Hyderabad: While illiteracy is slightly higher in Telangana than in Andhra Pradesh, interestingly, people here are more educated than in neighbouring AP. A higher percentage of the population in TS studied up to graduation or more than in AP in 2011.
Just about 7.23 per cent of the TS population has studied up to or passed the graduate level (both technical and non-technical) while in AP the corresponding proportion is much less at 5.92 per cent. But the two states are better off than the national average. Graduates and post grads constitute just 4.5 per cent of the entire country’s population according to the Census 2011 data.
But the absolute number of such educated persons in Andhra Pradesh is higher simply because of the state’s higher population. According to the data provided by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India on Friday evening, illiteracy in TS stands at 40.94 per cent while in AP the corresponding figure is lesser at 39.71 per cent.
It is also interesting to note that while it appears engineers and management graduates are crowding the two states, only 2.89 per cent of the literate population in TS and 2.67 per cent of the literate population in Andhra Pradesh have graduated in technical courses.
Arts and science graduates are almost three times the technical graduates in both AP and TS.
These numbers suggest that though the literacy rate as a whole is not extremely low in the two states, a majority of literates have not gone beyond school at the time of Census 2011.
It is also because a significant proportion of the population is still young, below the age of 15 and would still be in school.
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