78% parents in rural India want their daughters to be at least graduate: Report

At least 78 per cent parents in rural India aspire to educate their daughters till graduation and beyond, according to a survey report.

The "State of Elementary Education in Rural India-2022" report, based on the survey of 6,229 rural households from across 20 states, was released by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan here on Tuesday evening.

"Analyzing the gender distribution of the children, the findings indicate that parents exhibit a similar inclination for both their female and male children to pursue advanced education, including technical degrees, graduation, and postgraduation degrees. Parents of 82 per cent of boys and 78 per cent of girls want to educate their children to graduation and above," it said.

The survey revealed, out of the total dropped-out children, around one-fourth of male children discontinued their education during primary schooling.

"Comparatively, the dropout rate at that stage was higher for female children, reaching 35 per cent. A higher proportion of both boys and girls dropped out of school after completing the primary school education (75 per cent for boys and 65 per cent for girls).

"Non-availability of schools with higher sections within the village or nearby villages might have been a reason why these children were dropped out after the completion of the primary sections," it added.

The study which focused on six-to-16-year-old children in rural communities was conducted by the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU), an initiative of Transforming Rural India Foundation (TRIF) and Sambodhi Pvt, with a vision to put forth data along with the right analytics and insights to stimulate action among stakeholders of rural India's development.

The survey found that a majority of children (62.5 per cent) are under the supervision of their mothers when it comes to their studies, while 49 per cent are supervised by their fathers.

"This highlights the important role parents play in guiding and supporting their children's academic pursuits at home. Additionally, over 38 per cent of parents opt for private tutors to further enhance their children's education. It is often seen that in rural India supervision is often carried out by people other than the parents of children." For instance, 25.6 per cent of the children study under the guidance of an elder sibling, 3.8 per cent are supervised by anganwadi workers, and 7.6 per cent are taught by community teachers.

"Comparatively, 64 per cent of these children receive supervision from their mothers, while 50 per cent are supervised by their fathers. About 26 per cent of the children study under the supervision of a private tutor," the report added.

The survey also investigated the time spent on smartphone by children.

"Overall, nearly 73 per cent of children utilize smartphones for less than two hours daily. Notably, older children tend to spend more time on their phones, with 25.4 per cent of children in class 8 and above dedicating two to four hours, in contrast to 16.8 per cent of children in classes 1 to 3," it added.