Quality of education and schooling remains a major concern across the state of Maharashtra. In a recent survey by the Educational development Index [EDI] it was noted that 23 districts across the state of Maharashtra were found with educational standards and schooling below the average level across the country. The major concern is that it includes districts like Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nasik, Kolhapur and Nagpur. Ratnagiri was rated the highest and was closely followed by Aurangabad in the survey.
The report was based on a few factors like the accessibility to the schools, the infrastructure, the teaching staff, the enrolment and the number of people dropping out of schools. The survey was done according to the basic elementary education across the country. The compilation of the results in the recent years has been taken into consideration.
This report was released by the Human resource and development board in the month of March. The state education has taken a serious look into matters since then. They have started their reforms on a tight note. They uploaded this information about the survey on the official website in the early part of August.
The report stated the misbalance in the PTR or the Pupil Teacher Ratio. This is very crucial. This demonstrates the number of female teachers that are teaching and also the number of single teacher schools across the district. They also check on the density of schools in a particular geographic area. The number of schools per 100 students was below the mark in about 34 districts. The accessibility to schools in some districts is very poor. This is an alarming piece of information.
The teacher index was not up to the mark in the entire state leaving out just two districts. The survey made it very clear that the districts need to be taken care of. The report suggested that special care should be taken in the districts with poor average. There should be a target that has to be met as quickly as possible in order to get things sorted out.
In a state like Maharashtra that is considered the business hub of India the education level is under severe scrutiny. The infrastructure is never a problem with this state. However the teacher index and the accessibility of schools must be increased. The state education board has an uphill task in hand. If these problems are not sorted out on an urgent basis this could turn out to be problematic for the state. The education level is low and it needs to be increased to enhance the literacy levels of the state.
The state director of education said that this problem has arisen because of the existence of two different education boards in many districts. For every reform they keep passing it to one another and the reforms are delayed. The civic body will soon be dissolved in order to get things sorted. However the civil commissioner will still be active.