Srinagar, Sept. 9 -- By Faizaan Bhat

In a government primary school in rural Rajasthan, ask fifth-graders to subtract two three-digit numbers. The ASER 2022 report found that only 17.3 percent could get the answer right.

The classroom will be full, the register will show near-universal enrollment, and the children will have uniforms, textbooks, and a midday meal.

What they will not have, in the overwhelming majority of cases, is the arithmetic a ten-year-old is supposed to know.

This is the difference that lies underneath most discussions about Indian education: schooling has spread with astonishing speed, while learning has stayed behind.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, passed by the UPA-II government in ...