COMPARATIVE STUDY ON CURRENT SCENARIO OF PRESENT EDUCATION SYSTEM AMONG RURAL AND URBAN AREA IN COIMBATORE DISTRICT

COMPARATIVE STUDY ON CURRENT SCENARIO OF PRESENT EDUCATION SYSTEM AMONG RURAL AND URBAN AREA IN COIMBATORE DISTRICT

Dr. S. Akilandeswari

ABSTRACT

An educational institution performs a significant function of providing learning experiences to lead their students from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge. Present scope of education system of the country like introduction of grading system, the passage of Right of Children to free and Compulsory Education Bill, reservation policies etc. are a few among them has made education too easy for the students. Many efforts and different systems in the field of education have succeeded in almost all the states of the country. The present study will throw the light on the education system of Tamil Nadu. An analysis on the educational system of Coimbatore from different angles will help the experts and the researchers to know how far we have achieved our targets and what needs to be done. Along with this, a comparison of Gross Enrolment ratio, Drop – out rate and the percentage of students completing higher education of rural and urban areas in Coimbatore district have also been made.

Keywords: Gross Enrolment ratio, Drop – out rate, Higher Education.

INTRODUCTION

From the age old traditions have got a new perception in the present day education system in India. Government of India introducing and put forth a lot of educational policies in this field to achieve the objective of growth can be achieved. As a great achievement of modern education system in current scenario there is a better improvement in literacy rate from 18.3 % in 1950 – 51 to 74.04% in 2011 – 11. Such an achievement is the result of a lot of efforts by the Indian government in the education sector. Education status of the country is improving by the government to enhance the standard of the people and also to achieve other goals like, overcoming the social quality, below poverty status and unemployment, equal income distribution, etc. By overcoming the obstacles by the contribution of education to the individual’s wellbeing as well as the overall development of the country.

Education is not only an instrument of intensifying efficiency but it is also an effectual tool of expanding and multiplying democratic participation and upgrading the overall quality of individual and societal life (Goel, 2008). Since the period of nineties, especially from the last decade, there is a rapid growth in response to the demand generated by the expansion of elementary education. Primary as well as higher education sector have also witnessed great attention of the Indian Government. The present paper has made a comparison of elementary education system of rural and urban areas of Coimbatore district with the major indicators showing the achievements and failures in the educator sector and the data has been analyzed on the basis of such factors.

PRESENT SCENARIO OF EDUCATION SECTOR

Education field has seen a tremendous change in last few decades. Government has done a lot so that more and more children can have access to the education. When compared with its neighboring states of Tamil Nadu and India as a whole in some areas, it has outperformed but in certain areas they which will be clearer from the following comparative tables, based on different indicators of education system.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives are as follows:

1. To compare the education system of rural and urban areas of Coimbatore district
2. To analyze the achievements in education sector
3. To enhance and implement the changing context in education system
4. To recommend the education policies to develop the education scenario of Coimbatore district
5. To express and promote socio cultural identity and also to meet the challenges

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1. The present study is descriptive cum exploratory. It is primarily based on secondary data collected from various sources like national reports and economic surveys, websites etc. of state and national level departments of education.
2. The analysis has been done on the basis of different indicators Gross Enrolment ratio, Drop – out rate and Higher Education
3. Descriptive statistical tools like bar graphs have been used for interpretation of the data.

GROSS ENROLMENT RATIO

The Gross Enrollment Ratio is a statistical measure used in the education sector to determine the number of students enrolled in school at several different grade levels (like elementary, middle school, high school and Higher Secondary). An elementary formula used by most countries to calculate the Gross Enrollment Ratio is that, the country divides the number of individuals who are actually enrolled in schools by the number of children who are of the corresponding school enrollment age. The following table shows the GER of different schools in rural and urban areas:

TABLE – 1

	I – V		VI - VIII		IX - X		XI - XII
	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls
Rural	82.56	85.23	80.38	81.9	81.2	84	80.8	84.3
Urban	87.44	89.12	84.76	86.2	84.6	87.2	83.6	86.7

At different grade levels like elementary, middle school, high school and Higher Secondary Urban area is at the top and far better in the Gross enrolment ratio in each class group. This implies that all the children of this age group are not getting enrolled in the schools. This may be due to the following reasons:

1. Either the parents are not still aware of the education programs in the state, or

2. They are not interested in sending their wards to the schools.

But so far as GER of girls is concerned, it is more than that of boys in all the categories. For the purpose of inclusive education, this problem must be addressed by the concerned authorities. Some crucial steps need to be taken by the government because this situation may lead to a fall in literacy rate in the coming years.

DROP-OUT RATES

Drop-out rate is the proportion of children which cease to remain enrolled in the schooling system. There are a number of methods for estimating dropout rate. One of them, followed in the Selected Education Statistics (SES) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, is as follows: Gross dropout rates for classes = {1-(Enrolment in last class during the reference year divided by the enrolment in Class beginning for four years ago)} Χ 100. The following table shows the drop-out rates of students in different schools in rural and urban areas:

TABLE – 2

	I – V		VI - VIII		IX - X		XI - XII
	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls
Rural	2.35	2.20	1.30	1.10	1.99	1.5	1.28	1
Urban	1.92	0.5	0.58	0.40	0.40	0.33	0.22	0.10

Here, in the rural area the drop-out rate in class XI – XII is the lowest and more in I - V. Drop-out rate of girls in this category is less than that of boys in all the categories. As compared to Rural area, drop out rates in Urban area schools has shown better performance in all the categories.

PECENTAGE OF STUDENTS COMPLETING SCHOOL EDUCATION

In case of completing School education urban area shows more contribution than rural areas and also while comparing to boys, girl are completing their higher education successfully. Yet the position is quite disappointing in case of rural literates as most of the population of the Coimbatore district. This may be due to the following reasons:

1. Due to the economic condition of the parents
2. Unawareness about education of illiterate parents.

TABLE – 3

	XI - XII
	Boys	Girls
Rural	89.25	92.01
Urban	91.65	95.2

CONCLUSIONS

In spite of various schemes of the government of India to provide universal elementary education, the goal has not been achieved. More efforts are needed to make people aware about government schemes for free education and importance of education in everyone’s life. But still there is a need to bring down the drop-out rate to zero level if we want to have universal elementary education. In all age groups, drop-out rate of girls is lower than that of boys. This reveals that the girls are more interested in studies than boys. It is clear from the above tables and figures that the education system has made commendable progress in the establishment of schools. There is a need for sincere and dedicated teachers to make learning effective. Female education is rather more important than the education of the men as one female can make the whole family literate. Thus, steps should be taken in this direction to improve the status of literacy rate among women, especially in the rural areas of the state.

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