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Although the government has woken up to the importance of literacy and education, there still remains a complete mismatch and imbalance in the way education is able to reach the masses and in the rural segments of the country.
Also, primary education for all children up till the age of fourteen. Having said this, the reality that is staring at one is just the opposite. There are scores of children of school going age who aren't in school. The situation and the number of children who should be in school but aren't differs from states to states. There are a few states that are worse off in the education domain and there are a whole lot of children who are working at petty jobs rather than being in schools. These states are Bihar and Rajasthan. The surprising thing is that there is an imbalance In the ratio of girls versus boys.
It is more likely for the girl to be out of school than a boy. However, the latest trends in school education show that more and more girls are pursuing education and the thought process of parents too has changed drastically in this regard. There were more dropouts in girls until a few years ago but now trends have changed. Previously, out of every 3 dropouts, 2 of them were girls but now the figures have almost fallen to out of 3 dropouts the ratio of boys and girls dropouts is almost the same.
Another absolutely surprising finding was that in spite of lack of adequate infrastructure, a wonderful school building and the best of teaching staff at their disposal, children in rural schools were able to read fairly well. In the cities and metros there was another story altogether. There were the high end international schools that are on par with any other ones anywhere in the world. Also, the boards that the schools were affiliated to which were ICSE, CBSE and SSC were comparable to the best. It churned out students who were savvy, smart and knowledgeable. What was lacking was in their ability to be able to convert this knowledge into skills right away. However, given a few more years and the changes that have been seen this too will be taken care of.
The cutting edge that the Indian education system has is that children learn at least three languages at the school level and have a firm grounding in Math and Science which holds them in good stead later on in life.
Also, the quality of public and government school education isn't adequate and does not cater to the immediate needs of the students. There are plenty of private schools of all sizes and kinds dotting the entire land and cater to all kinds of sections of society depending on the amount of fees that parents can shell out for it. Parents have borne the brunt of illiteracy and don't want their children to have to face the same kinds of hardships and turmoil in life.