Srinagar, Sept. 10 -- Jammu and Kashmir has been declared fully literate after recording 98.43 percent literacy under the ULLAS programme. The achievement is significant, but it should not become an excuse for declaring the education system successful.

Literacy is a threshold, while education is measured by what children can understand, calculate and apply after years in school.

On that test, the evidence is far less reassuring.

The 2024 Annual Status of Education Report found that only 16.6 percent of Class 3 children in J&K could read a Class 2-level text. Among Class 5 students, only 37.7 percent could read text meant for the previous class.

These figures expose a serious contradiction.

A system can record near-universal literacy ...