be the only state in the country to have a literacy level below 50%. However, the on-going Assocham study on ?Rural literacy outlook?, it has been revealed that the literacy status of the states would undergo a change by next census with Goa, presently at fourth position having 79.6% literacy in its rural areas would emerge as lead state, displacing Kerala (90%) to second position. This displacement would be interesting as for decades, Kerala has ruled the roost as the most literate state, with the least urban-rural divide (according to the UN Human Development Report).

Maharashtra, with 70.36% literate rural population, will move to the third position from the current sixth place. Gujarat would be another state to record huge improvement in rural education as it shall become fourth best state from the present sixteenth place. Current literacy rate for rural parts of Gujarat is 61.29%.

Young states such as Uttarakhand, which are far more enthusiastic as far as raising literacy rates are concerned, shall also jump from the previous eighth rank to fifth place. The state fared well in terms of percentage of children out of school (2.2%) and teacher attendance ratio (92.4%). Haryana is also expected to show marked improvement in the literacy level of its rural masses. From the current fourteenth place with 63.19% rural literacy, it shall move to the sixth position. It is a fact that Uttarakhand has focused on education, for the past several years, trying to move from an agrarian state to one that is computer-literate. A strong political inclination towards improving the fortunes of the state has helped the overall situation. Tamil Nadu and Punjab, at eleventh and twelfth position respectively, are expected to further improve their rural education systems and their rankings may improve to eighth and ninth place. The literacy rate of 66.21% was recorded for the hinterland in the southern state. Punjab with huge village coverage in the state had 64.72% literacy rate. Cutting rural-urban divide in education will also have long-term impact such as reducing large-scale migration from one part of the country to the other.

A key component of the flagship programme of the UPA government has been the midday-meal scheme. This scheme has been key to retaining children at school. The scheme was launched as a centrally-sponsored scheme in August 1995. Under the scheme cooked meal of a minimum of 300 calories was made available to 12-crore children in over 9.50 lakh schools. The allocation for the midday meal scheme has gone up from Rs 12, 531.76 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 17, 128 crore in 2006-07, signaling a hike of over 37%, according to the parliamentary standing committee report (2006) on the scheme.

The 2% education cess levied through the Finance Act 2004 yielded in financial year 2004-05, a sum of Rs 4,910 crore: in FY 2005-06 to Rs 6, 910 crore and in 2006-07?the cess amounted to Rs 8,748 crore, according to the Ministry of HRD. The cess has been used exclusively to finance SSA and the midday-meal scheme of the government.

The 86th amendment to the Constitution that has made education from 6-14 years of age a fundamental right, has also helped. It remains to be seen if all the states are able to bridge the education gap, and as envisaged by the World Education Forum at Dakar, Senegal, where 164 countries including India participated, whether basic (and quality) education for all will be achieved by 2015.