Survey depicts grim education scenario in Budgam

Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 24: A survey conducted in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district today revealed that 21 percent females as compared to nine percent males are not enrolled in the educational institutions.
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a Central non-Government organization today released its annual survey report ‘Beyond Basics’ and depicted gloomy picture of education in Budgam district.
ASER surveyed a total of 60 villages, 936 households and 1154 youth under age group 14-18 with help of 87 volunteers in partnership of DIET Beerwah.
The main highlights of the survey are that in the district, 86 percent youth are still in schools, only 4 percent are in colleges, 10 percent are not enrolled anywhere and the more annoying thing is that 21 percent females are not enrolled anywhere, as compared to 9 percent males and 16 percent youth are not enrolled in the age group 17-18.
When it comes to vocational training, it reveals that only 4 percent of the youth are taking vocational training, while only 2 percent in the 14-16 age-group take such courses, it increases to 6 percent for 17-18 year olds.
“It was found that only 44 percent of all youth can do division problems and males perform better than females on ASER reading tasks by 3 percent. However, 82 percent girls and 84 percent boys could read the sentences and 67 percent of youth can add weight correctly,” the survey read.
One of the surveyors said that 70 percent youth can read fluently while as 54 percent can read and follow the written instructions.
“When we asked about the access and awareness to digital world we found that 44 percent males and 78 percent have never used the internet,” he said.