Statistical Trends in Literacy Rates in Nepal

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1 IOSR Joural of Applied Chemistry (IOSR-JAC) e-issn: Volume 11, Issue 11 Ver. I (November. 18), PP Basata Dhakal Nepal Commerce Campus, Kathmadu, Nepal Correspodig Author: Basata Dhakal Abstract: The history of educatio system is ot so log i Nepal. The commo Nepalese people did ot get the formal educatio at the time of Raa regime. At that time, educatio system of Nepal was i a very deprived coditio. After democracy (1951), the ew democratic political system made provisio for educatio for commo Nepalese people. Sice the, Nepal has targeted to icrease the literacy rate alog with educatio attaimet of the commo people i each short term ad log-term developmet plas. The mai aim of this study is to aalyze the literacy rate i Nepal based o sex, place of residece, developmet zoe ad geographical regio. It is foud that the rate of icrease of literacy is.64% i each cesus year over the last years where as male literacy is icreased as 11.27% ad female literacy is icreased as 8.9 % at the same time duratio. It also foud that there is o ay evidece to ifer that average of literacy rate differ amog the five developmet regios (p value >.5).It is believed that the fidigs of this paper may facilitate plaers ad decisio makers for formulatig policies ad programs regardig developmet of educatio sector of atio. Keywords: Aalysis of variace, Literacy rate, Tred aalysis Date of Submissio: Date of acceptace: I. Itroductio There are o collective defiitios ad stadards of literacy. Uless otherwise specified, all rates are based o the most commo meaig- the capability to read ad write at a specified age. I the earlier cesuses of Nepal, literacy is defied as the ability to read ad write. Sice the populatio cesus 1991, the defiitio of literacy is re-defied ad it icorporated the ability to read ad write with uderstadig ad to perform simple arithmetic calculatio [1]. Iformatio of literacy does ot give a perfect measure of educatio outcomes. Low level of literacy ad educatio ca hider the ecoomic developmet of a coutry i the curret rapidly chagig techology-drive world. Literacy plays highly affirmative role i promotig ad preservig peace; cotributig to the buildig of peaceful, comprehesive ad prosperous atios. Whereas Nepal has made importat progress i the last decade, there is still a sigificat literacy gap betwee male ad female. Accordig to the most recet Nepal Stadard Survey, Nepal has a adult literacy rate of 56.6 percet, with a huge variatio betwee males ad females. Now, Nepal raks fourth i SAARC regio i the literacy rate, behid Maldives (95 %), Sri Laka (92.5%) ad Idia (74.4%). The govermet speds a average of Rs billio per aum i the sector. However, aroud 35 percet of Nepalese are still illiterate [2]. Accordig to the Natioal Populatio ad Housig Cesus 11, despite free educatio up to grade ad regular adult literacy campaigs, oly 15.7 millio of 23.9 millio childre above five years of age became literate by 11. Primary educatio has the highest share i literacy, accoutig for 39 percet for the total literate populatio of Nepal, followed by the secodary level, cotributig.3 percet. The share of School Leavig Certificate (SLC) graduates ad above is.2 percet each. The data also illustrate that just 4.2 percet of the people wet through o-formal educatio. However, the No Formal Educatio Cetre claims that some four millio people betwee the ages of 15 to are illiterate. The cesus report shows that female literacy has goe up by 15 percet to 57.4 percet, while the male literacy rate climbed by just percet, rural literacy icreased by aroud percet i the same period. The same rate is ow 62 percet. Accordig to the cesus report the aual icremet i literacy rate is 1.18 percet. The literacy rate of males is at 75.1 percet while it is 57.4 percet for wome. Similarly, the highest literacy rate is i Kathmadu with 86.3 percet ad lowest i Rautahat with 41.7 percet. Of the coutry s total populatio, Terai costitutes of.27 percet while hilly ad moutai areas costitute 43 percet ad 6.73 percet respectively [3]. Educatio is the first step i the way of developmet process ad it provides the basis for the improvemet of the socio-ecoomic coditio of a coutry [4]. There are various empirical studies related to importace of literacy rate for developmet of atio. Some of them are: Desai [5] poited importace of literacy i Idia s ecoomic growth. Rehma et al. [6] explai the provice-wise literacy rate i Pakista ad its impact o the ecoomy. Fuller et al. [7] clarified the importace of early literacy i ortheast Brazil. Similarly, DOI:.979/ Page

2 Rahma et al. [8] researched o literacy program ad o formal educatio of Bagladesh ad Idia. Rahma ad Uddi [9] stated that educatio is a fudametal eed of all huma beigs ad crucial to ay coutry's developmet. By keepig a view of this reality, the study tries to aalyze the literacy rate i Nepal based o sex, place of residece, developmet zoe ad geographical regio. It may facilitate plaers ad decisio makers for formulatig policies ad programs regardig developmet of educatio sector of atio. II. Materials ad Methods The preset study is aalytical as well as descriptive i ature. All aalysis ad discussio have bee based o published sources of secodary data such as Natioal Populatio ad Housig Cesus[3], Populatio Cesus[], Populatio Moograph [1,11] Statistical Pocket Book [12] Nepal i Figure [13] ad Prelimiary Results of Natioal Populatio Cesus [14],Statistical Year Book [15], Nepal Populatio Reports [16]. Software tool which is used is SPSS package. Some descriptive statistics such as stadard deviatio, coefficiet of variatio, skewess, kurtosis, percetage, bar diagram ad pie diagram are used to aalyze tred ad patter of literacy rate of Nepal. The iferetial statistics like Oe Way ANOVA (Aalysis of Variace) is used to test whether the mea literacy differs amog the five developmet regios as well as three ecological belts. F = MSC (1) MSE Where MSC =Mea sum square due to colum ad MSE = Mea sum square due to error. Variace - ratio test is used to test whether the variaces of male ad female literacy are equal or ot. F = S1 2 if S S > S 2 (2) F = S2 2 if S S > S 1 (3) Where S 2 1 is the variace of first series ad S 2 2 is the variace of secod series. Chi- square test of idepedece of attributes is used to test whether the curret literacy rate of male ad female is associated with urba/rural area, ecological belt ad developmet regio. χ 2 = (O E) 2 (4) E Where O = Observed frequecy ad E= estimated frequecy. Tred aalysis by least square method is used to aalyze the tred of literacy rate based o geder, developmet regio, ecological belt ad urba/ rural area. A simple liear tred by least square aalysis [17] is i the form of: Y = β + β 1 X + ε t (5) Where Υ is called respose variable X is called predictor variable adε t is measuremet error with mea= ad stadard deviatio =1, β is Y-itercept ad β 1 is rate of chage which ca be calculated as: β 1 = i=1 (x i x )(y i y) i=1 (x i x ) 2 (6) β = i=1 y i β 1 ( i=1 x i ) (7) III. Results ad Discussios The literacy rate i Nepal is aalyzed o the basis of sex, developmet zoe, geographical regio ad place of residece (rural/urba area). The discussios of curret literacy rate of populatio based o urba/rural area, developmet zoe, ecological belt ad age- sex compositio are also metioed below. 3.1 Literacy tred i Nepal (6 years ad above) by Sex The followig table shows the literacy rate of male, female ad total populatio from cesus year 1952/54 to 11. Table 1: Literacy tred i Nepal (6 years ad above) by Sex Cesus Year Male Female Total 1952/ Tred lie(yc) X X X Table 1 shows that very low level of literacy i 1952/54, Nepal has a sigificat progress i icreasig literacy over the year. The cesus of 11 has idicated that curretly the literacy rate amog the populatio of 6 years or above i Nepal is 65.9 percet with male literacy rate of 71.6 percet ad female literacy rate of 44.5 DOI:.979/ Page

3 Literacy (%) Literacy rate percet. However, there is still huge variatio betwee male ad female. There is strog evidece to coclude that the variaces of literacy rate of male ad female are equal (Variace Ratio Test, F cal = 1.7 < F.5 (6, 6) =4.28). Male Female Total 1952/ Cesus Year Figure 1: Literacy tred i Nepal (6 years ad above) by Sex Figure 1 shows that there is still a sigificat literacy gap betwee male ad female. The gap is gradually icreased though the cesus year 1952/54 to 11.Regardig the educatio system of Nepal, wome are still backward from differet perspectives despite the itroductio of several rules ad regulatios, plas ad policies to icrease the wome literacy rates [18]. 3.2 Literacy rate i Developmet Regio Nepal is divided ito five admiistrative developmet regios like easter, cetral, wester, mid-wester ad far-wester regios. The followig table shows the literacy rate o the basis of developmet regio from the cesus 1971 to 11. Table 2: Literacy rate i Developmet Regio Year E.D C.D W.D. M.W.D F.W.D Tred lie(yc) X X X X X Table 2 shows that literacy rate i easter regio is 15.3 i 1971 but it is 67.1 i 11. I cetral developmet regio, it is chaged from 14.2 to 63.9 through the cesus year 1971 to 11. I wester developmet regio, it is chaged from 16.5 to.9 through the cesus year 1971 to 11. I mid wester regio, it is icreased from 8.7 to 64.2 through the cesus year 1971 to 11. I far wester regio, it is icreased from 9.6 to 63.5 through the cesus year 1971 to 11. There is o ay evidece to ifer that average of literacy rate differ amog the five developmet regios [Oe way ANOVA, F cal =.189 < F.5, (4,) = 2.87 or Sig. value (.941) > α (.5), thus do ot rejectig H ] Cesus Year E.D C.D W,D. M,W.D F.W.D Figure 2: Literacy rate i Developmet Regio DOI:.979/ Page

4 Literacy Rate (%) Figure 2 shows that most of the cesus year, the literacy rate is the highest i the wester developmet regio but least i the mid ad far wester regios. 3.3 Literacy rate i Ecological Regio Ecologically, Nepal is divided ito three regios, ruig east to west. They are the Moutai, the Hill ad the Terai. The followig table shows the literacy rate o the basis of ecological belts from the cesus 1971 to 11. Table 3: Literacy rate i Ecological Regio Cesus Year Moutai Hill Terai Tred lie (Yc) X X X Table 3 shows that literacy rate is icreased from 9.9 to.45 durig the four decades i moutai regio. Similarly, it is chaged from 14.8 to i the hilly regio. I the terai regio, it is icreased from 13.6 to at same time. There is o ay evidece to ifer that average literacy rate of populatio differ amog the three ecological regios [Oe way ANOVA, F cal =.276 < F.5, (2,12) = 3.89 or Sig. value (.941) > α (.5), thus do ot rejectig H ] Cesus Year Figure 3: Literacy rate i Ecological Regio Moutai Hill Terai Figure 3 shows that the literacy rate is the highest i hilly area as compared to terai ad moutai thought the cesus 1971 to 11. The literacy rate i terai area is higher tha moutai from the cesus year 1971 to Literacy rate i Rural ad Urba Areas O the basis of residecy, Nepal is divided ito two parts: rural ad urba area. I rural area, accordig to Natioal Populatio ad Housig Cesus 11, 17% of total populatio resides i urba areas ad 83% i rural areas. The literacy rate i rural ad urba area from cesus year 1981 to 11 is show i the followig table 4. Table 4: Literacy rate i Rural ad Urba Area Cesus Year Rural area Urba area Table 4 depicts that, i rural area, the literacy rate is icreased from 21.4 to through the cesus year 1981 to 11. Similarly, it is icreased from.5 to through the cesus year 1981 to 11 i the urba area. There is strog evidece to coclude that the variaces of literacy rate of rural urba area are equal (Variace Ratio Test, F cal = < F.5 (3, 3) =9.28). DOI:.979/ Page

5 Literacy Rate (%) Cesus Year Figure 4: Literacy rate i Rural ad Urba Area Rural Urba Figure 4 shows that there is still a sigificat literacy gap betwee the people residig i rural ad urba area. The gap is gradually decreased from the cesus year 1981 to Curret Sceario Accordig to Natioal Populatio ad Housig Cesus 11, the followig table shows the curret sceario of literacy rate of Nepal o the basis of place of residece, ecological belt ad developmet zoe. Table 5: Curret Sceario of Literacy Rate Male Female Total Place of Residece Urba rural Ecological Belt Moutai Hill Terai Developmet Zoe Easter Cetral Wester Mid-wester Far-wester Total Nepal Source: Natioal Populatio ad Housig Cesus 11, CBS Table 5 shows that the total literacy rate of Nepal is 65.9 where as male literacy trate is 75.1 ad female literacy rate is The literacy rate i urba area is where as male literacy rate is 89.1 ad female literacy rate is I rural area, the literacy rate is but male literacy rate is ad female literacy rate is I moutai regio, the literacy rate is.45 but male literacy rate is ad female literacy rate is.9. I the hilly regio, the literacy rate is but male literacy rate is ad female literacy rate is I terai regio, the literacy rate is but male literacy is.34 ad female literacy rate is I easter developmet regio, the literacy rate is but male literacy is ad female literacy rate is I cetral developmet regio, the literacy rate is but male literacy is ad female literacy rate is I wester developmet regio, the literacy rate is.98 but male literacy is 79.9 ad female literacy rate is I mid wester developmet regio, the literacy rate is 64. but male literacy is ad female literacy rate is I far wester developmet regio, the literacy rate is but male literacy is ad female literacy rate is There is o ay evidece of relatioship betwee the literacy rate of geder ad place of residece (χ 2 =.238 < χ 2 (.5, 1) =3.841). There is o ay evidece of relatioship betwee the literacy rate of geder ad ecological belt (χ 2 =.2 < χ 2 (.5, 2) =5.991). Similarly, There is o ay evidece of relatioship betwee the literacy rate of geder ad developmet zoe (χ 2 =.8 < χ 2 (.5, 4) =9.448). 3.6 Literacy rate by Age ad Sex Accordig to Natioal Populatio ad Housig Cesus 11, the followig table shows the curret sceario of literacy rate by age ad sex. DOI:.979/ Page

6 Literacy Rate Table 6: Curret Sceario of Literacy Rate by Age ad Sex Age group(year) Total Male Female ad CV Skewess Kurtosis Source: Nepal Livig Stadard Survey, /11, Vol.1, CBS. Table 6 shows the curret populatio of male is more literate tha female except the age group 6-9 year. I the total curret populatio, the highest literate populatio lies i the age group year. The coefficiet of variatio of total literate populatio is 38.96%, skewess is -.3 ad kurtosis is It meas that the literacy rate of total curret populatio egatively skewed ad platykurtic i ature regardig to age distributio. I the curret male populatio, the highest literate populatio lies i the age group year. The coefficiet of variatio of male literate populatio is 24. %, skewess is.176 ad kurtosis is It meas that the literacy rate of male curret populatio positively skewed ad leptokurtic i ature regardig to age distributio. I the curret female populatio, the highest literate populatio lies i the age group -14 year. The coefficiet of variatio of female literate populatio is %, skewess is.139 ad kurtosis is It meas that the literacy rate of female curret populatio positively skewed ad platytkurtic i ature regardig to age distributio. 9 6 to 9 to Age (Year) ad+ Figure 5: Curret Sceario of Literacy Rate by Age ad Sex Total Male Female Figure 5 shows that curret populatio of male is more literate tha female except the age group 6-9 year. IV. Coclusio The curret coutry s literacy is 65.9 percet i 11 from 54.1 percet i over the last te years. Nepal govermet has bee allocatig a lot of budget o the educatio sector every year, so the result is ot satisfactory by the cause of traditioal basis educatioal pla. Nepal is still far behid coutries like Maldives ad Sri Laka where literacy rate is almost 95 percet. Out of the 129 coutries across the globe, Nepal stads at the 111 th positio i terms of educatio, which reflects Nepal govermet gives low strategic priority to develop the educatio sector. Although, Nepal has made importat progress i the literacy durig the last decade, but there is still sigificat differece betwee the male ad female literacy. Female literacy i rural, moutai ad far wester regio is lower tha other regios. The curret populatio of male is more literate tha female except the age group 6-9 year. The lowest rate of chage of literacy is i mid-wester ad far-wester developmet regio i compariso to others. I developig coutries, female educatio reduces fertility ad ifat mortality, while icreasig childre's educatio. Geder iequality i educatio directly ad sigificatly affects ecoomic growth [19]. Therefore, Nepal govermet should give the priority to icrease the female literacy as well as literacy of margialized group of populatio. DOI:.979/ Page

7 Refereces [1]. CBS. (1995). Populatio Moograph of Nepal. Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Govermet of Nepal. [2]. NLSS_I. (/11). Nepal Livig Stadard Survey, Statistical Report, Volume- I. Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Nepal Govermet of Nepal. [3]. NPHC. (11). Natioal Populatio ad Housig Cesus 11. Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Nepal Govermet of Nepal. [4]. Thapa, S.B. (13). Relatioship betwee educatio ad poverty i Nepal. Ecoomic Joural of Developmet Issues, 15 &16 (1-2), [5]. Desai,V.S.(12). Importace of literacy i Idia s ecoomic growth. Iteratioal Joural of Ecoomic ad Research, 3(2) [6]. Rahma, A.U., Jigdog, L. & Hussai, I.(15). The Provice-wise literacy rate i Pakista ad its impact o the ecoomy. Pacific Sciece Review B: Humaities ad Social Scieces 1, [7]. Fuller, B., Dellagelo, L., Strath, A., Bastos, E.S.B., Maia, M.H., de Matos, K.S.L., Portela, A.L., Vieira, S.L., (1999). How to raise childre's early literacy? The ifluece of family, teacher, ad classroom i ortheast Brazil. Comparative Educatio Review, [8]. Rahma,S.M., Yasmi,F., Begum, M. A., Ara, J. & Nath, T.K.().Literacy program ad o formal educatio of Bagladesh ad Idia. Educatio Research ad Review, 5(), [9]. Rahma, A.U. & Uddi, S., (9). Statistical aalysis of differet socio ecoomic factors affectig educatio of NW. FP (Pakista). Joural of Applied Quatitative Methods, 4 (1), []. CBS. (1). Populatio Cesus, Natioal Report 1.Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Govermet of Nepal. [11]. CBS. (3). Populatio Moograph of Nepal. Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Govermet of Nepal. [12]. CBS. (2). Statistical Pocket Book. Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Govermet of Nepal. [13]. CBS. (12). Nepal i Figure, Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Govermet of Nepal. [14]. CBS. (11). Prelimiary Results of Natioal Populatio Cesus 11. Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Govermet of Nepal. [15]. CBS. (11). Statistical Year Book. Kathmadu: Cetral Bureau of Statistics, Govermet of Nepal. [16]. MOHP.(11). Nepal Populatio Report 11. Kathmadu: Miistry of Health ad Populatio, Govermet of Nepal. [17]. Reid, F. (). Mathematicia o Bakote: Carl Friedrich Gauss. Parabola, 36(2), 2-9. [18]. Devkota, S.P.& Bagale, S.(18). Educatio ad Wome i Nepal. The Risig Nepal. Retrivied from [19]. Kowles, L.L., Maddiso, W.P., (2). Statistical phylogeography. The Aual Riview of Ecology, Evolutio ad Systematics, 11 (12), Basata Dhakal.." IOSR Joural of Mathematics (IOSR-JM) (18): PP DOI:.979/ Page

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