Sharp rise noted in literacy level in India

Education experts have applauded the sharp growth of India's literacy rate recently, but stated that there is a need to improve the quality of school education.At present, the literacy rate in India has improved to about 75 percent. India being the third largest Asian economy is expected to rise in terms of literacy level, and is likely to affect many other social variables such as employment, productivity, income growth and equitable distribution of the gains.Education experts remain quite optimistic regarding the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE). This will certainly help in pushing up the literacy rate further.

According to the Census 2011 that has recently been released points out, India's literacy level has increased by 9.21 percent in the past 10 years to reach 74.04 percent. The literacy rate was 64.83 percent in 2001.The growth and improvement is dominated by increase in high school enrolment rate, better policies that involve states at the grassroots and the will to move ahead a lifelong education approach.Its high time that the policymakers need to consider the quality of education distribution. The high literacy rate will not help much.The variation displayed by different states is also important to note.

With 93.91 percent, Kerala continued to claim its top position among states in the literacy rate. The top two districts in the country are Mizoram's Serchhip, with 98.76 percent literacy, and Aizawl with 98.5 percent.According to statistics, the literacy rate improved sharply among females as compared to males in the last decade.