HYDERABAD: Telangana has the fourth-lowest literacy rate at 72.8 percent, and second-lowest literacy rate among rural women at 53.7 per cent among all large states in the country. This data has been provided in the report titled ‘Household Social Consumption on Education in India’ by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Numbers presented in the report highlight various issues pertaining to literacy and education.
One such flaw is the discontinuation of education by many before the age of 20. While the percentage of persons receiving education is above 94 per cent in the age group 6-17 years in Telangana, this drops severely to just 30.9 per cent in the age group 18-23 years, and a meagre 1.5 per cent in the age group 24-29 years.According to the report, Telangana stands eighth among 22 states in students pursuing technical/professional courses, at just 5.3 per cent. This is the lowest among all south Indian states.
Telangana has the seventh-lowest percentage of people in the country receiving free education. Only 37.1 per cent of the population aged 3-35 years in the State has received free education. In contrast, the State has one of the highest proportion of students studying in private institutions.
According to the report, the proportion of students studying in private unaided institutions from primary to higher secondary level is highest in the State. At the graduation level, it is the second-highest.
Coming to the expenditure on education, the State is fourth costliest when it comes to expenditure per student on ‘general courses’ in higher education at Rs 13,095, and seventh costliest in technical education at Rs 47,348.
Gender gap in literacy more pronounced in the State
According to the National Statistical Office (NSO) data on literacy, 15.4 per cent more males are literate than females in Telangana - the highest gap in all the southern states. As per the report, there is also a huge difference in the literacy rate of women in urban and rural areas. Only 4.2 per cent of women in the State are graduates in rural areas, compared to 21.2 percent in urban areas.