Education

Education

Education is a human right. It gives people the opportunity to overcome poverty, build livelihoods and the ability to communicate. People are also better prepared to prevent disease and take care of their health.

Quality learning requires a safe, friendly environment, qualified and motivated teachers, and instruction in languages students can understand. It also requires that learning outcomes be monitored and feed back into instruction. But, thousands of children in India lack access to education and can’t even write their own names. Moreover, underprivileged children between the ages of 11 to 14 years are hugely vulnerable to dropping out of schools. An educated child stays away from an early marriage and is empowered to stand up against exploitation. As children grow, they are able to make better choices for themselves and influence the communities they live in. This transforms their present life and ensures a secure future for them.

Despite the Right to Education (RTE) Act coming into force in 2010, access to education for every child remains a huge concern in the country. The following are statistics that portray the seriousness of the situation:

1. 1 in 4 children of school-going age is out of school in our country – 99 million children in total have dropped out of school (Census 2011) Out of every 100 children, only 32 children finish their school education age-appropriately (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)

2. Only 2% of the schools offer complete school education from Class 1 to Class 12 (District Information System for Education (DISE) 2014-15)

3. There are 10.13 million child labourers between 5-14 years in India (Census 2011)

4. India has 33 million working children between the ages of 5-18 years. In parts of the country, more than half the child population is engaged in labour (Census 2011)

5. 42% of married women in India were married as children (District Information System for Education (DISE 3)

6. 1 in every 3 child brides in the world is a girl in India (UNICEF)

7. India has more than 45 lakh girls under 15 years of age who are married with children. Out of these, 70% of the girls have 2 children (Census 2011)

Donate now so that children can enjoy a future full of opportunities because of the quality education they receive today


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