Tamil Nadu leads the country in student enrolment rate in elementary schools with its average higher than the national average, reveals the annual status of education report.

Eminent educationists in the state released the report’s Tamil Nadu statistics on Saturday.

Addressing academicians, students and volunteers of various NGOs during the release of the report, Dr V. Vasanthi Devi, educationist and former vice-chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, said Tamil Nadu has registered 99.1 per cent in student enrolment in elementary schools, higher than the national average of 95.2 per cent.

“I think no other state could have numbers more than Tamil Nadu in student enrolment but in other parameters, the state miserably failed,” she said.

She pointed out that only 3.9 per cent of students in class 1, 26.1 per cent in class 3, and 67.5 per cent in class 5 could read a class 1-level text in Tamil Nadu.

VIT University chancellor G. Viswanathan said enrolment in educational institutions across the country has increased but quality has gone down.

“The government does not allot more funds for education. Former president Radhakrishnan’s committee recommended to the Union government to allot 6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for education but it never happened.

We get only about 4.5 per cent even today,” he noted. Lamenting that the public education system lacked accountability, Mr Viswanathan said parents and teachers never meet to discuss student’s performance.