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Primary education remains a major problem according to the government and civil society groups now say mother illiteracy remains the key to the problem.

It is the key finding of Pratham - a civil society group actively associated with the government's education policy.

The report is a survey of rural primary schools. The government now says it will look at tackling the problem differently.

Nearly 93 per cent of children between 6 to 14 are literate. However, nearly 40 per cent of rural children who have cleared class 5 cannot recognise the first three letters of the alphabets or even numbers one to three.

These are the startling finding of the survey.

"Mothers' literacy is the big problem. Nearly 50 per cent mothers cannot read class one text books. This is the big problem which needs to be addressed," said Madhav Chavan, Pratham.

Shift in trend

Other findings from over 30 states and 300 districts reveal shift towards non-government schools in 18 states, a trend especially marked in Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka.

Half the children who take to education before 5 years have learning difficulties.

Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Punjab are among the well performing states. However, Karnataka and even Tamil Nadu fair poorly.

The report comes amidst pressure to increase expenditure on higher education in view of quotas which mean more students and teachers in government aided universities.

Critics say it is the main reason why the right to education bill has been shelved.

The Knowledge Commission has already demanded a hike in GDP expenditure from the existing three and a half percent to six percent.

"We know there's demand for an increase in GDP expenditure. We will work out something in the coming plan," said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission.

More then Rs 2 lakh crore have been spent over the last five year plan period on primary education and the literacy levels have climbed over 90 per cent.

However, the quality of this literacy is being debated. Clearly, the planning commission needs to change the focus for better results.

Source: NDTV More