Education and Literacy in Andhra Pradesh (Pre-School, School, Higher and Technical Education and Adult Literacy and Skills)

The present background paper reviews the progress of education including K12, vocational and higher education, skill development and literacy particularly during the last two decades in Andhra Pradesh and an attempt is made to identify gaps. It is observed that pre-primary education in the state, as is the case of all over India, still neglected and needs a strong policy intervention. With respect to school education, although the quantitative expansion is remarkable in the state as well as in India thanks to DPEP and SSA initiatives, the quality of education is still cause of concern. Besides, the progress in school education is the still short of meeting the goal of universal elementary education. The higher education too is suffering with the quantity-quality trade-off. The expansion of vocational education is inadequate and there is a lacuna skill development programmes in the state. Again, despite the progress in expansion of education in the state literacy rate is one of the lowest in Andhra Pradesh when compared with rest of the states in India. Simulation exercise has shown that unless there is a strong policy intervention, Andhra Pradesh will never achieve universal adult literacy in the near future. All these are pertinent issues particularly in the context of harnessing demographic dividend in the state as well as all over India.