Around 78% of parents of girls and 82% of parents of boys wish to educate their children to graduation level and above, a study conducted by the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU) has revealed.
The study in collaboration with Transform Rural India and Sambodhi Research and Communications Pvt. Ltd was focused on six to 16-year-old children in rural communities across 20 states in India.
The report, titled ‘State of elementary education in Rural India– 2023’, was officially unveiled by Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, during TRI’s India Rural Colloquy 2023 (IRC) on August 8 at India Habitat Centre, Delhi.
The survey included responses from 6,229 parents, among whom 6,135 had school-going students, 56 had students who dropped out of school, and 38 had children who had never enrolled in school.
“This highly positive sign has the potential to further strengthen educational growth in the rural sector. We hope that our policymakers, educational institutions, and other stakeholders will acknowledge these common aspirations to establish an inclusive environment that ensures growth and development for every child in rural India,” Javed Siddiqui, lead, Education, Transform Rural India, said.
Some of the key findings include:
Increased access to smartphones:
• The survey revealed that 49.3% of students in rural India have access to smartphones. However, among the parents whose children have access to gadgets, 76.7% mentioned that their children primarily use mobile phones to play video games. Of these, 56.6% are using them for downloading and watching movies, while 47.3% are using them to download and listen to songs.
• This shows that among smartphone-accessible students, merely 34% use them for study downloads, while 18% of rural Indian students access online learning via tutorials.
• Based on the age group, students belonging to class Eight and above have a higher percentage of access to smartphones at 58.32%, while even those students in classes between one and three have access to them at 42.1%.
Learning environment at home:
• 40% of the parents said that age-appropriate reading materials, other than school books, are available at home.
• Additionally, only 40% of parents have conversations with their children around learning in school every day, while 32% have such conversations with their children a few days a week.
Dropped-out or out-of-school children:
• The respondents were the parents of 56 students who had dropped out of school. The survey revealed that 36.8% of the parents of girls stated the reason for their daughters’ school dropouts was the requirement to help out in the family’s earnings.
• Additionally, 31.6% of parents mentioned their child’s lack of interest in studies, while 21.1% believed that their daughters had to take care of household chores and siblings at home. For boys, as per the survey, the key reason for dropping out from school is the child’s lack of interest in studies.
• A total of 71.8% cited this, while another 48.7% said boys are required to help out in earning for the family.
Encouraging participation of parents:
• Meanwhile, 84% of parents stated that they regularly attend parent-teacher meetings.
• A total of 73 Change vectors from Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand were interviewed to understand community aspects. Among them, 93.4% reported that parents are regular attendees of parent-teacher meetings in their village.
• The top two reasons for parents not attending meetings are short notice and lack of willingness.