Why cant Ramu read?

HYDERABAD: About 71.3 per cent of the students up to class VIII in the rural schools of Andhra Pradesh cannot divide.Some 42 per cent of them cannot subtract.And 55 per cent cannot even read a class II textbook.These are some of the findings relating to Andhra Pradesh reported in the Annual Status of Education Report 2011, a nationwide survey released by Union minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal in New Delhi on Monday.In carrying out the Assessment Survey Evaluation Research (ASER), the NGO Pratham collected data from 642 rural schools -- both private and public -- in 22 districts of the state except Hyderabad.In its seventh year, ASER is the largest annual survey of children in rural India.The 2011 edition gathered data from 558 districts, 16,017 villages, 327,372 households and 633,465 children across the nation.The findinds of the survey relating to Andhra Pradesh would give no comfort to the state government.Of particular concern would be the returns relating to the standards attained by pupils in the higher classes.The survey found that 34.6 per cent of the students in class VIII cannot do division.Apart from math ability, the survey found that basic reading levels too are very poor.About 56.7 per cent of class IV students cannot read a class II textbook with 25.6 per cent of unable to read even single words.In rural private schools too, the survey found that 37 per cent of class IV students could not read a class I text book.While the standards are low, the survey also threw light on the poor handicaps primary schools in AP have to overcome.About 63.6 per cent of the class II students study in shared classrooms.Some 58.7 per cent of the class IV children are clubbed with other classes.