More than 98 percent of educational blocks in Bihar are educationally backward, the education ministry said, in reply to a question in Parliament on Monday.
According to the ministry data, 530 out of the 537 educational blocks in Bihar are termed as “educationally backward blocks”. No other state has more than 80 percent educational blocks labelled “backward”.
Jharkhand (76.5%) and Uttar Pradesh (71.17%) follow Bihar as the states with the highest percentage of educationally backward blocks. Uttar Pradesh also has the highest number of educationally backward blocks with 679 such blocks out of the total 954 educational blocks.
The education ministry’s data also revealed that 11 states had more than 50 percent of educational blocks that are backward. These include states like Telangana (66.67%), Madhya Pradesh (63.01%). Assam (55.10%), Odisha (54.75%), Jammu and Kashmir (51.81%), Andhra Pradesh (50.90%) and Chhattisgarh (50.68%).
Kerala and Mizoram had the lowest number of educationally backward blocks with one each. Himachal Pradesh and Punjab are the only other states with percentage of educationally backward blocks amounting to less than 10 percent of the total educational blocks.
Educationally backward blocks were identified as part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which has since been merged into the Samagra Shikshsa Abhiyan. The identification is done on a twin criteria. Educational blocks that have a female literacy rate lower than the national average and a gender gap in literacy lower than the national average are identified as educationally backward.Out of the total 718 districts in India, at least 374 have been identified as “educationally backward", the Union Education Ministry said in the Lok Sabha.
Among the states, Uttar Pradesh has the highest with 41 Educationally Backward Districts (EBDs), accounting for nearly 55 percent of the total districts in the state, the Ministry said.
The districts include Bahraich, Balrampur, Hathras, Kannauj, Muzaffarnagar, Pilibhit, Rampur, Saharanpur, Shahjahanpur, and Shrawasti.
UP is followed by Madhya Pradesh (39); Rajasthan (30); Tamil Nadu (27) and Bihar (25).Madhya Pradesh’s Betul, Bhind, Chhatarpur, Datia, Guna, Harda, Mandsaur, Morena, Ratlam, Sagar, and Satna and Rajasthan’s Ajmer, Alwar, Barmer, Chittaurgharh, Churu, Jaisalmer, and Jalor are part of the EBDs.
In Tamil Nadu, Ariyalur, Erode, Kancheepuram, Kanniyakumari, Salem, Thiruvarur, and Vellore are among the EBDs, the Ministry said. Bihar’s Araria, Aurangabad, Begusarai, Darbhanga, Kishanganj, Madhubani, Sitamarhi, Siwan, and Vaishali are some of the EBDs.While Nagaland, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Dadar, and Nagar Havelli have one EBD each, Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar, and Uttarakhand have two EBDs each. Sikkim, Tripura, Kerala, and Himachal Pradesh have four EBDs each, as per data.
The ministry said that over the last few years, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) has substantially increased in school and higher education. GER is the ratio of enrolment in a given level of education to the population in the eligible age group. A high GER generally indicates a high degree of participation.To reduce gender gaps at all levels of schooling, 5,726 KGBVs (Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya) have been sanctioned in the country. Model Degree Colleges have been sanctioned in 194 districts of which UGC had sanctioned 64 and 130 MDCs were sanctioned under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)," the ministry added.
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