Education in UP
Both The 2013 National ECCE Policy (MWCD) and National Education Policy 2020 (MoE) are progressive and far-reaching, emphasizing the importance of holistic, play-based early education.
Uttar Pradesh, which was a low performing state, has shown remarkable progress in the recent years in Education. For instance, ASER’s data shows that 49.1% children in the age group of 6-14 are enrolled in govt schools. Further, In 2014, only 6% of government school Std III children could read a Std II level text, and the proportions slowly rose to 12.3% in 2018.
Uttar Pradesh was one of the few states not to post a learning loss for Std III in 2022, with the proportion rising to 16.4%. In 2024, the proportion of government school Std III children able to read at Std II level is 27.9%. This kind of improvement signifies a serious focus and effort by government to improve Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) abilities. This push has borne fruits in arithmetic, in Std V learning levels as well — learning levels in Uttar Pradesh government schools have never been higher in the last 20 years. Interestingly, Uttar Pradesh which has always been a low attendance state – attendance in primary schools has been below 60% since 2010 - showed an increase in attendance in 2024 to 71.4%. Clearly improvements are happening in Uttar Pradesh schools that make children want to come to school and learn.
However, despite the abovementioned continuing efforts and focus, the learning outcomes of children continue to be low. Some of the constraints include lack of parent’s involvement - due to poverty and their own inability to guide children at home, low availability of dedicated and qualified teachers and lack of teaching infrastructure like smart classrooms.
Lakshmi Narayan Foundation aspires to support the education of underprivileged children. Our goal is to provide a safe learning environment, with qualified teachers, books and resources and innovative learning methods, to help children who go to government schools improve their understanding of the subjects. By extending help to them after school hours, we believe that their learning outcomes on all parameters will improve considerably. This will help them gain confidence and keep their journey of learning alive.
Source: ASER, UNICEF, Central Square Foundation