Census 2011 on Highest Education Level Attained: Implications of Report

Census 2011 on Highest Education Level Attained: Implications of Report

Question: Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has just released Census 2011 data on highest educational level attained among those aged 7 years and above from SC and ST communities. Discuss the implications of the report.

- The Census 2011 data on highest educational level attained among persons aged 7 years and above by age and gender for SC and ST up to district levels has been released

- Primary education is the most commonly gained along total literates with around 24% as an aggregate, 27.7% for SC and below primary (29%) for ST.

- In case of Matric/Secondary education, there is negligible decline for total while there is an improvement for SC and ST

- Improvements at higher educational levels along with decline in percent share at below Primary and Primary level are indications of economic advancement in the nation in the 10 year period from 2001 to 2011

- The percentage share of graduate and above population of 15 years and above has shown improvement to 8.2% from 5.7%% for total, 4.1% from 2.2% for SC and 2.6% from 1.5% for ST during the decade 2001-2011

- Percentage share of graduate degree other than technical degree to total graduate and above fell by 7.2% for the total, 7.5% for STs and 7.7% for SCs during 2001-2011

- Share of postgraduate degree other than technical degree and technical degrees and diplomas have shown an improvement during the 10 year period

- Share of post graduate degree other than technical degree is +2.9% for total, +2.4% for SC and +2.4% for STs

- Technical degrees have shown an improvement of +4.4% for total, +5.3% for SCs and +5.1% for STs

Facts and Stats

- On the whole, the census data has revealed that there is negligible decline among general population in case of matric/secondary education while there has actually been an improvement for SC and ST communities

- Data provides distribution of literates in terms of highest educational level attained such as the following:

i. Literate without educational level
ii. Below Primary
iii. Primary
iv. Middle
v. Matric/Secondary
vi. Higher Secondary/Intermediate
vii. Pre university/senior secondary
viii. Non technical diploma or certificate not equal to degree
ix. Technical diploma or certificate not equal to degree
x. Graduate and above