An overview of rural education in India-The way forward

In 21^st century, Education is the one of the most important instrument for social and economic transformation of a country. Education in India has been gone through a paradigm shift since independence. Considerable emphasis has been given on literacy, school enrollment, and spread of institutions of higher education including technical education over the decades. India is a country of 1.3 billion people, where 67% of the Indian population lives in rural areas. Approximately 196 million elementary school going children, out of that 146 million are enrolled in rural schools (U-DISE, 2015–16). The enrollment of children for the age group 5–14 has been above 95% in rural India (ASER, 2018). This is a good sign as far as rural education is concerned, quality and access to education is major issues in rural education system. The rural children go to school but the learning quality they receive is not enough. Their foundation skills in reading and arithmetic are very poor. As per ASER data shows, only 73% of standard students VIII students can read a standard II level text. And only 44% of children in standard VIII can solve a basic arithmetic problem. Though the literacy rate has been increased in rural areas but still there is a gap between rural and urban literacy. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for girls at both primary and higher secondary level has increased more than that of the boys. There is also major digital divide with in the country across states, cities and villages, and income groups. These are the few glimpses on the picture of education in rural India and in this paper aims at analyzing the present scenario of rural education system in India, problems associated with rural education. It also focused on the various initiatives taken by the government and some of the suggestions for restructuring rural education to suit the needs of the 21^st century, taking into consideration of local and global needs.