Secondary education 'neglected area' in India: WB

New Delhi: Decline in spending, lack of quality assurance mechanism and sub-standard textbooks have left the secondary education a "neglected area" in India, a World Bank report said on Tuesday.

While primary education gets largest share of 52 per cent of total spending on education, secondary education, which plays an important role for building up a skilled workforce, gets 30 per cent of the spending, the report on "Secondary Education in India" said.

Higher education gets 18 per cent of the total spending on education.

"India has given importance to primary education in a big way in the recent years, while secondary education has been a neglected area. It has remained as a forgotten middle," Sam Clarison, Lead Education Specialist, South Asia Human Development Sector of the World Bank, told reporters.

The quality of textbooks in secondary education is low as the national and state boards differ widely in their approach in presentation of content in the books.

Other learning methods like Information Communication Technology, laboratory equipment, visual aids, audio-visual equipment, library and reference books are not available in various states, the report said.

There is no proper quality assurance mechanism at the secondary schools. Teachers' service records and students' enrolment statistics are often manually updated, it said.

Bureau Report
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